The Grieving Tree

CHAPTER 6

A glance down into the street showed her the aftermath of the goblins’ sudden flight. Geth stood with his sword still raised, looking up at it in dumbfounded amazement. Ashi actually seemed annoyed that the fight was over before it had begun. Bava was just coming out of her door, hurrying to talk to the neighbors who rushed in now that the goblins were gone. Up and down the street, windows were open and people were staring out into the fading tatters of mist. Everyone was looking at the scene in the street, though Dandra could hear some of the people in the building under her feet complaining about noises on the roof.

Singe was the only one looking up. “Dandra!” he shouted. “Dandra!”

She leaned over the edge slightly and waved. Relief surged on his face and he sprinted for the alley at the side of the building.

Dandra winced. They would be better off abandoning the roof, not putting more people on it. She looked at Chain, senseless at her feet. It was tempting to leave him, but if someone had hired him to track them down, they needed to find out more. They needed to get the bounty hunter away from here, though. She was reasonably certain that interrogating a member of House Tharashk in public wasn’t a good idea.

Across the street, the doors on the balcony of Bava’s studio still stood open. Dandra stole another glance at the scene below. Singe was still the only one who had bothered to look up. She didn’t think that would last any longer than the morning mist. She stretched out her thoughts, reaching for Geth with kesh.

Get back to Bava’s studio, she ordered him. Take Ashi. Hurry!

The shifter started and glanced up, but Dandra didn’t wait to see if he followed her instructions. She turned back to Chain’s unconscious body. The air rippled as she wove an invisible net of vayhatana around him. Chain rose from the ground, arms dangling. Dandra clenched her teeth. Tetkashtai, I could use your help with this.

The presence was still churning in fear at the fight. Dandra directed a mental slap at her. Tetkashtai!

The presence shrank back. Dandra pulled her close, drawing on her more practiced control of their shared powers.

Chain’s body turned and glided off the roof, drifting out over the street.

Dandra waited for someone below to exclaim at the sight, but no one did. Letting out a slow breath, she guided the big man through the misty air and across into Bava’s studio. As soon as he was through the doors, she lowered him to the floor, then released her power with a gasp of exertion. Chain wouldn’t stay unconscious for long, she knew-hopefully Geth and Ashi would be quick about getting up to the studio. Spinning around, she snatched up both her spear and Chain’s cudgel, then hurried across the roof toward the gap of the alley. The ladder Bava had mentioned poked up above the roofline slightly. She peered down it.

Singe was about halfway up, climbing quickly. “Singe!” she called softly. He looked up at her. She pointed down to the ground. “Go back down!”

“What about Chain?”

“I’ve taken care of him. Get down. We have to get back to Bava’s studio.”

Singe gave her a quizzical look, but started back down the ladder. Dandra took another look at the alley floor and drew a deep breath, focusing her concentration-then hopped over the edge.

Chain had gotten one thing right: she couldn’t fly. But she could float very well. The open edge of the roof had never been as much of a danger to her as the big man had thought.

The fabric of space whispered around her as she fell, easing her descent. Singe stared as she dropped past him and landed in an easy crouch. The wizard kicked off from the last few feet of the ladder and landed much more heavily. “I saw Chain hammering at you!” he said in amazement. “You could have gotten away from him whenever you wanted?”

“Light of il-Yannah-run away from that bully?” She smiled at him-a smile that brought an aching twinge from her bruised face. She hissed in pain.

Singe stared at her a moment longer, then wrapped his arms around her. She returned his embrace.

Tetkashtai seethed at their touch, outrage breaking through her fear. Dandra let Singe go reluctantly. “Back to the studio,” she said. “We have someone to talk to.”

In front of her door, Bava was talking to concerned neighbors, convincing them that the attack had been some kind of attempt at robbery by the goblin gang. Most of the neighbors seemed to accept the idea. Natrac had joined Bava to support her-the half-orc nodded at Dandra and Singe as they skirted the small crowd and slipped inside the house.

Bava’s children were gathered on the second floor of the house under Orshok’s watchful eye. “It’s over,” Dandra told him.

