by Joe Jackson
The shakna-rir’s brow creased. “How did you know…?”
“She called herself Dame Taeranna,” the luranar king answered. “I know enough of your people to distinguish certain forms of address. While I never visited the seat of your monarchy, I was trained to possibly act as an ambassador to your empire as well.”
He led his horse over to Taeranna, who was on her side now, her teeth still gritted in pain though she no longer thrashed about. Max offered her his hand, and helped her rise to her feet slowly, stiffly, the pain at the base of her tail something Leighandra couldn’t imagine. He let the woman collect her remaining weapon, but she couldn’t even crouch down, so he retrieved it for her and slid it into her scabbard.
“You have much to learn,” he told her. “Consider yourself fortunate that you learned this lesson at my hands, and not at the claws of a dragon.”
The Desert Eagle considered him with a creased brow. “It’s been some time since I so badly underestimated someone in combat,” she returned. “I can’t help but think I have been humbled by the gods today, and not just you.”
Max nodded and helped her up and into her saddle. She sat awkwardly and let forth a little cry as she settled her weight. “I think you broke my tail.”
“That was my intent. Not being able to sit properly for a few days should help this lesson remain with you for the remainder of your life. Now, if you come with us to Tribuchy and my wife tends to your tail, will you tell us what we would like to know about your empire?”
“I will, sir. Whether my men like it or not.”
“Let us continue, then,” Max said with a gesture to Galadon, and the human knight prodded Galrinthor forward.
Max mounted up and rode beside Taeranna, and Leighandra could see the woman’s spirit was crushed. How long had it been since she’d lost a fight? That could’ve been a decade or more, and the long tail of hair she kept in the rir tradition said as much. The chronicler had just started to wonder if the woman would cut her tail of hair off when she produced her hunting knife and did just that.
Taeranna braided the tail of hair while they rode, and then presented it to Max. “Not many have the honor of presenting this to their superior. Dispose of it if you wish, but I give this to you as a trophy, sir. When my husband sees me without it, he will be disappointed, I’m sure, but he will praise your name for sparing my life. And so will I. As I regrow this tail of hair, I will always be reminded of your mercy.”
“If I were to kill you, I would risk plunging my kingdom into war with yours. I believe your people outnumber mine by thousands to every one of us. No insult is worth that sort of risk to my people. I am also understanding of your duty, whether I agree with how your people see to things or not.”
“Yes, I apologize for my insult to you and for speaking it before your wife.”
“Apology accepted.”
“I hope you understand what I said to you,” Taeranna offered, turning to Lion.
“I do. Loyal to a fault, that’s how our people are,” the teen returned.
“Fortunately, my men are loyal to me, not the throne,” the Desert Eagle said. “They will do nothing unless ordered. Isn’t that right, Captain?”
“Yes, General.”
“Good, then you can tell us what is happening in your homeland,” Max said, and the woman agreed silently as they rode.
Chapter XVIII – A Question of Honor
“I suppose this reinforces Starlenia’s earlier thoughts about sending someone into Aurun Ch’Gurra,” Max said, watching the retreating form of Taeranna Sakiveldi. The Desert Eagle made her way up to a rented room along with her men, leaving the companions to discuss what they’d just been told.
None of it was good. While Leighandra knew there was trouble in the heart of the shakna-rir empire, Taeranna had spoken more openly than normal while in Max’s debt. The tale she had spun was one that went far beyond political intrigue. The chronicler had written down as much as she could, and she perused her notes while the others digested what they’d heard along with their dinners.
“Perhaps that is our next step after we have gathered these seals and completed whatever task they are designed for,” Yiilu suggested. “Such would require secreting Lion away should we approach the empire as a whole, but would the Sword of Southern Flame not be in Aurun Ch’Gurra somewhere anyway?”
“My father may be in possession of that sword,” Lion offered. “If he hasn’t been put in prison or executed since Taeranna was dispatched to hunt me down, we may be able to contact him and ask of its whereabouts.”
