Neversfall - Ed Gentry [87]
"No," Guk said. His antennae twitched as if considering a puzzle or some other curiosity.
"Your freedom… do you still want that?" Taennen asked.
Guk offered a simple nod, displaying no emotion.
Taennen felt a wave of relief, finally getting something positive from the strange captive. Though the thought of dangling freedom before a prisoner made his stomach roil, Taennen had no other bargaining chips.
"When we found you, where had you come from?"
"The trees," Guk said.
"The forest? Aerilpar?" Taennen asked.
Guk agreed and said, "The forest provided many workers."
"You were searching the forest for slaves before we encountered you?" the young durir asked.
"We retrieved many workers from there," Guk answered, and for the first time, Taennen thought he might have detected something in the formian's tone: irritation.
"How long were you there? How much of the forest did you see?" he asked.
Guk paused a moment, his mandibles clacking, before replying, "Almost two of your tendays we stayed there, keeping to the western edge and middle."
"In that time, did you see any other men-humans like us-anywhere? Any camps or signs of them? Any fires in the night?" Taennen asked, knowing that the beast clans who inhabited the forest would live much deeper in the woods than Guk would have traveled.
"No."
Taennen's pleasure at having been correct was quickly replaced by the void that comes from disproving the only available assumption. He had nothing to go on, no possibilities to investigate. His insight while staring at the forest from the tower had been correct. As he had scanned the trees he saw no smoke, no firelight. None of the patrols had reported even seeing a used firepit. That told him the bandits were not coming from the forest.
"In all the One… where are they coming from?" he said to himself.
"If you find these others, you will release us," Guk said.
Taennen's looked up at the formians dark, empty eyes. "You know where they are," he stated, having no doubt about the assertion.
"Yes."
+ + + + +
Only Adeenya's disciplined mind kept her pace slow and quiet. Making noise would attract the guards, and that could not happen. She slipped across the courtyard on the balls of her feet. Two Chondathan soldiers, their torches cutting through the dark, scanned the area. To the north, near a cluster of quarters, more soldiers scurried about. It would be the same all over the citadel, she knew.
Adeenya wondered what might have happened had she stayed in her prison and taken Jhoqo's words to heart. What were his plans for her? But mostly, she wondered if he could have convinced her. His words had begun to pierce her will-she had found some value in them, and that frightened her.
She tried to shake the doubt from her mind to focus on the task before her-staying alive and staying free. She needed to reach her own troops, to somehow communicate with them. She wondered if any of them had swallowed Jhoqo's rhetoric. She had no doubt the Chondathans were working with Jhoqo, but she was uncertain of the Maquar. While Jhoqo no longer fit into that organization's belief system, by her estimation, perhaps some of his soldiers still did.
Her first step would be to attempt contact with her own troops, so she turned toward their barracks on the far side of the citadel. She did not relish such a challenge and found great relief when she realized that some of her soldiers might be guarding the wall for the night duty. Only one more small building stood between her and the wall, and the shadows there were easier to hide in. Lucha was hidden by thick clouds, and Adeenya prayed that they would linger long enough to cover her.
The stairs leading to the walkway were less than half a bowshot away. Stealth was not her strength, but Adeenya had hope for the first time since her capture. Staying crouched, she prepared to make a dash for the stairs. Before she could overthink the plan, she darted across the courtyard to the stairs. Her heart pounded and her ears burned. She felt convinced that eyes were upon her. She reached