The Doom of Kings_ Legacy of Dhakaan - Don Bassingthwaite [34]
Ekhaas’s ears rose. “I know how she acted last night. I also know how she acted before she came to House Deneith. You’ve tried to make a lady out of a savage, Vounn d’Deneith, but you’ve only made a girl out of a woman.”
Vounn looked at her again, her eyes hard. “Who are you?” she demanded.
“Ekhaas!” said Tariic sharply. Ekhaas didn’t sit back, but she closed her mouth and said nothing more.
Understanding grew in Vounn’s eyes, however. “The hobgoblin from Ashi’s adventures,” she said. “I should have realized. Did Haruuc send you as a companion for Ashi?”
“Ekhaas’s role in my delegation is my concern alone.” Tariic spoke with steel in his voice. “You know how exceptional this invitation is, Vounn. Haruuc wouldn’t withdraw it. He can’t withdraw it without being shamed. He wouldn’t, however, look kindly on having a simple request denied. Is that how you want your tenure in his court to begin?” His voice softened. “She doesn’t have to stay. Haruuc only wants to meet her. A time of change is coming for Darguun, Vounn. Don’t you want to have an honored place at the center of that change?”
Once again, Vounn was still and silent. This time, Ashi didn’t say anything. Neither did Tariic or Ekhaas. After a time, Vounn lifted her head and looked Tariic in the eye.
“I’m pleased to accept Lhesh Haruuc’s invitation to join his court,” she said coolly, “provided that Baron Breven d’Deneith grants me permission to go. The patriarch will also need to give his permission for Ashi d’Deneith to accompany me.” Vounn rose, then paused. “In exchange for the favor that Lhesh Haruuc has shown me, I present a token of my esteem for him.”
She set the reliquary on the table. Ashi thought Ekhaas’s eyes might roll right out of her head. Vounn, however, didn’t stop to appreciate the triumph of her gesture. She turned and marched to the door. “Ashi!”
Her heart racing with excitement, Ashi flashed Ekhaas a quick smile and went after her mentor.
“Vounn,” she murmured as they swept past the guards and along the hall back to the inner zone of Sentinel Tower, “thank you.”
“Tell no one what happened in that room,” said Vounn without looking at her. “Don’t thank me again. And don’t go against me before we go or I’ll find a way to leave you here if it means crippling you.”
“Yes, Vounn.” Ashi bent her head so that the lady seneschal wouldn’t see her smile. Now she understood why Ekhaas had urged her to apologize to Vounn at the watch station the night before.
Then she almost stumbled over her feet as she realized something else from her conversation with the duur’kala. She froze in the corridor, thinking it through.
“Ashi!” snapped Vounn from ahead.
“Coming,” Ashi said and hurried to catch up. Her mind was still working though. Ekhaas hadn’t known until last night that Vounn was her mentor—she hadn’t known that Ashi was in Karrlakton at all. If she hadn’t known, how had Haruuc? Or did he know?
Ekhaas and Tariic had just lied to them.
CHAPTER
SEVEN
The official meetings between the delegation from Darguun and House Deneith carried on for another week. While Ekhaas watched for Ashi, she didn’t see her again. Vounn was, of course, at every meeting, from the most mundane to the purely ceremonial. Ekhaas suspected that she was deliberately keeping Ashi in seclusion, maybe as a way of venting her frustration at being forced into bringing her charge to Haruuc’s court. The lady seneschal’s frustration showed at the meeting tables too. Every draft agreement that came before her was negotiated as if it were the Treaty of Thronehold or as if Vounn were not about to depart for a position where she would have Haruuc’s ear and the ability to influence any dispute that might arise. Tariic said nothing about it, however, so neither could Ekhaas, stuck at the back of any gathering of delegates as she was. Officially nothing more than a representative of the interests of the Kech Volaar in Tariic’s delegation, her lips were sealed and her hands tied.
Of Haruuc