The Doom of Kings_ Legacy of Dhakaan - Don Bassingthwaite [115]
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