The Grieving Tree: The Dragon Below Book II

by Don Bassingthwaite

  “Do you think he’s telling the truth?” Dandra asked. She couldn’t keep the hope that Dah’mir was gone out of her mind. Tetkashtai was almost singing at the news.

  “About Vennet hiring him, yes,” the wizard murmured. “Maybe about Dah’mir leaving, too. The question is, what are we going to do with him? He’s not going to give up.”

  Dandra grasped his meaning immediately. “If we leave him here, he’s just going to come after us.”

  “We could kill him,” said Geth. Dandra and Singe looked at him in unison. The shifter shrugged. “Or we could let Bava kill him.”

  “Nobody is killing anybody in cold blood.” Singe ran a thumb through the whiskers on his chin. “We were lucky that Chain didn’t tell Vennet and Dah’mir he’d just met us. He won’t make that mistake again. If they meet him when they get back to Zarash’ak, you can bet he’ll tell everything this time—and he knows we’re looking for the Spires of the Forge.”

  Geth bared his teeth. “And if anyone knows exactly where that is, it’s Dah’mir. Tiger’s blood! We can’t let him find that out. It’s the only thing we’ve got on him right now!”

  “We could take Chain with us,” said Dandra. “Abandon him in Vralkek—or ship him on to Sharn.”

  “Bring someone who’s hunting for us along for the journey?” Geth growled. “That’s what we tried with Ashi on Lightning on Water!”

  “It would have worked if Vennet hadn’t been planning on betraying us all along.” Dandra spread her hands. “That won’t happen this time.”

  “It would be simpler to kill him.”

  “You said that about Ashi, too.” Singe looked at Dandra. “It won’t be easy finding a ship that’s willing to smuggle a kidnapped member of House Tharashk.”

  Geth groaned. “We’re going to do it?”

  “I don’t see another option,” said Singe. “Although we’ll need a way to keep Chain quiet until we get him away from Zarash’ak—I don’t know any spells that would control him.”

  Dandra bit her lip. “None of my powers would either.” She looked across the room. “Maybe Orshok—?”

  “Grandfather Rat,” Geth said. “Does it always have to be magic?” He reached down to Chain’s gear and hefted the black cudgel, then turned and strode for the bounty hunter.

  Dandra caught her breath. “Geth—”

  Chain saw what was coming. He tried to twist out of the way, but the cudgel caught him across the back of his head. The bound man gasped and swayed, his eyes glazing over.

  Dandra grimaced. “Geth, we can’t just keep hitting him!”

  “Easy.” Geth held up his other hand—and the dark bottle of gaeth’ad essence. Dropping the cudgel, he grabbed Chain’s head and forced it back, then pulled the plug on the bottle with his teeth and poured a measure of the contents into Chain’s slack mouth. The man sputtered immediately, but Geth forced his jaw shut until he swallowed.

  “Was that enough?” asked Orshok critically. “Or too much?”

  “We’ll just have to watch and see,” said Geth, hopping off of Chain. The bounty hunter was choking and cursing them all. Ashi picked up the cudgel and moved to stand behind him. Chain stopped cursing. Geth replaced the stopper and tucked the bottle into a pouch. “We should try to get on a ship and out of Zarash’ak soon as possible, though.”

  “The sooner you get this shekot out of my house, the better,” said Bava.

  Dandra turned around. The artist and Natrac had returned. Bava glared at Chain with scarcely diminished anger. Dandra went to her. “Bava,” she said, “I want to thank you for showing us your map and for your hospitality.” She pressed her hands together and bent her head over them. “We’ve repaid you badly.”

  “Dandra, I would help you again.” Bava’s voice was strained. “But next time, no uninvited guests, please.” She took Dandra’s hands and kissed her on both cheeks. “Once the essence takes effect, you should go. It won’t be long before the watch comes to investigate the fight.”

  Chain was already starting to look dazed. Dandra nodded. “We’re taking him with us,” she said. “It will be a long while before he’s back in Zarash’ak.”

  Natrac drew a deep breath. “I’m coming with you, too,” the half-orc said.

  “What?” Geth turned to him. “When we got here, you said you’d never leave Zarash’ak again.”

