The Doom of Kings: Legacy of Dhakaan - Book 1

by Don Bassingthwaite

  The two bugbears who had entered with the chief stiffened and lifted their weapons, a big mace and a heavy sword. The chief growled at them. He planted the butt of his trident in the dusty earth floor of the tent and said in thunderous Goblin, “I am Makka! This is my territory.” His free hand pointed at Dagii. “You, low-lander. What is your tribe?”

  Dagii stood against the roar of the bugbear’s voice like a wall standing against a gale. “I am Dagii of Mur Talaan.” He pointed at Ekhaas where she lay on the ground. “She is also Mur Talaan.”

  A blunt lie. Ashi wondered if the bugbears of the Marguul tribes had some complaint against the Kech Volaar. Makka didn’t challenge Dagii, though. His black nose wrinkled again, and his mouth curved in a sneer. “This means nothing to me. I have never heard of the Mur Talaan.” Ashi saw Dagii bristle at this insult to his clan, but Makka’s thick finger shifted to point at her. “The human carries a dragonmark. What is her clan?”

  Dagii’s ears rose slightly and he looked at Ashi sharply. “I don’t think he speaks your language,” he said in the human tongue before she could answer Makka in Goblin. “Don’t let him know you understand what he’s saying. It could be an advantage. Do you want me to tell him your House?”

  Ashi watched Makka and the other two bugbears carefully for any sign of reaction to what Dagii had just said. The only thing she saw was impatience. They hadn’t understood him. “Yes,” she said. “Say whatever you think you need to.”

  He nodded and turned back to Makka. “She belongs to the mighty clan Deneith,” he said, speaking Goblin once more, “whose armies are so vast that Lhesh Haruuc Shaarat’kor sends his soldiers to fight for them.”

  The bugbear who carried a mace opened his eyes wide and murmured something to Makka that was too soft for Ashi to hear, but the chief only growled at him. “I don’t care what Haruuc does—he bows to humans like a goblin!” he told Dagii. His sneer faded, though, and he looked speculatively at Ashi for moment, then pointed again, this time at Ekhaas. “We heard singing in the valley, the song of a duur’kala. Her?”

  “No. She is only a scout. We had a duur’kala with us, but she and the others of our party remained in the valley to cover our escape while we sought help from you.”

  Makka’s already tiny eyes narrowed even more. “How many others?”

  “Six,” Dagii lied.

  The bugbear with the mace hissed at this. “Nine of them altogether! Makka, the trolls will be angry for certain!”

  “If the other six haven’t escaped the valley, the trolls will be well-fed, Guun.” Makka glared down at Dagii and Ashi. “What were you doing in the valley?”

  “We were lost. We slipped past your camp during the day while the sentries dozed. Our scouts told us there was a way through the valley.”

  Dagii spoke with utter conviction, but Makka wrinkled his nose. “You were lost,” he said. “Where were you trying to go?”

  Ashi felt a chill seep along her back. Makka’s tone was dangerous. Dagii, however, continued to stand tall and confident. “At Lhesh Haruuc’s orders, we are seeking a new route through the Seawall Mountains to Zilargo.”

  “And you thought there was a way through the valley?” Makka’s voice rose to a roar. He lunged and grabbed Dagii’s arm with his free hand. “Come!” he said, dragging Dagii out of the hut with no more difficulty than an adult pulling a child. Guun and the other bugbear looked confused for a moment, then prodded Ashi into motion after them.

  Makka didn’t take Dagii far. The hut into which they had been thrown stood near one edge of the camp. The tribe stopped its labors to stare as Makka pulled Dagii up to the barricade and twisted him around so that he looked out over the valley. Ashi was pushed up alongside him. With the firepit behind her and the moons shining bright overhead, she found she could see vague shapes and silhouettes a surprising distance into the night. Makka thrust his trident toward the valley.

  “There is where you went,” he said, then gave Dagii a half-turn that left him facing in the direction of the western trail down from the mountain. “There is where you could have gone. Is it hard to see? Does the way look more difficult?” He shook Dagii hard. “There is no exit from the valley! No one of any sense would think there was! Why did you go down there?”

