First Lord's Fury (Page 89)

Tavi grunted and peered up at the weeping sky. He sighed. "All right. There’s no sense in pushing through in the dark. Thank you, Crassus. We’ll make camp there. Please spread the word to the Tribunes. Maximus, please inform the Warmaster that we’ll halt in half a mile."

The Antillan brothers both saluted, then left to follow their orders.

Tavi eyed Kitai, who continued to ride facing straight ahead, not looking at him. Her expression was unreadable. "You were joking, weren’t you?"

She lifted her chin, sniffed, and said nothing.

For the first time in history, Alerans and Canim pitched a camp together.

Tavi and Varg walked about the camp together as their respective country-men labored to set up the camp’s defenses after a hard day’s marching, in the rain, with night coming on rapidly.

"Should be interesting tonight," Varg rumbled.

"I thought that the Free Aleran Legion had done this sort of thing many times," Tavi said.

Varg growled in the negative. "Nasaug was already pushing the letter of the codes by training makers to fight. Bringing demons into a warrior camp? He would have been forced to kill some of his own officers to keep his place." Varg squinted at a team of Aleran engineers who were using earthcrafting to soften the stone so that they could drive the posts of the palisade into it.

Tavi watched them for a moment, considering. "There was more to it than that."

Varg inclined his head slightly. "Can’t just tell a soul it is free, Tavar. Freedom must be done for oneself. Important that the slaves created their own freedom. Nasaug gave them advisors. They did everything else on their own."

Tavi glanced up at Varg. "Are you going to be forced to kill some of your officers tonight?"

Varg was silent for a moment. Then he shrugged. "Possible. But I think unlikely."

"Why?"

"Because their opposition would be based upon tradition. Tradition needs a world to exist. And the world has been destroyed, Aleran. My world. Yours, too. Even if we could defeat the vord tomorrow, nothing would change that."

Tavi frowned. "Do you really think that?"

Varg flicked his ears in the affirmative. "We are in uncharted waters, Tavar. And the storm has not yet abated. If we are still alive when it is over, we will find ourselves on unknown shores."

Tavi sighed. "Yes. And then what?"

Varg shrugged. "We are enemies, Tavar. What do enemies do?"

Tavi thought about it for a moment. Then he said, "I only know what they did in the old world."

Varg stopped in his tracks. He eyed Tavi for several seconds, then shook his ears and began walking again. "Wasted breath to talk about it now."

Tavi nodded. "Survive today. Then face tomorrow."

Varg flicked his ears in agreement. They had crossed into the Canim side of the camp as they spoke. Varg came to a halt outside a large, black tent. There was an odd smell of incense in the air, and the stench of rotting meat. From inside the tent, a deep-bellied drum kept a slow, reverberating cadence. Deep voices chanted in the snarling tongue of the wolf-warriors.

Varg stopped outside the tent and drew his sword in a long, slow rasp of steel on brass. Then he hurled it point down into the earth before the tent. It sank into the ground with a thump, and the bubbling whisper of its quivering went on for several seconds.

The chanting voices inside the tent stopped.

"I am here regarding the matter of the dead makers at Antillus," Varg called.

There was a low murmur of voices. Then a dozen of them spoke in ragged concert. "Their blood cries out for justice."

"Agreed," said Varg in a very hard voice. "What wisdom have the bloodspeakers to give such justice a shape?"

Another swift and murmured conference followed. Then they answered together again. "Blood for blood, life for life, death for death."

Varg flicked his tail impatiently. "And if I do not do this?"

This time they all answered at once. "Call to the makers, call to the warriors, call for strength to lead us."

"Then let Master Khral come forth to see it done!"

There was a long silence from the tent.

Tavi arched an eyebrow and glanced at Varg. The big Cane looked intent.

"Master Khral speaks for the bloodspeakers, and for the makers! So he has assured me for many months! Let him come forth!"

Again, silence.

"Then let one of honor and experience come forth to witness it! Let Master Marok come forth!"

Almost before Varg was finished speaking, the opening of the tent parted, and a tall, weathered old Cane emerged. He wore a mantle constructed from sections of vord chitin, and a misshapen warrior-form’s chitinous skull served as his hood. More plates of chitin armored his torso and legs. His fur was, like Varg’s, midnight black, though both of his forearms were so heavily laden with layer upon layer of scars that almost no fur grew there at all. He wore a sling bag across his chest. The band had been woven from what looked like the legs of many wax spiders. The bag, too, was a black chitin skull from some vord form Tavi had never seen – but instead of carrying blood, it held multiple scrolls and what might have been some sort of flute carved from bone. The old Cane also had a pair of daggers stored side by side on his belt. Their bone handles looked old and worn.

"Master Marok," Varg rumbled. He bared his throat very slightly, the Canim version of a bow. Marok returned the gesture only a shade more deeply, acknowledging Varg’s leadership without quite recognizing his superiority.

"Varg," Marok replied. "Has no one killed you yet?"

"You are welcome to try your luck," Varg replied. "The bloodspeakers allowed you to speak for them?"

"They’re all afraid that if one of them steps up to the head of the pack, Khral will have them killed when he returns."

"Khral," Varg said, amusement in his voice.

"Or someone." Marok eyed Tavi. "This is the demon Tavar?"

Varg’s ears flicked affirmation. "Gadara, this is Marok. I respect him."

Tavi lifted his eyebrows and gave Marok a Canim bow, which was returned in precisely equal measure. The old Cane watched him through narrowed eyes.

"You killed two of my people," Marok said.

"I’ve killed more than that," Tavi replied. "But if you mean the two false messengers who attacked me in my tent, then yes. I killed one, and a soldier under my command killed another."

"The tent was the Tavar’s," Varg said. "He did not seek the makers out for murder. They trespassed upon his range."