Ursar turned to Hyreki.
"Do you think we can trust her?"
"Not at all, but have no fear. Her willfulness is part of my plan."
Ursar smirked despite the pain still simmering on his tongue.
"Wise," he said. "Now. Where should I go?"
"Stay with me. I'll need your help to defeat them, especially now that Benisar has his stethian back."
Ursar nodded.
"He has more than earned his death. I once respected the man for his ingenuity. But his cowardice overshadows all."
"Bitterness is not a pleasant side to show, Ursar," said Hyreki. "This time, we will fight together as one. Santh will neutralize the Saales with his flow daggers. Then, we will kill them together."
"Understood," said Ursar. "I won't be greedy in seeking a mortal blow."
"Good." Hyreki smiled. "You've seen where overconfidence has gotten you before. Take care and we will burn the tree to the ground, then use it for both Benisar and his wife's funeral pyre."
He grinned.
"Yes, my lady."
"Call me Hyreki," she said. "I am always a lady and so rarely myself."
"Santh won't like it."
"Santh is protective of me." She shook her head. "He cares more than he knows."
"It is his mission."
Hyreki shook her head.
"Not precisely. Santh is a trained assassin, a Saale killer. He has his qualities, but protecting is always second to killing for his kind."
"You sound as if you know his mind."
"I know everything about him and you."
"Do you now?"
"I know you're a royal, but your renounced your heritage to join the order of Roshi and learned to speak the fox tongue without talent for it. You have two younger siblings, a brother, and a sister, but you haven't either seen them in years. Your mother is a lower minister for your nation. Need I go on?"
He touched her cheek gently.
"You needn't," he said. "But it's clear you chose me."
"For a reason?"
"You simply chose me. That's what I meant."
"You served your former master well."
"I serve you now." He brought his lips closed to hers.
She kissed him gently, then withdrew.
"Later, Ursar. You serve me, and I serve our mission. We will destroy the Benisars and the new tree. Then I will show you the land I come from. It is a place so beautiful none can describe it. It must simply be experienced."
"I look forward to you showing me," said Ursar. "It sounds like paradise."
"You Roshi truly do believe in a paradise after death. My homeland does not resemble an afterlife because it can be seen." She gripped his hand gently. "And touched."
His mouth went dry as her warm fingers wrapped around his.
"I like that," he said.
In the dead of night Edmath awakened, cold in the musty cave within Greenwell. He groped in the absolute darkness, seeing not even his own hand. Rain pattered against earth and stone outside. He felt his way to the mouth of the cave. There, his hand brushed bark, not rock.
Rakoi's seals must be turned to face outside, though that would make them more noticeable from above.
"Edmath," the tree whispered. "There's someone up there. Zuria went to investigate with Surba."
"Good to know. Let me out and I'll go help them."
"I don't know. They're much sneakier than you."
"True enough," he said. "But please, I'm worried for them."
The triangular seal eyes turned to face Edmath, illuminating the cave in their pale glow.
"Wake Brosk first. I don't know if Buna is asleep."
"I'm awake," said the Rooster Tribe girl softly.
"As am I," said Brosk. "It's almost time."
Edmath nodded, the motion making the room flicker.
"Then let's all go. You too, Buna."
She grunted.
"I had a feeling you would want to keep your hostage, black-eyed Saale."
"You don't need to like me or fear me," said Edmath. "But for now, I need you to cooperate."
She grimaced in the pale light.
"Fine."
Rakoi shifted, letting them all out of the cave into the dim moonlight barely visible through low, raining clouds. Edmath led the way up the sloped path while Rakoi scaled the wall of Greenwell directly.
At the top, Edmath found Surba lurking with Zuria coiled in her full tosh. Surba's nose pointed at Edmath.
"There was surely someone here a moment ago." She sniffed the air. "Three of them, I think."
"Only three?" he asked.
Zuria's forked tongue flicked out.
"I smell Santh and the woman with the limp. The third is the man who cut you, Ed."
He touched the cut under his eye.