  “Treasure!” Dagii gasped, his teeth rattling. Ashi saw Guun’s ears turn up, but once again Makka only growled. The shaking stopped. Dagii pointed at her. “She hired us to locate a treasure lost by Deneith during the Last War.”

  Ashi felt astonishment cross her face before she remembered she wasn’t supposed to be able to understand what was being said. Fortunately, Makka didn’t seem to notice. Teeth bared, he released Dagii and whirled on her. A massive paw of a fist cracked across her face, driving her to the ground and sending bright spots whirling before her eyes. Rage burst inside her as she stared up at the bugbear chief, her grandfather’s sword in his belt, and she would have leaped at him if Guun and the other bugbear hadn’t seized her shoulders and held her still.

  “Treasure?” Makka said. “You entered the valley for treasure?” His angry face moved between her and Dagii. “You’ve stirred up the trolls, you fools! You may have doomed us all. My tribe has held this territory by keeping peace with the trolls, giving them meat to keep them quiet and driving them back when they get restless. And you went looking for treasure?” He grabbed Dagii again and sent him sprawling toward the hut. “Get them out of my sight! Tomorrow we’ll give them to the trolls. That may restore the peace.”

  “Makka chib, wait,” said Guun. There was a hungry look in his beady eyes. “What about this treasure? If we could get it—”

  “No one goes into the valley. It’s been a cursed place since the mountains were young. If there’s treasure lost in the valley, it will remain lost until they are dust!”

  Dagii, however, seized on Guun’s curiosity and greed. “The Deneith are idiots,” he said to Makka. “They went into the valley during the Last War while they were looking for Marguul to fight for them. The treasure is their pay chest, full of gold and gems. The wealth of a king! We got close to it before the trolls drove us away.” He dropped his voice. “How many trolls do you believe are in the valley, chib? We only saw nine. With fire and pitch, your tribe would be a match for them. You could wipe them out for good and claim the treasure.”

  The idea sank into Makka’s head and he paused, anger slipping away. Dagii had hit on something even more valuable to Makka, Ashi realized, than the treasure. Wiping out the trolls would eliminate a drain on the resources of the tribe’s territory—how much of the meat that hung on racks around the camp must have been there just to feed the trolls? The thought of a chest full of treasure probably didn’t hurt either.

  After a long moment, Makka snorted. “Put them back in the hut. I must think about this.” He stomped away to the longhouse at the back of the camp.

  Guun and the other bugbear pushed Ashi and Dagii inside the hut, then dropped the hide door as they went after Makka. Ashi nodded at Dagii once they were gone. “That was nicely done, turning Makka against the trolls.”

  “It may not work,” Dagii said. “I think Makka may be too afraid of the valley. It may give us a chance, though.”

  “It may give some of us a chance,” said a quiet voice from the ground.

  Ashi looked down and stifled a cry of delight. Ekhaas’s amber eyes were open and looking up at them. She dropped down beside her. “How long have you been awake?”

  “Long enough to know that I’ve joined the Mur Talaan and been given the position of scout.” She sat up slowly, her eyes squeezing shut as she moved.

  “If they’d known you were a duur’kala, they would have watched you more closely or maybe just killed you right away,” said Dagii. “This way we have a secret they don’t know.”

  Ekhaas nodded, the motion bringing another brief wince to her face. “There’s more than muscle and honor between your ears,” she said. “The problem with the story you’ve told to Makka is that he doe
sn’t need all of us to pull it off. You told him that we almost reached the treasure—that means he only needs one of us to find it again.”

  “Maabet,” said Dagii. “I’m a soldier, not a duur’kala. Do you think you can come up with something?”

  “We can start by telling them Ashi needs to be the one to open the chest. At least we’ve got time to think of something more.” She looked around, her ears flicking. “Geth and the others?”

  Ashi took the job of telling her that there had been no sign of their friends. Again, there was no need to speak aloud the possibility that they were dead. She could see in Ekhaas’s eyes that she had considered the same thing already.

  The hut grew quiet as Ekhaas thought and Ashi and Dagii rested. The bright light, moving shadows, and wary tension in the camp beyond the flimsy walls continued. There would be none of the tribe’s usual activities that night—the risk of a troll attack kept them all close to the camp and alert. Ashi found herself a spot on the piled hides in the hut that was neither too hard nor too smelly. In spite of the noise of the camp outside, she even managed to fall into a light doze.

