The dairne stiffened, as if it were an affront. “I am Elexor.” His eyes narrowed in suspicion. “A name you should already know, if you have business here.”
My mind galloped ahead, trying to understand what I was hearing, even as a cold hollow carved itself in my gut. What was Elexor going on about? Didn’t he know dairnes were thought to be extinct? Didn’t he rejoice at seeing a young dairne?
“I think, Elexor,” Khara said, “that you’d better tell us what is going on here.”
“Who are you to demand explanations? Get off this island, all of you! You have no right to be here!”
Khara laid her hand on the hilt of her sword, but Gambler was more direct. He leapt the short distance between himself and Elexor and bared his gleaming incisors. “You can answer her questions,” he said calmly, “or be my breakfast.”
“Gambler! Be careful!” I cried automatically, even though I knew he wouldn’t harm the old dairne.
After Gambler’s show of strength, Elexor abandoned his objections. With much huffing and muttering, he led us into the stone building. It was clearly a dormitory or barracks, with four cots suitable for humans and a large straw mat that might make a bed for a felivet. A small kitchen space featured an open hearth, now cold, and a counter topped by pots and pans and crockery. Dog circled the room, sniffing with interest.
“What is this place?” Khara demanded. “And remember, we have a dairne of our own.”
Elexor glanced at me and licked his lips. “It is as you see, a barracks.”
“For whom?” Khara pressed.
No answer.
“All right, Gambler,” Khara said, waving her hand in Elexor’s direction. “Breakfast is served.”
“No! No!” Elexor cried. “Would you leave my son an orphan?”
“Your son?” I blurted.
“He is innocent, a mere boy.”
“I don’t care if he’s the crown prince,” Khara snapped. “Tell us everything. Now!”
Elexor settled wearily onto a wooden chair. “The island is used to carry . . . certain individuals . . . between Nedarra and Dreyland.”
“Certain individuals?” Khara asked.
Elexor shrugged and looked to the side. “Some in Nedarra are not great lovers of the Murdano. Some wish to leave Nedarra and live in Dreyland.”
“Traitors?”
“You may call them that,” Elexor said. “Though they would not use the term.”
“We’re supposed to believe you’re helping refugees from Nedarra?” Khara asked.
“Yes,” Elexor said, his palms upraised.
Khara turned to me. “It is a lie,” I whispered, feeling, strangely, like a traitor to my own species.
“Tell us about these Nedarrans you transport,” said Khara.
“They are . . .” A furious glance at me. “They are Nedarrans who may have reason to flee the Murdano.”
Renzo spoke for the first time in a while. “And why should you help them?”
“I work for the Kazar Sg’drit,” Elexor said, torn between putting on a proud front and some deeper shame. “My task is to question others. To discover whether the tales they bring are truth or lies.”
“You were expecting new passengers here,” Khara said. “Dreylanders?”
Elexor shifted uncomfortably. “Yes, some go from Dreyland to Nedarra. I also question them. And sometimes those same Dreylanders return, and I question them again.”
Renzo laughed aloud. “Traitors one way and spies the other direction!”
“Those are your words,” Elexor said. But he offered nothing more.
I sank onto one of the cots and put my head in my hands.
The dairne I had strived desperately to find, endangering not just myself but my friends, was a servant of Sg’drit.
He used his dairne abilities to check the stories of those claiming to defect to the Kazar’s cause. And he transported spies into Nedarra, verifying their stories when they returned.
This was the dairne I’d dreamed so long of meeting?
“But how do you cause the island to obey your wishes?” Khara pressed.
“I don’t, of course,” Elexor said, trying to recover some fragment of his original arrogance. “No one commands the island but the natites.”
Renzo narrowed his eyes. “The natites allow . . . support this?”
Elexor didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.
Khara looked at us. “If the natites are conspiring with Dreyland, and the terramants are controlled by the Kazar as well, there is no hope for Nedarra.”
