Page 100 of Red Dragon
Good. The warning for Wise, please?
Tonasketal lowered his head and showed his fangs while growling. Agrevlari’s tail went rigid. Was he promising he would help his comrade if necessary?
Vorik sighed.
As Atilya and the others around the fire opened the wine and gin flagons and ate from the platters, Vorik lifted a drumstick from one in front of the older men, opting for that instead of the offering directly in front of him. Atilya was watching him but didn’t react in any way to suggest he was foiling her plans. He took a small bite while attempting to make it look hearty.
The former instructor handed a flagon to Wise while cracking another joke about his skills. He smiled and drank the wine. It wasn’t a shallow sip but the drink of someone having a rough day and looking forward to some alcohol-induced relaxation.
Did Atilya’s eyes sharpen with interest? Or… triumph?
Vorik took it from Wise and pretended to sip. Unlike the cactus wine, it was a rich purple berry wine and quite pungent, its scent easily able to mask lesser smells. After pretending to drink, Vorik set it to the side to keep Wise from imbibing more, at least out of that particular flagon. He hadn’t seen anyoneelse’s lips on it. Hopefully, whatever drug Atilya was using wasn’t lethal. She wouldn’t want to risk hurting her own people.
“You’ll be evenmorewelcome to spend the night,” Atilya said, meeting Vorik’s eyes, “if you tell us what use you have for the ore. And an old ceramic vase.”
“As I explained,” Vorik said, “I’m collecting the items for General Jhiton. For more information, you’ll have to invitehimfor dinner.”
The flagon he’d set aside was picked up, one of the men taking a drink—orpretendingto take a drink?—and moved around the fire. Some people passed but others lifted it to their lips, including Atilya. Hm, maybe that onewasn’tdrugged.
“He’s the last person I would invite here.” Her eyes flared with distaste. Maybe loathing. “He’s holding two of my people prisoner, and he killed another. Were you aware, Captain?”
“I remember a few spies being captured last month.” Vorik decided to distance himself from his brother, at least while speaking with Atilya. She wasn’t yet looking athimwith hatred. Even so, he had a feeling he would have to find a way to sneak off with the ore in the middle of the night. She wasn’t going to give him anything. “Were they not there to observe the tribes and try to gain military intelligence?”
The faction members had been spying for years. Usually, Jhiton merely chased them off when he caught them. Since many faction members had ties to family still in the tribes, he rarely used deadly force, but it had been different when the general had been planning the destruction of the shielders and invasion of Castle and now Harvest Island. He hadn’t wanted advance word of that to reach the gardeners, so he’d been harsher with the spies. One personhadbeen killed, but only because she’d fought instead of allowing herself to be imprisoned. The others, the last Vorik had heard, were bound and under guard with the Sunchaser Tribe.
“They are—andwere—stormers,” Atilya said, not answering his question. “They left over a disagreement about how to ensure the future ofourpeople. They deserved neither death nor imprisonment. Some of the chiefs—andofficers—have turned into warmongers.” The look she pinned him with promised she put Jhiton in that category.
Vorik wouldn’t consider his cool and calculating brother a warmonger but admitted Jhiton tended to see military solutions to problems rather than diplomatic ones. Being a lifetime officer in the Sixteen Talons could do that to a person. Though Vorik had always trained hard to make his brother and deceased father proud, he would be open to considering a peaceful solution with the Garden Kingdom, if one could be found. He admitted he’d only recently started thinking along those lines, perhaps because of his interest in a certain smart and sexy princess…
His only answer to Atilya’s glare was to smile and say, “So theywerespies, yes.”
“Erivy didn’t deserve to die.”
“Maybe Erivy shouldn’t have sneaked into one of our camps and tried to seduce a colonel’s daughter to gain military information.”
“Iknewyou knew more than you were suggesting.” Atilya scowled at him and waved toward a woman who was currently holding the flagon of berry wine. Though there were others, that specific one kept getting handed around the fire. “And I think you know exactly what you need with that ore.”
“What I need to know is if you’ll trade anything for it.” Vorik watched out of the corner of his eye as the flagon returned to Wise’s hand, and nudged him with his elbow.
Wise started to lift it to his lips but halted. He looked toward the dragons. The kerfuffle that had been brewing had deescalated from growls and fang displays to glares, andTonasketal was looking in Wise’s direction. Had the telepathic warning about the flagon finally been delivered?
Atilya was watching them, and her eyes narrowed at Wise’s pause. He noticed and lifted it to his lips. From his side, Vorik could tell that he didn’t swallow, merely pretending to drink. Good. When Wise handed him the flagon with a slight eye widening, Vorik also feigned a sip before passing it on.
“We would trade as much ore as you like in return for our men—Brolikon and Jarr,” Atilya said. “Trustingthey’restill alive.”
“They’re not being held at headquarters,” Vorik said, “so I’m not up to date on their status, but I believe they’re still alive. Your female spy wasn’t killed in cold blood either, if it matters to you. She resisted capture, tried to take out one of our officers before dying, and then was herself killed in the heat of battle.”
“That’ll be so comforting to her mate.”
Vorik spread his arms. “You sent her to spy. What do you want me to say? You’ve all but declared war on us.”
“We wantpeace, not war.”
“Betraying our people—allof our people—” Vorik waved to place everyone in the cavern into that category, “—isn’t a path toward peace.”
“We had to dosomething. Everyone knew the belligerent chiefs and their faithful officers were preparing for war. Now that you’ve killed thousands of gardeners and destroyed one of their shielders, we may never get the peace that humanity deserves.Allof humanity.”
As she spoke, Vorik glimpsed Wise yawning and swaying slightly. Bloody daggers, had the couple sips of that wine been enough to affect him?
