Liar's Island: A Novel (26 page)

Rodrick watched Dhyana swoop through the sky in circles. “Yes. Fine. They came for us. So?”

“I think we should avenge him.”

Rodrick frowned at the sword. “Avenge? Where's the profit in avenging people?”

“Gold isn't the only thing that matters.”

That was like hearing a fish say water was unimportant. “What's gotten into you, Hrym? I thought most humans were interchangeable bags of fluid and gas as far as you're concerned. When Jayin removed the demonic taint, did he fill the hole left behind with some of his own excessive holiness?”

Hrym snorted. “Don't be absurd. You've said there's a circle drawn around the two of us. The only reason that circle isn't broken forever, the only reason I didn't lose myself to the taint of a demon lord, is because of that monk.”

“Granted,” Rodrick said grudgingly.

“As far as I'm concerned, that lets him into
my
circle—at least a little, at least for a moment. The cult seems determined to find us anyway. Striking them down would avenge the old man
and
protect us.”

Rodrick saw some holes in that argument, and would point them out when the time came, but Hrym had raised a troubling point. “How do they keep finding us, anyway? I don't understand. It's a big island, a big
jungle
, and twice now members of the cult have come straight for us. Did Nagesh mark us somehow?”

Before Hrym could answer, Dhyana landed in front of him. She stalked back and forth as she spoke. “The hills are clear, but I saw movement on the edge of the jungle. More may come. I don't intend to wait for them. Lais!”

The student stepped out of the house, face wet with tears, hands stained with blood. “I couldn't help him,” she said. “He was dead, dead before he even knew what happened, and I couldn't help him.”

“He is beyond help,” Dhyana said. “But he is not beyond vengeance. You know I owed Jayin my life, twice over. Without him, I would have died twenty years ago in a cage, or ten years ago when my wings were broken and I was stranded on that terrible rock in the sea. The past two decades of my life were bought and paid for by Jayin's efforts. I have already lived longer than I should have, by rights, and I will gladly give up whatever years I might have left to kill those responsible for his death.”

That's me, Rodrick thought, and couldn't suppress a shiver.

“I'll help you,” Lais said. “He was my teacher.”

“I'm going, too,” Hrym said. “I owe Jayin a debt. Besides, if you're armed with me, this might not necessarily be a suicide mission.”

“Thank you, friend Hrym,” Dhyana said. “You will make a great difference.”

“Hrym,” Rodrick said carefully. “Are you
sure
you want to—”

“You don't have to go,” Hrym said. “You are what you are, and I don't expect you to be anything else. Maybe you can bury the monk, and burn the corpses of his killers. That would be helpful. Dhyana can wield me in battle. I'll explain how I can be used for more than chopping off tiger heads.”

Rodrick closed his eyes for a moment. He spent most of his life doing unpleasant things and not feeling a bit guilty about it. Most people were terrible, and deserved more trouble than he gave them anyway. Admittedly, these particular people were good, but they had the kind of hyperdeveloped sense of honor that coincided entirely too often with violent death. Rodrick didn't want any part of that. He was a pragmatist, and an opportunist, and a survivor, and joining an ill-considered vengeance crusade against a murderous cult wasn't pragmatic, opportune, or likely survivable.

“Don't be ridiculous, Hrym.” He opened his eyes. “If you're going, I'm going.”

“That circle around us,” the sword murmured, almost too low to hear.

Rodrick nodded. That much was never a lie.

“I found this on one of the weretigers.” Lais held out her hands. A small compass rested in her palm, arrow pointing back toward the house. “At first I thought it was a regular compass, but it doesn't point to the north. Then I thought, maybe it's magical, and it's the way the cult finds their camp in the jungle—it was pointing that way, at first, toward the trees. But when I brought it outside the needle spun around again, and now it's pointing back the way we came.” She shook her head. “I don't understand, or know if we can use it.”

“Let me see it,” the garuda said, frowning. “My people have a sensitivity to magic. If we concentrate … yes. There is some enchantment here.”

“Rodrick,” Hrym said.