Orshok shook his head. “Bava told me she’d skin me if I left the children before she came back.”

Singe laughed. “I’d believe her.”

When they reached the studio, Chain was awake-and staring with angry eyes at the blades of Geth’s and Ashi’s swords. Both the hunter and the shifter looked more than ready to put sharp metal through him if he moved.

“Careful with him,” Dandra told them. “He’s the best.”

The big man’s wrists and ankles had been bound with shackles. Singe squatted down and examined the bonds. “Magewrought,” he said. He looked up at Geth. “Where did you find those?”

“He was carrying them,” said Geth. “We searched him before he woke up.” He jerked his head at a small heap of gear on a table. “What did you do to him, Dandra?”

She described Chain’s attack and their battle on the rooftop. Chain’s face turned red with rage as she spoke until he looked ready to jump in with his own version of events. A flick of Ashi’s sword kept him quiet, though. The Bonetree hunter nodded approval at Dandra’s tale. “A good fight.”

“If it hadn’t been for Geth driving off the goblins, I don’t think it would have been over so quickly,” Dandra admitted. “How did you do that, Geth?”

The shifter shook his head. “I don’t know. They just ran.” He held out the Dhakaani sword. “It didn’t feel like the sword did anything magical, but maybe it did. The only thing Batul could tell me about it is that the Dhakaani made it to fight daelkyr and their creations. Those were normal goblins-it shouldn’t have done anything to them.”

“I think there’s more to that sword than meets the eye,” said Singe. He poked through Chain’s gear.

Dandra leaned over to look at the pile. It contained a short sword, several small knives, a flat case that Singe opened to reveal lock picks, gloves, a spindle of cord spun with some metallic fiber, a few small pouches that gave off a rank odor, a couple of greasy sticks, and a small dark glass bottle. She added the man’s cudgel. Singe raised an eyebrow at the sight of it.

“A densewood cudgel, tanglefoot bags, smokesticks, irontwist cord-you’re well-equipped, Chain,” he said. He picked up the bottle, frowned at it and pulled out the stopper to sniff carefully at its contents. He blinked and snorted as he closed it again. “It smells like week-old tea. What is this?”

“Gaeth’ad essence,” said Natrac as he, Bava, and Orshok come up the stairs into the studio. “Bounty hunters use it to keep their prisoners docile until they can get them locked up. They say it’s especially good for keeping spellcasters restrained.”

Singe’s eyes narrowed as he set the bottle down. “Really? I think it’s time we started asking some questions.” He sat down in front of Chain. “I doubt you carry shackles and gaeth’ad essence around on a regular basis. Someone hired you to find us. Maybe to capture us. Who was it?”

Chain glared at him and said nothing. “I’ll take a guess,” Singe continued. “Vennet d’Lyrandar? Half-elf with long blond hair, gray coat with big silver buttons, dragonmark on the back of his neck, captain of an elemental galleon called Lightning on Water?” He tilted his head. “Maybe a man named Dah’mir? Tall, green eyes, wears a black leather robes with dragonshards set along the sleeves?”

Chain’s eyes flickered, but he kept his mouth closed and his face remained hard. Singe pressed his lips together and looked up at Dandra. “I don’t suppose you can do that thing Medala did and inflict pain on someone through their mind?

Dandra blinked. He knew she couldn’t duplicate Medala’s vicious power-just as she knew the wizard wouldn’t want it inflicted on someone else. Medala had tormented him with waves of phantom pain too many times when he was a prisoner of the Bonetree. He was trying to intimidate Chain, she realized. She shook her head, acting along. “No. I could burn him, though.” She reached for whitefire and the droning chorus of her fiery power throbbed on the air.

Chain’s ears twitched at the sound and he swallowed-but his lips twisted into a self-assured smile. “Maybe you could,” he said. “But you wouldn’t. I know when I’m being played.”

“Singe,” said Bava coldly, “let me do this.” The artist’s face was pale with rage and for the first time, the accent of the Marches was strong in her voice. She went over to the heap of Chain’s gear and selected two knives, examining their glittering edges as she pulled them from their sheaths. She turned around and looked down at Chain. “No one threatens my family.”