"His name is Rewebb. She is Senei," said Buna.
"Good to be on a first name basis with our foes," Brosk muttered.
Buna shot him a glare, but he was already shifting into his whale tosh.
"Give me a second and I'll locate them."
"How?" Buna asked in a harsh whisper.
"The way a whale would," Edmath said.
Brosk opened his extended jaw and emitted a high-pitched squeak, so high-pitched in-fact it only sounded like anything to him and Edmath, as it was essentially a part of the whale tongue. The echoes were lost to Edmath, but not to Brosk.
He closed his eyes.
“Two are hiding by a house on the left. The biggest one is in the alley on the right.”
"Santh," whispered Edmath.
"I'll take the two on the left." Zuria slithered up the incline and onto the street. She turned to the left.
"Wait, don't hurt them!" cried Buna, breaking the calm of the night. She darted from beside Brosk and hurdled Surba on her way up the ramp and onto the street after Zuria.
Brosk and Edmath exchanged glances, then charged up the slope after her, Surba ahead of them. They opened tears as they ran. The magic flowed to an alley on the right, mostly missing them, and completely missing Zuria.
The plan their attackers had seemed smart to Edmath. Santh's daggers siphoned the magic, freeing Senei and Rewebb to attack. But that didn't mean the threat couldn't come from Santh as well. Ingenuity made them dangerous.
He pivoted at the top of the well, turning toward the left.
He made the sign of the branch and threw up a wall of wood on his right, doing his best to block the street from that direction.
Buna grabbed Zuria's tail. Zuria twisted around, then bared her venomous fangs and lunged at Buna's arm.
A dagger flew from the darkness, tumbling straight at Zuria. She caught the hilt of the dagger square between her snake eyes. Zuria fell to the pavement, stunned, but still in serpent form. Buna ran in the direction of the dagger-thrower.
Rakoi's branch swung around, catching the running girl along the midsection. She fell onto her back, head striking stone with a painful thud.
Edmath whirled to face the cloaked man and the woman raising the blowgun to her lips. Her darts embedded in the bark of Rakoi's trunk. Then, Surba sank her fangs into the woman's foot.
Senei cried in pain and kicked the rat who darted away. Rewebb drew another dagger, just in time for Brosk's striker chain to wrap around his wrist. The next thing Edmath saw, Brosk's fist sent Rewebb sprawling onto the street.
Edmath formed the sign of the vine. His lashing green tendrils wrapped Senei's legs. The woman collapsed onto her front.
"Brosk," Edmath called. "Get Zuria."
"I understand," his friend said as he retreated behind Lengbyoi.
Brosk slung Zuria's serpentine form across his shoulders and then let Edmath lead him along the wall. Surba scampered after them and Rakoi brought up the rear.
Edmath shaped a gap in the wall of wood. Under falling rain, he watched a figure splashing through puddles as he ran down the hill toward the port
.
"There goes Santh," said Brosk, setting Zuria on her feet as she assumed human form. "I wonder..."
"He's heading the way we were." Zuria massaged her forehead and nose. "They could be on to our plan."
"If they want Rakoi, they could want the specimens Chelka is bringing from Sizali too," said Edmath. "We should get going. Dawn is in an hour, judging by the moon's position."
Brosk frowned at Buna's fallen form.
She was breathing.
Brosk hammered on a door.
"Call the watch!" he yelled. "There's been a fight out here."
A light flickered on in the building.
Edmath nodded to Brosk.
"Good thinking. The more we can expose Denyal and her mercenaries the more help we'll have if we have to fight them again."
Zuria smiled, despite the obvious pain the expression gave her.
"It's time to punish them for being so brazen. Now, we need to get to the water."
Surba scampered back and forth in Rakoi's branches, keeping watch for enemies as Edmath, Brosk, and Zuria knocked against doors and shouted for the city watch on their way to the ocean port at the bottom of the hillside on which Diar stood. By the time they were halfway there, troupes of guards flanked by groups of large, hovering moths were headed up the rainy streets in the direction the five of them had just come. Edmath stopped one of them to explain the situation as best he could in a hurry.
