Word of Traitors_ Legacy of Dhakaan - Don Bassingthwaite [122]
“I—”
“Good.” He pulled the sword from her hand. “Act defeated and frightened.”
He pushed her on down the stairs. The light of the lantern, left behind on the landing, faded quickly and Aruget pushed her a little too fast so that she stumbled and groped in the dark. Between her stumbling feet and Aruget’s sword and armor they made more noise than the soldiers coming up. A voice echoed along the stairs, asking in Goblin, “Who’s there?”
“I have her!”
Ashi flinched and almost fell. The voice, also speaking Goblin, that came from over her shoulder sounded nothing like Aruget. It was deeper and much rougher. The hand on her arm tightened, holding her up, and the voice continued. “I’ve got the Deneith woman, but Makka needs help. She managed to seal the roof door somehow. Makka’s stuck up there.”
A dim glow came up the stairs now and Ashi could see the silhouettes of hobgoblin guards. “Who are you?” the voice from below demanded. “Daavn said Makka wouldn’t let any guards come with him.”
“Do you want to question what Makka said, or do you want to make Daavn happy?”
They’d reached the first of the ascending guards. The stairs were narrow. There was barely room to pass. Aruget pushed by the first guards. Ashi could smell their sweat and the sour vinegar smell of dar food on them. They glared at her with unfriendly eyes as she squeezed along. They muttered among themselves. One of them called down, “It’s her, chib!”
The voice from below cursed, then shouted. “Pass her along! We’ll take her to Daavn.” Ashi could see the speaker, a larger hobgoblin at the foot of the spiral stairs, the light from the main stairs illuminating him.
“Maabet,” said Aruget. “I’m taking her to Daavn. I captured her. This is my muut.” He paused just above the large hobgoblin. “He wanted her brought right to him, didn’t he? Do you want to keep Makka waiting out in the rain while you take her”—he shook Ashi—“to Daavn? He’s already angry.”
The other hobgoblin hesitated, his ears up. Makka’s attacks on the door were loud. Finally the hobgoblin’s ears dropped. “Take her,” he said, jerking his head at the main stairs. Then he slapped the hobgoblin ahead of him. “Get moving!” he shouted.
He spared one last hostile glance at Ashi as she pushed past him, then she was off the spiral stairs and back in the open. Aruget stayed at her back. “Keep going,” he said in that strange deep voice. “Remember you’re my prisoner.”
They made it down only a few steps before a call came back to them from above. “You!” It was the large hobgoblin again. Ashi felt Aruget stiffen but he kept pushing her onward. “You can’t take her by yourself. She could get away from you. You better let me help you.”
“I can handle her,” Aruget growled. “Go back to your men.”
“They can open a door.” The other hobgoblin’s footsteps closed on them. Aruget paused. “Yes,” said the hobgoblin. There was ambition in his voice. “Enough muut in this to share—”
Aruget’s hand left her arm as he whirled. The other hobgoblin’s words ended in the sound of ripping flesh, a slight wheeze, and the clatter of a falling body. Ashi spun around—and froze, staring.
Not at the hobgoblin sprawled with his throat slashed open, but at the other hobgoblin on the stairs. The one who carried Aruget’s bloody sword and wore Aruget’s armor, but who didn’t wear his face.
He looked back at her for an instant, then his features blurred and reshaped themselves until Aruget faced her again.
Ashi’s voice almost caught in her throat, but she forced it out. “You’re a changeling?”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO
28 Sypheros
Not the place for explanations.” Aruget took her hand and tugged her down the stairs. As soon as she was moving, he let her go and opened his stride, jumping down two and three steps at a time. When they reached a floor with access to the back stairs they had climbed on the way up, he led the way to them—then off again only a few floors down. The