She flipped one of the knives through her fingers with a frightening dexterity, then reached out to prod off the lid of a pigment jar. The knife dipped into the jar and emerged dusted with a green powder used for making paint. Bava wiped one side of the flat of the blade against her forehead, turning the paint into a savage smear, then stalked across the studio, knife held out.

If she was playing Chain, she was doing a very good job of it. Dandra looked to Singe and Geth, but the men were frozen, their eyes nearly as wide as Chain’s. Ashi looked uncomfortable-the hunter was a fearless warrior, but Dandra knew she preferred offering her enemies a clean death. She didn’t like torture. “Cheo do doi, Bava?” she asked.

“Doa at harano,” Bava said.

At Dandra’s side, Singe whispered a translation. “I do it for honor.” His face was taut. “Twelve moons, I don’t like this.”

Ashi’s face took on a grim cast. She stepped back out of Bava’s way. The large woman moved close to Chain and brought the knife close to his forehead. The bounty hunter’s hard expression trembled and his eyes crossed, trying to look up as Bava pressed the knife against his brow, marking him the same way she had marked herself.

Then she took hold of one of Chain’s ears and stretched it away from his head. She settled the blade of the knife against the flesh where ear met scalp-

“Vennet d’Lyrandar,” said Chain. His voice was steady but his body was tense. Dandra could tell it was taking all his willpower to maintain a cool demeanor.

Bava’s knife didn’t rise from his ear, but she didn’t force it any lower, either. Chain’s eyes darted briefly sideways and up to where Bava stood. “Vennet hired me to track and find you,” he added quickly. “He introduced me to Dah’mir at the docks, but nothing more. As soon as Vennet approached me and described the people he wanted me to find, I recognized you. He didn’t know I’d already met you. I thought it would be easy money, but he’s not paying me to take torture.”

“You could just be repeating names to keep us happy,” Singe pointed out. “Answer another one: why would Vennet hire you when he could look for us himself?”

“He and Dah’mir were leaving Zarash’ak. After Vennet introduced me to Dah’mir, they both got in shallow-draft boat and put out into the river.”

Dandra felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Dah’mir had left Zarash’ak. She saw Singe glance at Geth, however. The shifter’s eyes were narrow. “They left Zarash’ak?” he asked suspiciously. “Without looking for us?”

“That’s what they hired me for,” snapped Chain. His voice rose into a sharp yelp as Bava gave a tug on his ear.

“How did you find us here?” Dandra asked.

Chain lifted his manacled arms to point at Natrac. “He introduced himself when we met, didn’t he? It was easy to find his house. An old servant there told me where to find you.”

“Urthen!” Natrac curled his hand into a fist. “Dol Arrah turn away-Bava, save me an ear!”

“No,” said Singe sharply. “No one’s going to cut anything off. Bava, let him go.”

Bava released the bounty hunter with an obvious reluctance, twisting his ear hard and smacking him on the back of the head as she let go. “Come near my family again and no one’s going to save you,” she spat at him.

Chain’s face twisted. “You don’t know who you’ve just made your enemy!”

“Neither do you.” Bava flung down the knives. They stuck, quivering, in the floor on either side of Chain’s knees. She turned away. Natrac went after her. After a moment, Singe leaned forward.

“I don’t suppose you’ll take more money to abandon the contract?” he asked.

Chain glared up at him, his face hard, and snarled something in Goblin.

“I didn’t think so.” Singe glanced at Geth and Dandra and flicked his head to the other side of the studio. They moved away from Chain, leaving Ashi and Orshok to watch him, and gathered around the table with the heap of the bounty hunter’s gear.

“Do you think he’s telling the truth?” Dandra asked. She couldn’t keep the hope that Dah’mir was gone out of her mind. Tetkashtai was almost singing at the news.

“About Vennet hiring him, yes,” the wizard murmured. “Maybe about Dah’mir leaving, too. The question is, what are we going to do with him? He’s not going to give up.”

Dandra grasped his meaning immediately. “If we leave him here, he’s just going to come after us.”