"We need to get to Benisar family docks," he said. "I have a bad feeling someone has a trap set for my wife and her father when they arrive."
Edmath held his stethian at the ready as they continued downhill. As they neared the water, a gray light appeared in the eastern sky, beginning to chase the clouds away. Brosk and Zuria took the lead, strikers in hand. Rakoi followed Edmath closely, ghostly roots pulling its bulk steadily after him.
They approached the Benisar docks as first light began to creep over the waves out to sea. The bulky forms of sleeping whales and levoths rested at the piers along the way, but there were no animals at the Benisar docks yet. The squid royalty's creatures had yet to return.
He waved the stethian before him as Brosk sent out another high-pitched click to listen to its echo. Zuria craned her neck, looking back and forth.
"There's no one here," said Brosk. "Not that I can tell."
"Good," said Edmath. "It seems we beat them to it."
Zuria sniffed the air.
"Don't be so sure. Something is off, I just can't sense what."
Rakoi huddled her trunk closer to Edmath.
"I'm scared," said the tree.
Surba rubbed her nose against one of Rakoi's branches.
"Don't worry, young one. I think your shaper is clever enough to outwit these enemies."
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Edmath thought as he walked to the door of the dockhouse beside the main pier. He turned to Rakoi, not sure if the tree could understand Surba's speech.
"It'll be alright," he said. "We have the advantage for the moment."
"That's why I'm nervous," Rakoi said. "We can't be sure what they're planning."
Zuria put a finger to her lips.
"Quiet. Somethings coming."
Almost silent, a pair of large wings cut over the rooftops, carrying Hyreki toward the pier.
Edmath took a step back from the door of the Benisar dock house where he stood. The knob on the door was still warm.
"Someone's inside," he said.
The door flew open, revealing the big Rooster Tribe mercenary. Edmath jumped to one side, narrowly avoiding the man's swinging mace-blow. The weapon cracked against the dock house wall.
He backed away, taking a survival stance. No matter how many times he practiced this form, he never felt confident in it. A slim woman with a short spear followed the big man out of the dock house.
A trap, of course, Edmath thought as Santh detached from the house's shadow and stepped onto the pier in front of Brosk, both daggers in hand.
"A duel at dawn, what do you say, Prince Naopaor?" he said.
"A duel is for honor," said Brosk. "This fight is for survival."
Brosk's chains unrolled, clunking on the wood of the pier.
Santh flipped one of his magic-stealing daggers and caught it by the handle. He grinned.
Edmath backed away from the door, shooting a glance at Zuria, Surba, and Rakoi.
"Rakoi, stay back!" he called.
The young tree slunk away from the pier up the street then stopped, roots coiling at its trunk.
Ursar Kiet stood in the rainy street, a heavy-bladed ax too large for a normal human to wield one-handed. His Dawkun abilities would all too well compensate for his missing extremity.
"Zuria," said Edmath drawing his striker. "Stay with Rakoi."
"I'll do what I can," she said with a nod in his direction.
He struck the air with a ring as the three Rooster Tribe mercenaries closed with him. The woman, Kana, snarled.
"What did you do with Buna?"
"The guards have your friends by now," said Edmath. "Back away now and you can still escape."
"Damn you!" bellowed the man with the large mace. He charged at Edmath, cracking the wooden barrier Edmath grew between them as the man struck.
Kana inclined her arm and short spear to throw the weapon at Zuria while the smaller of the two men darted forward, trying to outflank Edmath. Edmath grunted and pulled in what little magic he could to extend his tree trunk to block the man from getting past.
The man bounced off the wall and his sword flew from his hand. Kana's spear whistled past Edmath's head and hit Zuria in the shoulder. She cried out in pain, then collapsed.
Edmath's eyes widened, fear racing through his heart.
"Sister!" He retreated to her side, reaching for her arm.
"The spear deflected off my tosh scales. Hurts like a beast but I'll live," she said, rubbing the spot the point had struck her.
