Faces of Deception

by Troy Denning

  Atreus cursed silently and laid down in the snow, motioning for Yago and Rishi to do likewise. Naraka continued cautiously ahead, his eyes working the shore methodically, looking first high then low, low then high, then finally moving on to the next thicket.

  Atreus held his hand palm up, signaling his companions to remain still. “Catch-and-club” had been a favorite game among his ogre siblings, and he had learned early that motion attracts attention. As long as they remained as still as the willows screening them, they would not be noticed.

  Naraka’s gaze reached their thicket, and Rishi gasped almost audibly. Atreus frowned at the Mar, silently willing him to hold his breath. Naraka glanced the base of the willow screen, then ran his eyes up the length of the stalks and back down again. He paused for a moment, then finally moved on.

  Atreus let his breath out, waiting as the rest of the patrol followed Naraka into the channel. He did not move until Naraka was halfway to the bend and there were a half-dozen riders in the water in front of them.

  “Remember, don’t kill them,” Atreus whispered. “What we need is a panic, not an angry mob.”

  “I understand.” Rishi rose to a crouch. “Your plan is very wise and clear.”

  Rishi pulled three little knives from inside his cloak. Yago rose to his knees and cupped his hands, holding them about two feet apart. Atreus gathered his legs beneath him, ready to jump to the Mar’s defense if matters did not go as planned, then nodded.

  Rishi leaped into the willows, splashing through the ice at the edge of the thicket. Several riders cried out in alarm and jerked their mounts around just as the Mar hurled his first dagger. Yago brought his hands together, creating a deep booming clap at about the same time the blade sank into the shoulder of the closest pony.

  The beast whinnied and reared wildly, hurling its astonished rider from the saddle. He bounced off the pony behind him and splashed face first into the icy water, then surfaced an instant later, shrieking as though he were the one who had been wounded.

  Naraka spun on his saddle, screaming orders and reaching for his sword. Several riders lowered their lances, and Rishi hurled another dagger. Yago clapped his hands, and again the blade caught a pony in the shoulder. The creature shrieked and shied away, then touched the ice crust behind it and bolted down the channel. A trio of riders managed to retain control of their mounts, urging them into a stiff, chill-legged charge.

  “One more!” Atreus called.

  Rishi hurled his third dagger, and again Yago clapped. This time, several ponies flinched noticeably. The beast leading the charge turned its head as though to wheel around, but it was the middle pony that caught the dagger—in the shoulder, as before—and went down.

  The lead rider jerked his mount back into the charge, closing to within two paces of the willows where Rishi stood fumbling for another throwing dagger. Atreus jumped into the thicket and shoved the Mar aside, raising his sword even as he cursed the icy water pouring into his frozen boots. The rider’s eyes widened. He cried out something about “Ysdar’s devil” and turned his lance toward Atreus.

  Atreus tapped the lance aside with his sword, as he stepped forward and caught the man across the chest with the flat of the blade. The rider splashed into the water, and Rishi was on him in a second, jerking the weapons from his scabbard belt. Yago unseated the third guard with even less trouble, jerking a willow out by the roots and hurling the muddy mess into the fellow’s chest. The man tumbled backward off his pony.

  A voice hissed, “You dare assail a bahrana?”

  Atreus looked down to find Rishi pressing the edge of a dagger to the first rider’s gullet.

  “I will teach you better than to attack above your class,” Rishi threatened.

  “No!” Atreus caught Rishi’s hand, planting a foot on the rider’s chest and pushing him underwater, shouting, “Go!”

  Atreus shoved Rishi up the hummock, then glanced back at the patrol. Naraka’s pony was splashing down the channel in a slow, awkward gallop, while most of his men were struggling to bring their panicked mounts under control. Only the riders at the rear of the patrol were still in command of their ponies, but they were making only a token effort to get past the confusion and attack.

  When one warrior raised his lance to throw, Naraka barked an order in Maran and pointed at Atreus’s foot, where the submerged captive’s arms were still flailing in the water. An idea flashed through Atreus’s mind. He smiled and reached down, pulling his prisoner’s head up by the long hair.