“We could kill him,” said Geth. Dandra and Singe looked at him in unison. The shifter shrugged. “Or we could let Bava kill him.”

“Nobody is killing anybody in cold blood.” Singe ran a thumb through the whiskers on his chin. “We were lucky that Chain didn’t tell Vennet and Dah’mir he’d just met us. He won’t make that mistake again. If they meet him when they get back to Zarash’ak, you can bet he’ll tell everything this time-and he knows we’re looking for the Spires of the Forge.”

Geth bared his teeth. “And if anyone knows exactly where that is, it’s Dah’mir. Tiger’s blood! We can’t let him find that out. It’s the only thing we’ve got on him right now!”

“We could take Chain with us,” said Dandra. “Abandon him in Vralkek-or ship him on to Sharn.”

“Bring someone who’s hunting for us along for the journey?” Geth growled. “That’s what we tried with Ashi on Lightning on Water!”

“It would have worked if Vennet hadn’t been planning on betraying us all along.” Dandra spread her hands. “That won’t happen this time.”

“It would be simpler to kill him.”

“You said that about Ashi, too.” Singe looked at Dandra. “It won’t be easy finding a ship that’s willing to smuggle a kidnapped member of House Tharashk.”

Geth groaned. “We’re going to do it?”

“I don’t see another option,” said Singe. “Although we’ll need a way to keep Chain quiet until we get him away from Zarash’ak-I don’t know any spells that would control him.”

Dandra bit her lip. “None of my powers would either.” She looked across the room. “Maybe Orshok-?”

“Grandfather Rat,” Geth said. “Does it always have to be magic?” He reached down to Chain’s gear and hefted the black cudgel, then turned and strode for the bounty hunter.

Dandra caught her breath. “Geth-”

Chain saw what was coming. He tried to twist out of the way, but the cudgel caught him across the back of his head. The bound man gasped and swayed, his eyes glazing over.

Dandra grimaced. “Geth, we can’t just keep hitting him!”

“Easy.” Geth held up his other hand-and the dark bottle of gaeth’ad essence. Dropping the cudgel, he grabbed Chain’s head and forced it back, then pulled the plug on the bottle with his teeth and poured a measure of the contents into Chain’s slack mouth. The man sputtered immediately, but Geth forced his jaw shut until he swallowed.

“Was that enough?” asked Orshok critically. “Or too much?”

“We’ll just have to watch and see,” said Geth, hopping off of Chain. The bounty hunter was choking and cursing them all. Ashi picked up the cudgel and moved to stand behind him. Chain stopped cursing. Geth replaced the stopper and tucked the bottle into a pouch. “We should try to get on a ship and out of Zarash’ak soon as possible, though.”

“The sooner you get this shekot out of my house, the better,” said Bava.

Dandra turned around. The artist and Natrac had returned. Bava glared at Chain with scarcely diminished anger. Dandra went to her. “Bava,” she said, “I want to thank you for showing us your map and for your hospitality.” She pressed her hands together and bent her head over them. “We’ve repaid you badly.”

“Dandra, I would help you again.” Bava’s voice was strained. “But next time, no uninvited guests, please.” She took Dandra’s hands and kissed her on both cheeks. “Once the essence takes effect, you should go. It won’t be long before the watch comes to investigate the fight.”

Chain was already starting to look dazed. Dandra nodded. “We’re taking him with us,” she said. “It will be a long while before he’s back in Zarash’ak.”

Natrac drew a deep breath. “I’m coming with you, too,” the half-orc said.

“What?” Geth turned to him. “When we got here, you said you’d never leave Zarash’ak again.”

“The people I love here are getting hurt. Urthen. Bava.” Natrac squeezed the large woman’s hand. “For what? My house? It will wait. Vennet knows me. If he and Dah’mir are looking for you, they’ll come for me first-just like Chain did. Like Dandra said after the battle at the mound, I have to do something.” He thrust his tusks forward. “I still owe Vennet revenge. I’m not just going to wait for him to come to me.”

He held out his fist. Geth grinned and bashed his own fist against it. “Kuv dagga,” he said.