“Does it matter?” Renzo said cynically. “The Murdano or the Kazar, they’re both power-hungry madmen anxious to start a war.”
“I can never take the side of a valtti like this Sg’drit,” Gambler said. “And my own family, my brothers and sisters, live in Nedarra.”
“My family as well,” Khara said. “Though I would be loath to do anything to aid the Murdano.” She turned back to Elexor. “Your passengers heading south, when are you expecting them?”
“The galley should be coming at any time. I was only hoping to rouse my son to clean up. But he is a lazy child and not always obedient.”
“Then we must leave if we are to avoid a fight we may well lose,” Khara said.
Tobble raised his hand, a habit he had when interrupting. “He mentioned a galley. In deep water a sailing boat may outrun a galley, but only if the wind is in our favor.”
“What is a galley?” I asked.
“A boat that uses thralls to drive the oars. Some galleys have as many as twenty men, ten to a side. A galley cares nothing for wind. They have very shallow drafts, and thus may be hiding in a channel beyond our sight.”
“What is this?”
It was a new voice, and we all spun to discover its origin.
My heart leapt.
There in the doorway stood another dairne.
27
Attack!
Elexor had said he had a son, a child. For some reason, I’d been expecting a much younger dairne, but this one appeared to be close to my own age.
He was a bit shorter than I, but broader in the shoulders, with glossy wheat-colored fur and large, teardrop-shaped ears.
Elexor, looking aggrieved and worried, said, “This is my son, Maxyn. As you see, he is just a child.”
Maxyn rolled his eyes. He looked us over, one by one, settling at last on me. We stared at each other with frank curiosity. He was the first young dairne I had seen in a very long time.
It should have been a momentous occasion. The air should have been filled with songs of joy. But faced at last with two other members of my kind, faced with the undeniable evidence that I was not, in fact, an endling, I saw only Maxyn and his father.
They were not just an abstraction, the proof my species might yet survive. They were specific individuals.
It occurred to me, after what must have been an uncomfortably long pause, that Khara was waiting for me to say something. When I did nothing but gape openmouthed like a fool, she spoke up.
“I am Khara.” She pointed to the rest of us. “Gambler, Renzo, Tobble, and, of course, Byx.”
“Byx,” Maxyn repeated.
I nodded my head too vigorously. Speech was still beyond me.
“But what is going on?” Maxyn asked.
“It seems your father is being used to assess the veracity of spies and traitors for the Kazar Sg’drit,” Khara said bluntly.
“I know that. But . . .” Maxyn frowned. He had interesting eyes, darker than mine, storm-colored and hard to read. “But what does that have to do with all of you?”
We were, I admit, a motley crew, and I could well understand Maxyn’s puzzlement.
“We have been . . . ,” I said at last, my voice strange in my own ears. “We have been seeking dairnes. In Nedarra it is said that we are all gone, wiped out by the Murdano. I thought I was—”
I choked on the words. Embarrassed, I shook my head and looked pleadingly at Khara.
&n
bsp; “Byx believed, feared, that she was an endling, the last dairne. We have been searching for more of her kind. We spotted this island in Nedarra and followed you here.”
“But we are not the last of the dairnes,” Elexor said.
It took a moment for his words to sink in. “We are . . . not?” I managed, and I feared I’d forgotten how to breathe.
“True, there are few of us left,” Elexor said. “And what was once a small colony on this island is now reduced to just us two. But I am surprised you know nothing of the Pellago River colony. I’ve never been, but—”
“The Pellago River?” Khara interrupted. “But that’s in northwest Nedarra, beyond my family’s lands. That area is populated by fell beasts and monsters. No one goes there. Or if they do, they do not return.”
“Perhaps,” said Elexor. “But if that’s what you seek, be on your way before the Kazar’s men come. Time is short—”
Gambler’s ears flicked, and the fur on his back stood up. “Too late,” he said, unsheathing his claws. “They are here!”
Gambler was the first through the door, with Khara right behind, sword drawn.
