moonlight. “So if you leave, what happens to me, Ekhaas, and Dagii?”
Ashi shook her head. “I’m not leaving yet. Vounn just wanted to make arrangements. She spoke with Tariic yesterday on business for Deneith, and she says that he doesn’t act like he suspects anything. Or at least he doesn’t suspect us. She hasn’t spoken with Geth yet, though. Aruget hasn’t gotten close to him either.”
“Neither have I. I wanted to talk to him, but I couldn’t find him. I have seen him with Tariic a lot though.” He hesitated for a moment, then added. “What if Tariic has the true rod? What if he’s found some way to dominate Geth?”
“He can’t. Wrath protects Geth.”
“Here’s the thing, though-whenever I’ve seen Geth, he’s not wearing Wrath.”
“I don’t think that matters,” Ashi said. “When we recovered the rod, he was disarmed, but the rod still couldn’t affect him.”
“Then why won’t he talk to us, and why isn’t he wearing Wrath? What’s going on?”
“I don’t know.” Uncertainty and fear stirred in Ashi’s gut-along with grim determination. “But we’re going to find out. We need to talk to Geth. Come see me tomorrow. We’ll decide what to do.”
Midian nodded, then said, “We should get into to the library. Vounn has probably missed you by now, and she’ll know something is up when we come in together.”
“That doesn’t bother me,” Ashi said. “She’s had me out tonight. She can’t confine me to our chambers now. Maybe we are in danger, but we need to get answers while we can.” She clenched her jaw. “And Geth is the only one who has them.”
“And Geth is the only one who has them.”
Stretched out on top of the thick outer wall, Makka hugged a clenched fist to his chest and bared his teeth. When I fight, I fight. When I stalk, I stalk. The first time he had confronted Ashi and Ekhaas, he’d made the mistake of fighting without properly stalking his prey. He’d been too hasty. He’d forgotten the lessons of the hunt. The Fury seemed to appreciate revenge well-savored, though. Patience and stalking-even with the pathetic caution of Deneith’s hobgoblin guards-had paid off.
His decision to scale the walls of the building Ashi visited had paid off, too. As had his accidental touch of the great screen an armslength above his head. Whirring metal springing to life had gouged the skin of his fingers and palms, but the instinct of freezing in the shadows rather than running had both saved him from discovery by guards and put him in exactly the place he needed to be.
Not just Ashi of Deneith but the gnome Midian too.
The door in the screened chamber closed. Makka offered a silent prayer of thanks to the Fury, rose to his feet, and moved with silent steps back to the deep shadows where he had climbed up.
Careful stalking was one of the lessons of the hunt. Choosing proper bait for the trap was another.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
28 Sypheros
He’d had this dream before.
Adolan sat across the fire from him. The druid’s face was calm under his red-brown beard. His eyes were the same color as the fresh oak leaves tied to the heavy shaft of his spear, with pupils as black and shining as the collar of stones around his neck. “Are you just passing through?” he asked.
Geth could smell the stink from his own body. It had been a long time since he’d bathed. The rank odor blended with smoke from the fire, the sizzling juices of the chicken that charred on the rough spit above it, and the cool damp scent of the deep forests of the Eldeen Reaches. There was another smell, too, like hot copper. It seemed out of place, but Geth ignored it.
“Maybe,” he answered the druid. “Maybe not.”
Adolan’s eyes bored through him. “You should move on.”
Geth looked at him. That wasn’t right. He repeated the words he’d said to Adolan the night that the druid had confronted a wandering, chicken-stealing shifter. “Yes. Just passing through.”
“Good. Be on your way.” Adolan rose, supporting himself on his spear.
“What?” Geth dropped the chicken he’d been holding and jumped to his feet. “No!”
“Why not?” The face across the fire looked genuinely surprised. “You want to stay here?”
“I’m supposed to,” Geth said. “That’s what happens, Ado. You convince me to stay in Bull Hollow.”
“Not this time. This time you have to keep going.” Adolan turned away.
The pain of the rejection was a giant fist wrapped around Geth’s chest. He felt a piercing ache in his side, like broken ribs. The hot copper smell grew stronger. He grabbed for his sword, drawing Wrath-and a part of him knew that was wrong, too. He’d still carried a plain Deneith service blade when he’d encountered Adolan. That wrongness didn’t stop him from pointing the twilight blade and shouting “Stop!”
“Or what?” The figure that turned was small and dressed in black. It spoke with a strained, scarred voice. Chetiin. In his hand, he held the Rod of Kings. “I’m your friend, Geth. What are you going to do?”
Chetiin turned around again and leaped through the window that grown in the middle of the forest. “No!” Geth screamed. He sprinted after the goblin.
Voices shouted for him. Daavn commanding him to stop. Tariic demanding the true rod. Haruuc begging his aid. Figures flashed in the periphery of his vision. Ashi reaching out for him. Ekhaas, doing the same thing. Dagii, stern and reserved. Chetiin, his large eyes somber and wise.
Adolan, watching. And maybe a little sad.
Geth tried to stop, to turn back, but it was too late. He plunged through the window, and the stones of the plaza below Khaar Mbar’ost rushed up to meet him
He jerked and snapped upright, a roar tearing itself from his throat. From somewhere close, there was a yelp, the crash of shattering glass, and a stream of curses. Body trembling, Geth stared around. He sat in a high bed, threadbare sheets twisted around him. A low, raftered ceiling was close overhead. To either side of the bed rose stone walls that stopped well short of the ceiling and the opposite wall. The hot copper smell of his dream filled the air.
A moment later, Tenquis peered around the corner of one of the short walls. The tiefling’s expression, at first cautious, hardened and he stepped around to stand at the foot of the bed, glaring at Geth with his golden eyes. “Horns of Ohr Kaluun, can you do anything quietly?”
Geth squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, then opened them again and the strange bedchamber made sense. The last moments of his flight from Khaar Mbar’ost came back to him. He was in Tenquis’s home, the one- time barn. The short walls closing in the bed were the sides of stalls. Cows had once slept where the bed stood. Geth lay back, wringing a sickening ache out of his side that echoed the agony of his dream. He raised his head enough to look down at himself. His chest was wrapped in bandages. More bandages swaddled his left arm, and there was something thick and crusty smeared across his face over his cheekbones. He reached up with his right hand and whatever was on his face crumbled into a lumpy powder that left his fingertips dark and glittery. The flesh underneath was tender.
“A healing compound,” Tenquis said. The anger faded from his face, replaced by a certain self-satisfaction. “Faster than a body on its own, slower than true magic. A good artificer needs to know something about anatomy, as well as alchemy and artifacts. You had several broken ribs, a broken arm, a broken cheekbone, and were badly bruised all over. Your left hip had a deep wound that was just barely healed-magic or some shifter gift, I assume. The bruising is gone. Your hip is completely healed. The broken bones are likely mended, although you’ll want to be careful of them. They’ll be like green wood for a few days yet.”
Geth bent his bandaged arm experimentally. More dark, glittering powder ran out between the fabric strips. “I… Twice tak, Tenquis.”
The tiefling wrinkled his nose. “You did pass out on my doorstep. It would have attracted attention if I’d left you to die in the street-and once you were inside, I had to do something or I would have had to get rid of the body.”
It was hard to tell if he was joking. Geth waited for him to laugh or smile, but he didn’t. Finally Geth broke