They separated as they left Bava’s house. Finding passage to Vralkek was a priority, but Natrac was anxious to check on Urthen, worried that Chain might have done something drastic to the old servant. He and Singe headed off to his house, with Orshok along as well to offer healing magic if it was needed, while Dandra, Geth, and Ashi-taking Diad to guide them-went down to the docks. The others would meet them there.

They took Chain with them, too. By the time the gaeth’ad essence had taken its full effect on him, the bounty hunter could do no more than stand and stagger along, but Natrac no more wanted him around his house than Bava did around hers. In the end, Dandra agreed to keep the drugged man with her. Between Ashi and Geth, supporting and guiding him was easy enough. and Bava supplied them with an enveloping cloak and a big conical straw hat to disguise him.

Unfortunately, guiding someone so obviously in disguise through the streets of Zarash’ak was suspicious in itself. A couple of stall-keepers stared at the big, shrouded figure draped across Ashi and Geth.

“Drunk,” the shifter grunted at them.

“Early for it,” one responded.

Geth bared his teeth in a smile. “He started last night.”

Dandra touched Diad’s shoulder. “Take us through quiet streets,” she said. “I don’t think it would be good to run into the city watch.”

They made it down to the docks without incident. Dandra thanked Diad and sent him on his way, then surveyed the ships that lined the nearest stretch of dock. “Where do we start?” she asked.

“At the other end,” said Ashi. She pointed. “There’s Vennet’s ship.”

Lightning on Water was tied up a good sixty paces away along the busy docks, but Dandra still felt a chill at the sight of her. The sleek lines of the elemental galleon had, when she’d first seen the ship, spoke to her of speed. Now they reminded her of nothing so much as a serpent, ready to strike. The ship was still. No crew moved on the deck, though Dandra could see the dark forms of Dah’mir’s herons perched along the rails like sentries.

“The boat they were loading yesterday is gone,” Geth said. “There are fewer herons, too, I think. It looks our friend here was telling the truth.” He nudged Chain, making the drugged man stumble.

Dandra stared at the ship, a surge of pity for the sailors knotting her heart. Vennet’s crew had been good men. She’d seen nothing to suggest that they shared their captain’s faith in the Cults of the Dragon Below and she knew what it was like to be trapped by Dah’mir’s mind-numbing power. Her teeth clenched tight. “Do you think Dah’mir and Vennet took the whole crew upriver?”

“They couldn’t have. Their boat wouldn’t have held them all,” said Ashi.

“And Dah’mir told Vennet not to bring his best men,” added Geth. “It sounded like they were planning on leaving some of the crew behind.” He cocked his head. “Why?”

“Because we should try and do something for them. They don’t deserve to be Dah’mir’s puppets.”

Geth flinched. “Cousin Boar, Dandra!”

Tetkashtai echoed Geth’s sentiments. No! she said. We can’t. How would you free them? You couldn’t free yourself. And it could be a trap!

Dandra answered them both at once. “I have to try.”

An idea was already forming in her head. There was a stack of crates waiting on the dock not far from Lightning on Water. Dandra headed for them, forcing Geth and Ashi to follow or be left behind. Chain’s staggering progress made stealth all but impossible, but Dandra watched the herons carefully. The birds didn’t seem to pay any attention to what was taking place on the docks. She ducked into the shadow of the crates, then peered at the ship and at the herons again as the others wrestled Chain into hiding. The birds still hadn’t moved.

A fragment of rope lay on the dock nearby. Dandra reached out with a whisper of vayhatana and sent the rope slithering back and forth like a snake. So long as it was on the dock, the herons ignored it-but the moment she sent it wriggling toward the ship’s gangplank, the nearest birds turned in unison to watch it.

She released her power and the rope fell limp. Dah’mir’s birds watched it for a moment more, then resumed their previous inscrutable poses.

“Ashi,” Dandra asked, “how intelligent are the herons?”

“Like dogs. Dah’mir bred them that way. They’ll take commands, search out specific people-the way they did when we tracked you into the Eldeen Reaches.”

“Has Dah’mir ever turned the herons against the Bonetree hunters?”