“Yes,” Rodrick said. “I had the same thought. If you two would excuse me?” Without giving them time to question him, he hurried back into the little house. The stench of blood and bowels emptied in death made him gag. The lovely, spare space had been transformed into a charnel house. Rodrick snatched up his pack and went back outside. He reached in, removed the jeweled scabbard, and began to walk slowly in a circle around Lais and Dhyana. “What's the compass doing?” he asked.

“It's … pointing at you. Following you.”

Rodrick threw the scabbard on the ground. “It's this. The compass is pointing to this.”

The garuda knelt and examined the scabbard, then tapped one taloned finger on a tiny diamond near the hilt. “Not the whole thing. Just this. Only this gem is enchanted.” She pried it out with a talon and held the gem in her palm, then looked at Rodrick. “Where did you come by this?”

He wondered again if garudas could detect lies, and chose his words carefully. “I got the scabbard from a member of the cult.” True. It had obviously come from Nagesh, who'd had ample reason to keep track of Rodrick's whereabouts, but let them think he'd taken it in battle. “I thought I could use the jewels to finance my escape from the island. I had no idea it was enchanted so the cultists could find it.”

“I suppose it's not surprising that they poison even their treasures,” Lais said. “Just be lucky it wasn't cursed, too.” Tears welled in her eyes. “Though it was cursed, in a way. It brought death to a man of learning and honor.”

Rodrick bowed his head. He was uncomfortable with shame. He didn't feel it often, and when he did, it was that much more acute for its rarity. “This is my fault. I brought the cult down on you. Led them to your door.”

“You murdered no one,” the garuda said. “And your greed in taking the scabbard … it's unfortunate, but understandable. I will not pretend you have no culpability. You do. But if you intend to join battle with us, you can make up for your mistake.” She picked up the scabbard. “In the unlikely event that we survive, these jewels will pay for a lavish funeral for Jayin, befitting his nobility of spirit, and to finance Lais's studies with some other master.”

Rodrick's fortunes were dwindling more every moment. But Jayin had lost far more than jewels. “Absolutely. Take them. It's the least I can do.”

“Almost literally the least,” Dhyana said. “And now, to battle. Right after I toss this filthy diamond off a cliff.”

“No, wait,” Rodrick said. Now that he'd committed to joining them, his pragmatic opportunism could be put to use. “Don't be so hasty. There might be better uses for that diamond. As for battle—you just want to run into the woods and look for cultists to kill? Is that the plan?”

“I have fought in many battles,” Dhyana said, staring down her beak at him. “Do you think you know more of war than I do?”

“Highly unlikely,” Rodrick said. “But I bet I know a
lot
more about deceit and trickery, and if we use those, we can make sure the battle we fight is the battle that counts.”

20

Grimmer and Grimmer

“I don't see why I can't walk in with you,” Dhyana said, once he'd explained his idea. She had the head of a bird of prey, so glaring was her natural expression, but it was especially pointed now. They were lying on their bellies in the grass at the top of a hill, with good sightlines to the jungle and the sea, so they couldn't be ambushed easily. They still had the diamond in their possession, and until it was gone, Rodrick wouldn't be able to fully relax. It should have been gone
already
, but Dhyana wanted to argue tactics.

“You're a garuda, from a culture famed for its nobility and honor,” he explained with the illusion of patience. “No one would
believe
you were a cultist of the Knife in the Dark. There's no way we can make a mask that would hide that majestic beak of yours, either. Also, the wings are a problem. Quite distinctive.”

“But I think that, because my people value honor, having a garuda join the cult would be a great coup for the goddess. I would be afforded high honors, I'm sure.”

“Possibly,” Rodrick said. Dhyana had proven her bravery and formidability, but she did seem to think in straight lines, even when twistier cognitions were called for. “At the very least you would excite a great deal of comment, in the way a couple of human cultists would not. And since we hope to take as many of the cultists as possible unawares, the last thing we want to do is draw attention to our arrival.”

“I think he's right,” Lais said. “It's better for us if you hide among the treetops, Dhyana, watching. You can help us if things begin to go badly.”

Dhyana's feathers ruffled, but she nodded. “All right. Let me take the diamond out to sea, and we can leave when I return.”

