Neversfall (34 page)

Adeenya dropped her eyes to face him but said nothing.

“What now?” she asked.When Taennen did not answer, she continued, nodding toward Guk. “They can take us easily now.”

“They could,” Taennen said.

“So we win the citadel just to become worker slaves?” she asked.

“No,” Taennen said.

“So they’ll leave, having helped us out of kindness?” she said, incredulity obvious in her tone.

“No. They received their compensation,” he said, pointing to the shackled monsters and unconscious Chondathans the formians were dragging away.

Adeenya’s face wrinkled before her eyes went wide. “No! You didn’t…”

Taennen said nothing, only stared at Guk, who returned the gaze. Adeenya looked away.

“We needed them,” Taennen said, not looking at her.

“You’re a slaver. You realize that, don’t you?” she said.

“We needed their help. Without the formians, we’d be dead by now and Jhoqo—” Taennen swallowed. “The Mulhorandi would have their goods.”

“Giving those men to him makes you no better than a slave trader.”

Taennen nodded. “Maybe that’s true… I don’t think I know what a crime is anymore. Is it worse to cheat, or to kill? And who decides that?”

“The laws decide,” Adeenya said.

“They follow laws too,” he said, pointing to the formians. “Their laws are just different from ours…”

“They’re wrong,” she said. “Not to them,” he replied.

“Laws can’t be subjective like that,” Adeenya said. “Their meaning, their purpose, must be agreed upon for them to work.”

Taennen shrugged. “And when does that happen?”

Adeenya did not respond but furrowed her brow.

“So everybody should just break the laws they don’t agree with, like Jhoqo did?” she said after a few moments.

“No,” he said. “But they should have the courage to stand against the ones they feel are wrong.”

“I don’t see the difference,” she said.

Several breaths passed in silence. Then Guk approached them, stopping a few steps away. He seemed no worse for the battle, showing no injuries at all.

“You’ll leave now?” Taennen asked.

“My other people will come soon to help us move the new workers,” Guk said.

“And then?” Taennen asked.

“We will gather our strength,” Guk said. “Some workers will stay. Others will join the main hive. More from there will come here.”

“And then you’ll come back for more workers,” Taennen said.

“Yes,” Guk said.

“Until then,” the Maquar said. The formians honesty, while brutal in impact and intent, was refreshing to Taennen. He’d had his fill of deception.

“Yes,” Guk said, before turning back to his followers.

“They’ll come back and take anyone in the citadel, won’t they?” she asked.

“They’ll come back for everyone in the South, eventually,” Taennen said.

Adeenya failed to breathe for a moment before nodding, her eyes finding Taennen’s.

“We could try to kill them now, stop them,” she said.

Taennen’s mouth formed a tiny, tight grin. “With what army? They would slaughter us with little effort,” he said.

Adeenya nodded. “So we just let them go?”

“Yes. They were out there before. Nothing’s really changed,” he said. “Besides, they kept their word, and now I’ll keep mine.”

Adeenya frowned but said nothing.

“Both the men I’ve called father in my life taught me the importance of keeping my word. They couldn’t have both been wrong,” he said.

“They were both criminals, Taennen,” Adeenya said.

Taennen agreed and said, “One broke laws he thought unjust for what he believed was the good of everyone. He, at least, died trying to do what he believed in. The other broke laws he did believe in to feed himself and his child. He lost his freedom, betrayed by someone he loved.”

Adeenya raised an eyebrow. “The Taennen I met when all of this started wouldn’t have condoned either crime,” she said.

“He’s in that tower if you want to go ask him,” Taennen said, turning to face Neversfall. He craned his neck to take in the full height of the structure and thought about why it had been built. Some said to protect the South. Others said to fill the pockets of Southerners. Looking at the smooth stones that climbed toward the heavens, Taennen knew both were right. He also knew that it did not matter. Intention meant nothing, motives were pointless. Declarations and dedications never made anything happen. The tower had been built because someone saw the need to take

action. The tower stood because accomplishments meant more than plans.

“I’m not sure, even after all of this, if I would condone either,” Adeenya said.

When Taennen did not respond, she continued. “Maybe the reason for breaking the law is more important than the law itself.”

“Sometimes, I think, you have to do the wrong thing for the right reasons.”

“Sounds like justification to me. A criminal might say the same thing about stealing,” Adeenya said.

“A criminal does the wrong things for the wrong reasons,” Taennen countered. “It’s a fine distinction.”

“What do we do about the people behind the operation that Jhoqo worked for?” Adeenya asked. She paused a moment and added, “My father is one of them.”

“I’m sorry he is involved, Adeenya.”

Adeenya nodded. “I probably shouldn’t feel so surprised. When Jhoqo talked of patriotism, he reminded me of my father. It was almost as though the two were of the same mind. My father has always taken the path of profit for profit’s sake. But there have to be others. What do we do about them?”

“We find them.”

“Taennen, how do we do that? Anyone could have been involved. The rajah himself might be behind it, for all the One!”

“They’ll come to us,” he said.

“Why would anyone reveal themselves by coming here?”

Taennen kicked a sword from the hand of a nearby Chondathan corpse.

“The weapons,” he said. “They need weapons. There’s a

fortune down there. They’ll have to come for them. How we stop them is the better question.”

Adeenya patted him on the shoulder and said, “We collapse the tunnels.”

Taennen looked at her, beautiful even through the pain, sweat, blood, and fatigue on her face. “We stay, then?”

“The citadel needs to be defended,” she said.

“Reinforcements?”

“With any luck, we’ll find among these bodies a pendant that was stolen from me. With it, we can contact someone back home for help,” she said.

“Whom do we trust?” he asked.

“We contact those we’ve always trusted and hope we’re right to do so.”

“What if the leaders of Durpar and Estagund are behind it all?” he asked.

Adeenya looked back to the sky and said, “Then we stop them. All of them.”

“Of course,” Taennen said, casting his eyes up to the tower again. “Of course we do.”