  She couldn’t have said exactly how long she slept, but it was Dagii’s voice that roused her to semi-waking. The hobgoblin warrior spoke softly in Goblin. “Thank you for healing my ankle, Ekhaas. I’ve never felt anything like your magic.”

  “No thanks are necessary,” Ekhaas answered. “We couldn’t leave you.”

  Dagii stirred, as if he were sitting up. “Thanks are necessary,” he said. “We got out of the valley because of you. Your songs distracted the trolls and kept us ahead of them. Without you, we wouldn’t have had a chance. Yapanozhii kita atcha.”

  I owe a debt to your honor—the most formal way of offering thanks among goblins. Ashi opened her eyes and glanced at the two hobgoblins. Ekhaas was looking at Dagii, amber eyes meeting gray. After a moment, she gave a slow and graceful nod of acceptance.

  It was another moment before Ashi realized that the camp had gone still and quiet as well. She sat up sharply. “What’s going on?” she whispered.

  Dagii and Ekhaas looked up as if they’d forgotten she was even there. A faint flush spread across Ekhaas’s face, but Dagii was the first to understand what she’d really meant. He twisted around and put an eye to one of the gaps in the wall of the hut. “They’ve stopped,” he said. “Everyone’s staring at something.”

  “The valley?” asked Ekhaas.

  Ashi rolled off her bed of hides and found another gap to look through. The bugbears of the camp were staring into the night, just as Dagii had said, but they weren’t looking toward the valley. “No,” she said, “they’re looking west along the trail.” No, she realized, that wasn’t quite right either. “They’re looking into the forest.”

  Beside the barricades, one bugbear guard conferred with another, then went running to the longhouse. Ashi suspected he was looking for Makka. She changed gaps, keeping him in sight. Sure enough, very shortly after the guard disappeared into the longhouse, Makka emerged with Guun at his side and strode to the barricade. His trident was in hand and his black nose wrinkled as he sniffed at the air. Guun did the same thing.

  “Horses,” said Guun.

  Makka’s head turned to catch the breeze in different directions. “Many horses,” he said. He turned to the nearest guard. “Get the young ones into shelter.”

  The guard grunted and began rounding up the bugbear children and youths, herding them in the direction of the longhouse. At the same time, the adult bugbears of the tribe all began drifting to the western side of the camp, eyes—and noses—trained on the forest. Ashi watched, too, but she could see and smell nothing.

  Just like all the bugbears, though, she flinched back when a deep voice rolled out of the night, shouting in Goblin, “Release our friends!”

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY

  That’s Midian!” said Ekhaas. She climbed to her feet and walked unsteadily to the wall. Ashi nodded without taking her eyes from the gap. It was Midian. There was no mistaking his voice, though she could pick out no sign of the gnome in the darkness. Her heart was beating faster. If Midian had made it out of the valley, there was a good chance Geth and Chetiin had too.

  Dagii, however, was almost growling as he moved from crack to crack, trying to find the best view. “What is he thinking, bringing the horses here?”

  “How did he bring the horses?” Ashi whispered back to him. “That’s the wrong side of the camp! We left the horses along the south trail.”

  Dagii’s growling stopped abruptly.

  By the barricade, Guun had his head bent close to Makka, and Ashi had to strain to make out what he said. “The lowlander said they left six behind in the valley.”

  “The lowlander lied,” said Makka. For a moment, Ashi’s gut twisted, then the bugbear chief clenched a fist around his trident, and snarled, “Do you smell all those horses? Flayed god’s skin, there were more than six!”

  Guun looked worried. “They couldn’t all have escaped the trolls. How many do you think there really are?”

  Makka’s lips peeled back from his teeth. “Let’s find out.” He raised his voice. “What will you give us for them?”

  Another voice came out of the dark trees a surprising distance from where the first had. “Your lives!”

  Ashi started. The second voice was unfamiliar. “Who is that?”

  “Midian again,” said Ekhaas. “Khaavolaar, I didn’t know he was such a good mimic.”