That was Rodrick's idea. Dhyana would take the enchanted diamond and leave it on some little island a few miles offshore, to make the cult think he'd fled on a ship. Let Nagesh's lackeys waste their time plying the waves in a pointless search. “We'll meet you at the edge of the—”

“Wait.” Dhyana shaded her eyes. “Someone is approaching.” She was gazing east, across the low hills.

“More cultists?” Rodrick said. If he squinted, he could see movement, but no details.

“If they are, they don't have tigers with them, at least. I see a dozen men, dressed in black. The one in front has a spear … They're running this way, splitting up into two groups. It looks like they're going to try to flank us.”

“The one with the spear,” Rodrick said. “Does she have short yellow hair?”

“Yes.”

“Grimschaw.” Rodrick grimaced.

“Your partner?” Lais said. “The one you told us about, your fellow treasure hunter?”

“She's the one I told you about, yes. I don't know who her friends are—she always claimed she had other resources on the island. It seems she wasn't lying.”

“Is she looking for
you
?” Dhyana said. “Why?”

“I saw the map. I know where to find the Scepter of the Arclords, or whatever the treasure turns out to be. I'm sure she's gathered those men to help her find the treasure, and she's obviously decided to kill me along the way, to make sure I don't try to get it first. As for how she tracked me down—”

“Could she have one of the compasses?”

Rodrick groaned. “When we were ambushed, she was the one who cut the weretiger's throat. She had plenty of time, hunched over its body, to find the compass and take it. She was always a secretive one. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if she did.”

“Do we flee, or fight?” Dhyana said. “I have no quarrel with this woman, but if you think she will continue to pursue us, it might be better to settle this now.”

“She expects to take me by surprise,” Rodrick said. “Let's make a surprise for
her
instead. But do me a favor, Dhyana: I don't care what happens to her thugs, but leave Grimschaw alive. I have other uses for her, if Lais is willing to wrestle…”

*   *   *

Dhyana stayed in place while Lais crept one way and Rodrick crept the other. Let the flankers be flanked. Or something. Tactics in battle weren't Rodrick's specialty, but some of the same principles he used in confidence games applied, like using your enemy's assumptions against them.

He lay on his belly in the grass and watched the spot where they'd left Dhyana, Hrym firmly in his grasp, waiting for the signal.

It wasn't a very complicated signal. Dhyana sprang up, standing six feet tall, drawing her longbow and firing arrow after arrow to the southwest, where half Grimschaw's party was trying to creep up on her. Garudas were as renowned for their archery skills as for their gallantry, apparently. Shouts and screams greeted the volley, but no arrows streaked back at her. Dhyana had seen men armed with swords and axes, but nothing that looked like long-range weapons, unless you counted Grimschaw's black spear.

Rodrick bounced to his feet, pointing Hrym toward the screams. The attackers were closer than he'd expected, only fifty or so feet away. Three of them were writhing on the ground, arrowshot, but the other three were trying to flee. Hrym took care of that, gouts of icy wind pouring forth to knock them flat, and Rodrick moved among them, binding the dying and the merely knocked-down alike with shackles of ice. He prodded one of the ones with an arrow in his leg, pressing the toe of his boot beside the wound and making the man groan. “Are you lot from Nex too?”

The man's only response was a lengthy stream of curses, but he had the same accent Grimschaw did.

“Is this all of you?” Rodrick said. “Or do you have more back at your camp?”

“My brothers will
kill
you, they'll come for us, they'll take revenge.” The man sounded pretty pleased about the idea, despite his wound.

“So there are more of you, then. Hmm. You must have a ship. Is it nearby?”

“No, Rodrick,” Hrym said sharply. “We stick to the plan. No running away. Not this time. I'd be insane and lost if it weren't for Jayin. If you run, you run without me.”

“Oh,
fine
. I just like to consider all my options.” He looked across the hill toward the other half of the ambush and grinned. Dhyana was rising into the air, holding a wriggling servant of the Arclords in her claws, his legs kicking wildly, sword dropping from his hand in his panic. She took him up about twenty feet and then dropped him, which was a rather efficient way of removing enemies from the field of battle.