Oathkeeper (19 page)

“The ‘No Escape' part,” Whaar answered in a less echoing tone.

“A great honor,” Kreej muttered, exposing his throat.

“Thanks,” Whaar said. “If you don't kill any scarbacks on your way home, I hope you make it. The Zaur could use more soldiers smart enough to negotiate.”

Kreej's eyes widened in shock as the two scarbacks abandoned him. Their shapes vanished into the black and then their heat faded, and he could only hear the rhythmic metal on stone of their footfalls. Then they were gone.

Alone in the dark, Kreej shook with fear, expecting the scarbacks to return. His forked gray tongue licked the air, tasting for vibrations. Nothing. When they didn't come back after a five hundred count, Kreej stuffed his lucky rat back into his pouch and scampered away.

You thought to ask which bones and surrender them?
the voice whispered.
I don't think I've ever seen a Zaur do that before. Maybe I have a use for you after all.

*

Rae'en stood next to Vander and Caz in the Hall of Elements. As the core of the Tower of Elementals, the circular room encompassed six floors of white marble walls ringed with viewing boxes and hovering platforms of ice, stone, and crystal-wrapped flames. The highest and mightiest of Oathbreaker nobility took up the viewing boxes and floating platforms in a hierarchy Rae'en didn't follow beyond obvious divisions.

Okay, show me the seating chart.
Rae'en nudged Vander.

What chart would that be?
Vander replied in feigned ignorance.

The one you and the other Overwatches have been hoping I'd ask for
, Rae'en thought, adding a very real elbow to the ribs for emphasis.

Well, if you think you need something, I suppose we could arrange a rough map of sorts.
Even as the words hit her mind, names and titles started popping into existence, overlaying her vision.
Until your Overwatches get here.

Uncle!
Was he still upset about that?
I just want them to get used to it. You are still Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth of One Hundred. I just want . . .

She didn't know how to explain it.

There was nothing wrong with Vander, Feagus, Amber, or Varvost. They were giants among Aern and Overwatches. Amber, by Gho'arn out of Unknown Vael, was the youngest, having taken her father's place among the One Hundred upon his death, much like Rae'en, but even she was ninety times Rae'en's age. Rae'en hadn't even built up the courage to ask her how she'd wound up being named such a . . . human-sounding name . . . and Vander wondered why she wanted her own familiar, safe, comfortable . . . younger . . . Overwatches around?

Glayne, though, he was pretty scary, but that could hardly be news to anyone. Scars were attractive, but he'd lost his eyes in the Demon Wars, burned away by Ghaiattri fire and . . . gah!

I know
, Vander thought at her.

Rae'en doubted that, but she lost herself in the sea of data before her, noting the way the Stone Lord and offspring stood on matching platforms, Lady Flame and hers on crystal-wrapped fire, Lady Air and her ilk hovered where platforms of air would have been, completing a circular pattern that would have been broken without them. The Sea Lord's family on their ice oval served as a demarcation line, behind which other less noble attendees appeared.

Vander
, Rae'en started to asked,
have you noticed the children of the high elemental guys are all Aiannai?
Then she felt Zhan reaching out to her, not interrupting but wanting her attention.

She waited, watching as down at the very bottom of the hall, below them, Prince Dolvek stepped out in his white robes, nodding to Wylant and her Sidearms. Hasimak, the Elderly High Elementalist, stepped forward and without any speeches or warning beyond his prince's nod, reached out a hand and engulfed the corpse of King Grivek in flame.

Go ahead, Zhan
. Rae'en watched the old king burn as she listened to Zhan's news. If the short yip of glee she made was out of place, Rae'en did not care. They'd found the ring!

A Zaur?
she thought at Zhan.

Yes
. His tone gave the impression he found the turn of events as confounding as she did.
I can't recall a civil conversation ever having taken place between a Zaur and an Ossuarian. Even the humans rarely surrender the bones when we demand them.