Entering the clearing were a finely dressed man and woman, four men-at-arms, and what looked like a ruffian, carrying a wood staff with a heavy, knobbed end.
They spotted us at the same time we spotted them, but Khara was the more decisive commander. “Attack!” she cried.
Four men-at-arms, three others. Between them, they had five swords and one cudgel, plus anything that the woman might be hiding.
On our side, we had a young girl with a fabled sword, a thief with a shield and a knife, a wobbyk with nothing but his own unpredictable capacity for anger, and me, with a knife I liked to think of as a sword.
And Dog, of course.
But we had one other thing: a felivet.
I will never understand how Gambler can move like lightning and still seem graceful and almost relaxed. He ran, leapt, let loose a terrifying roar, and hit the nearest man-at-arms while snagging a second with one extended paw.
Khara swung her sword at a third soldier. He parried well, but his weapon was no match for the Light of Nedarra. Khara’s sword broke his in half, and with a backhand swipe, she sent him running.
The woman screamed, clutching at her male companion as he struggled to draw his bejeweled sword.
Renzo smashed the edge of his shield down on the man, who crumpled to the ground. Just like that, the odds were better. We now faced one soldier and two civilians.
The big one with the staff was brave, an experienced fighter, and he caught Renzo in the back with a wide swing of his staff. Renzo cried out in pain and fell hard.
I had my knife out, but I’d learned only one move. I shouted in a mix of terror and determination and ran straight at the big man as he aimed his staff toward me. But I can be quick when I need to be. I threw myself at the ground between his legs and slashed at a knee. I felt the blade encounter resistance.
Hitting the dirt knocked all the wind from my lungs. I lay helpless, struggling for air. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the remaining soldier turn tail and run, yelling, “Help! Help!”
With effort, I crawled a few feet and rolled over. To my relief, the big man with the staff was teetering. Blood soaked his pant leg. He looked at me in surprise, blinked, as if unable to believe what he was seeing, and fell to his knees.
Gambler had an expression on his face that I was glad had never been used against me. Khara’s blade was stained red. Renzo was getting awkwardly to his feet, clutching his back and wincing in pain.
I heard something fly past, just as Renzo threw himself into Khara. An arrow, right where Khara had been a split second before. Someone cried out in surprise, and I saw the arrow’s feathered shaft protruding from Elexor’s chest.
“Father!” Maxyn screamed. As Elexor fell, Maxyn caught him. A second arrow flew and grazed Gambler.
The fleeing soldier had come back with an archer.
It might take an experienced archer three seconds to fit a new shaft, draw, and aim. But it took a fraction of that time for Gambler to leap and sink his teeth into the man.
The remaining soldier dropped to his knees and held his hands high in the air. “I yield, I yield!”
Khara had her blade at his throat in an instant. “Are there any more soldiers coming?”
“N-n-no! No!”
“How did you come here?”
“The galley,” the soldier yelped.
“Tobble, tie him up,” Khara ordered. “Gambler, with me!” The two of them raced off toward the water.
I knelt next to Elexor, across from Maxyn. Elexor still lived, but I doubted he would for long. The arrow was buried deep in his chest and every breath was an effort.
“My son,” Elexor gasped.
“Father!”
I said, “We can try to pull the arrow out.”
“Sg’drit’s men use barbed arrowheads,” Maxyn said bitterly.
The two civilians, the expensively dressed man and woman, remained. The man had struggled to his feet after the hit from Renzo, but seeing how things were going, he threw his sword to the ground. “I am not a soldier!” he declared.
“No, just a spy,” Renzo snarled, grunting at the pain in his back.
Khara and Gambler came running back, looking relieved. “The galley is moored just a hundred yards over there,” Khara said. “There are six rowers, all captured Nedarrans who would be glad to row back to Nedarra.”
I tried to focus on their words, but all I could think about was the old dairne lying on the ground nearby, cradled by his son.
“How is he?” I asked gently.
