The Verdent Passage

by Troy Denning

  "The time has come to reclaim my home," Agis said, staring at Caro, the templar, and the two half-giants still waiting outside the colonnade. "I think we're looking at all that remains of the group Tithian sent to watch my house."

  Sadira nodded. "If we stay out here much longer, my tongue will be too thick to cast spells."

  Agis studied the scene for a few more moments, then asked, "Can you disable the two half-giants?"

  The half-elf started to shake her head, then looked at the cane in her hand and changed her mind. "I can probably kill everybody, but we'd better get a little closer."

  Agis scowled at Ktandeo's cane. "Are you sure that's wise?" he asked. "We don't know much—"

  "I know enough," the half-elf insisted. "Besides, it's dangerous to use normal magic so close to your rockstem. Such slow-growing plants might not recover from the drain."

  Agis pursed his lips, but nodded. "Just leave Caro alone."

  "You can't believe he didn't betray us!" the half-elf objected.

  "No, I can't even hope that any more," Agis said. "I still don't want him killed."

  Sadira shrugged, then looked toward the colonnade. "If you want to save Caro, you'll have to kill the templar standing next to him. The more distance there is between my targets and Caro, the better"

  Agis nodded, then unsheathed his dagger and held it in the palm of his hand. The noble closed his eyes and focused his concentration on his energy nexus, opening a pathway from his body through his arm and into the palm that held the dagger. Agis let out a short breath, at the same time closing his fingers around the dagger. He pictured them melding with the hilt and ceasing to exist as separate digits. The weapon became a part of his body that he could control and direct as easily as he could his arms or his legs.

  When Agis opened his eyes again, to him it appeared the dagger had taken the place of his hand at the end of his wrist. He felt the leather hilt wrapped around the cold steel of its tang in the same way he felt his skin covering his bones. "Ready?" he asked.

  "As ready as I'll ever be," Sadira replied. "Let's go."

  "We'll rely on their curiosity to get us closer," he said, leading the way out of the faro.

  They moved through the waist-high rockstem formations casually, Sadira walking several paces to the noble's left and swinging her cane as if it were any normal walking stick. As he approached, Agis could see that the templar, Caro, and the half-giants all faced the colonnade, their backs turned toward him and Sadira. So tightly was their attention focused on the small courtyard that they never noticed him and the sorceress.

  When they had closed to within fifty yards, the templar motioned to the two half-giants as if sending them into the colonnade.

  "Attack now!" Agis said, anticipating it would be difficult enough to flush out the templars and half-giants already inside the colonnade without allowing more to join them.

  The noble whipped his arm toward the templar. The dagger separated from his wrist, leaving a bare stump behind. As it streaked toward its target, Agis kept his arm pointed at the man's head. To him, the cold steel still felt as though it were attached to his arm and he was guiding the weapon's flight just as though he were using his hand to plunge it into his victim's back.

  The dagger slipped into the base of the templar's skull. In his wrist, Agis felt the scrape of steel against bone. A warm liquid enveloped the blade as it entered the man's brain.

  Agis broke the connection. He had little interest in experiencing a man's death from the viewpoint of a weapon.

  The templar fell forward, dying before he hit the ground and probably not aware of it. Caro, who had been talking to the man, stared at the body in confusion.

  Sadira's attack was more spectacular. She pointed the cane at the two half-giants, then spoke two words Ktandeo had once uttered when he used it: "Nok" and "Ghostfire."

  The obsidian orb flared a brilliant orange, then a thunderous boom rocked the field. A stream of fiery light shot from the cane and enveloped the two half-giants. Agis did not see what happened next, for in the same instant he felt a cold hand reach inside him and draw away a portion of his life energy. It was a feeling similar to the one he had experienced when Ktandeo used the cane, but many times stronger.

  A tremendous shudder ran through the senator's body. His knees buckled, then he crashed through a brittle rockstem formation and pitched face-first onto the ground. He rolled onto his side and looked toward Sadira, but otherwise he felt too nauseous to move.