“Seems weird that they left him as warlord, considering they overthrew his wife to take the throne,” Galadon said. “The politics of your homeland are quite strange.”
Lion grunted but didn’t disagree.
“There is one other thing we can do for information,” Leighandra said, consulting her notes. “Taeranna gave us a few names… perhaps we can give the list to Karinda and see if any of them were in that note we recovered from the first necromancer we killed.”
“It’s a start,” Delkantar shrugged. “I doubt if whoever’s behind the necromancy will be using the same name they wear as a mask in the empire, though – and that’s assuming they’re all in the same place. There’s just so much we don’t know, and don’t have the information to put it all together just yet.”
“Patience,” Max said, and Audrei laid her hand atop his. “Remember that we have allies coming, powerful allies that may be able to take some of this weight off of our shoulders, or else divert attention away from us that makes things simpler.”
Starlenia bobbed her head. “Exactly. Once Delkantar’s girlfriend gets here, our enemies are going to have to either speed up their plans or else slow them down and really get all of their affairs lined up before they pursue their ultimate goals.”
“My girlfriend?”
“Karian Vanador,” Yiilu answered with a muffled laugh.
“Who I’m sure will have a strong opinion on whether Aurun Ch’Gurra or the Tempis’ra should be our next goal,” Galadon said, snickering at the perturbed ranger.
“I’m just concerned by this Ehren Hrykel person that Taeranna mentioned,” Lion said. “I’ve never heard of her before, and if she is a powerful and influential enough priestess that she could back an overthrow, I should have some inkling of who she is.”
“Her name doesn’t even sound shakna-rir,” Leighandra said.
“It could be short for Hrykeldi,” the teen explained. “Some families like to distinguish themselves by doing something to their names to be different from the rest of us. Typically, it has the opposite effect, as they mark themselves as pompous malcontents or such, but whoever this Ehren Hrykel is, she has powerful friends and a lot of influence over the noble families. Or at least over one of them.”
“What sort of priestess plunges an entire empire into a state of disruption, or even war, to advance political schemes?” Audrei asked.
“The sort being influenced by demons and outside forces,” Max replied quietly, and his wife regarded him with wide eyes. “Starlenia’s theories seem to prove truer by the minute. It may be that the shakna-rir empire has fallen under the sway of a demon king intent on helping to unleash its companion trapped under the desert sand. Against the two forces, I am not certain even the army my father raised could stand for long.”
Starlenia held up a finger. “But your father didn’t have Delkantar’s girlfriend!”
“Oh, would you knock it off?” the ranger grumbled, sitting back with his arms folded across his chest. “She’s not even human…”
“What difference does that make?”
Delkantar rolled his eyes. “She’s a legend, and I’m sure she’s a lovely woman, but I’d much prefer a woman I can properly kiss, for starters.”
“You could always try kissing her somewhere else. Might get better results,” the rogue said, silencing the table.
“You know, sometimes I really hate you,” Delkantar grumbled.
Max threw his napkin across at the Okonashai woman. “You know what the worst thing is about your humor, Starlenia? I cannot even fault you for saying these things in front of women, because you are a woman!” He tried to turn an apologetic look Audrei’s way, but found his wife stifling her own laughter, and he sighed.
Galadon was still trying to bite down his amusement. “What are we to do with Taeranna and her men? If we release them, they can go straight back to the usurper and her priestess and tell them everything about us.”
“Yes, they can,” Max answered. “I will request that they do not. I cannot ask them to lie to their monarch, but they can abstain from saying anything other than that they were defeated. It will be a question of honor whether they heed my wishes. But I will not hold her bound to me beyond today.”
“Perhaps we should let them go to sleep and then leave town quietly,” Yiilu suggested. “The seal’s pull is to the west from here, so it is close by, but not in the town itself.”