  “The people I love here are getting hurt. Urthen. Bava.” Natrac squeezed the large woman’s hand. “For what? My house? It will wait. Vennet knows me. If he and Dah’mir are looking for you, they’ll come for me first—just like Chain did. Like Dandra said after the battle at the mound, I have to do something.” He thrust his tusks forward. “I still owe Vennet revenge. I’m not just going to wait for him to come to me.”

  He held out his fist. Geth grinned and bashed his own fist against it. “Kuv dagga,” he said.

  They separated as they left Bava’s house. Finding passage to Vralkek was a priority, but Natrac was anxious to check on Urthen, worried that Chain might have done something drastic to the old servant. He and Singe headed off to his house, with Orshok along as well to offer healing magic if it was needed, while Dandra, Geth, and Ashi—taking Diad to guide them—went down to the docks. The others would meet them there.

  They took Chain with them, too. By the time the gaeth’ad essence had taken its full effect on him, the bounty hunter could do no more than stand and stagger along, but Natrac no more wanted him around his house than Bava did around hers. In the end, Dandra agreed to keep the drugged man with her. Between Ashi and Geth, supporting and guiding him was easy enough. and Bava supplied them with an enveloping cloak and a big conical straw hat to disguise him.

  Unfortunately, guiding someone so obviously in disguise through the streets of Zarash’ak was suspicious in itself. A couple of stall-keepers stared at the big, shrouded figure draped across Ashi and Geth.

  “Drunk,” the shifter grunted at them.

  “Early for it,” one responded.

  Geth bared his teeth in a smile. “He started last night.”

  Dandra touched Diad’s shoulder. “Take us through quiet streets,” she said. “I don’t think it would be good to run into the city watch.”

  They made it down to the docks without incident. Dandra thanked Diad and sent him on his way, then surveyed the ships that lined the nearest stretch of dock. “Where do we start?” she asked.

  “At the other end,” said Ashi. She pointed. “There’s Vennet’s ship.”

  Lightning on Water was tied up a good sixty paces away along the busy docks, but Dandra still felt a chill at the sight of her. The sleek lines of the elemental galleon had, when she’d first seen the ship, spoke to her of speed. Now they reminded her of nothing so much as a serpent, ready to strike. The ship was still. No crew moved on the deck, though Dandra could see the dark forms of Dah’mir’s herons perched along the rails like sentries.

  “The boat they were loading yesterday is gone,” Geth said. “There are fewer herons, too, I think. It looks our friend here was telling the truth.” He nudged Chain, making the drugged man stumble.

  Dandra stared at the ship, a surge of pity for the sailors knotting her heart. Vennet’s crew had been good men. She’d seen nothing to suggest that they shared their captain’s faith in the Cults of the Dragon Below and she knew what it was like to be trapped by Dah’mir’s mind-numbing power. Her teeth clenched tight. “Do you think Dah’mir and Vennet took the whole crew upriver?”

  “They couldn’t have. Their boat wouldn’t have held them all,” said Ashi.

  “And Dah’mir told Vennet not to bring his best men,” added Geth. “It sounded like they were planning on leaving some of the crew behind.” He cocked his head. “Why?”

  “Because we should try and do something for them. They don’t deserve to be Dah’mir’s puppets.”

  Geth flinched. “Cousin Boar, Dandra!”

  Tetkashtai echoed Geth’s sentiments. No! she said. We can’t. How would you free them? You coul
dn’t free yourself. And it could be a trap!

  Dandra answered them both at once. “I have to try.”

  An idea was already forming in her head. There was a stack of crates waiting on the dock not far from Lightning on Water. Dandra headed for them, forcing Geth and Ashi to follow or be left behind. Chain’s staggering progress made stealth all but impossible, but Dandra watched the herons carefully. The birds didn’t seem to pay any attention to what was taking place on the docks. She ducked into the shadow of the crates, then peered at the ship and at the herons again as the others wrestled Chain into hiding. The birds still hadn’t moved.

  A fragment of rope lay on the dock nearby. Dandra reached out with a whisper of vayhatana and sent the rope slithering back and forth like a snake. So long as it was on the dock, the herons ignored it—but the moment she sent it wriggling toward the ship’s gangplank, the nearest birds turned in unison to watch it.

  She released her power and the rope fell limp. Dah’mir’s birds watched it for a moment more, then resumed their previous inscrutable poses.