What did it look like?
Rae'en caught the eye of an Oathbreaker, his lips pursed as if he'd disapproved of her outburst. Folding the little finger of her right hand against her palm, she waggled the other digits at him. To an Aern, it would have been gentle teasing or a mild insult, the equivalent of calling the Oathbreaker a baby or telling him to act his rank—well, probably age rather than rank would make more sense to an Oathbreaker.

A moment.
Rae'en felt a shifting of contacts as her connection to Zhan through End Song and Bloodmane shifted. No Escape touched her mind, bringing with him an image of the Zaur.

How good of a look did you get at it?
Rae'en asked, all thoughts of the offended Oathbreaker dropping away.

It left quite an impression.
Smoke from Grivek's burning remains spiraled up in twin lines controlled by Wylant at the base of the tower, her usual black leather doublet and pants augmented by a white cloak that obscured the crown and double bar insignia on the upper arm of her top and the pattern of scars embroidered onto the back, but the same design had been stitched in red on the back of the cloak. At the top, Prince Rivvek's Aeromancer Brigadier Bash maintained other complex patterns worked in smoke.

The most complex portion of the pattern, in the center of the room, seemed to be worked by Lady Air, the lines shifting to form a three-dimensional likeness of the late king, clouding, shifting to become the royal seal with its three towers.

The Zaur
, Rae'en prompted End Song.

My apologies, I thought you were watching the—

It just makes me feel strange
, Rae'en thought at him.
It's off-putting to kill someone who won't fight back. I had to, but . . . well, and to not eat him after felt wrong. I was, I don't know, relieved that I was Oathbound to let them burn his body instead. Glad, really. Is it odd to feel so happy I didn't eat my enemy?

End Song withheld any comments he might have, filling her vision instead with an image of the Zaur named Kreej. He was of the black scaled rather than the brown or mottled scale variety, but other than that, he seemed unremarkable.

Do all Zaur have copper-colored eyes?
The lines of smoke twined through and behind the image of the curious Zaur as she rotated it in her mind's eye.
No, never mind
, she sent.
I saw Zaur with yellow, green, brown, black, blue, red, and silver when I was a prisoner
.

Rae'en pulled the view in closer. Kreej had keeled scales. A raised ridge ran down the center of each scale. They would be rough rather than smooth to the touch. A lack of gloss meant they would scatter light differently, too, not reflecting it like most of the Zaur she'd seen.

If Zaur are all the same species
—she ran through the others in her head—
why do they come in so many different colors and scale patterns?

Humans are the same way
, End Song thought back.
Different shades. Multiple hair and eye colors.

So you don't think it's something about his breed of Zaur that makes him smarter?

It could be
, Vander butted in,
but I think he's just a clever reptile with a stronger sense of self-preservation than most of them possess.

Maybe
, Rae'en thought.

Looks like they're wrapping up
, Amber thought, wiping the Zaur out of Rae'en's field of vision. Rae'en's mental map lit with gold around the edges to show it had been updated. A red line flared and dimmed, depicting the projected path Rae'en would be expected to take from the ceremony to the castle proper. Acknowledging the intel with a green check, the map's opacity shifted, letting her see through it easily. Even the name tags labeling the Oathbreakers faded out of existence unless she concentrated on bringing them back up.

Kazan and the others aren't this skilled
, she thought at Vander.

Amber and Varvost are showing off
, he thought back.
Kholster didn't care about the showy stuff, but they're pulling out the stops for you to see what kind of information you want to receive.

Good work
, she sent to her Overwatches.
I appreciate it.

And don't imagine your other Overwatches haven't learned a thing or two
, Vander sent.
They got high praise from Malmung, and he still complains about my lack of presentational style
.

I wish they'd hurry up and get here
, Rae'en groused.
It's taking them forever.

CHAPTER 15

ROADSIDE HAZARDS

Forest to the left of them, ridge-line to the right, Rae'en's young set of Overwatches ran for their lives feeling more than a little confused. True, they
had
all been a little overexuberant when Kholster had defeated Torgrimm and became the new god of death. Kazan, even now, found it hard not to smile at the remembered thrill and the sound of his fellows chanting with him: Kholster! Khol-ster!

