Hand of the Hunter

CHAPTER THIRTY

"Menduarthis," said Hweilan, followed by something in a language Darric could not understand. But he knew a curse when he heard one, and this one sounded impressively foul. The wolf snapped and growled even louder.

"Is that any way to greet an old friend?" said Menduarthis.

Most of the tension had one out of Hweilan's stance, but she still hadn't released the hobgoblin chief. "How… how…?"

"Articulate as always, my little flower," said Menduarthis. "Why don't you come down?"

Hweilan glanced at Darric and each of his men. Menduarthis caught it.

"As long as they behave themselves, they have nothing to fear from us." Menduarthis looked to Darric. "You and your men will behave, won't you?"

Darric glared at him.

"Come now," said Menduarthis. "Things are finally calming down. You don't want to get everyone all riled up again, do you?"

"I have no idea what's going on," said Darric.

"That much is obvious," said Menduarthis. "I have your word?"

Darric looked to Valsun, who looked down at the steel tickling his throat. He nodded very carefully.

"Jaden?" Darric called.

"Tell me how I'm not behaving now?" Jaden called. His voice was muffled because his face was smashed into the dirt, a hobgoblin's hand pressing down on the back of his head. "I behave any more and I'll be digging with my teeth!"

"Mandan?"

Mandan didn't even look at Darric. He snarled at Menduarthis.

"Aren't you quite finished with this nonsense?" said Menduarthis. His lips curled in a smile, but his gaze had gone cold.

Mandan roared and gave a sudden, hard yank on the ropes tangling his left arm. Caught off guard, the hobgoblins holding the ropes flew off their feet. One at least had the good sense to let go. But the other two held on. Mandan turned his club. The knobby end of it connected with the face of a goblin's helmet with a loud clunk and he drove his boot into the chest of the other, sending him flying backward. Both went down, the former moaning and clutching his head, the latter kicking and struggling to breathe.

But Mandan merely stood straight and wriggled his left arm until the ropes fell away.

"Now I'm finished," he said.

A few of the hobgoblins laughed at that.

Menduarthis spread his arms. "See? All friends now?"

Hweilan released her grip on the chief, who fell to his hands and knees and sighed with relief.

Menduarthis turned to the wolf, causing it to growl anew. "Oh, I know who you are," said Menduarthis. "Don't make me twirl my fingers."

Hweilan and the chief came down together. Blood still stained his chin and cheek, but he had regained his composure, and the blood only served to give him a more savage look. Hweilan had bow in hand, but her arrows still rode in her quiver. Watching her… Darric stared. She moved with the grace of a panther. Of the fiery little castle girl Darric remembered, nothing remained. Here they were surrounded by mountain hobgoblins, not a one of them without a weapon, led by some sort of eladrin sorcerer, and she showed not a hint of fear.

She stopped several paces from Menduarthis, then said, "What are you doing here?"

Menduarthis raised on eyebrow. "How good to see you again, Menduarthis. Thank you so much for saving my life, Menduarthis. So sorry for leaving you for dead, Menduarthis. How have you been, Menduarthis?" Both eyebrows went up. "No?"

"You and your new friends have been following us for miles. Why?"

"Well, I did risk my life for you. Gave up quite a prominent position in a powerful queen's court. For you. Even risked my life fighting that whatever it was. For you. You owe me."

"I owe you?"

"Most certainly, little flower."

She watched him a moment. Though she was at least two heads shorter than him, she still managed somehow to look down on him. "And what do I owe you?"

Menduarthis smiled. "I told you already. A kiss."

She watched him, saying nothing. Several of the hobgoblins chuckled.

" 'Get me to Lendri,' you said, 'then help us to get out again, and afterward, I will kiss you.' Your words. And I seem to remember stipulating not one of those how-good-to-see-you-big-brother pecks on the cheek. A real kiss. Right here. Right now."

"And then…?"

Menduarthis shrugged. "I held up my end of the bargain. Time for you to pay up. And then we're even."

"Very well."

"What?" The word escaped Darric before he could stop it. All eyes turned to him.

She took off the bone mask and hitched it to her belt. But her face was no less a mask, completely devoid of any emotion. "What's the harm in it?"

"Oh, sod it!" Jaden called. "If it'll get these brutes off me, I'll kiss him!"

Menduarthis turned to look where the hobgoblins still held Jaden facedown in the dirt. "Get off the loud fellow. He's spoiling my moment." Then he looked to Darric. "And you keep quiet. This doesn't concern you."

One of the hobgoblins tousled Jaden's hair, then he and his companion got off. Jaden pushed up and brushed the worst of the dirt off his clothes and wiped it from his lips.

"Hweilan," said Darric, "you can't be serious."

"Urdu," Menduarthis called, "if that one speaks again, poke a hole in the old man's cheek."

The wolf, still crouched a few paces behind Menduarthis, growled.

"Oh, stop this," said Hweilan, "the lot of you."

She stepped forward and grabbed the back of Menduarthis's head with her free hand, pulled him down to her, and kissed him, long and hard. The man was so caught by surprise that for a moment he simply stood there, wide-eyed and stiff-lipped. But then he closed his eyes and returned the kiss.

The hobgoblins cheered, and Darric felt his face grow hot.

Hweilan pulled away, took one step back, and said in a husky voice, "How was that."

Menduarthis swallowed and blinked. "That was… quite nice."

"We're even?"

"We are."

Hweilan punched him. She moved so fast that her arm was only a blur of motion. Her gloved fist struck Menduarthis's face with a crack that spun him halfway around before he hit the ground.

The hobgoblins cheered even louder, a few of them even hopping up and down like apes and banging sword or spear on shields.

