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Ashi glared at him. “I saw the letter that you had forged. It doesn’t matter what Dagii does. You always intended to destroy me.”

He drew his foot back to kick her again. Ashi braced herself, but the kick never came. Tariic lowered his foot. “Not always,” he said. “But I knew that in the aftermath of my attack on Breland there was a chance Breven might relent and ask you to return to Karrlakton. I couldn’t let that happen. You do know my secret—and my ‘crutch’ is very convenient.” He turned the rod in his hands. “I didn’t so much intend to destroy you as to make certain that no one outside of Darguun would want anything to do with you.”

“Why not just kill me, then?”

He smiled at her. “Because I don’t need to.” He stepped back. “I saw that you tore up my letter. There really wasn’t much point to that. I can have another one made. In fact, you’ve given me the chance to send Breven an even more impressive gesture of your disdain for Deneith.”

He gestured, and Pradoor dragged out something she’d been hiding behind her back. Ashi’s bright honor blade. “In the new letter,” said Tariic, “you’ll be sending it back.” He took the sword from Pradoor.

Ashi started to struggle, but her bugbear captor renewed the pressure on her arms. She forced herself to relax. She glared at Tariic.

“I’ll stop you, Tariic. I swear I will.”

“I don’t see how,” said Tariic. “Dagii is gone. Aruget is gone. Senen is gone. You’re out of allies. I’d suggest focusing on behaving yourself and keeping Dagii alive. His life is in your hands now.”

He turned to the door. “Pradoor,” he said. “Hold her.”

The goblin priestess murmured a prayer, and once again pain burned through Ashi’s body. While she writhed, the bugbear released her and lumbered to his feet, taking the lantern with him. By the time she could breathe again, Tariic, the bugbear, and Pradoor were all at the door. Tariic clapped the bugbear on the shoulder. “You already know your new jailer,” he said. “Don’t bother screaming. Nobody is going to be coming for you.”

She managed to raise her voice. “The dragonmarked envoys will miss me.”

“No,” said Tariic. He lifted the Rod of Kings. “They won’t.”

The door closed. The room plunged into darkness. Ashi heard the rasp of a bolt being slid home on the other side of the door. Two bolts. And a key in a lock.

She sat up slowly, utterly alone in the cold darkness.

CHAPTER

NINETEEN

24 Vult

The riverboat drew in its oars and glided into an empty berth along the docks of Rhukaan Draal. Thick hawsers flew over the side, were caught by dockmen and made fast. A few moments later, the gangplank slid out.

Ekhaas and the others were down it as soon as the lower end touched the dock. “Good luck to you,” the captain called after them. “Find your fortune and live to spend it!”

“We’ll hire you a better cook for your galley,” Ekhaas shouted back with false levity, then turned away and said to the others, “Let’s get off the docks and find out what’s going on.” Her fingers touched the reassuring weight of the shaari’mal within her pouch, a habit of the last ten days.

They’d slipped out of the varags’ territory as quickly as they could. Fortunately, the savage creatures were still cowed by what had happened at Suud Anshaar—they heard the varags’ shrieks in the distance but didn’t so much as catch a glimpse of them. If the ancient construct that lurked in the Dhakaani ruins still wailed, they didn’t hear it.

The power of the Shield of Nobles was a revelation. Ekhaas had barely been able to sleep. She’d lain awake, listening to the jungle and imagining what they could do. One shaari’mal had weakened the hold of the Rod of Kings on Midian. Two had shattered it. They had three of the disks. What effect would waking all three have? Who would they give the third disk, the one Tenquis carried hidden in his vest, to?

Dagii’s gray-eyed face had risen in her memories.

Tooth, restored by rest and more healing magic, led them north out of the jungle. Several days later, they’d arrived at the town of Rheklor