Neversfall - Ed Gentry [106]
"Chondathans? Where, in the woods?" Taennen asked.
"Not the invaders," Guk replied.
"Who?" Taennen asked.
"Many like you and the others," Guk said.
"Maquar and Durpari?" Taennen said.
Guk affirmed, and the formian ranks began to move forward again. Taennen restrained himself from dashing ahead to see the others, to find out what had happened. Lucha's light had become brighter, and though the formians moved quietly, even they could not avoid rustling through the underbrush. He wondered how they had ever surprised the Chondathans who had been chasing him. So it came as no surprise when he heard human voices shout in warning from the west, closer to the edge of the forest.
"Peace," Taennen said.
The formians stopped their shuffling, and the woods soaked up every bit of sound. Silence reigned for several moments before a single voice called out.
"Taennen?"
It was Adeenya. Taennen smiled and pushed past the formians to step into a less crowded patch of the forest: Gasps from the darkness greeted him a mere moment before several Maquar ran to him, cheering in low voices. Joy was in the air, but the seasoned warriors knew quiet was a necessary tool. Taennen greeted his friends with hugs and claps on shoulders.
After exchanging greetings, the formians stepped out of the trees just enough to be seen by the humans. The Maquar and Durpari gasped and cursed, lifting their weapons.
"No!" Taennen said, his arms high. "They want to help."
"Help what?" a Durpari woman asked. "Help us retake Neversfall," Taennen said in a low voice.
Before the gathered humans could respond, Adeenya stepped out of the crowd. Taennen smiled to see her again. Her smile was no smaller than his, though it fled her face as she turned to face her makeshift army.
"He is right. We will retake Neversfall. We must. Go, rest," she said, pointing to a nearby clearing.
As the soldiers grumbled and walked away, Taennen nodded to Guk, whose people followed him in the opposite direction several paces away. The two officers stood in silence a few moments before Adeenya recounted her escape, never mentioning who had captured her. Taennen shared his own, and Adeenya fumed at the news of the weapons smuggling.
"Taennen," she said, "I didn't murder Marlke. I tried to stop him. I stabbed him after he attacked me, but he could have been healed-would have been healed. Jhoqo let him die. He's mad, Taennen. He-"
"I know. I should have seen it," Taennen said.
Adeenya nodded but said nothing further on the matter. "So how are we going to take Neversfall?" "I know the way in," he replied.
"That will help," she said, "but our men are disillusioned, wounded, and hungry."
"It's amazing what a lack of choice can do, and we don't have one," he said.
She nodded and glanced toward the formians. "Are they really helping?"
He followed her gaze to the creatures and said, "Yes."
She said nothing for a few heartbeats, but then asked, "Why would they help, and why would we trust them?"
"We trust them for the same reason we take the fortress," he said. "We have no choice."
She ceded the point but asked again, "But why are they going to help?"
"For payment. The same reason anyone does anything," he said.
She glanced back at the formians again and said, "They wanted coin?"
"Payment doesn't always mean gold or silver," Taennen replied.
Before Adeenya could respond, Taennen walked toward the soldiers in the clearing. Jhoqo had always said that a good soldier knows when a command is a poor one, be it unjust or simply mad. Taennen was about to give an insane command, and he could only hope that his soldiers were good and that things weren't as simple as he had always believed them to be. The world had come to look quite different in the last couple of days. Maybe he was seeing things that Jhoqo could not.
"Please, everyone, listen to me," Taennen said, waving for the displaced people to gather around him. Blood spattered his flesh and his armor, his face was worn and haggard.
"Maquar, we have been betrayed," Taennen started. "No, not just us. Everyone who hails from the South.