Sentinelspire - Mark Sehestedt [10]
"I thought you dead, you ungrateful bastard. I mourned you a year. I bled for your memory." He pointed to a scar that ran from his forehead to his cheek. It was a luzalunba mark, a ritualized scar of Sauk's orc clan, a self-inflicted wound cut down the face in remembrance of a lost brother. "How did I find you? I didn't. Talieth did. Saw you in her scrying pool. Swore to me that you were alive after all these years. I called her a liar."
"You were not wrong. Kheil died in the Yuirwood. I am called Berun now."
"Berun?" Sauk snorted.
"It means 'hope' in the tongue of Aglarond. The druids gave me the name."
"The same druids who killed you?" j "The same druid Kheil was sent to kill."
The two stared at each other, Berun holding the half-orc's gaze, Sauk flexing one fist. Berun knew the half-orc was giving serious consideration to beating him again, "What happened to you?" said Sauk. The half-orc looked down on him, his gaze hardening with each breath until his gray eyes stared out, hard as flint.; "Kheil died." r "You don't look dead."
"I told you. I am not Kheil. I am Berun."
A moment of tense silence, then, "That's how it is- then? After all we shared…"
Berun didn't want to antagonize Sauk any further, and mostly he felt… not compassion. Not quite. Not for Sauk. But neither did he take any pleasure in deepening another person's pain. Not even Sauk.
He swallowed and said, "Kheil is dead. Nine years dead."
"Let him rest easy," said Sauk. "Is that it?"
"Kheil will never rest easy."
Sauk snorted and looked down on him. He reached into a large pocket of his vest and pulled out what looked like a thin green strip leather. He held it out to Berun, who realized at once what it was. Perch's tail.
"I had to pull your lizard off Taaki," said Sauk. "But the damned thing's tail snapped right off."
"Where is he?"
"Your lizard?" Sauk shrugged. "You tell me. Little bug-eater ran off. You really care that much?" "You care about Taaki?"
Sauk blinked and his eyes widened. For him, that signified shock. "You have an arumwon?"
Berun took the tail. "Something like that."
Among Sauk's orc clan, arumwon meant "beast brother," an animal friend meant to serve and protect. Berun suspected it was very much like his own bond with Perch.
Sauk shook his head, a smile threatening to crease his face. "Kheil the assassin turned zuwar. Never would've thought." He banged his chest with a tight fist. "Kumash damunl Taste the blood! Eh, Kheil?"
Blood had filled Berun's cheek again, but he knew that if he spit now, Sauk would take it as a grave insult. Berun swallowed. "The Beastlord did not call me, Sauk," said Berun. "I serve the Oak Father."
A look that was half smirk and half scowl twisted Sauk's face, as if he'd bitten down on a bitter root. "That explains why you hunt with a lizard instead of a tiger."
"That lizard whipped your tiger."
A dangerous glint lit Sauk's gaze. "Taaki did as she was told. She got you down here. She'd've eaten your little lizard had she wanted. Little thing like that, she probably wouldn't have bothered chewing."
Berun opened his mouth to say, She d have had to catch hint first, and she was doing a poor job of that, but good sense took hold of his tongue and he clamped his jaw shut.
"You hungry, old friend?" asked Sauk.
"Not really."
"You always were a master liar, Kheil, but I could always see through you. Me and Talieth, we were the only ones, eh?" Berun said nothing.
"We have things to discuss," said Sauk. "Many things. And tongues always wag better over a full stomach. Come."
Berun unstrung his bow and carefully slid the arrow back into his quiver. It would be no use against so many. If it came to a fight, it would be bladework.
One of Sauk's men tossed a knotted rope over the rocks so they could climb up. Sauk went first, then Berun, followed by the spearman. When Berun came up over the ledge, the steppe tiger crouched an arm's length away. Taaki looked down at him, her eyes narrowed. Her nostrils flared