And, yes, the humans had seemed upset, but he couldn't understand the level of irrationality with which the knights of Castleguard had responded. Hoofbeats, from one of those responses, pounded behind the four of them on the rough dirt road that, Kazan hoped, ran from Castleguard to The Parliament of Ages or, at the very least, up to a defensible point on the ridge overhang along which the road ran.

Arbokk held Charming, his soul-bonded mace, in his uninjured hand. His right arm, paralyzed by an arrow to the shoulder, flapped uselessly at his side, the offending arrow waggling as he ran. Pulling it out carefully would take too much time, and jerking it free on the run was too risky.

We aren't Armored
, Kazan thought to himself.
We heal fast, yes, but to heal a gaping shoulder wound? On the run? Without stopping for meat to speed the healing process along?

At the back of the group, Kazan took turns swapping off with Joose trying to soak up the arrows and keep track of their pursuers.

What did you say to those knights?!
M'jynn sent to Kazan.

You were there!
Kazan glanced back, catching an arrow in the cheek for his trouble, which he ripped out, broke in half, and tossed to the side.
They were out for blood. Anything would have set them off
.

I think
, Joose interrupted,
it was part of that poem you were making up about whether Torgrimm tasted like chicken or beef. I guess Knights of the Order of the Harvest have a short temper when it comes to jokes about eating their god.

I guess I can see them finding it a little gloating
, Kazan thought,
but their god lost, and I really did wonder what he tasted like—

Are anyone else's feet bleeding?
Arbokk asked. All the others' tokens lit up on their respective mind maps.
So long as it's all of us. I hate to bring this up, but how much longer do you think you guys can keep this up?

What other choice is there?
M'jynn sent. He, like the others, tried his best to keep his pain, the burning in his muscles from seeping into the mental exchange, but the greater the discomfort, the less effective they all were at keeping it to themselves.
The last time Mister Head Overwatch sent us off the trail, we got bogged down in the mud. If these guys could fire more accurately from horseback they'd have had us.

Anyone have any idea how we get up on that overhang?
Kazan asked. From the dirt road, he could just make out a tent and a low fire. Information from Arbokk's view filled in a seated figure, hand shielding her eyes from the suns as she watched their plight.

At least we're entertaining someone
, M'jynn sent.

Let's turn and fight
, Joose offered.
I know there are thirty of them, but they won't kill all of us. The survivors can haul our bones to kholster Rae'en, let her build something useful out of them. She doesn't need us. She's got the Second through the Sixth. Armored Overwatches! What good are we?

She doesn't know them
, M'jynn thought.
Not the way she knows us
.

And it's not up to us to decide whether or not she needs us
, Kazan snapped.
She ordered us to come and we do our best to obey, right?

Arrows rained down, as the tokens in his mind's eye lit up in agreement, catching Kazan in the thigh and lower back. He hopped on one foot for three steps before regaining full control. Even then, he felt the muscle tear when he put the injured leg down. Joose dropped back to rotate out with him, but Kazan couldn't speed up enough to take Joose's forward position.

I'm done
, Kazan sent.
Another hundred steps or so and I won't be able to get this leg to do anything. Muscle's torn.

They can't have many more arrows, Prime
, Arbokk replied.

Actually, I think that's why it took them so long to come after us
, M'jynn sent.
I don't think any of them have had less than four quivers and an extra horse.

Behind the Aern, hoofbeats hammered ceaselessly, and the cries of the knights grew louder. Each exuberant whoop of delight reminded Kazan of the sounds his own squad of Elevens had made at their first deployment. Ahead, Kazan saw the figure—a woman—stand. She rose straight from the ground without using her hands, and it made him smile to see a non-Aern who did such things. Sunlight picked out odd colors in her hair, reminiscent of the unnatural hues they'd seen on people back in Midian.

I think I like the other side of the battle better
, Kazan thought.
Think they'd let us swap up?