Talon was standing right behind me. I heard him draw breath to make his own contribution, and I reached back and pinched the hell out of whatever skin I could latch onto. Talon squeaked, but then he did exactly what I’d intended—kept that mouth of his shut and didn’t give his dad any more trouble than he might already have.
I didn’t know the circumstances behind this tit for tat, but I’d seen Phaelan and his brothers engage in it often enough that I knew where it was going. Phaelan and one brother or the other usually ended up on the ground in a messy wrestling match. Tam and his brother were both heavily armed, and Tam was heavily magicked. This would just be messy.
Anyone who ambushed and killed Khrynsani waiting to ambush and kill us might not be our friends, but I couldn’t see them being our enemies. Just about the last thing I thought we’d be doing was standing in a damp cave with dead Khrynsani while Tam and his brother engaged in some kind of alpha male sibling rivalry.
Tam’s brother shrugged. “You were recently possessed by Sarad Nukpana. You let Raine Benares over there kill you rather than stay that way.” He made a sound that was somewhere between a snort and a laugh without the humor. “You getting yourself possessed by someone else wouldn’t be the strangest thing I’ve seen this week. And a possessed man certainly wouldn’t hesitate to kill a few of his lackeys to make a disguise more believable.” He paused meaningfully. “I need proof that you’re my brother.”
Just proof? That didn’t sound like a man about to kill his brother out of rage or vengeance. Maybe Tam hadn’t pissed him off after all. That’d be a pleasant surprise. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling. Crossbows pointed at us or not, this could be good.
“Which would be more convincing?” Tam drawled. “To regale your friends here with how when you were fourteen, you fell face-first out of Countess Na’Ghal’s boudoir window into a pile of horse manure with her enraged husband in pursuit, or your eighteenth birthday when you treated yourself to a pair of ripe Caesolian—”
“I believe you,” his brother said quickly, lowering the crossbow.
Tam smiled, and it was genuine. “Are you quite certain? It would be no trouble. I assure you I recall both events in exacting detail—or dozens of similar… shall we say, unfortunate moments from your past.” Tam nudged the body at his feet with the tip of his boot. “Though we shouldn’t stand around until reinforcements arrive for this pack of jackals, so I could just cut to the good parts.”
“I said I believe you.” Tam’s brother rested the butt of his crossbow against his hip, bolt pointing at the cave’s roof. He turned and glanced over his right shoulder. “What do you think?”
“I believe him,” said an amused voice from the shadows near the cave entrance. “However, it would be prudent to be absolutely certain that he’s telling the truth. Perhaps Tam should share that birthday story. After all, the truth is in the details.” Another goblin stepped into what light there was, his body glowing from a faint red protection spell. A good one. The spell winked out.
“Jash Masloc,” Tam said, grinning until his fangs showed.
“Good to see you, Tam.” The mage turned to the others. “Stand down, ladies and gentlemen. Our guests may not be nice, but they are friends.” The mage bowed gallantly from the waist. “Prince Chigaru, Director Kalis— welcome home, such that it is. Your Highness, this wasn’t the welcome you should have received.”
“But it was the one we expected, Count Masloc,” Chigaru said.
“Sarad has a twisted sense of propriety,” Imala noted. “How did you know we were coming?”
“Thankfully, we still have spies close to King Sathrik who can still get messages out.” Jash Masloc smiled. “Even under siege, the goblin court is still the court. Secrets are merely gossip that hasn’t been spread yet. There’s more than one chamber in these caves. We didn’t know which one held your mirror—and neither did these poor bastards—until Magus Silvanus announced your less-than-happy arrival.”
I resisted the urge to shoot Carnades a dirty look—or better yet, tell Tam’s brother to just shoot him. “Our exit mirror got busted,” I said.
“That would explain the… outburst.”
Not more than ten seconds on the other side of the mirror, and Carnades had come close to getting us slaughtered—or worse, captured, tortured, and then slaughtered. Having Carnades Silvanus in our immediate vicinity was going to get us killed before we even got into the city. But if the looks our new goblin friends were giving him were any indication, Carnades would be on his best behavior. He might not know the goblins in the cave with us, but they certainly either knew or had heard of him. Or maybe Carnades just reeked of bigot.
Tam walked quickly toward his brother.
His brother held up a placating hand. “I knew you were telling the truth. I didn’t doubt it for a minute.”
“Yes, you did. At the very least, you doubted my motives.”
Tam’s brother slung the crossbow’s strap across one shoulder just as Tam caught him up in a bear hug.
“Of course, I doubted your motives,” he said with a big grin, returning the hug. “You’re a Nathrach, aren’t you?”
Tam made quick introductions. His brother was Nathair, or Nath to his friends. When Tam had finished introducing everyone else, he turned to Talon.
Oh boy.
More than a few of the Resistance fighters had the fine features of pure-blooded goblins, or the “old families” as I’d heard Tam call those like them. I wasn’t sure telling Nath and his heavily armed playmates that he was an uncle of a half-breed was such a good idea.
Talon knew that as well as I did. The kid sucked in a double lungful of air and held it.
“And this is Talon Nathrach.” Tam smiled and gestured Talon over to him. “My son.”
Talon came forward. Cautiously. Probably one of the first times in his impulsive little life that he’d ever done anything with caution.
Nath did a few seconds of stunned blinking and staring. “A nephew,” he finally managed. “I’m an uncle.”
“That’s usually the way it works,” Tam agreed.
Stunned gave way to a broad grin. “You’re definitely a Nathrach. You’re damned near as good-looking as I am.”
Talon got a big welcome-to-the-family hug, and I got some dust in my eyes. Yeah, it was dust.
If any of the goblins with Nath had a problem with Talon, they hid it well. They wanted Sathrik off the throne, but had been part of the goblin court until they’d had to go into hiding. These men and women had plenty of practice hiding things other than themselves; contempt for a half-breed would be a snap. I’d be keeping an eye on Talon. Though my eyes would have plenty of company from Tam, Mychael, and Piaras. The kid would be safe, or someone would be sorry.
“All these reunions are nice,” I said, “but shouldn’t we be getting the hell out of here?” I indicated the body at my feet. “It’s been our unfortunate experience that where there’s one pack of Khrynsani, there’s another sniffing around nearby.”
“You heard the lady,” Nath said. He knelt and began to pilfer the body of the Khrynsani closest to him. “Let’s get what we can and get out.”
The Khrynsani should be grateful that we killed them. If Sarad Nukpana had found out that they’d let us escape, they would have all gotten a fast promotion—right to the front of the Saghred sacrifice line. With Nukpana, I couldn’t imagine failure meaning anything except death. Which meant any patrol that came after them would be intensely motivated not to fail.
“This patrol is to report in every hour,” Jash Masloc said. “Their last check-in was about ten minutes before they heard Magus Silvanus, so work fast.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. I knelt to see if the dead Khrynsani at my feet had any gifts to offer a less- than-optimally armed elf. Nath and his people were doing a fast and efficient job of not leaving any weapons lying on the ground. Sarad Nukpana made sure his men had only the best. What a guy. As a result of his largesse, now we had the best.
As I moved up to the goblin’s upper torso, a glint of reflected light caught my attention. A chain lay against his neck, and from where his head lay at an angle, a marble-sized pendant had rolled to rest in the hollow of his throat.
No way in hell I was touching that.
“Mychael,” I said. “You better look at this.”
“What is it?”
“Something I’m not touching for all the tea in Nebia.”
He looked and he didn’t get any closer. Nice to know that my instincts were still working, even if my magic
