Chetiin’s crouched landing turned into a leg sweep. Midian vaulted over it, not back or simply up, but forward. His free hand and all of his weight came down on Chetiin’s shoulder, shoving the goblin to the ground as Midian thrust off once more, tumbled through the air, and came down right beside Tooth. He heard Tenquis shout in alarm, but he ignored the tiefling. His knife plunged down-and stopped just above the sweat-slick skin of the stricken bugbear’s neck.
“Nobody move!” he commanded.
Ekhaas froze. So did Tenquis. Chetiin whirled and raised empty hands, but moved no closer. Geth and Makka’s fight crashed on. Midian raised his voice. “Geth! Makka!”
He saw Geth react to his name. The shifter’s eyes widened as he took in the threat to Tooth, and he tried to pull away. Makka wouldn’t let him go, though. The bugbear slammed his trident against Geth’s raised gauntlet again and again, every blow driving Geth back a step.
“Makka!”
“No!” roared the bugbear. “I swore revenge, and I will not be denied again. Tariic can keep you from me, but he can’t keep them. He promised them to me. The Fury promised them to me!” He bashed Geth again, forcing the shifter back once more.
Anger flashed through Midian-anger followed by a cold chill of fear. He glanced around at Chetiin, Tenquis, and Ekhaas. For the moment, they were all keeping their distance. Tenquis and Chetiin’s eyes were darting between him and the ongoing battle. Ekhaas, though, seemed to be looking only at him. He felt sweat roll down his back. “Makka, don’t be stupid!”
“Run if you want to,” Makka growled. “When they’re dead, Tariic’s command of alliance ends, and I will come for you.” He thrust his trident into the air. “Fury strike through me! I give my all!”
The symbol carved into his chest seemed to writhe. Dark radiance like black fire shot through with flashes of color flared around his weapon. Teeth bared, Geth brought up his sword, crossing it over his gauntlet. Makka whirled around, both hands on the trident shaft, and drove the triple points directly at him, all of his weight and power behind the blow.
At the last instant, Geth dropped his guard and turned, offering no resistance. Makka’s strike skimmed past the shifter, leaving tongues of black fire smoldering in his shirt and hair. Geth’s right hand seized the trident just below its blazing head-more fire licked up his gauntlet-and held it.
His sword slashed up under the trident’s shaft in a powerful backhand stroke.
The flames along the weapon vanished.
Makka’s black eyes opened wide with shock. For a moment, he just stood there, his mouth working. Nothing came out except for bubbling blood.
When he finally fell, he toppled backward, hands sliding off the trident. The wound from Geth’s sword stretched from his left hip to his right breast.
Bloodied and smoldering, Geth hurled the trident down on top of him. “That’s for Vounn,” he spat, then looked up at Midian and raised his sword.
It took willpower to keep the knife at Tooth’s throat steady. “That’s enough,” Midian said. He looked around at all of them. “Well played.”
“You’re not going to get away this time, Midian,” Geth growled.
“I think I will.” He flicked the knife, drawing a bead of blood to remind them all of what was at risk. Tooth gave a little whimper. “This isn’t over.”
“You’re not going to surprise us again.”
“I won’t surprise you as easily,” Midian corrected him. “I don’t need Makka. Tariic wants you dead. You’ve only delayed it.” He glanced around at them all. At Geth, at Chetiin, at Tenquis, and especially at… Ekhaas?
The hobgoblin was still staring at him, as intent as if he’d sprouted a pig’s nose. Was that pity in her gaze? His anger rose again. Maybe Tariic’s enemies had won this round, but he could still hurt them. In her left hand Ekhaas held the Dhakaani disk, fingers clenched tight around it. Midian held out his hand. “Give me the shaari’mal.”
She blinked and sudden alarm replaced pity in her eyes. Her ears flicked back. “No.”
Midian pressed the tip of his knife to Tooth’s broad throat again and smiled at her. “I think Tariic is going to want to see it,” he said, “and I don’t want to take the chance that you’ll try to hide it before we catch you again. Give it to me.”
Ekhaas bared her teeth and clutched the disk close. Midian let his grin grow.
Tenquis’s golden eyes darted between them, then he blurted, “Do you really think Tariic will want it?” The tiefling plunged a hand deep into a large pocket in his vest that must have been magically concealed. Midian was certain there’d been no pocket there before. “Because if he does, I think he’d really want these.”
He pulled out two more shaari’mal.
Midian actually felt his heart skip in surprise. Ekhaas hissed sharply. “Tenquis, don’t!”
The tiefling flipped the two disks so that he held one in each hand and lifted them up, wiggling them on either side of his head. “How about it, Midian? Does Tariic want these?”
Rage burned cold in Midian’s gut. “Give those to me, Tenquis.”
The tiefling’s face tightened. “Go and get them.” His hands snapped forward and the shaari’mal skimmed through the air. Midian’s head jerked up as he followed them.
It was no random throw; he saw that in an instant. One disk went to Geth, the other to Chetiin. Midian twisted back around in time to see Tenquis thrust his suddenly empty hands out in the gestures of a spell. Magic rippled through the air, trying to wrap itself around Tooth like some sort of shield. The tiefling was quick, but not quick enough. Midian stabbed down through the still gathering force
Ekhaas saw Tenquis reach into his pocket and knew what he was doing before he’d even pulled out the other two shaari’mal. Fear raced through her. Before, when the disks had seemed like nothing more than hunks of metal, she’d been willing to use one as a distraction. But with one pulsing softly in her hand, the thought of tempting Midian with them was just wrong.
How could the tiefling not feel the power in the disks? “Tenquis,” she said, “don’t!”
He already had them raised beside his head. “How about it, Midian? Does Tariic want these?”
The gnome’s face twisted. “Give those to me, Tenquis.”
“Go and get them.” He flung the disks away-to Geth and Chetiin. For an instant, all Ekhaas felt was a sense of relief, even if she already knew in the back of her mind that Tenquis’s defiance had doomed Tooth.
Then Chetiin’s hand closed on the flying shaari’mal.
— and the tickle at the edge of Midian’s mind tore wide open. Hard-edged clarity rose up from inside him and shattered into a hundred jagged, conflicting emotions.
Tariic was his master.
Tariic had stood over him with the Rod of Kings and commanded him to rip open his own belly.
He’d do anything to please Tariic.
Tariic wanted him dead.
He served his lhesh and Darguun.
His soul belonged to Zilargo. He’d killed for his country. He’d killed one king for Zilargo and tried to kill another.
Hurled stones found him as he tried to flee. An agent of the Trust, brought down by a mob. When he returned to consciousness, it was already too late for him. Tariic raised the rod. “Sit still and be quiet.” He had no choice. The power that had once belonged to the emperors of Dhakaan gripped like a wolf’s jaws. He sat still and was quiet.
Later, in the privacy of his chambers with only Pradoor to watch and cackle and Ashi d’Deneith to stare in horror, Tariic tore Midian’s mind to pieces-and put it back together again in a way that pleased him.
Midian screamed until his new master commanded him to stop.
He screamed again and fell back away from Tooth as the work of the Rod of Kings unraveled. Every memory of that tortured night came rushing back over him. Irresistible. Undeniable.
The warmth and power that Ekhaas felt in her shaari’mal exploded the moment that Chetiin took hold of his. The sense of purpose became an unwavering certainty-not of the shaari’mal telling her what to do, but of it telling her to do what she knew she had to.