  The sorceress had sunk to her knees and was holding Ktandeo's cane in both hands, staring at it with a look of indignation and confused astonishment. A faint scarlet light glimmered from the depths of the black pommel, squirming and crawling over the surface as if it were alive. The scarlet gleam slowly faded, and Sadira's body swayed uncertainly. When the red light disappeared entirely, she toppled forward into a coppery fan of rockstem.

  Agis forced himself to his knees and looked toward the mansion. Caro was staring at the ground where the half-giants had been standing only a moment before. The noble took his horrified expression as a sign that they would not have to worry about those two half-giants, at least.

  Finding the strength to crawl to the sorceress's side, Agis found her curled into a ball and gasping for breath. Her skin was as pale as bone, her face was haggard, and the luster was gone from her amber hair. Her eyes were focused on the old man's cane, which lay in front of her.

  The noble put a hand under her elbow. "Sadira? Can you hear me?"

  The half-elf's gaze slowly shifted to Agis's face. She cried out in shock.

  "What is it? Are you hurt?"

  "I'm fine," she gasped.

  Agis helped her to her knees. She continued to stare at him. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

  Sadira shook her head and seemed to return to her senses. "No. Everything's fine," she said, brushing the hair around his temples. "You don't see any gray streak in my hair, do you?"

  "No, of course not. Why?" Agis had no sooner asked the question than the answer occurred to him. He looked at the black-pommeled cane in shock. "That thing turned my hair gray?" he gasped.

  "Just a few streaks, around the temples and the top of your head," Sadira replied defensively. "It makes you look distinguished."

  Agis heard heavy footsteps approaching. He looked up to see a large mul dressed only in a breechcloth. Like all muls, this one had small, pointed ears, was completely bald, and below the neck appeared to be nothing but bulging muscles. He was unusually handsome for a man-dwarf, for his rugged features were generally well-proportioned and appealing. He had a sturdy brow with dark, expressive eyes, a proud straight nose, and a powerful, firmly set jaw.

  Agis was about to ask Sadira if she knew the mul when the half-elf struggled to her feet. "Rikus!" she said, opening her arms to hug him as he rushed to her.

  As they kissed, the noble winced inwardly. Though Sadira had made no secret of her feelings for the famous gladiator, Agis had not expected to meet him so soon— and he was certainly not prepared to deal with the jealousy he was experiencing.

  After Sadira finally removed her lips from the mul's, she asked, "What are you doing here?"

  Rikus smiled at her, then, giving Agis a wary glance, leaned close to her ear and whispered. Feeling as though he were intruding, Agis rose to his feet and looked away.

  Behind the gladiator, two women also approached from the colonnade. One was a full human almost as husky as the champion himself. She had pale, smooth skin and a fall, firm shape. The other was the size of a child, with a head of wild hair and a wiry figure. Trapped between the two women was Agis's manservant, Caro.

  "We don't have to keep secrets from Agis," Sadira said, taking the noble's arm and standing between him and Rikus. "He knows all there is to know about me."

  "Is that so?" Rikus asked, raising an eyebrow at the senator.

  Sadira smiled coyly and let the mul's question drop. "Rikus escaped Tithian's slave pits to warn me about Caro," she said, turn
ing to the senator.

  "That was very courageous," Agis offered, uncertain as to whether he should greet the gladiator with the traditional double handclasp of the higher classes or dispense with it as would have been appropriate with any other slave. He decided instead to wait for the mul to take the initiative. "You needn't have troubled yourself, Rikus. We're already aware of Caro's treachery, and your escape comes at a most unfortunate time."

  The mul bared his teeth. "What do you mean by that?" "Nothing, I assure you," Agis said, raising his hands reassuringly. "It's just that Sadira is safe with me, and you would have been more use to us where you were."

  Rikus reached out and grabbed the sorceress's arm. "Well, now she's safe with me," he said. "I warn you, if you try to follow us, I'll kill you."

  Sadira pulled free of the mul's grasp. "Rikus, where do you think you're taking me?"

  The gladiator frowned. "We're escaping," he said. "You're coming with Neeva and Anezka and me to the mountains."

  "I don't need to escape!" the half-elf said. "Agis set me free. Besides, there's someplace he and I have to go." Rikus's face showed his disappointment. "Free?" the mul echoed, half-dazed. "He set you free, and you're still with him?"

  Sadira squeezed the mul's hand and rose onto her toes to kiss him on the cheek. "It's not forever, Rikus," she said. "I told you, he and I have someplace to go."

  Rikus studied Agis, then returned his attention to Sadira. "We'll come with you."

  "Thanks for offering, but we can get along fine ourselves," Agis said.

  "I wasn't asking permission," the mul insisted. "We're going with you."

  "Rikus has a right to go along," Sadira said, giving Agis an imploring smile.

  "We're going to have enough problems without Tithian's slavehunters chasing us alongside his templars," Agis said.

  Sadira shook her head. "What's the difference?" she asked. "Being hunted is being hunted. Besides, it won't hurt to have three gladiators along, and I wouldn't be surprised if Anezka could take us to Nok, whoever he is."

  The two women escorting Caro arrived at the gathering, putting an end to the debate. The blond, who Agis guessed to be Rikus's well-known partner Neeva, glanced at Sadira's grip on the mul's hand and sighed.

  Without commenting on the affectionate hold, she turned her attention to Agis. "This belongs to you, I think," she said, shoving the aged dwarf at him. At the same time, the halfling held out a square crystal of green olivine, and Neeva added, "He's a thief as well as a traitor. Anezka caught him trying to slip this into his pocket."

  Agis took the green crystal from the halfling. "This doesn't belong to me," he said, examining it closely.

  The noble was startled by the sound of Tithian's voice in his ears. "How many times must I tell you to hold the crystal away from your eyes?"

  Raising an eyebrow, Agis obeyed the command. A tiny image of Tithian's face appeared inside the crystal. As me high templar's sharp features came into focus, his jaw slackened. "Agis?"

  The noble nodded. "Yes, Tithian. It's me."

  "How did you get Caro's crystal?" Tithian asked. "You're supposed to be trapped inside the temple of the ancients!"

  "We escaped, no thanks to you," Agis said bitterly. In his peripheral vision, he could see everyone except Caro staring at him as if he were mad.

  "Didn't I warn you that I wasn't proposing a truce?" Tithian demanded defensively. "If you'll recall, I did tell you to watch yourself."

  Though Agis had to agree, he was far from pleased with his friend. "I suppose that justifies using me to hunt for the Alliance?"

  "You're the one who involved himself in the revolt," Tithian countered. "Don't blame me if that causes you trouble."

  "I suppose what you showed me about the obsidian balls and pyramid was just bait?" the senator asked.

  "No. It was real enough," the high templar said. Though it was difficult to read facial expressions on the tiny image in the crystal, Agis thought Tithian appeared frightened. "Tell me, how did the Veiled Ones receive the news?"

  "Why should I tell you anything?" Agis demanded.

  "Because my offer still stands," Tithian replied.

  "Forgive me if I seem skeptical."

  "You can't afford to dismiss me lightly!" the high templar said. "You have no idea what I've done on your behalf. Kalak knows about your adventures with the Veiled Alliance. If I hadn't used you, you'd be dead by now!"

  "I'm gratified by your thoughtfulness," Agis noted sarcastically.

  "If you have Caro's crystal, you must know that Rikus and Neev3 escaped and went to your estate to look for Sadira." Tithian raised a single finger into view. "This is how many days it would take me to track them down. As you can see, they're still free. I've kept their absence a secret and didn't send out any trackers or cilops. I even had the guards who found their empty cell killed."

  This last detail convinced Agis that his old friend was telling the truth, for it seemed exactly the sort of ruthless thing the high templar would do to protect a secret.

  "Whatever the Veiled Alliance wants with my gladiators is still possible," Tithian continued. "No one knows they're gone except me and my most trusted subordinate."

  "That's all very nice," Agis replied, truly relieved that no slavehunters would be hounding them into the mountains. "But you're still hunting down the Alliance with all your resources. Where do you stand?"