  “We already have our lives!” Makka roared. “You would have to take them from us.”

  A third voice answered from yet another spot, and this time Ashi thought she caught the subtle inflections that identified Midian. “We can do that.”

  The gnome must have been moving quickly to cover the ground necessary to give the illusion of a hidden force, even a force of just three. Ashi wondered where Geth and Chetiin were—if they were indeed alive. Maybe it was just Midian out there.

  Makka wasn’t the only one responding to the challenge from the night now, though. Other bugbears had joined in, shouting and shaking their weapons at their hidden assailants. Their shouts covered up Guun and Makka as they spoke. Ashi cursed, but then Makka turned back toward the forest and shook his trident in the air. “If you think you can, come and take us!”

  The shouts of the tribe rose to a deafening volume. There was no response until they fell, then Midian’s own voice came out of the night again. “What challenge would that be? Bugbears are supposed to be masters of stealth and ambush, aren’t they? Come meet us and prove it”—There was a flash of white among the trees, the hint of a horse’s flank like a taunt, and Midian’s voice took on a mocking note—“gaa’taat.”

  Ashi didn’t know the word, but she could guess at it. Gaa was Goblin for “baby” and taat was an insulting term for someone of low status. Combined, the words must have been extremely insulting. Makka’s thick hair bristled, and his dark eyes flashed in the firelight. He thrust his trident high above his head and roared, “Gold and flesh for every tongue! Itaa!”

  The tribe answered with a matching roar. Bugbears surged out of the gate in the barricade, charging for the forest, leaving only a few guards to watch the camp. There was little stealth in the attack—Midian had managed to infuriate Makka and his tribe beyond any point of sense. Makka was like a battering ram at the head of the charge. Even if there had been an army hidden in the trees, Ashi didn’t think they would have been able to stop the bugbear chief.

  “I hope Midian knows what he’s doing,” Ekhaas murmured.

  “I think he does,” said Dagii, stepping back from the wall. “He’s drawn off more than enough of the tribe for us to make a run for—”

  The cracking of wood interrupted him. All three of the prisoners spun around. A chunk of the hut’s wall had been broken out—just big enough for Chetiin, curved dagger in hand, to slip through. “It would be easier to run,” the goblin said, “if someone cut your hands free for you.”

&n
bsp; “Rond betch!” Ashi was the first one over to Chetiin, turning so that he could slice at her bonds. “What about Geth? Where is he?”

  The sound of fighting outside the hut answered her question. Ashi felt the thongs on her wrists part. “Go help him,” said Chetiin.

  She ran from the hut, throwing aside the hide over the doorway to emerge into the nearly empty camp. Just a few paces away, Geth fought with one of the few bugbears who had remained at the camp, a big brute wielding a massive club. The shifter darted and dodged as the club came down like a falling tree. Ashi didn’t think the great gauntlet would be any defense against that weapon. One good strike and Geth would be flattened. The blows he returned seemed strangely weak, and she saw that the shoulder of his sword arm had been bandaged. New blood was already seeping through the linen strips. Clenching her jaw, Ashi threw herself in behind the bugbear, rolling against his legs. His arms flailed as he tried to keep his balance. Geth seized the opening—Wrath cut a deep, deadly gash across the bugbear’s belly—then finished him with another blow across his chest.

  Ashi came to her feet and gave Geth a smile. “It’s good to see you.”

  “Same,” he said, then turned to meet two more bugbears, one with an axe, the other wielding two swords. They were Ekhaas and Dagii’s swords, Ashi realized, and the big goblin was swinging both of them as easily as she might have swung one.

  Cursing Makka for making off with her sword, she bent down and wrapped her hands around the shaft of the first bugbear’s club. The weapon was heavy and inelegant, but it was also almost unstoppable. The bugbear with the axe came at her. Ashi spun in a circle, hauling the club into an arc that clipped the bugbear’s shoulder before he could dodge away. The momentary contact was enough to spin him around. Ashi tightened her swing and raised the club higher.

  As the bugbear turned back to her, she slammed the club into the side of his head. He wore a helmet, but it didn’t do him much good. The metal rang like a bell as he went down, blood spraying from his nose and mouth in a red mist.