Ashi tilted her head. “No,” she said. “Even yesterday, they attacked Geth and Orshok, not me. They trust Bonetree hunters from the moment they’re hatched. I think that’s something else Dah’mir bred into them.”

“Good. That’s what I was hoping.” Dandra raised her chin in determination. “Geth, take care of Chain. Ashi and I are going onto the ship.”

Geth’s breath hissed between his teeth. “At least wait for Singe to get here. Or let me go.”

She shook her head. “You need to watch Chain-and my idea works best with two people.” She looked at Ashi. “If a Bonetree hunter approached the herons with a prisoner, what would happen?”

Ashi shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe nothing. I’d be more worried that Dah’mir or Vennet may have left orders for the crew.”

“Trust to il-Yannah. Geth, if something goes wrong, we’ll call.” Dandra handed her spear to Ashi. “Let’s make it look real. Take my arm as if you’re restraining me.”

They stepped out from behind the crates and crossed the docks. As they drew close to Lightning on Water, a number of the herons had turned their heads to stare directly at them. Dandra could feel the birds’ cold green eyes-so much like Dah’mir’s-on her. She tried to hang limp in Ashi’s grip, a defeated prisoner.

They’re not going to believe this, wailed Tetkashtai. We don’t even know that they understand what a prisoner is.

Dandra’s heart skipped. She hadn’t entirely considered that. As long as they still trust Ashi, we should be fine.

You fool! We’re going to be captured for certain!

At the bottom of the gangplank, Ashi paused. “Do we go on?” she asked softly.

“Yes.” Dandra took the first step onto the gangplank, expecting the herons to spread their wings and take to the air at any moment. Her head was pounding in time to Tetkashtai’s fear. She focused on putting one foot in front of the other, on climbing the gangplank. The temptation to look up was strong. She resisted it.

Then they were at the top of the gangplank and stepping onto the ship. And the birds hadn’t moved.

Silence clung to Lightning on Water. The deck was empty except for one haggard crewman who crouched in the shade of the captain’s cabin. He stared at them but moved no more than the herons had. Dandra eased herself from Ashi’s grip and squatted in front of him. His eyes-empty and dull-followed her.

“Where is the rest of the crew?” she asked.

“Below,” he said. His voice was hoarse.

“Did Vennet give you any orders before he left?”

“Obey Dah’mir.”

“And what did Dah’mir tell you?”

“To take day watch until he returned.”

Dandra’s eyes narrowed. “What about the others?”

“They wait.”

Ashi crouched down beside Dandra. “Can you release him?” she murmured.

“I’d rather try with someone I know.” She rose. “Let’s see if we can find Karth. He had a level head.”

They found the stairs that led below. Ashi went first, moving slowly and allowing her eyes to adjust. She kept her hand on the hilt of her sword. Dandra followed cautiously, her spear reclaimed and ready.

There was little reason for fear, though. The remaining crew of Lightning on Water sat or crouched or lay in motionless silence. Except for the faint sounds of breathing and the few heads that turned to look at the two intruders into the gloom, Dandra would have thought she walked among dead men.

Karth sat against the curve of the ship’s hull. Dandra remembered him as a big man, but he seemed strangely diminished. His eyes, though as dull as those of the man on deck, also held a haunted look in their depths. When Dandra spoke his name, he didn’t respond. She said it again, a little louder, then took him by the shoulders and shook him. “Karth!” There was slight flicker in the man’s eyes, but nothing more.

“Geth and I hit them when we fought yesterday and they didn’t wake,” Ashi said. “Can you reach inside his head?”

Medala could have touched Karth’s mind easily-that had been the focus of her powers. All Dandra had, though, was the kesh and the idea of linking her mind with one so deeply under Dah’mir’s influence was frightening. Just the thought of it made Tetkashtai shrink like an ember. Dandra’s gut clenched.

She had to try.

The sailor on the deck had said he and the others were following orders left by Dah’mir and Vennet-powerful suggestions rather than direct domination. Maybe she could jolt Karth free. “Watch me,” she told Ashi, “if I become like them, I’ve probably fallen to Dah’mir’s power. Get me out of here and back to Singe.”

“There’s no way to protect yourself?”