  “Tonight, this man serves me in Ysdar’s hell!” Atreus called. He hacked off a handful of hair and shook it in Naraka’s direction. “Before this is done, you will all serve me in Ysdar’s hell!”

  The patrol gave a collective gasp. Even Naraka turned pale, but that did not keep him from kicking his mount until the poor creature stumbled on the silty bottom and fell. Atreus allowed himself a throaty laugh, then tucked the lock of stolen hair into his belt and clambered out of the willows.

  On the other side of the hummock, Rishi had already untethered their mounts. The pony of the unhorsed man was standing at the end of their little caravan, its reins tied to the tail of Atreus’s yak.

  “What’s the pony for?” Atreus snapped off a fresh willow to use as a riding crop, then climbed onto his yak. “You said they were no good in the swamp.”

  “The good sir is correct. Ponies are terrible in the swamp,” Rishi agreed, urging his yak into the water. “But taking it will cause our enemies great trouble, as no pony can carry two men. Without it, they will certainly have to turn back.”

  “Certainly?” scoffed Yago. “I’ve heard that before.…”

  “Well, it can’t hurt,” said Atreus. “Besides, we may need a pack animal when we reach this secret caravan road.” He turned to Rishi. “How soon will that be?”

  “Oh, very soon,” replied the Mar. “By highsun at the latest, and certainly much before that if we were successful in frightening off Naraka.”

  They traveled for nearly a quarter hour, then began to hear distant splashes behind them. Rishi cursed their pursuers for demons, and Atreus began to fear they would not be rid of the patrol until they killed Naraka. This was something Atreus was loathe to do, as he admired the man’s determination. Fortunately, the patrol was moving far more cautiously. By the time it had drawn close enough to worry about, the sun had risen well into the sky, though the ice had not yet melted off the channels.

  Atreus and his companions attacked the patrol again. This time, they wounded only Naraka’s mount, though several nervous ponies threw their riders at the sound of Yago’s thunderous clapping. The riders, better prepared than last time, managed to launch a counterattack of flying lances, driving the ambushers away before Rishi could unleash a second dagger.

  And so the morning went, with Yago clapping every time Rishi hurled one of his daggers. The number of pursuers dropped steadily as those on wounded mounts fell behind. The ponies grew increasingly skittish as their fellows were wounded, to the point that they sometimes fled at the mere sound of the ogre’s big hands. Once Rishi was grabbed from behind and had to stab a man in the thigh. Another time Yago punched a pony unconscious, and Atreus had to save its trapped rider from drowning.

  This mercy only served to convince the patrol that he intended to enslave them all in Ysdar’s hell. Those who had already lost tresses to him grew desperate and attacked rashly, while those who had lost no hair grew more cautious than ever. Atreus stopped cutting off their locks, though he took pains to make it appear he was still trying.

  There were only a dozen riders left when Naraka finally anticipated an ambush and laid a trap of his own. The trio was rushing across a hummock toward the sound of splashing when Naraka and eight men took them from the side. Yago, ten paces in the lead, was quickly separated from Atreus and Rishi.

  Rishi managed to fling a dagger into Naraka’s arm. The patrol leader responded in kind, catching Atreus just under the collarbone with a hurled lance. Atreus too
k the blow without falling, then yanked the weapon out and slammed its shaft across Naraka’s throat. The patrol leader tumbled from his saddle, and the battle became a blur.

  On the other side of the hummock, Yago was being driven toward the water, wielding a lance with his wounded arm and holding a screaming man in the other. One of Rishi’s daggers flashed past and took a pony behind the jaw, dropping beast and rider in a cacophony of screeching and crashing. Another pony leaped its fallen fellow and landed only paces away.

  Atreus hurled himself at its feet and came up holding his sword. He blocked a lance, slamming his blade into the rider’s flank and felt warm blood spatter his face. He stepped away and found three men advancing on him cautiously, their lances low and ready. Yago was nowhere in sight, but there was a lot of splashing on the far side of the hummock.

  “Yago!” Atreus yelled. “Come back!”

  “Can’t!” came the reply. “Got myself walled off!”

