Mention of the atrocity stirred the mob behind the elves. Angry shouts and denunciations flew. The elven warriors, tense already, fingered sword hilts and worked to control their restive mounts. Only Kerian remained calm. She sat tall on her bay horse, back straight, eyes never leaving the Khurish officer.
Perhaps it was her calm insistence, or the growling mob behind her, that convinced him, but the officer disappeared from the battlement. For a time nothing happened. Distant thunder rumbled. Flies, drawn by the carrion, tormented everyone. “Unclean!” cried the mob. “Drive the killers out!”
At last the double gates parted. The crowd fell silent. Thunder murmured again.
A double line of Khurish soldiers, twenty in all, marched out the gate. Behind them walked, not Sahim-Khan, but Hakkam, commander of the Khan’s army. The soldiers halted and Hakkam strode between their lines, approaching the Lioness.
“Lady Kerianseray,” he said. He grimaced at the carcass. “You’ve been hunting, I see.”
“No, General. Like a vulture, I only picked up what was already dead. Is Sahim-Khan coming?”
“Of course not. Say what must be said to me.”
Sensing that she had gotten as far as she could, she crossed her wrists on the pommel of her saddle and leaned forward over them.
“This stinking carcass is all that remains of a sand beast. I believe they are native to your remote desert.” Hakkam conceded they were. “It was slain a few nights ago by Lord Hengriff. You know the man?” Kerian said sarcastically.
Matching her tone, Hakkam replied, “A warrior of considerable prowess. Not the best intriguer.”
“This beast was slain in the Harbalah, on the grounds of a villa destroyed by Malys. The beast traveled there from the Valley of the Blue Sands, where it tried to kill me and my entire company.”
Her words set the mob surging and muttering again. Kerian raised her voice to be heard above them. “At first I thought it had come across us by accident, but after its first attack, it tracked us across fifty miles of open desert. We passed by the peaceful camp of the Weya-Lu tribe one night on our way to the valley. We did them no harm. The sand beast, on our trail, must have slaughtered them after we passed on.”
A profound silence descended. The buzzing of the flies sounded very loud.
“When we fought the beast a final time, we wounded it, and it escaped.” Wisely, she didn’t cloud the issue with talk of will-o’-the-wisps and the instantaneous transference of the one-ton sand beast from Inath-Wakenti to Khuri-Khan.
“Ask yourself, General Hakkam, ask yourself as I have done, why did this creature, wounded and in agony, turn up on the grounds of a wrecked mansion in your city?”
He folded sinewy arms across his chest and obligingly said, “Why?”
“It was returning to its mister, the sorcerer Faeterus, who lived in the ruined mansion. Maddened with pain, it attacked one of my warriors who was keeping an eye on the mage. The fortunate arrival of Lord Hengriff put an end to its murderous rampage.”
Hakkam stared at her for a moment longer, eyes narrowed in thought, then slowly approached the dead beast. Its rotting hide was nearly invisible beneath a writhing coat of blowflies. Hakkam was a hardened desert fighter and did not flinch.
“What proof have you?” he called out over the buzz and whir of busy insects.
“The proof of my word, and the proof of logic. I do not kill innocents. A sand beast will, and did.”
“And this sorcerer you speak of?”
“At large in your city, perhaps in the palace of the Khan even now. Find him, General. Put your questions to him.”
She raised a gloved hand, and in unison her escort wheeled their horses. A crowd of nearly one thousand Khurs packed the back of the square. The Lioness rode back through her warriors and continued unhesitatingly toward the wall of humanity. When the Khurs realized she was not going to turn aside, they scrambled out of her way. The rest of the elves followed her.
An irritated Hakkam spat on the pavement and glanced back at the Khuri yl Nor. He hoped his sovereign had gotten a good whiff of the Lioness’s gift. After ordering the rotten carcass hauled away, he went to report to the Khan.
Sahim-Khan was waiting in the inner courtyard. He demanded an explanation. The general gave a brief account of the Lioness’s reasons for bringing the dead monster to the palace.
The Khan’s expression was odd, unreadable even to his long-time general, but his voice was firm as he replied, “This is a grave affront to the throne of Khur. I will complain to the Speaker.”
“Mighty Khan, the Speaker lies gravely wounded in his tent,” Hakkam reminded him. “While he is laid low, Kerianseray rules the
The general saluted and was dismissed. He departed quickly so as to hide the faint smile on his face. This also caused him to miss his khan’s low, bemused chuckle.