Menduarthis sat up, rubbing his cheek, and glared up at Hweilan.

"Oh, Menduarthis," said the war chief, "I like this one!"

The hobgoblins led them farther up into the mountains. After returning weapons to Valsun and Jaden, the hobgoblins mostly ignored them, sparing them only an occasional glance just shy of contempt, like tolerating two stray dogs whom they have decided to feed dinner scraps.

Grunter patted Darric's arm with surprising gentleness and smiled. His yellow teeth were as big as teacups. "Not broken," he said. "You good."

But Mandan the hobgoblins treated like a long-lost relative finally come to visit, clapping him on the back, laughing, and pushing a sloshing skin into his hands.

He scowled in return. "I don't understand."

"You fought well," Menduarthis said. He had stopped rubbing his cheek, but his jaw and the left side of his face were already puffy and beginning to bruise. "You held your own and did not surrender. A true warrior. They like you."

Mandan's scowl deepened.

Menduarthis looked at the skin. "You'll insult them if you refuse."

The hobgoblins watched expectantly. Mandan looked to Hweilan, who merely shrugged.

"Oh, Hells, I'll take a drink if he won't," said Jaden, and stepped forward.

But the point of a hobgoblin's dagger at his stomach stopped him. "You get your own drink, Klarsuf."

Jaden backed away from the steel. "Klar what?"

"Klarsuf," said Hweilan. "He's naming you in Goblin. Means 'dirt mouth.' "

"He's saying I have a dirty mouth? What's he? My mother?"

Menduarthis answered, "He's saying in the fight that you ended up on your face in the dirt. You can get your own drink."

All eyes returned to Mandan. He looked down at the skin in his hand. "So this is their way of apologizing?"

The hobgoblins laughed.

"More of a salute," said Menduarthis. "They aren't sorry for the fight. They enjoyed the fight. It's more their way of saying, 'Well done.' "

Mandan looked down on the nearest hobgoblin. "Even you?"

The hobgoblin had taken off his helmet. He smiled up at Mandan, even as he rubbed his chest. "Aye," he said. "Good kick." He nodded at the skin. "Drink."

Mandan handed his club to the hobgoblin so that he could untie the knot in the skin. He spat the kanishta root into one palm then upended the skin into his mouth. Lowering it, he winced and swallowed.

"Gah! That's… gah!"

The hobgoblins roared with laughter. The one whom Mandan had kicked in the chest took the skin and gulped from it. "Puts hair on your ears," he said.

And with that, they set off, going back the way they had come for a quarter mile or so, then taking a smaller side trail up into the heights.

"So tell me," Menduarthis said to Hweilan. "That was your first kiss, wasn't it?"

She scowled. "No."

Menduarthis spared Darric a glance, then gave Hweilan a beaming smile. "I mean your first real kiss, with a real man. Not some boy behind the tapestries after the feast?"

Hweilan's scowl deepened, and a blush crawled up her neck and into her face. "Go away, Menduarthis."

He laughed, gave Darric a cruel wink, then strode ahead to confer with his hobgoblin war chief.

Walking through the woods, Darric managed to stay next to Hweilan, whom the hobgoblins seemed to be giving a wide berth. Menduarthis was the only one of their company who spoke with her, but he had not come back, and Darric couldn't see him at all.

Darric looked around at the hobgoblins and asked Hweilan, "I'm a little confused. Are we captives or guests?"

A hobgoblin winding through the trees to their left said, "For Maaqua to decide."

Hweilan looked sideways at Darric. "Hobgoblins have sharp ears."

Darric knew of Maaqua. Reputed to be a sorceress of some repute, she led the Razor Heart clan, who had negotiated with King Yarin and been granted the right to "tax" the Gap. Never mind the fact that Yarin didn't exactly control the Gap, so he didn't really have the right to grant anything. The treaty meant, essentially, that Damarans could pass the Gap as long as they paid the Razor Heart. And if the Razor Heart happened upon any of Yarin's enemies… well, then it most likely became a matter of how much they could pay. The fact that Darric and his men were Damarans might work in their favor.

But if this Maaqua knew enough, she might know that Darric's House was not exactly high in Yarin's esteem.

"For Maaqua to decide?" said Darric. "What does that mean?"

"It means you should have stayed home," said Hweilan.

Highwatch

Argalath was still trembling when he entered the chamber. Vazhad supported him on one side, one of his acolytes on the other. The stone chamber, deep in the mountain beneath Highwatch, had been darkened to accommodate their master. Only one guttering candle in the middle of the floor shed its flickering glow through the room.

Lord Guric stood along the wall, staring at nothing. But when Argalath entered the room, a tiny tremor passed through him, a slight ripple of the skin, and his gaze fixed on his master.

"Zadraelek?" he said.

"She found him," said Argalath, his voice barely above a whisper. His mind had still been linked with Zadraelek when the arrow hit him. It had taken all of Jagun Ghen's will to sever that link before he was trapped along with his brother.

"He is…?"

"Yes."

Vazhad released his master long enough to unfold the small camp chair he'd been carrying, then set his master in it.

When Argalath was settled, he sighed with weariness, then looked up at his acolyte and said, "Bring her."

The acolyte bowed and ran back the way they had come.

"What are you planning to do?" said Guric.

"The girl is in Maaqua's territory," said Argalath. "We will send the surprise I have prepared for her."

"And what makes you think the old crone will help?"

"We don't need her help," said Argalath. "She just needs to stay out of the way."

He looked down at the chamber floor. The dim light of the candle caught in the symbols and circle painted on the floor.

"The portal is ready," said Guric.