“It would take more than I’m capable of. Powerful psionics. Maybe magic. But not even Medalashana was able to shield herself from Dah’mir on her own.” Dandra gripped Ashi’s hand for a moment. “Wish me luck.”

Ashi returned her grasp silently, then let go. Dandra turned to Karth. Tetkashtai-

No!

Tetkashtai, help me! Dandra seized the presence and pulled her close, then looked directly into Karth’s haunted eyes. Karth, she called silently, pushing her mind toward his. Karth, can you hear me?

The kesh trembled between them, sliding across Karth’s thoughts without finding purchase, like walking on ice. Dandra could feel Dah’mir’s touch, the cold grasp of his domination. Karth’s mind was there, but locked away. He was struggling, though. She could sense it. Dah’mir’s power had been stretched thin, but it was too much for a human mind to break through alone-even she touched it and shied away. There was a lingering madness in the dragon’s presence that left her feeling unclean.

Beyond the barrier of his power, Karth shivered and seemed to fade, exhausted.

Dandra thrust out hard, wielding the kesh as she would her spear and pouring all of her will into one focused burst. Karth! she shouted.

The spear of her will stabbed deep into the cold barrier that held Karth prisoner-stabbed deep and pierced it. The kesh slipped through, drawing Karth to freedom. A hundred wild, desperate thoughts burst out of the man, flooding her. Dandra gasped and jerked back from him.

His hands reached out and caught her. “Dandra?” he gasped. “Dol Arrah bless you.” He was trembling.

“Karth, are you hurt?” She felt exhausted and exhilarated at the same time. Inside her mind, Tetkashtai cowered.

“I-” He swallowed. “The captain? Dah’mir?”

“Gone,” said Ashi.

Karth focused on her. “You … I chased you yesterday. You were with Geth. But the captain said you were …”

“Ashi is with us now, Karth.” Dandra eased her arms out of the man’s desperate grip, then pushed him gently back until he was sitting again. “Tell us what happened to you.”

When she’d been in Dah’mir’s power, the world had sped by her in a blur. Karth, however, remembered everything. His story flooded out of him as if it had been waiting for release. Dandra listened in dismay as he told of the appearance of the herons on the ship, of his discovery of Dah’mir in Vennet’s cabin and Dah’mir’s transformation from heron to man. Her stomach knotted at Vennet’s murder of his passengers so that the ship could be turned back to Zarash’ak. Through the days of the voyage, the crew had been held in thrall to Dah’mir’s presence, seeing and hearing everything, but unable to act against his or Vennet’s orders.

When Karth had finished, Ashi let out a hissing breath. “So now we know what happened to Dah’mir after the battle at the mound.”

Dandra nodded and turned back to Karth. The big man was shaking and staring around at his listless, silent mates. “What did Dah’mir and Vennet expect all of you to do while they were away?” she asked him.

“There are supplies on board-food and water. Dah’mir told some of us to share them out every night.”

“He expected you to survive for four weeks like that?” growled Ashi.

“Four?” Karth glanced up. “Two. They were heading toward something called the Bonetree mound in the depths of the Marches.”

“The journey to the Bonetree mound takes two weeks. Back again is four, three at best,” said Dandra. Karth shook his head.

“They expected the whole trip to take two weeks. The captain can use his dragonmark to call wind’s favor and speed their trip.”

Dandra exchanged a glance with Ashi, then cursed. “Il-Yannah! All the more reason not to wait before we leave Zarash’ak.”

Karth seized her arm like a drowning man might seize a piece of floating wood. “Leave? No, you can’t.” He nodded toward the rest of the crew. “What about them?”

Dandra bit her lip. She had the strength to free one or maybe two others, but then she’d have to rest. Maybe Orshok’s prayers could help free some of the others. It could be done-it had to be done, though Singe and Geth might not like it. “We’ll make sure you’re all freed,” she promised, “but you probably shouldn’t stay around Zarash’ak either.”