The wooden barrier he had grown turned black and then disintegrated as Santh drew in the magic he had used to conjure it. There was no sign of Brosk on the pier. Hyreki stood behind Santh on the wooden planks. Beyond her, the silhouette of a sea levoth crept closer on the water.
Edmath helped Zuria to her feet, moving to maintain shelter from Ursar's gaze by keeping Rakoi between them and him.
"We can't let them surprise Chelka when they arrive."
Zuria nodded.
"Sounds like you have a plan."
"Not much of one."
"Well, no time to hesitate now," she said.
"Move toward the water," Edmath said, raising his voice. "Rakoi, keep up with us."
"Yes, Edmath."
They raced toward the pier where the Rooster Tribe mercenaries and Santh waited for them. Ursar leapt overhead and landed on the paving stones beside the mercenaries at the edge of the water. He whirled, eyes blackening over with his lethal spell.
Brosk's chain flew from the water wrapping around Ursar's leg. Brosk fell tugged the Dawkun off balance as he fell once more into the water beside the pier. Ursar cursed and twisted, skidding backward a few paces as he freed himself from the chain. He looked pale, drained, even before the chain cut him. Could the Dawkun be on his last dregs of internal energy?
"Rakoi, get ahead. Stop Ursar," said Edmath.
The tree lurched forward, sliding along on ghosted tendrils. It did not manage to interpose between Ursar, and Edmath and Zuria so much as run into him. He staggered and went down.
Edmath and his sister rushed past, opening new tears and forming new signs.
Kana snatched a small sword from the ground and cut at Edmath, gashing his out-stretched arm. Blood coursed in red. He darted to one side, blocking another blow with his stethian.
Thorns leapt from the Saale weapon and tangled around Kana's arm and sword. Zuria's summoned serpentine coils hit the man with the mace and bowled him backward, pinning him against the dock house w
all.
Light-headed and world spinning at the sight of his ragged wound, Edmath staggered away from Kana. His sign of the vine loosened and Kana broke free of his tendrils. She darted toward him as he retreated, stumbling. He fell to the street, but kept his stethian aimed at Kana's chest.
She batted the weapon’s point to one side with her blade. Panting, she stood over him, blade poised.
"You really don't know why you're here," he said, trying to hide his desperation. "Why she hired you."
"Don't try to distract me," Kana said.
He gritted his teeth.
"Should have known that wouldn't work."
Kana's blade began to fall. A razor sharp tail cut across the back of her legs. Edmath rolled to one side as Kana lost her footing with a cry of pain. She hit the street and Surba nudged Edmath.
"Get up. There is still much danger," said the giant bloody-tailed rat.
Edmath fought to stand and managed it.
Ursar tried to force his way around Rakoi, bleeding from multiple cuts and blades. He struck the tree with his fist, and Rakoi rocked backward with a splintering of one branch and a crack running into its trunk.
He laughed, a harsh, terrible sound as he and Santh stalked toward Zuria.
"Prince Naopaor is done for. There are Shark Tribe warriors in the water. You won't last much longer, Lord Benisar."
Edmath grimaced, blood running down one arm and dripping through his fingers.
"I won't have to. They're turning around."
The levoth had ceased its approach. Edmath gasped for breath, dizzy and in pain.
"You'll get me, but you want Chelka too. Good luck now that she knows."
"But how?" Ursar snarled.
Santh glanced at the brightening waves. He shook his head.
"Those shark tribals we hired were overrated. He defeated all three."
Hyreki turned from facing the sea.
"One is better than none," she said. "We will take Lord Benisar and the tree. Kill the others, including those useless roosters."
"With pleasure," said Santh.
Ursar froze.
"I thought we were to kill Benisar too?"
"Only if we can get them both for certain, Ursar," said Hyreki.
"I will have my vengeance." Ursar rushed at Edmath, bellowing a roar, sword in hand, but eyes lacking any of his deadly magic, filled instead with a raw urge to kill.
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