The Sable City
Page 83
*
The party gathered on the third floor and watched the lights of the Shugak hobgoblins for an hour. There seemed to be about a hundred of the creatures and they built a cluster of campfires flush against the westernmost tower of the nine ringing the palace complex, reflecting dancing flames off the smooth black walls. They were clearly settling in for the night, if not longer.
Nesha-tari could see them better than the others with her Dragon-touched eyes, and after her earlier talk with the devil Lord Balan she also had a better idea of what their presence might mean. After a good deal of talk amongst the party Zebulon asked for her thoughts, and Nesha-tari told him.
“Either the devils are going to allow the Shugak to wait here for Phinneas and the others, or they have already captured them and are going to turn them over.”
Zeb told the others, Heggenauer asked a question, and Zeb asked her.
“The Shugak and the devils of Vod’Adia are cooperating?”
“Yes. The devils have some sort of relationship with the Shugak’s mistress.”
“How do you know that?” Zeb asked on his own.
“Their leader told me. I spoke with the Devil Lord while the rest of you were up in the tower.”
Zeb stared at her in the flickering light.
“Do you want me to tell everybody that?”
Nesha-tari growled. “I do not care, Zebulon. This matter is at an end, or close enough to it that these details are of no consequence. Come, we will speak with the hobgoblins.”
“We will do what now?”
Nesha-tari turned away from the window and walked to where the unlit lantern had been left by the door, as the others were still concerned that no light should show from the house. She picked it up and reached inside to pinch the wick between a finger and thumb, and lit it with a sparking snap and a whiff of ozone.
The rest of the party made various noises of alarm, and Nesha-tari sighed and rolled her eyes. She’d had just about enough of humans, devils, bullywugs, hobgoblins, and at the moment, even Dragons. Danavod was running a slipshod operation in Vod’Adia, and Nesha-tari presently had no more interest in the whole sorry mess of it all. So long as the Duchess of Chengdea did not end up where Horayachus had wanted her to go, Akroya’s purpose in sending Nesha-tari here should certainly be fulfilled. To hell with the rest of it.
“All of you shut up,” she snapped, and the party did so without Zeb having to translate. She glared around at each of them.
“This is over. Coming into the city was pointless. We will see to the denouement, but our involvement here is through.”
Zeb started to say so to the others, and they of course started asking more questions before he had gotten very far. Nesha-tari growled again and turned to go, ready to leave the squabbling idiots in the dark, but she stopped as someone gave a sharp whistle.
It was Amatesu, standing with one hand raised for silence and her head tilted to the side. She said something, Nesha-tari did not know what, but then everyone heard a set of steady knocks, coming from outside. It sounded like someone rapping a hand on the front door downstairs.
The party rushed to the windows and Nesha-tari looked down from one next to Zebulon. They stared down into darkness until Nesha-tari extended the lantern outside, and the flickering light shined down on the gray, upturned face of the Devil Lord, Balan.
“Hello again, itinerant adventurers,” the devil called up to them. “Anyone up for a parley? We‘ve an awful lot to talk about.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight