Word of Traitors: Legacy of Dhakaan - Book 2 by Don Bassingthwaite Page A

assassination, Ekhaas had wondered if the warrior could be trusted, but he already knew some of the truth behind the rod and had kept his silence. He could be trusted.
    Ekhaas saw Aruget’s ears rise slightly as she and Ashi approached.
Duur’kala
magic had erased the aches and cuts of their battle against Makka, but there were still bruises. In addition, Ashi walked like an angry cat, full of rage and ready to lash out. Aruget said nothing, though; just opened the door for them.
    Geth and Dagii, on the other hand, weren’t so restrained. “Rat!” Geth said, leaping up out of a chair by the room’s only window. “Were you in a fight?”
    “A fight that ended too early,” said Ashi. She snapped her teeth on the words.
    “Makka is in Rhukaan Draal,” Ekhaas explained.
    Dagii’s ears lay back. “The bugbear Marguul chief from the mountains? What’s he doing here?”
    “I’d say looking for revenge. He looked like he’d been traveling and he seemed to be alone.” She described their fight with the bugbear—and his escape.
    Geth growled. “That’s all we need,” he said. “An enraged bugbear trying to kill you.”
    “Trying to kill us,” Dagii corrected him. “He had Ashi, Ekhaas, and me captive. I doubt if he’d end an attempt at vengeance withjust Ashi and Ekhaas. He may even be looking for you—it wouldn’t take much to link us together.”
    “How would he have found us?” Geth asked.
    “He knows my name. He might have started with that.”
    Geth’s eyebrows jumped. “You
told
him? You told him your real name?”
    Dagii shrugged. “There was no reason to hide it.”
    “He may not be coming after anyone anymore,” said Ekhaas. “Ashi left him with a bad wound. If he doesn’t get to a healer, it could kill him.”
    “Let’s hope,” Geth said.
    “Let’s not.” Ashi’s hands opened and closed as she moved around the room. “He’s still got my sword—Kagan’s honor blade.”
    “We’ll find it,” Ekhaas assured her. “One way or another, we’ll—”
    A knock on the door interrupted her. The door opened and Midian Mit Davandi slipped through. Geth gave a genuine smile, probably the first one Ekhaas had seen from him in ten days. “Midian.”
    The gnome’s sun-browned face was flushed and his pale hair damp with sweat as if he’d been running. “Sorry,” he said. “I had to call on the Zil ambassador. She’s trying to keep track of all the Zils currently in Darguun in case there’s trouble.”
    Ekhaas had never been to Zilargo, but she’d heard it was a strange place, ruled by a blend of gossip, co-operation, and subtle coercion. Then again, an entire race that was no bigger than goblins, without larger hobgoblin and bugbear cousins to rely on for physical might, probably would develop different ways of dealing with the world. Certainly it showed in their history—the gnomes of Zilargo had never fought a war, preferring to hide behind policies of conciliation and neutrality. It seemed to work. The nation still existed in a pocket between humans and
dar
when by all rights it should have been overrun long ago.
    Midian caught her looking at him and his blue eyes flashed. “I have something for you, Ekhaas. I found it in the ruins I was investigating at Bloodrun.” He produced a small object and tossed it to her. It was a Dhakaani coin, black with age and badly corroded. A hole had been punched through one edge. Once it would havebeen threaded on a cord, the face of the emperor on the coin looking outward, to make a kind of simple amulet. They were common artifacts in all eras of the empire. She looked for the dynasty name on the coin, frowned, and glanced at Midian.
    “Koolt Dynasty. Early empire. The ruins at Bloodrun are late empire.”
    “Wrong,
duur’kala,”
Midian crowed with delight. “Dig down and you find that the late empire ruins are built on top of early empire ruins. Did the Kech Volaar know that? I don’t think so!”
    Ekhaas glowered at him. Tariic had