Their slaves were not present. Only a select number of the Ghertun population were because I was not so foolish as to believe that this wasallthat lived under the Dead Mountain.
Still, there were at least a hundred Ghertun gathered in this small space. The great hall was not so grand as theDothikkar’sinDothik, which could easily fill with five times as many beings.
“You are the horde king that laughs as you kill,” Lozza said as he stepped towards me, circling. “The one they say has a broken mind. The one they say wanders into the wild lands and bellows into the darkness.”
They have been watching me, I realized.
As if Lozza’s words summoned her, the shadowed form of my sister appeared next to the Ghertun king’s throne.
“She is here, Davik,” my sister whispered into my mind as she took a seat there.
I shook my head, my brows drawing together. My gaze refocused on the Ghertun king. He was staying just out of arm’s reach and there were four armed Ghertun guards close to me, their spears pointed at my throat.
Myenuwip-dipped claws curled.
“I take it you received my message for your king?” Lozza asked.
“I am not here on behalf of theDothikkar, Ghertun,” I rasped, never breaking his stare.
Thatstartled him. Briefly. His eyes blinked twice and then he asked, “Then why have you come, horde king?”
“I have come for the cure tovovic. And I have come for the beings that you have enslaved with it,” I stated, the chains rattling at my wrists, clinking against myVorakkarcuffs.
A murmur went through the Ghertun present. Their language sounded like hisses and lisps and rolling trills to my ears. I knew no words in Ghertun exceptvovic.
Lozza was no fool. He turned to a male standing near the throne—near the shadowed form of my sister. They spoke, briefly, but the older male rattled his head and then Lozza turned his gaze back towards me.
“I assume you seek a cure for thevekkirimessenger since none of our slaves are missing,” Lozza said easily. “I had wondered if theDothikkarwould take an interest in her. She was my gift to him, however fleeting her life is…andvekkiridie so easily. They are almost impossible to keep alive for very long.”
I was surprised that I didn’t lunge and rip out his throat right then and there. That rage snapped within me. If Vienne’s life wasn’t on the line…I probably would have given in to that temptation. Lozza’s blood would’ve splattered all over the dark floor of his throne room and I’d have marked myself with it after my kill.
Perhaps the bloodlust glowed in my gaze too brightly because Lozza took a step back—just a small one—before he remembered himself.
“There is no cure,” Lozza said.
“There is,” I rasped. “But I know as a supposed ‘king’ to your people, who keep slaves, it is in your interest to pretend as if there is none. Why give them ideas and hope, after all, when they are destined to die in this dark hell?”
When I looked back to the throne, my sister had disappeared again.
“The cure and the enslaved, Lozza,” I grated. “Or blood will run through the Dead Valley.”
“You will be the only one who dies here this day, horde king,” Lozza hissed, for the first time showing his temper, and the mask of impassive amusement melted away, leaving fury and fear in its wake.
I grinned.
“TheDothikkarreadies his army,” I bluffed. “The outposts ready their armies. The hordes ready their armies. You will never have access to the Teru gulch, nor passage across Drukkar’s Sea. And you certainly will never possess a heartstone of Kakkari. Your mountain will crumble and your people will die before that happens.”
“You lie,” he spit. “You have no army here. You bring a handful of warriors camped outside the valley and you think that is an army?Ihave an army, one bred for a specific purpose and soon, it isyouthat will fear us. I will not rest until I am sitting on top of theDothikkar’sthrone and he is lying dead at my feet. Until the open streets ofDothikare running rivers of blackened blood. Until the outposts and hordes are burned to the ground. It isyouwho will serve us.”
The Ghertun shifted throughout the throne room, the energy rising from Lozza’s words.
“Then we will go to war,” I rasped.
“Then we start now. And you will die first, horde king. I will send your head to theDothikkar,” Lozza hissed. His eyes went to one of the four guards surrounding me. “Sebrissa.”
I lunged, snapping through the chains that encircled my wrists.
Deep, aching pain burned into my chest. One of the guards’ spears stabbed me, hitting bone, a necessary wound so that I could reach Lozza before he scurried away.