“Believe me, we won’t.” He pointed at a half-elf watching them with dark and empty eyes from a corner. Dandra recognized Vennet’s junior officer-during their voyage on Lightning on Water, he had taken over the ship at night, controlling her with his own dragonmark while Vennet slept. “Free Marolis and he can take command. There are provisions in the articles of House Lyrandar-if a crew believes the captain has turned away from the house, they can remove him from power and take the case before the trade ministers of Lyrandar. Lords of the Host have mercy on the men Vennet and Dah’mir took with them, but I don’t think we can wait for their return. With what Marolis and I have seen, we have enough to go before the ministers now.”

Dandra’s eyebrows rose as sudden hope kindled inside her. “Karth, where would you find these ministers?”

“By the articles, we have to go straight to the nearest one or be declared mutineers. The nearest to Zarash’ak would be Dantian d’Lyrandar in Sharn.”

Embers of hope turned into flames. “Sharn?” she asked. A wide smile spread across her face. She doubted if she could have held it back even if she had wanted to. “Karth, do you think you and Marolis could do us a favor?”

Karth spread his hands. “Dandra, you’ve freed us from a nightmare-for you, we’d do anything.”

Even watching Lightning on Water for any signs of trouble, Geth saw nothing until one of the herons tumbled abruptly off the ship and into the water below with a knife sticking out of it. At almost the same moment, Ashi reared up behind another, shearing it in half with the bright blade of her sword before leaping for the next. Dandra was a swift and graceful blur near the stern of the ship as her darting spear transfixed yet another bird.

The startled herons reacted before he could. They flapped into the air with a flurry of greasy black feathers and a chorus of screeches. Ashi vaulted up and cut down a fourth bird as it took flight, but then they were out of reach of her sword.

But not of Dandra’s powers. Geth saw her look up at the whirling flock and thrust out her hand. White flames erupted in a roaring gout to engulf another five of the remaining heron. Ashes and embers fell like hot rain.

In only moments, just three of Dah’mir’s weird birds remained, two beating hard for the safety of the sky, one-its feathers smoking-tumbling down to the dock. Dandra’s fingers tracked the climbing birds. Two bright, fiery bolts streaked up and caught them, blasting them out of the air.

The heron that had tumbled to the dock, however, righted itself and landed on its feet. Green eyes looked up to watch the destruction of the last of its flock. Geth saw the bird turn its head as if surveying the dock, then with an uncanny intelligence strut toward the nearest sheltering nook.

Chain wasn’t going anywhere. Geth released his grasp on the bounty hunter, sprang out from behind the crates, and pounced on the heron. It screeched and struck at him with its beak-the shifter snarled and snatched back a bleeding hand, but got his other fist around the heron’s skinny neck and squeezed. Long thin legs thrashed. Geth clenched his injured hand on the bird’s neck as well and wrenched hard. Bones cracked. The bird went limp.

Across the dock, people were staring at Dandra’s display of power. Geth rushed to Lightning on Water’s gangplank. “Ashi! Dandra!” he shouted. “What’s going on?”

Dandra appeared at the ship’s rail. Her eyes widened slightly at the heron in Geth’s hand. He held it up and shook it at her. “What are you doing?”

“We’ve found our passage to Sharn!” Dandra called back. She slapped the rail.

“We’re taking Vennet’s own ship?” Geth bared his teeth in a grin. “Grandfather Rat, that’s justice! Singe is going to soil himself.”

He dashed back to the crates and to Chain. The bounty hunter had staggered and fallen without his support. He was sprawled in the shadow of the crates, limp as one of the dead herons, Bava’s cloak a puddle around him. Geth wrapped his arms under Chain’s and hauled him to his feet. There was a long bloody scratch on one of the big man’s hands. A piece of wire that had bound a crate twisted out-Chain must have fallen against it as he crumpled. Geth snorted. “I hope Vennet didn’t pay you in advance,” he told the drugged man.

“I’m zhe besht …” slurred Chain. “Zhe besht! Don’ fuhget it.”

“Well, the best is going for a trip.” Geth guided him to Lightning on Water. Ashi was waiting for him and between the two of them they wrestled Chain up the gangplank.

As he stepped onto the deck of the ship, Geth felt a flush of triumph sweep through him. It felt very good, he thought, to be one step up on Dah’mir.