  Atreus cursed, and the three riders kicked their ponies, urging them into a charge.

  “Yago, break off!” Atreus yelled. “Run!”

  Atreus turned and hurled himself out of the ponies’ path, rolled, and came up sprinting. He saw Rishi already at the yaks, just climbing onto the lead beast’s back.

  “Rishi! If you leave me, I swear you’ll wish—”

  “Leave you?” Rishi called, as though the thought had not even occurred to him. “I would never do that!”

  The little Mar spun, already flinging one of his daggers. Atreus ducked, then heard a pained cry behind him.

  “You see, I am very faithful!”

  Rishi raised another knife, but did not throw it, his eyes darting back and forth between the riders behind Atreus. Having witnessed the Mar’s accuracy many times, neither man felt like risking an attack, and Atreus raced the last few steps to his mount in relative safety. He jumped on his yak, slapped its neck with the flat of his blade, and they were quickly splashing through the water at a trot.

  When Atreus heard no sign of pursuers, he paused to look back. Naraka’s man were scurrying over the hummock, tending to their wounded and struggling to calm their panicked mounts. Atreus saw no sign of Yago, but neither did he hear any hint that the battle was continuing on the far side of the hummock.

  “Did you see what happened to Yago?” Atreus asked. “Did he get away?”

  Rishi furrowed his brow. “I saw no more than you, but did you not hear him?”

  Atreus shook his head. “Things were too confused,” he said.

  “Yago told us to go,” Rishi said, glancing up the channel. “I suggest we obey, before they recover their wits and realize what an advantage they have.”

  Atreus narrowed his eyes, far from certain that he believed the sly Mar. “What were his words, exactly?”

  Rishi frowned. “I cannot be sure I heard him right. It sounded like, ‘Both eyes, front and back!’ ”

  Atreus sighed in relief. “Okay, let’s go.”

  “You are not worried about your friend?” Despite his question, Rishi wasted no time starting up the channel.

  “ ‘Both eyes’ is an old ogre saying. It means he’s whole,” Atreus explained as he scooped a shard of broken ice out of the water and pressed it to his wound to stop the bleeding. “And I think ‘front and back’ means he’s going to follow the patrol. If there’s trouble again, he’ll attack from behind.”

  Rishi nodded. “Very sensible, but what happens when Naraka turns around?”

  “That’s not going to happen. Not now,” Atreus replied, glancing back. Naraka’s patrol was already lost in the willows. “Not until one of us is dead.”

  “You see?” asked Rishi. “Is that not what I told you back in Bharat’s wagon?”

  The Mar looked forward again, leaving Atreus to tend to his wound. His shoulder felt stiff and throbbing, but there were no broken bones, and he could still move his arm. As these things went, he had been lucky. Though he felt terribly weak and would certainly suffer a fever later, he could keep traveling.

  Of more immediate concern was his guide’s loyalty. “Rishi, you do know what will happen if you try to open that coffer without me?”

  Rishi twisted around. “Why would I ever try such a thing?” he asked. “Until we reach Langdarma, the gold is not even mine.”

  “I’m glad to hear you have not forgotten,” Atreus said. “You were in an awful hurry to leave back there.”

  “Not at all! No, never!” said Rishi. “It was only that someone had to untether the yaks if we were to make a swift escape, and you were doing so well. Did I not come to your aid when you called?”

  Though Atreus was not entirely sure the Mar’s knife had been meant for the man behind him, he reluctantly nodded. “You may have saved my life. Allow me to repay you by mentioning that there are many traps on my coffer, the least of which is the one that blinded Bharat.”

  Rishi’s eyes grew unreadable. “It is very considerate of you to mention this, but it hardly matters to me.”

  “Of course,” said Atreus.

  “The gold will be mine soon enough,” Rishi added. “Now that Naraka is wounded, the patrol will certainly leave us to continue our journey in peace.”

  “Certainly.”

  But Naraka did not turn back. Within minutes they heard the patrol splashing through the water behind them, though somewhat more slowly than before. As the sun neared its zenith, the ice finally vanished from the channels. Rishi doubled back, guiding them down a tunnel-like passage so shallow that at times they were passing over new growth, then struck off in a new direction.

