Word of Traitors_ Legacy of Dhakaan - Don Bassingthwaite [59]
“What about Midian?” Ashi asked. “Should we tell him?”
Beyond Ashi, Dagii tensed and Geth twitched and Ekhaas knew they were thinking of what Chetiin had hinted at. The same thoughts had occurred to her, but she had an answer ready. “No,” she told Ashi smoothly. “We did make a promise to Tenquis. We’ll bend it out of necessity, but we won’t break it. One more person needs to know but not two.”
Ashi grimaced, but nodded. “I suppose. It feels strange to be keeping secrets from Midian, though—especially when we’re being broken up. We’ve already lost Chetiin.”
“We’re always going to have secrets,” Dagii added. “Whatever we do with the Rod of Kings, we’ll have to keep a secret.”
“That’s not the same as keeping secrets from each other.”
The irony of Ashi’s words put a slightly sick feeling into Ekhaas’s gut—they were already keeping the secret of their suspicion of Midian from her—but then Ashi pressed her lips together for a moment and added, “There’s something I’ve been holding back. Vounn and Pater didn’t want me to say anything, but Sindra d’Lyrandar wasn’t in the gallery yesterday, and there are no Lyrandar ships at the docks—the Valenar may have used House Lyrandar to get their raiders into Darguun.”
Ekhaas raised her ears at the news but Dagii only nodded. “Some of the warlords already guessed that.”
Ashi’s face turned red.
Dagii shook his head. “No, thank you for telling me, Ashi. I appreciate it.” His ears flattened. “Lyrandar knows we’ll need to welcome them into Darguun again eventually. This war is only business for them—as it is for all the dragonmarked houses. Vounn and Pater have come to me. Orien wagons will follow our army and form our supply lines. House Deneith has contracted a regiment of our own mercenaries back to us.”
“Bastards!” said Geth. “I served House Deneith as a mercenary during the Last War. They’ll do anything for a profit. Sorry, Ashi.”
Ashi shook her head. “No, I know Vounn and Deneith. You’re right. Darguun has always provided Deneith with mercenaries, but they’ve never needed anything but gold in return. Vounn came to Darguun to try and reverse that.”
“She’s found her opportunity,” said Dagii. “The mercenaries were waiting at the Deneith enclave at the Standing Stone for a chance to work outside Darguun. Deneith was able to offer them to us more quickly than we could raise another regiment of our own. Vounn has even offered us mercenaries from other nations if we want them.”
The idea pinched Ekhaas like a dissonant note. “Will you take them?” she asked.
Dagii’s smile was thin. “Right now I couldn’t if I wanted to. Tariic has made sure this will be a war of dar against elves. Even people in the streets are saying the war is muut, our duty.”
Geth looked at the young warlord of Mur Talaan. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s a war.” Dagii’s smile vanished entirely. “Dar or mercenaries, it has to be fought, and it has to be won. That is my muut to Darguun.”
The arrival of Munta and other warlords marked the end of their privacy and they separated, leaving Dagii to plan strategy while Ekhaas and Ashi went out to pay a visit to Tenquis.
Geth headed back to his own chamber vaguely envious of Dagii’s role in what was to come—not of the warlord’s command of Darguun’s armies but of his excursion onto the battlefield. Sneaking, conspiring, and playing at politics weren’t for him. The assembly of warlords the day before had been an embarrassment, but there had been no way to escape. He had his muut, Dagii might have said. One heroic act had bound him more closely than being thrown into a dungeon.
At his side, Wrath seemed to stir with reassurances that he had done the right thing. “Easy for you to say,” he muttered back at it.
But it would all be over soon. As soon as the false rod was in the new lhesh’s hand—and, for all of his ambition and posturing, Geth hoped it would be Tariic—he would be free to leave Darguun and spirit the true Rod of Kings away with him. What they would do with it after that was another matter—one he didn’t want to consider just yet.
First he had to