Maxyn looked at me with pure hatred.
“He’s dead,” he said. “He’s dead because of you.”
28
The Galley Chase
Tears poured from my eyes. Losing a parent was unbearable. And in such a violent way . . . I knew, all too well, how it felt.
“I’m so sorry, Maxyn,” I managed.
“Spare me your pity.”
“I know what you are feeling,” I said, wiping my cheeks with the back of my hand.
“How could you possibly know?” His voice was harsh, but his hand on his father’s arm was tender.
“I know,” I said simply. “You can’t stay here. I know you want to, but you just can’t. You have to come with us for your own safety.”
“I take no orders from those who cost my father his life,” Maxyn said, fighting back his own tears.
“Stay here only if you wish to die,” Renzo advised.
“Do you threaten me?” Maxyn demanded.
“No,” Renzo said as he helped Tobble tie up the men and woman. “But when the Kazar’s soldiers get here, they may well blame you for what’s happened. When people are angry, they tend to focus on the nearest available suspect.”
I was about to tell Maxyn that Renzo spoke the truth, but of course he knew.
“Listen, please, Maxyn,” I said, taking his arm, only to have him shake me off. “For all we know, you and I may be the only surviving dairnes—”
“Nonsense. My father spoke often of the Pellago River colony.”
“And he surely believed that. But are you certain he was right? And without us, how would you ever reach that colony?”
Maxyn didn’t answer. His eyes were cold. I expected no more: he had just lost his father. But he knew I spoke the truth.
“We need to get moving,” Khara said.
“Maxyn, please,” I said.
“Leave me,” he whispered, stroking his father’s head. “Leave us.”
Reluctantly, I followed Khara and the others to the galley. I must have turned around a dozen times to check on Maxyn, hoping against hope that he’d realized he should join us.
“Give him a moment,” Khara advised. “He may yet come.”
The galley was low-slung, long and sleek. Twelve oars stood tall like small masts, resting in their oarlocks. Between the oars were six m
en, all kept imprisoned by chains around their ankles.
Khara climbed aboard. Without saying a word, she brought the edge of the Light of Nedarra down on the central chain lock.
For a moment the rowers sat in stunned paralysis, followed by loud rattling as they pulled the chain through their shackles. Cautiously, still fearful, they stood.
Khara hopped onto a barrel set amidships and, in a loud, confident voice, said, “You are free men. You may stay or leave, as is your rightful choice. But know that we are taking this galley to Nedarra. If you stay, you will row, and row hard. But you will row as free men going home!”
All six men chose to stay. But one, older and gray-bearded, said, “I am called Norbert. Our gratitude knows no bounds. We are, and will always be, in debt to you. But in Nedarra, many of us have oaths of long standing to fulfill. Do you call on us to forsake our oaths and swear loyalty to you?”
Khara took a moment to consider. We were heading to Nedarra, but we would need to sneak in around the Murdano’s patrol boats, and perhaps around the natites.
“Yes,” she said. “You have a debt to me and to my companions. To repay that debt I require the following: that you obey my orders—all my orders, without hesitation—until we reach safety in Nedarra. Once we are safely ashore, you will go your own ways, and we will go ours. That will erase your debt, and from then on you must each do as your conscience directs.”
Norbert looked around at his companions, who nodded vigorously. “We swear to obey all your orders without hesitation, until we are safely ashore in Nedarra.”
“Good,” Khara said. “Because we have little time.” She pointed her sword toward a second galley in the distance. It was far larger, and pulling quickly toward the island.
“Norbert,” Khara instructed, “take three of your men. Gather up any weapons you find, and any food, as well. Renzo, take the remaining men and fill every water bottle or barrel you can find from the stream there. Tobble, familiarize yourself with the workings of this boat. And quickly! Quickly! That galley will be here all too soon.”
Khara turned to me. “Byx, you must deal with Maxyn.”
I nodded. “I will try,” I said.
Endling #2 Page 11