  The splashing of the patrol grew abruptly distant, and Atreus began to worry about finding Yago again. The swamp was turning out to be vastly larger than it looked from the other side of the gorge. If they were lucky enough to lose Naraka, it seemed all too possible that they would also lose Yago.

  The pony began to nicker and snort more often, lamenting the growing separation from its mates. Atreus cut the beast loose. There was every chance the poor creature would lose its way and freeze to death that night, but he could not afford to be compassionate. After the wounds the two sides had inflicted on each other during the last ambush, the chase had taken on a new intensity, and Atreus knew the next fight would be to the death.

  They continued deeper into the swamp. The high willows blocked their view of the mighty peaks to the east, but every now and then the view opened up as they passed an intersecting channel or an expanse of open water. It did not escape Atreus’s notice that in these places Rishi stopped to study the sky-scraping mountains for ever-increasing periods of time.

  Highsun came and went, and still they saw no sign of the road. If anything, the swamp seemed to close in around them. Sightings of the mountains became less frequent, and when they did occur, Rishi frowned and sometimes muttered to himself. They began to hear Naraka’s patrol shouting in the distance. The hummocks grew uncommon, and the willows thickened to the point that the two fugitives had to plow through, leaving a furrow of broken and bent stalks in their wake.

  The sun lost its warmth and sank lower in the sky, and the same icy breeze Atreus had felt the evening before started to rise. His wound began to throb and burn, while the rest of him grew so cold he started to shiver. His feet ached with a wet chill, and no amount of swinging seemed to warm them. Though the pain was safer, he longed for yesterday’s numbness.

  A tiny shout went up in the distance behind them. It was quickly answered by several others, and the flurry of voices that followed left no doubt that one of Naraka’s men had stumbled across their trail. Atreus tried to console himself with the thought that Yago would not be far behind.

  Rishi stopped his yak and stood, balancing himself precariously on its shoulder hump. He did not look back in the direction of the shouts, but eastward toward the hidden mountains.

  “What a relief!” Despite his words, he did not sound relieved. “We are certainly almost there.”

  “Certainly?” Atreus scoffed. �
�You have no idea where we are, do you?”

  “The good sir may certain—ah—he may have every faith in his guide,” said Rishi. “The road is very near. I have seen it.”

  Scowling, Atreus swung his numb feet up, then stood wobbling on the yak’s back and looked toward the massive mountains in the distance. He saw nothing ahead but a ribbon of open water.

  “There’s no road out there!” he snapped. “There isn’t even a dry place to spend the night.”

  Before Rishi could reply, a distant voice cried out behind them. Atreus looked back to see a tiny pony rider in the bend of a channel, pointing a lance in his direction. The man turned his mount toward Atreus and disappeared into the willows, and a moment later the whole thicket began to quiver.

  Atreus cursed, then squatted down and swung his legs over the yak’s side. “The man is a bloodhound,” he said. “Naraka and his patrol are about half a mile behind. They saw me.”

  “No matter. We can easily lose them again.” Rishi turned his yak toward the ribbon of open water.

  They had no choice except to plow straight through the willows, leaving an easy trail to follow. This did not concern Atreus nearly as much as the apparent impossibility of finding a dry place to spend the night. Though he and Rishi had more or less dried out after their morning ambushes, they were both hungry and far from warm. After the sun went down, the bitter cold would be a steady drain on their strength—strength that in Atreus’s case was already being tested by a throbbing wound.

  Soon, the yaks’ feet began to plunge deeper into the water. Small, arrow-shaped ripples appeared at the base of the willow stalks, and it grew clear they were approaching a river. Rishi continued to plow forward until the water rose above the yaks’ knees. Finally, he turned upstream, ducking in and out of a network of narrow passages that ran parallel to the main channel. Every now and then they crossed a broader clearing that opened into the river itself, framing a picturelike panorama of water, willows, and sky-scraping peaks.

  Naraka’s patrol made good use of the passages and the now obvious bearing of their quarry. It was not long before Atreus began to hear the occasional shouted order.