  "Wherever my footing is the most solid at a given moment," Tithian answered frankly. "I'm trapped in the middle. If I don't make progress against the king's foes, Kalak will kill me. At the same time, I'm terrified of whatever he has planned for the ziggurat games."

  "So you'd be willing to assassinate him?" Agis asked, deciding to see just how far his friend would go.

  "It can't be done," Tithian countered.

  "If it could?" Agis pressed.

  Inside the crystal, Tithian closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, he said, "I wouldn't prevent someone from trying."

  Agis smiled. "That's all I need to know," he said, moving his hand over the crystal.

  "Wait!" Tithian shouted. The senator removed his hand, and the high templar smiled. "For me to play along with you until this attack on Kalak succeeds, I need to know the location of the third and final bone amulet inside the ziggurat."

  "I knew we couldn't trust you," Agis sighed.

  "That's hardly true" Tithian noted. "You can trust me to take care of myself. Just be certain that your side always offers me what I seek." The high templar paused and tapped his chin in thought. "You'd best have Sadira let Those Who Wear the Veil know that it is in their best interest to reveal the location of the amulet. You'll figure out how to get the information to me somehow."

  Without offering a reply, Agis closed his fist over the green gem. The noble explained what had just passed between him and Tithian, then returned the stone to Caro. "It might be best to let Tithian know about the amulets," Sadira ventured. "I know where the three were hidden. Could you tell the high templar, Caro?" When the dwarf nodded, she quickly told him where the magical amulets had been secreted. "They weren't very powerful anyway," she concluded with a shrug. "Just a few wards to stall the king's works."

  At last Agis turned to his servant. "How long have you been Tithian's spy?" he asked gently.

  The dwarf looked away, his withered lips quivering with fear or regret—Agis could not tell which. "Not long, only since your slaves were confiscated" Caro said. "The high templar sent me back to you. He promised to give me my freedom after the games."

  "And your focus?" Agis asked. "It never changed?"

  Caro shook his head. "No. Until the moment I broke it, it was to serve you and the Asticles family."

  "Why did you give that up?" Neeva asked.

  Caro met the woman's gaze evenly. "I would have died on the ziggurat, and I didn't want my life to end without a taste of freedom."

  "I can't tell you how sorry I am, Caro," Agis said, a deep sense of regret welling inside his breast.
"If I had realized how much your freedom meant, I would have granted it gladly."

  Caro looked at Agis. "I don't need your sympathy," he said bitterly. "Just kill me and be done with it."

  "If I were you, I wouldn't be so anxious to die," Rikus said. "Won't you come back as a banshee?"

  The old dwarf looked at Agis, then a crooked grin crossed his lips. "That's right," he said, his black eyes sparkling with bitterness. "I'll come back to haunt the Asticles estate—the site of my failure."

  "Then it will be quite some time before we meet again, I hope," Agis said.

  "What's that supposed to mean?" Rikus asked.

  "Every man is born with a desire for freedom in his breast, just as he is born with a desire for food and drink. Anyone who has ever kept slaves knows this."

  "As does any slave," Rikus said.

  "Depriving a man of freedom is like depriving him of food and water," Agis said, his gaze still fixed on Caro's withered face. "If a man has no food or water, his body dies a lingering death. If he has no freedom, it is his spirit that dies."

  "So?" Rikus demanded. "What noble cares about his slave's spirit or his life?"

  "I do!" Agis replied hotly, thumping his own chest "I've never taken a slave's life!"

  "Then you are a rare slaveholder," Sadira said.

  Agis looked to the half-elf. "Perhaps, but no better than the others. Now I see that my philosophy merely made me a hypocrite. That's why the wraith wouldn't allow me into the Crimson Shrine."

  "What are you going to do about it?" Sadira asked, her pale eyes fixed on his.

  Agis turned to the ancient dwarf. "Caro, I have no right to ask anything of you," he said, unfastening the purse attached to his belt. "Still, I would like you to perform one last service for the Asticles house. Go to the slaves that remain in my pens. Tell them they're free to go or stay as they please." The dwarf's face showed his surprise. "And me?"