Marsheila Rockwell - The Shard Axe

“Later.”

“I’m going to hold you to that,” he said, his voice rough.

“You’d better,” she replied, taking his hand and leading him through the door with a smile.

Inside, they found Kiruk’s room and sat down to a hearty dinner that would have had the members of House Ghallanda turning green with envy. The conversation and spirits flowed easily, as did the questions.

“So Eddarga did all this to get revenge on the clans who’d spoken out against her when she petitioned the Council for recognition as the heir to Noldrunhold?”

“That was only part of it,” Aggar answered. He and Sabira had tried to piece the puzzle together on the journey back from Frostmantle. “Sabira was the one who figured out the rest. The families of several of Eddarga’s original victims controlled land bordering Noldrunhold, and with their deaths that land was left largely vacant. We think she intended to claim the hold, with or without the Council’s blessing, and she wanted to make sure there were no prying eyes to report back on her activities until it was too late to do anything about them. Turning Frostmantle into another Noldrunthrone would only aid her in that.”

“The only ones actively mining along that border are the Mountainhearts,” Kiruk commented regretfully. “Though that may change now, depending on what Gunnett decides to do.”

At the Mountainheart name, Sabira raised her glass of Frostmantle Fire in Orin’s memory. The others did the same, and they all drank in silence for a moment.

“So is that why she had the yrthaks attack you on the way back from Stormreach?” Rockfist asked into the lull. “To try and get rid of Orin?”

“Have we confirmed that she was behind that?” Aggar asked, looking at Elix as he took another sip from his drink. Sabira knew he was still somewhat annoyed about the loss of the Inheritance . Like his Silver Concordian rings, Orin had borrowed the airship without asking. But Aggar was already having another one built. He was going to have it christened the Rapier , in his nephew’s honor.

Elix moved forward in his seat next to Sabira’s.

“Tilde confirmed that the Khyber shard Sabira found in the yrthak was from the same stone as the one in Nightshard’s ring. And since you saw a similar shard in the elemental Eddarga was controlling, I don’t think there’s any question that she was directing both attacks.”

“Why wait until he was all the way down in Xen’drik, though? Wouldn’t it have been easier to attack him while he was still here, in the Holds?”

That question had been bothering Sabira, too.

“She probably wanted Sabira dead, too, after what happened in the Maw. So she was trying to strike two veins of ore with one shaft,” Aggar answered. Then he grinned. “Plus, she knew the Shard Axe’s reputation. If anyone could spare me from the gallows, it would be Sabira, and she wasn’t going to risk that happening again,” he joked, punching his adopted sibling lightly in the shoulder.

“But how did she even know Orin was coming down to Stormreach to get me? And how was she able to direct the yrthaks from so far away?” Sabira asked, surreptitiously rubbing the arm where Aggar had struck her. Though the wound had healed over, the flesh there was still tender and a little sore. A lot sore, now.

“Well, Orin’s mission wasn’t exactly a big secret—to anyone except me, that is,” Aggar ventured after a moment.

“Or maybe she had an accomp—” Rockfist began, only to be cut off by Aggar.

“Don’t say it! One Noldrun running amok is quite enough, thank you.”

The others laughed while the barrister looked mildly affronted.

“Well, what about Hrun, then?” he huffed. “Was Eddarga the one who killed him?”

“Probably,” Sabira answered. “He was a rival claimant, after all.”

“Why didn’t she make him eat his own eyes, though, I wonder?” Rockfist asked, choosing a particularly plump iceberry from his plate. He seemed oblivious to the irony as he crushed the round, black fruit between his teeth.

“Maybe she couldn’t. Can one duergar control another that way?”

“Father, we don’t know that he was—”

“He had black eyes, didn’t he?”

No one could argue with that.

“She must have been controlling him, though,” Elix said suddenly. “How else could she have gotten him to break into the Tombs for her and steal those books?”

Sabira pursed her lips, thoughtful. Something about Hrun’s death was nagging at her, and it wasn’t his eyes.

“Are they sure it even was him in the Tombs?” she asked. She couldn’t say for sure, and she’d been there. “Maybe Eddarga killed him there to make it look that way. You said yourself he was no mage,” she added, looking at Rockfist, “and only a powerful mage would have been able to get through those wards.”

The rest of the barrister’s words came back to her in an abrupt, sickening rush.

“… especially if they had some sort of focus already in place inside …”

Whoever had teleported into the Tombs had known right where she was, so she had to have been that focus. Or she had to have brought it in with her.

But she’d had nothing on her that she didn’t normally carry, except Kiruk’s cloak and Elix’s letter.

The one that Gunnett had brought with her from Vulyar.

Before she could voice her sudden suspicion, a knock sounded at the door.

“Enter.”

A young, comely dwarf girl with blonde ringlets and bright blue eyes entered the room, a long, plain box held in her arms.

“Your pardon, lords, lady, but this was left at the front for the Shard Axe. No one saw who put it there.”

“A gift from the Council?” Kiruk mused, taking the box and handing it over to Sabira before giving the girl a galifar and dismissing her.

Sabira wasn’t so sure. Somehow she expected any gift from the Council would be quite a bit more ostentatious.

She opened the box to reveal a bouquet of sickly white blooms whose stems boasted long, wicked-looking black thorns.

“Are those gunethes? ” she asked, while Aggar, at the same moment, spat, “ Eddarghes! ”

She looked at him in confusion, and he quickly explained, “ Gunethe is the duergar word for the flowers; eddarghe is the Dwarven one.”

Sabira groaned. Why hadn’t she seen it before?

Gunnett, the fortunate twin.

And Eddarga, the unfortunate one.

“It was Gunnett.”

“What?” Aggar and Kiruk gasped at her in unison, while Elix nodded slowly.

“She was the only one who knew we were going to Sharn first after we left Stormreach,” he said. “The only one who could have known where to send the yrthaks.”

“And if she was a strong enough mage to get into the Tombs, controlling the yrthaks remotely would have posed no problem for her. She could even have been there, watching from a distance,” Sabira added, shaking her head in disgust. The clues had been there, down to Gunnett’s philosophical defense of Nightshard—of her sister. Sabira just hadn’t been able to put them together.

“Don’t, Saba.” It was Aggar. “None of us saw it. None of us had any reason to.”

“I’ll send guards—” Kiruk began, but Sabira stopped him.

“She’ll be long gone before they get there, if she isn’t already.”

“What do you think it means, that she sent you these flowers?” Elix asked, concern shadowing his eyes as he looked at her.

“That it’s not over,” Sabira answered, meeting his gaze. “That she’ll be back.”

Then she looked over at Aggar, and her next words were a dark promise, to him and to herself.

“And so will I.”