If mydarukkarswere surprised, they didn’t show it. On my periphery, I saw Hedna lingering, however.
“You too,pujerak,” I said, keeping my gaze on the vertical slits of the Ghertun’s eyes. They closed from left to right, not top to bottom, a translucent film covering them for a brief moment before it peeled back with every blink.
“We can take him back to the horde,” Hedna said quietly.
“Nik.”
This Ghertun would not set foot insidemyhorde. This Ghertun would not get close toher.
Hedna knew I would not be swayed and he, too, fell away, giving me and the Ghertun privacy. His breathing was ragged in his chest, his hand pressed to a wound in his abdomen, trying to keep the blood inside.
“You spy for Lozza?” I asked him quietly.
Those eyes blinked slow, that film appearing before peeling back.
“Tell me what I wish to know, Ghertun, and I might be persuaded to let you scurry back to your mountain.”
A laugh bubbled from his throat, wet and scratchy. “You?” he asked, his tone incredulous, even this close to death. “I know whoyouare.”
My jaw tightened.
The Mad Horde King.
“Then that is all the more reason to speak,” I rasped, narrowing my gaze on him. “Don’t you think?”
My dagger flashed in the moonlight as I cleaned it off on his skin, the edge of the bladejustpricking his scaled flesh. His breathing quickened. For the first time, a flash of uncertainty flickered in his gaze.
“Were you looking for her?” I asked, my tone deadened and even.
“Who?”
My head cocked slightly and I grinned down at him. My teeth flashing made him blink faster, his breathing going rapid again as he desperately eyed the dagger in my hands.
“The female?” the Ghertun asked, his voice shaking. “No.”
I remained silent, so he would know that answer wasn’t enough to slake my thirst.
He continued quickly. “Our king just told us to watch for her. We followed her to the city, to make certain she got inside. Nothing more.”
“Tell me what you know about her.”
“N-nothing,” he rasped, more blood leaking from his lips. “Just that she is a slave. A—”
His words cut off in a pained howl as I slammed the flattened edge of my blade into the seeping wound at his abdomen, digging deeper.
“You should not call her that,” I commented. “Not in front of me.”
Through his raspy gasps, I saw his eyes flicker at whatever he heard in my voice. Realization made the slits of his eyes grow wider. He blinked, as if the darkness of death was beginning to take him. His wound was mortal. He wouldn’t live much longer.
He began to laugh—terrible, thickened sounds that made the back of my neck prickle with revulsion.
“She is already dead, horde king,” he told me, his blinks becoming longer and longer.
“Neffar?”
“She was dead the moment she left.”
I growled, pressing my dagger deep, ignoring his choked cry of pain. “Tell me what you know!”
