Word of Traitors: Legacy of Dhakaan - Book 2 (14 page)

The goblin nodded. “After the last two weeks I don’t think I have any tricks left.”

The place he led them to was a fragment of brick wall standing in the middle of large swath of burned-out ruins. The nearest surviving buildings were some distance away.

“One of the fires that burned on the night of Haruuc’s death destroyed this area,” said Chetiin. “It will be reclaimed, but between the mourning period and the games, no one has had time. We won’t be overheard.” He squatted down in the shelter of the wall and looked up at them. “I’ve been watching you for the last few days, waiting for a chance to speak with you alone,” he said. “I saw you leave Khaar Mbar’ost tonight and I followed you to the tiefling’s house. His shutters fit badly. I know your plans. Who thought of creating a false rod?”

Ekhaas answered. “Midian. When he returned.”

Chetiin nodded. “I heard what you told Tenquis about the rod’s influence on Haruuc.
Maabet
, I should have seen it. Nothing he did in the last days of his life was like him.”

“You said as much when you argued with him just before his death,” said Geth. “You said, ‘You’re not the Haruuc I’ve known for so many years.’”

“If we knew truth when we spoke it, we’d all be seers.” Chetiin’s mouth tightened. “I didn’t guess that the rod had a hold on him. If anything I would have guessed that he had begun to grasp the rod’s power.”

“That’s what we thought you believed,” Geth said. “You also told Haruuc that he would destroy what he’d built unless he was stopped.”

“And you thought that I had followed through and stopped him.” Chetiin fell silent for a moment before adding, “I would have considered it. We swore to keep the rod’s powers secret by any means necessary.” He glanced at each of them in turn. “But we all swore to that. I wouldn’t have acted on my own. I would have come to you.”

“Then what happened?” asked Dagii.

Chetiin made a face and his ears folded down. “I was careless. When I left Haruuc after our argument—after he ordered me out of Khaar Mbar’ost—I was angry. I forgot the first law of the
shaarat’khesh:
watch and listen. Someone put a crossbow bolt in my back. Poisoned.”

Breath hissed between Geth’s teeth. “Just like Haruuc. Did you see who did it?”

“No.” Chetiin shook his head. “The bolt was bad. The poison was worse. It worked fast, burning in me. It made me weak and
blind. Strandpine sap, I think. A big dose, maybe as much as they used on Haruuc.”

“And you’re smaller than he was. How come you’re not dead?”

“An assassin who works with poisons for many years develops a resistance to them,” the goblin said. “As it was, I was as good as dead. That probably saved me. I think if I had been any more alive, my attacker would have been certain to finish the job.”

“Lucky,” Ekhaas said.

“It wasn’t my only piece of luck. I drifted in and out of consciousness after that while the poison ran its course. When I finally woke up, I realized that I’d been stuffed up onto a ledge in one of the chimneys of Khaar Mbar’ost. If not for the ban on fires during the period of mourning, smoke in the chimney would have suffocated me.” He spread his hands. “The bolt had been pulled out of me, maybe to make it easier to hide my body. That spared me further exposure to the poison. My daggers had been taken, of course. When I managed to climb down, I discovered the ledge I’d been hidden on was above the fireplace in my own chamber.”

“Your chamber was searched,” said Dagii. “I was there.”

“Whoever attacked me did a good job. The ledge was invisible from below. Smoke and heat would have preserved my body. What little smell there might be would have been whisked up the chimney. I might never have been found.”

He said it with a chilling bluntness, as if talking about his own murder was the most natural thing in the world. Geth held back a shudder. “And we would have kept on thinking you’d gone into hiding. Why didn’t you come to us?”

“I overheard that Haruuc was dead and that I had done the deed. I didn’t know who had attacked me, but it was clear that anyone who found me wasn’t going to let me live long enough to explain. I could barely move, much less defend myself. It was two days after Haruuc’s death. I bandaged my wound, disguised myself, got out of Khaar Mbar’ost, and made my way to a
shaarat’khesh
house. It was deserted—those of my clan had fled the city or moved to more secure shelter—but it was enough for me. I spent eight days recovering there until the end of the mourning period.” His expression darkened. “With the beginning of the games, I was able to move around Rhukaan Draal in disguise. I learned everything
that had happened—and I started to watch for my chance to talk to you. You gave it to me tonight.” He spread his hands.
“Sit ya toomiish
—those are events as they happened to me. I didn’t kill Haruuc, but someone wants it to look like I did.”

“If you didn’t,” asked Geth, “who did? And why?”

“You believe me then?”

“I—” Geth hesitated. He wanted to believe the goblin. What Chetiin had told them made at least as much sense to him as the idea that Chetiin could have turned on Haruuc. And yet the time he had spent since Haruuc’s death cursing Chetiin’s name wouldn’t leave him so easily. Both versions of events were incredible.

Dagii spoke into the silence. “I believe you,” he said firmly. “You have too much
muut
, too much
atcha
to have acted against Haruuc on your own. I know that you would have come to us first.”

Geth glanced at Ekhaas. The
duur’kala’s
ears were cocked. Slowly, she nodded. “I think you’re telling the truth,” she said to Chetiin. She smiled.
“Khaavolaar
, I hated thinking of you as a traitor!”

Geth’s gut felt a little hollow, as if he was a traitor now. He forced a smile to his face, though. “I believe you, too. It’s good to have you back.”

Chetiin didn’t smile. His dark-stained face remained pensive. “I’m not back,” he said. “Too many people think I was the one who put Witness into Haruuc’s eye.” He shook his head. “I’ve thought about it ever since I escaped, but I don’t know the answer to your question, Geth. I don’t know who actually killed Haruuc.”

“A changeling in your shape?” suggested Dagii.

“A changeling can’t imitate a goblin,” said Chetiin. “We’re too small. A changeling child might be able to, but no child could have done what I am told I did.” The muscles of his jaw tightened. “I can only come up with one plausible explanation. It was another of the
shaarat’khesh,”

“One of your own clan?” Geth asked. “They would do that?”

“Not all of them.
Shaarat’khesh
can refuse a request, but there are those who would have considered it a challenge.”

“And they would have tried to kill you to do it?”

“I have my rivals,” Chetiin said grimly, “though so far as I knew, none of them were in Rhukaan Draal at the time. But yes, they would have.”

Dagii looked doubtful. “Why use your identity to kill Haruuc? The honor of his death would fall on you.”

Chetiin gave him a thin smile. “You fight open battles, Dagii. Among the Silent Clans, the assassin would be twice-honored: once for killing Haruuc, once for concealing his true identity.” The smile faded from his face. “But I’ve been in touch with
shaarat’khesh
I trust who remain in hiding in Rhukaan Draal. None of our clan has claimed Haruuc’s death. Maybe no one will—because of the trouble that it brought down on us, the clan is angry. I had to talk fast to get even old friends to believe my story. In any case, if Haruuc truly was killed by one of the
shaarat’khesh
, the blame doesn’t fall on the assassin, but on the one who hired him.”

“Then we need to think about why Haruuc was killed,” said Ekhaas. “What did anyone have to gain from Haruuc’s death?”

“They could stop him from becoming a tyrant,” Geth said. “They could prevent a war—they would have had their plans in place before he tried to turn the warlords away from Breland toward Valenar.”

Dagii shook his head. “Those are the reasons we’ve been chasing since Haruuc’s death. Except that, as Tenquis pointed out, most Darguuls liked the way Haruuc was acting under the rod’s influence. They would still welcome a war with Valenar. Or with anyone else, never mind the consequences.” His ears flicked. “Could a non-Darguul have hired one of the
shaarat’khesh?”

“It would be difficult,” said Chetiin, “but not impossible. If one of my clan wanted the honor badly enough—”

“We’ve forgotten something.”

They all turned to look at Ekhaas. Her ears were flat against her skull and her eyes were narrow. She pointed at Geth. “You said that after he killed Haruuc, the assassin looked at you and said ‘We swore we would do what we had to.’ That’s what made us all think Chetiin believed Haruuc had discovered the power of the rod.”