“We should ask Karinda about keeping hidden from scryers,” Leighandra added. “That a wizard can so easily track us from afar is disturbing. Makes me think the Crimson Queen will be doing so herself before long, if she isn’t already.”
“We will leave in the morning and send them on their way,” Max said. “We are not the ones who will slip out of town like whipped or scared dogs.”
The druidess nodded her agreement. “Then let us get our due rest, that we are ready for whatever may befall us on the morrow.”
~ * ~ * ~
“I don’t know, the desert can be pretty treacherous this time of year,” Taeranna said with a dramatic glance at the cloudless sky. She swung up into her saddle and showed only mild discomfort. “Could take us months to get back home. Isn’t that right, gentlemen?”
There were some chuckles from her men, but no disagreements.
“Are you sure we can’t convince you to travel with us? We could use more capable blades and minds,” Galadon offered, though by his expression, Leighandra wasn’t sure he felt as welcoming as the words indicated.
“Such would be seen as treason, and I can’t put my family or my men’s families at risk,” the Desert Eagle returned. “It’s an unfortunate truth of serving the empire: It doesn’t matter what I think is right and wrong, only what the throne says. To fight against it… would be to end up running for our lives, like Lion.”
“Yeah, better to do the wrong thing and be safe,” Delkantar said with a roll of his eyes. He didn’t bother waiting for a response, but instead mounted up and trotted along the road.
“Why didn’t they send you after my sister first?” Lion asked. Taeranna looked away. “Oh no, did they? Is she dead?”
“You know the answer to that,” the Desert Eagle returned. “Anyway, we should be off. The longer we remain near you, the more likely you are to draw further attention. I’ll do what I can to keep further pursuit away from Lion, but I make no guarantees. I wish it was as simple as your other companion believes, I really do…”
“Do not worry about it,” Max said. “You are giving us time, and with all that sits before us, that may be one of the most precious things you can give. I release you from your debt to me. Return home, be safe, and when this conflict comes to a head, I hope to find you by my side rather than staring me down a second time.”
“That goes for me as well. I thank you, king of the luranar. May the gods light your path. In honor, strength… and in strength, victory. Farewell.”
Max watched them ride off to the south before he swung up into his saddle. “Interesting woman,” he mused. “I wonder, should the possibility of restoring Lion’s sister become likely, if she would join our side. Delkantar’s words stung her more than she would care to admit.”
“Is your sister still alive, then?” Galadon asked the teen.
“Yes, sir. Had Taeranna killed my sister, she would have said so plainly.”
“I can understand her struggle,” Leighandra said. “To be caught between doing what she thinks is right and what is required by law or loyalty… and to have all of it tempered by concern for her family. Not an enviable position.”
The luranar paladin nodded. “Yiilu, if you would lead the way?”
“Follow me,” the druidess said. She rubbed her hand along her horse’s shoulder and spoke to it in the melodic tones of the elven tongue, and it ran off with extra spring in its step.
The ride was short-lived. The seal pulled off into the forest, and rather than drag their horses through the underbrush, they returned to town and left their faithful mounts at the stable. When they returned to the western road, the seal took them into the forest, where Delkantar and Yiilu were most at home. Between the druidess’ soothing talks with the trees and the ranger’s skill at tracking and trailblazing, they made good time even through the denser woods here.
A rocky bluff jutted up rudely through the woods, but undaunted, the trees simply grew up its sides and in every crag where water could drip. At the top of the bluff stood the remains of what had no doubt been an old fire tower, one that eventually grew into a watch tower as the nearby town grew larger. Leighandra wondered at its abandoned state, and she jogged up next to Delkantar and pointed it out to him, as if he might have missed it.
“What do you make of that?”
“What do I make of it?” he returned. “A sign of trouble. We’re close enough to the town that a watch tower with that sort of vantage point would be silly to abandon. So whatever is out here with the seal probably isn’t friendly. Chances are, it drove off or killed anyone who tried to man the watch tower.”