  “Ashi,” Dandra asked, “how intelligent are the herons?”

  “Like dogs. Dah’mir bred them that way. They’ll take commands, search out specific people—the way they did when we tracked you into the Eldeen Reaches.”

  “Has Dah’mir ever turned the herons against the Bonetree hunters?”

  Ashi tilted her head. “No,” she said. “Even yesterday, they attacked Geth and Orshok, not me. They trust Bonetree hunters from the moment they’re hatched. I think that’s something else Dah’mir bred into them.”

  “Good. That’s what I was hoping.” Dandra raised her chin in determination. “Geth, take care of Chain. Ashi and I are going onto the ship.”

  Geth’s breath hissed between his teeth. “At least wait for Singe to get here. Or let me go.”

  She shook her head. “You need to watch Chain—and my idea works best with two people.” She looked at Ashi. “If a Bonetree hunter approached the herons with a prisoner, what would happen?”

  Ashi shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe nothing. I’d be more worried that Dah’mir or Vennet may have left orders for the crew.”

  “Trust to il-Yannah. Geth, if something goes wrong, we’ll call.” Dandra handed her spear to Ashi. “Let’s make it look real. Take my arm as if you’re restraining me.”

  They stepped out from behind the crates and crossed the docks. As they drew close to Lightning on Water, a number of the herons had turned their heads to stare directly at them. Dandra could feel the birds’ cold green eyes—so much like Dah’mir’s—on her. She tried to hang limp in Ashi’s grip, a defeated prisoner.

  They’re not going to believe this, wailed Tetkashtai. We don’t even know that they understand what a prisoner is.

  Dandra’s heart skipped. She hadn’t entirely considered that. As long as they still trust Ashi, we should be fine.

  You fool! We’re going to be captured for certain!

  At the bottom of the gangplank, Ashi paused. “Do we go on?” she asked softly.

  “Yes.” Dandra took the first step onto the gangplank, expecting the herons to spread their wings and take to the air at any moment. Her head was pounding in time to Tetkashtai’s fear. She focused on putting one foot in front of the other, on climbing the gangplank. The temptation to look up was strong. She resisted it.

  Then they were at the top of the gangplank and stepping onto the ship. And the birds hadn’t moved.

  Silence clung to Lightning on Water. The deck was empty except for one haggard crewman who crouched in the shade of the captain’s cabin. He stared at them but moved no more than the herons had. Dandra eased herself from Ashi’s grip and squatted in front of him. His eyes—empty and dull—followed her.

  “Where is the rest of the crew?” she asked.

  “Below,” he said. His voice was hoarse.

  “Did Vennet give you any orders before he left?”

  “Obey Dah’mir.”

  “And what did Dah’mir tell you?”

  “To take day watch until he returned.”

  Dandra’s eyes narrowed. “What about the others?”

  “They wait.”

  Ashi crouched down beside Dandra. “Can you release him?” she murmured.

  “I’d rather try with someone I know.” She rose. “Let’s see if we can find Karth. He had a level head.”

  They found the stairs that led below. Ashi went first, moving slowly and allowing her eyes to adjust. She kept her hand on the hilt of her sword. Dandra followed cautiously, her spear reclaimed and ready.

  There was little reason for fear, though. The remaining crew of Lightning on Water sat or crouched or lay in motionless silence. Except for the faint sounds of breathing and the few heads that turned to look at the two intruders into the gloom, Dandra would have thought she walked among dead men.

  Karth sat against the curve of the ship’s hull. Dandra remembered him as a big man, but he seemed strangely diminished. His eyes, though as dull as those of the man on deck, also held a haunted look in their depths. When Dandra spoke his name, he didn’t respond. She said it again, a little louder, then took him by the shoulders and shook him. “Karth!” There was slight flicker in the man’s eyes, but nothing more.

  “Geth and I hit them when we fought yesterday and they didn’t wake,” Ashi said. “Can you reach inside his head?”

  Medala could have touched Karth’s mind easily—that had been the focus of her powers. All Dandra had, though, was the kesh and the idea of linking her mind with one so deeply under Dah’mir’s influence was frightening. Just the thought of it made Tetkashtai shrink like an ember. Dandra’s gut clenched.

  She had to try.

