Neversfall - Ed Gentry [76]
The list of concerns to bring before Jhoqo formed in his mind. He chose his words carefully to tread the fine line between being too lightly critical of Bascou, whom Jhoqo clearly believed in, and smearing the man unnecessarily to the point of closing Jhoqo's mind to the possibilities he would present.
Thoughts still whirling, he knocked on his commander's door. There were no guards on duty-not surprising, given the dwindling number of bodies still upright and breathing in the citadel. Jhoqo's voiced beckoned him enter.
The late sun found every crevice it could to leak through and the room shone. Jhoqo sat behind the planning table, still covered with maps and notes on the geography and vegetation of the area. The commander held his head in his hands, not raising his eyes to greet his durir.
Still not moving, and speaking very slowly, Jhoqo asked, "Do you have word of the mission?"
"Aye, sir," Taennen replied. "It's not good." Jhoqo lifted his face. "Taennen." Aye, sir.
"I am glad you are well, son. Report."
Taennen cleared his throat. "We lost all eight men."
"And Bascou?"
Taennen wanted to roar in the face of his commander. Four of his own were dead, and their commander cared first and foremost about the foreigner?
"Alive, sir," he said.
"You found them, then?" Jhoqo said.
"A contingent, not their base of operations if they even have one. Sir, we had the opportunity to learn more, but Bascou decided not to pursue the tracks of the enemy. That's why I came, sir, I don't think he-"
"I'm sure he had his reasons. Unfortunately, further issues have arisen," Jhoqo said.
"Sir, we lost-"
"I heard you, Durir. Now, listen to me," Jhoqo said as he slumped back into his chair. He pointed to another seat, but Taennen declined the offer. Jhoqo ran a hand through his dark hair and said, "There was a traitor in our midst, a saboteur. Two of them, it seems."
Taennen stood silent. Jhoqo continued before the younger man could ask the obvious question.
"Marlke's dead. Killed by his conspirator, whom I captured," the commander said.
Taennen responded before the words had finished leaving the man's mouth, "Who?"
"I'm sorry, son," Jhoqo said, and Taennen felt his knees soften. "I know you had grown close with her."
+ + + + +
Adeenya's eyes flew open and then slammed closed just as quickly when a shaft of light in the room lanced them, sending a sharp pain through her skull. Her head jerked away from the brightness, eyes cracking open again. She pulled herself up to a sitting position on the floor. Her head ached, but a check at the source of pain showed no blood or severe injury, though a bruise would doubtless fill the space. There was blood on the floor, and her face throbbed. Her fingers found a large, sore crevice of a wound on her chin as well as a split lip. Her right cheek and eye were swelling even as she felt them. Her mouth tasted terrible.
The wall behind her was rounded, a half circle that met with the flat wall before her, and a single covered window was set in the wall instead of small openings close to the ceiling. She was in one of the towers of Neversfall, she realized.
The moments prior to finding herself in that place began coming back to her. Marlke was the traitor-he had been about to kill the formians, but she had stopped him. After that.she was unsure what had happened. She had wounded the dwarf, almost certainly incapacitating him.
Adeenya glanced around the spartan room, deciding she had not been taken here for medical attention. Even the most unskilled healers would place a patient on something other than the floor, and at the very least would have cleaned her wounds. Gray walls met bare floor that held only dust. She was a prisoner, then.
Marlke's face came to her mind, his eyes looking past her, his lips turning up in