“Hmmm, but the tower’s still there. Safe to say it’s not a dragon or wyvern, then?” she prodded, referring to the smaller kin of dragons.
Delkantar shrugged. “I’d never make any assumptions, but there is a bit of logic to your thinking. A dragon probably would’ve just knocked it over. Not sure a wyvern has that kind of strength, but then I suspect a wyvern might’ve roosted on the top. Don’t really have a lot of experience with those, though.”
“Wyverns roost primarily on cliffs,” Yiilu said from several paces away while Vo’rii danced around her, sniffing the ground for clues. “There are numerous broods of them between Xii’briiosel and Dira Ch’Tori, where the coast is rockiest. I am not certain they are common here in the interior lands.”
“Trouble?” Galadon asked as he and Max stepped up beside the stopped trio.
“Not sure yet,” Delkantar admitted. “But that abandoned tower tells me we’re not in friendly territory. Max, can you and Audrei smell anything? Vo’rii doesn’t seem alarmed yet.”
The luranar king shook his head. “I neither smell nor sense anything out of the ordinary.”
“Yiilu?” the human knight prompted. The druidess pointed toward the bluff wordlessly. “Of course. Del, Lion, Starlenia: Split up and scout around the area. Whistle if you need help or else just return here. We’ll set up a short camp and get some food going. Gods know what we’re going to get into today.”
The scouts set off in opposite directions. Without asking or being asked, Yiilu did the same with Vo’rii. Audrei cooked a quick lunch, and by the time the food was ready to serve, the four and a half scouts had returned. Audrei dished out the food, and it wasn’t until Leighandra had a bowl of hot stew in hand that it occurred to her that a queen had prepared lunch. She smirked but kept the thought to herself.
“There are old mining tunnels through every side of the bluff, though I’m not sure how deep any of them go,” Delkantar said. “They’re all long-since deserted, and that may have as much to do with the tower up top being abandoned as any sort of violent menace. It does seem a little odd to me to destabilize the bluff when there was a watch tower up there, but if they found gold or something, they may not have cared.”
“Any indication of which mine the seal pulls to?” Max asked.
Yiilu shook her head. “It could be any of them, but this bluff is certainly where the seal is leading. N
ot too far along it, but somewhere at this end, that will be our destination.”
“I only saw one that showed any signs of disturbance,” Starlenia added. “Could be a bear or something, but I didn’t get close enough to see for sure.”
“We’ll start there,” Galadon said. “After lunch.”
The friends laughed and shared the meal. Once they had cleaned up the camp, they left their heavier things and prepared for trouble. Starlenia led them northwest around the bluff, and Leighandra could see that Delkantar’s concerns were well-founded. The mines were haphazard and numerous, and little thought had been put into how stable the bluff would be after carving so many unnatural caverns into it. It made the chronicler a little uneasy about walking into any of the mines – and walking into a mine in general wasn’t something she looked forward to.
Starlenia gestured toward the entryway she suspected, and Delkantar scampered forward far enough to look at some of the tracks. “Not a bear. Something cat-like, but big,” he said, and he sat back on his haunches and thought to himself. “By the size, I might suspect a griffon, but then there’d be two different kinds of tracks in the same place, and griffons don’t roost in caves. Yiilu, any ideas?”
The druidess inspected the tracks and let Vo’rii sniff around. The wolf’s hackles rose almost immediately, and she let forth an uncharacteristic growl, staring at the mine entrance. “I suspect it is something unnatural. It would appear to be feline, as you said, but the size and depth of the marks is too large to be a lion or tiger – and neither is native to this area regardless.”
“It’s a cat, Max,” Starlenia said, and he turned a curious gaze her way. “You’re a dog. Go chase it away.”
Leighandra had to bite her hand to stop from laughing. She felt a little less bad when she saw that Audrei was doing the same.
“Are we back to this old joke?” the luranar paladin demanded.