  The sailor on the deck had said he and the others were following orders left by Dah’mir and Vennet—powerful suggestions rather than direct domination. Maybe she could jolt Karth free. “Watch me,” she told Ashi, “if I become like them, I’ve probably fallen to Dah’mir’s power. Get me out of here and back to Singe.”

  “There’s no way to protect yourself?”

  “It would take more than I’m capable of. Powerful psionics. Maybe magic. But not even Medalashana was able to shield herself from Dah’mir on her own.” Dandra gripped Ashi’s hand for a moment. “Wish me luck.”

  Ashi returned her grasp silently, then let go. Dandra turned to Karth. Tetkashtai—

  No!

  Tetkashtai, help me! Dandra seized the presence and pulled her close, then looked directly into Karth’s haunted eyes. Karth, she called silently, pushing her mind toward his. Karth, can you hear me?

  The kesh trembled between them, sliding across Karth’s thoughts without finding purchase, like walking on ice. Dandra could feel Dah’mir’s touch, the cold grasp of his domination. Karth’s mind was there, but locked away. He was struggling, though. She could sense it. Dah’mir’s power had been stretched thin, but it was too much for a human mind to break through alone—even she touched it and shied away. There was a lingering madness in the dragon’s presence that left her feeling unclean.

  Beyond the barrier of his power, Karth shivered and seemed to fade, exhausted.

  Dandra thrust out hard, wielding the kesh as she would her spear and pouring all of her will into one focused burst. Karth! she shouted.

  The spear of her will stabbed deep into the cold barrier that held Karth prisoner—stabbed deep and pierced it. The kesh slipped through, drawing Karth to freedom. A hundred wild, desperate thoughts burst out of the man, flooding her. Dandra gasped and jerked back from him.

  His hands reached out and caught her. “Dandra?” he gasped. “Dol Arrah bless you.” He was trembling.

  “Karth, are you hurt?” She felt exhausted and exhilarated at the same time. Inside her mind, Tetkashtai cowered.

  “I—” He swallowed. “The captain? Dah’mir?”

  “Gone,” said Ashi.

  Karth focused on her. “You … I chased you yesterday. You were with Geth. But the captain said you
were …”

  “Ashi is with us now, Karth.” Dandra eased her arms out of the man’s desperate grip, then pushed him gently back until he was sitting again. “Tell us what happened to you.”

  When she’d been in Dah’mir’s power, the world had sped by her in a blur. Karth, however, remembered everything. His story flooded out of him as if it had been waiting for release. Dandra listened in dismay as he told of the appearance of the herons on the ship, of his discovery of Dah’mir in Vennet’s cabin and Dah’mir’s transformation from heron to man. Her stomach knotted at Vennet’s murder of his passengers so that the ship could be turned back to Zarash’ak. Through the days of the voyage, the crew had been held in thrall to Dah’mir’s presence, seeing and hearing everything, but unable to act against his or Vennet’s orders.

  When Karth had finished, Ashi let out a hissing breath. “So now we know what happened to Dah’mir after the battle at the mound.”

  Dandra nodded and turned back to Karth. The big man was shaking and staring around at his listless, silent mates. “What did Dah’mir and Vennet expect all of you to do while they were away?” she asked him.

  “There are supplies on board—food and water. Dah’mir told some of us to share them out every night.”

  “He expected you to survive for four weeks like that?” growled Ashi.

  “Four?” Karth glanced up. “Two. They were heading toward something called the Bonetree mound in the depths of the Marches.”

  “The journey to the Bonetree mound takes two weeks. Back again is four, three at best,” said Dandra. Karth shook his head.

  “They expected the whole trip to take two weeks. The captain can use his dragonmark to call wind’s favor and speed their trip.”

  Dandra exchanged a glance with Ashi, then cursed. “Il-Yannah! All the more reason not to wait before we leave Zarash’ak.”

  Karth seized her arm like a drowning man might seize a piece of floating wood. “Leave? No, you can’t.” He nodded toward the rest of the crew. “What about them?”

  Dandra bit her lip. She had the strength to free one or maybe two others, but then she’d have to rest. Maybe Orshok’s prayers could help free some of the others. It could be done—it had to be done, though Singe and Geth might not like it. “We’ll make sure you’re all freed,” she promised, “but you probably shouldn’t stay around Zarash’ak either.”