remnants of something thick and green-black. Midian followed her gaze, and said, “Bloodspikes. I got them from an inquisitive of House Medani.” He pointed at a patch of dark, shattered glass surrounded by a slick of shimmering fluid. “That was mine. Light to blind, improved with a burst of silence to cover up any sounds. You can tell me I’m clever.”
“You betrayed me!”
“And now I’m rescuing you!” His blue eyes hardened. “What was I supposed to do? Aureon’s quill, you left me out on the roof with Makka! I’m lucky Tariic wanted us taken alive!”
Even through her anger, she winced at the rebuke. Aruget had said Midian could take of himself-and he had- but he was right. They’d left him behind.
Midian was watching her warily, his hand hovering close to a stiff pouch on his waist. Ashi wondered if he had another of the bloodspikes in there. She pushed her fury away and sat up, her bound hands making the movement awkward.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “We shouldn’t have done that.”
“Well, I’m sorry I gave you away-and that I had to wait so long to come for you. Tariic, Daavn, and Makka have been watching me.”
He moved around behind her. Ashi heard him draw a knife and cut at her bonds. “I’ve just seen Vounn. She said Tariic has appointed you royal historian,” she said.
“I thought it would make him trust me so I’d have a chance to get to you,” said Midian. “It didn’t work quite as well as I hoped. I’m here now, though.”
The ropes parted. Ashi stretched her shoulders and rubbed her wrists. So much for worrying whether to wait for Vounn to negotiate a release or go with Aruget when he came to rescue her. She was already rescued and once more a fugitive. “How long will the guards stay unconscious?”
“Long enough, I hope.” Midian stuffed rags into the hobgoblin’s mouths and bound them hand and foot with rope from a coil produced from the cell where he had hidden. “Put them in your cell.”
She did. Even heaving them over her shoulders and dropping them onto the cold floor didn’t disturb their slumber. She pulled the sword belt off one and buckled it around her waist. “Ekhaas and Dagii are returning to Rhukaan Draal today,” she said as Midian closed and barred the cell door.
“I know,” said the gnome. “That’s the reason I was able to get away from Tariic. It’s going to be a shame to miss the party, but it will provide a distraction.”
“We need to warn them.”
He flinched at the idea. “There isn’t time.”
“We make time!” Ashi said, snapping her teeth on the words. “I sat for three days afraid Tariic was going to come and question me about the Rod of Kings. I don’t know why he didn’t, but I don’t want him to have that chance with Ekhaas or Dagii.”
Midian flinched again, and the color drained from his face. “I… uh, I know why Tariic didn’t come for you,” he said.
Ashi looked at him sharply.
He turned his eyes away. “I gave him Geth and Tenquis too.”
“What?” Ashi stepped back in shock. “How could you-? Wait. You knew where Geth was?”
“I didn’t!” Midian said, his voice rising like that of a protesting child. “After Makka caught me, I tried giving Tenquis’s name to Tariic first. I thought he’d be interested in the artificer who made the false rod, but he wanted more, and that’s when I had to turn you over to him. When Tariic’s men went to arrest Tenquis, they found Geth too. He’d been hiding with him.”
Fear struck Ashi like a cold blade. “Rond betch. So Tariic has the true rod?”
“No.” Midian shook his head. “They couldn’t find it at Tenquis’s. Geth must have hidden it.”
“And where’s Geth now?”
Midian held out his hand-and pointed down. Ashi remembered the muffled screams she’d heard from the deeper dungeon. “No,” she breathed. “Do you know how to get down there?”
The gnome nodded. “Back to the main cells and down from there.”
Ashi spun around and raced back up the hall. The stone floors of Khaar Mbar’ost weren’t the soft ground of the Shadow Marches but she could still run silently enough. She burst into the wide room lined with the doors of the large cells.
At the foot of the stairs that led into the dungeon, a hobgoblin guard wearing the red corded armband of Khaar Mbar’ost froze in surprise. Ashi snarled and threw herself at him.
The impact slammed the hobgoblin back against the stairs. The guard got his hands on her wrists, but the wind had been knocked out him and Ashi was stronger. Her fingers closed around his throat even as he sucked in new breath and wheezed “Ashi! It’s me!”
Ekhaas’s voice. Ashi jerked back. The guard beneath her pushed her hands away and narrowed his eyes in concentration. Ghostlight flickered and the illusion vanished, revealing Ekhaas’s familiar face. Ashi stared at her in astonishment. “What are you doing here?”
“Senen sent me a message. I’m rescuing you!”
“There’s a lot of that happening.” Ashi jumped up and helped Ekhaas stand. The few remaining prisoners in the large cells were staring out at them. Midian was staring too. The gnome stood in an archway of another, darker corridor, the one that led, Ashi guessed, to the lower level of the dungeon. “Midian beat you to it. Come with us- Geth and Tenquis are being held below.” She grabbed Ekhaas’s hand to drag her along.
The duur’kala resisted. “The real Geth?
“You know about the changeling?”
“Aruget told Senen.”
Aruget had gotten around. Ashi wondered where he was now. “It’s the real Geth.” She dropped her voice as she drew Ekhaas across to the dark corridor, and murmured the story the gnome had told her. “He didn’t know Geth was with Tenquis. I’ve heard screams. I think Tariic’s been torturing Geth to find out where he hid the rod. Will you be able to heal him if he needs it?”
Ekhaas’s ears flicked back. She gave Midian a long look. “I’ll try,” she said.
“You don’t need to,” said Midian. “I brought healing potions.”
“You knew Geth had been tortured?” asked Ekhaas.
“I guessed,” Midian said. “Him or Ashi.”
“Wait!” cried a voice in Goblin. Ashi turned to see a hobgoblin’s face thrust against the bars of a cell door. “Free us!” he hissed.
A soft babble of pleas for release joined his. The other prisoners had finally figured out what was going on. Maybe they didn’t speak the human tongue. Ashi glanced at Ekhaas and Midian. Both of them shook their heads, Midian instantly, Ekhaas after a moment’s consideration.
The first prisoner’s face turned hard. “Let us out or we call the guards. There’s a dozen of them below!”
“If we let them go,” Ekhaas said in the human language, “they’ll cause chaos in Khaar Mbar’ost. People will notice the escape. We’ll be found either way.”
The hobgoblin prisoner looked angry. He might not have understood the language of humans but he must have read their meaning in Ekhaas’s expression. His voice rose into a shout. “Guards! Escape! Escape!”
Other prisoners joined in, the din echoing in the dungeon. A moment later, the sound of rapid footsteps rose up the stairs from the lower level.
“Khyberit ghentis!” Ashi raised her stolen sword and turned to the stairs just as a hobgoblin guard emerged from them. His eyes landed on her and Ekhaas and widened.
But Midian was waiting. He dived between the guard’s legs and the guard went crashing to the ground. Ekhaas leaped to his aid but Midian was already on his feet and jamming another glass spike into the guard’s neck. Ashi whirled on the prisoner who had started the commotion. He tried to pull back but she pushed her hand through the bars, grabbed the front of his shirt, and jerked him forward. Hard.
“Do that again,” she snarled, “and you’ll die before you face the Valenar!”
She let him drop. The other prisoners fell back from the cell doors.
Ekhaas was looking down the stairs, her ears pricked forward. “There’s no one else coming,” she said. “Only one guard?”
Ashi glanced into the cell. “Where are all the guards?” she asked in Goblin.
