Don Bassingthwaite - The doom of Kings

Ekhaas, who had sat silent through the entire conversation, cleared her throat. “There is one other thing.”

Vounn stopped and looked at her, but Tariic was the one who added an explanation. “Haruuc would very much like for you to bring Ashi along. He has heard of your training of her and would like to meet the bearer of the Siberys Mark of Sentinel.”

Ashi’s joy sputtered like a candle’s flame, then leaped even higher. The idea of being out from under Vounn’s thumb was one thing, but the possibility of traveling again, of leaving Karrlakton to see Darguun and meet Lhesh Haruuc was something else. She looked to Vounn-

— just as her mentor slowly shook her head. “I’m sorry. That isn’t possible. Ashi can’t be allowed to leave Sentinel Tower until her training is complete.”

“Vounn!”

The word burst from her in a cry of fury and anguish, but Vounn didn’t even acknowledge it. Ekhaas and Tariic both looked at her sharply, however, before Tariic turned back to Vounn. “I understand Ashi’s value to your House. I can assure you that she’ll be safe. I guarantee it. My uncle will guarantee it.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Vounn said. “But the fact is that Ashi can’t be trusted to go. You saw how she acted last night.”

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.

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’s invitation to Vounn, nothing more was said. For all that Vounn revealed, the small scroll might never have been delivered. Ekhaas felt like she might chew a hole in her table as she waited through meeting after meeting. On the next to last day before they were due to leave Karrlakton, Tariic, Vounn, and Baron Breven d’Deneith, patriarch of the house, emerged from a private discussion to make the grand announcement that Vounn would become Deneith’s envoy to the court of Lhesh Haruuc Shaarat’kor. The excitement that swept Sentinel Tower was astounding. Within an hour, the Darguuls of Tariic’s party went from being looked upon with suspicion to being greeted as allies. Ekhaas overheard more than one conversation declaring Vounn would be remembered as the new Jannes d’Deneith, responsible for bringing even greater wealth and influence to the House.

There was no word of whether Ashi would be joining Vounn, though. As soon as she had a chance, Ekhaas slipped up behind Tariic as he mingled at a reception. She didn’t even need to ask the question-as soon as she caught Tariic’s eye, he nodded and mouthed, “She’s coming,” before turning away to chat with some Karrn junior underminister of harvests. Ekhaas felt as if a yoke had been lifted from her shoulders.

Or at least as if one yoke had been lifted. Others still weighed her down, and they’d still be there through another week.

The Darguuls departed Karrlakton on the twenty-second day of the month of Lharvion with as much spectacle and ceremony as when they had arrived. They formed up in a courtyard near one of Sentinel Tower’s wide gates, and Ekhaas finally caught a glimpse of Ashi. Her friend, shrouded again in her ever-present scarf, stood quietly behind Tariic and Vounn. After a pretty speech by Breven d’Deneith, the trio climbed into an open carriage. To the cheers of House Deneith, their procession-led by House guards from Sentinel Tower marching alongside a unit of the Karrlakton watch-paraded out into the city and through the streets toward the ship that waited in the harbor. As they went, increasing numbers of people came out to stare at the goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears with their flashing armor and thunderous war music. The tigers of the cavalry probably would have drawn even more awestruck excitement from the crowd, but they had already been taken down to the ship, along with any baggage, during the quiet of the night. At some point the crowd of city-dwellers began cheering Tariic as well, and he waved at them from his carriage. They likely, Ekhaas suspected, had no idea whom they were cheering for, but they cheered anyway.