“And we were wrong,” Geth said, but Chetiin’s eyes opened wide and he drew a long hard breath. Dagii’s lips peeled back from his teeth. A moment later, Geth understood what Ekhaas had seen as well.

Only the six of them who had recovered the rod and understood its terrible secret knew about the oath they had made. The idea left
him cold. He looked out across the burned ruins to the eastern sky. Khaar Mbar’ost stood as a silhouette between them and the coming dawn. “One of us hired the assassin? Who would have done that? Who
could
have done that?”

Dagii spoke through clenched teeth. “Midian.”

Geth whirled to question this blunt accusation, but Ekhaas was already talking, building up evidence. “He was the only one of us who wasn’t there. You, Geth, and you, Dagii were with Haruuc on the dais. Ashi was just off of the dais in the side room. I was with Senen Dhakaan on the floor of the throne room. Chetiin was lying wounded. But Midian was conveniently out of Rhukaan Draal. He could have hired the assassin, told him what to say to make his disguise as Chetiin even more convincing, and left for the ruins at Bloodrun.” She began to pace back and forth among the ashes as she thought. “You knew that Haruuc hadn’t really discovered the power of the rod, Geth. You told me and you told Ashi. If one of us had hired the assassin, we had time to stop the assassination.”

“I didn’t hire an assassin!” Geth growled.

“I’m not saying you did. Or that Ashi did.” She looked to Dagii. “Or you.”

“I didn’t know about the danger of the rod until after Haruuc was dead,” Dagii said stiffly.

“No, but I know you.” Ekhaas’s ears rose and flicked. “When you returned with Keraal as your prisoner, you were as dirty as a farmhand and your hands were blistered because you had insisted on binding the Gan’duur warriors into the grieving trees along the road yourself. You took responsibility for their deaths. Someone with such
muut
wouldn’t hire an assassin to kill his lhesh.”

Geth thought he saw something pass between them, a meeting of amber and gray eyes, then Dagii lowered his head in acknowledgement and Ekhaas turned back to him and Chetiin.

“None of that proves Midian is the one behind it, only that he wasn’t there,” she said. “Haruuc had enemies—any one of them could have hired an assassin. But the false Chetiin knew the words of our pledge. Midian has to be our suspect.”

Only if Chetiin is telling the truth
, whispered a voice inside Geth. He swallowed it, sending it down into the cold feeling that swirled in his gut. He remembered how pale Midian had been when they
had told him about the danger of the rod. If Geth had just realized he’d made a horrible mistake, surely he would have reacted in the same way. “It still leaves us with the question of why he would do it,” he said, “and why he wouldn’t have come to the rest of us before hiring an assassin.”

“For any and all of the reasons we guessed Chetiin might have done it,” said Ekhaas. “We’ve got Midian. Do we confront him?”

“No,” Chetiin said quietly. The goblin elder rose from his crouch. “Solve the problem of the rod first. When Haruuc’s heir is lhesh with the false rod in his hand and the true rod has been dealt with, then we confront Midian.”

“You think he’d betray us.”

“I’m not certain what to think, but I know that accusing him of orchestrating the murder of Haruuc will not go well right now. We can’t involve other people without revealing the secret of the rod. We need to deal with one problem before we move onto the next. You’re close to getting the true rod away. Will rushing to confront Midian change anything?”

Ekhaas flicked her ears. “No. I don’t think we should tell him any more than he needs to know though. We’ve already promised Tenquis we wouldn’t reveal his identity. We should keep our meeting with you a secret, too.”

“It’s better if no one knows you’ve seen me,” said Chetiin. “Not even Ashi—the more people who know, the more people who could give me away. There’s someone out there who believes I’m dead. We should let them continue to believe it. If it’s Midian, Ashi’s trust will hide our suspicion. I’ll listen for rumors of the
shaarat’khesh
who performed the assassination. We may be able to learn something more.” He nodded to the east. “Dawn is almost here. You should return to Khaar Mbar’ost.”