Dark Thane

"Your tongue will cost you your head one day, Hextor Ironhaft," Thane Brecha Quickspring cautioned from the dark corner where she had been sitting the entire time, a spellbook open upon her lap. "Just as Thane Delvestone's cost him his."

"My lord, are you going to allow this Theiwar witch to threaten me, a Hylar of your own clan?" Hextor protested.

"This Theiwar witch is a thane of the Council," Brecha haughtily responded. "For forty years, we Theiwar have scraped and scratched for our rightful place here. We will not be ignored."

"Fine words," Hextor snapped back. "How much did Tarn Bellowgranite pay you to say them?"

"Do you dare accuse me of double-dealing?" the Theiwar thane cried as she leaped to her feet. She turned to Jungor. "My lord, I demand-!"

"You will demand nothing!" Jungor roared, leaping to his feet. With one swipe of his long arm, he sent her crashing back into her dark corner, her spellbook flying from her grasp to land in a disordered heap. Two long strides brought him to the couch. Hextor Ironhaft cowered before him.

Jungor bent over him and shrieked into his face, "Shut up! Shut up! The both of you must end your bickering, or I will end it for you! I cannot think clearly for all your endless prattle!" He spun and stalked away. Nursing a bruised jaw, Brecha climbed to her feet and righted her chair. Neither she nor Hextor dared to speak, much less apologize.

"None of you seem to realize our imminent danger," Jungor said as he walked to the window and looked out over his garden. As swiftly as it had flared, his anger disappeared. He realized what he must do, and now spoke calmly, rationally.

"Shahar Bellowsmoke will demand the right to question Ferro, once he is informed of the attempt on Tarn's life. If he is allowed to exercise the full talents of his interrogators, Ferro will confess everything that he knows and probably much that he doesn't know. We cannot let that happen. The problem of Ferro must be solved."

"Of course," Hextor Ironhaft said.

"We cannot rescue him," Brecha said cautiously. "That would only incriminate us in the assassination attempt."

"Who said anything about a rescue?" Jungor asked with a shrug.

"What, then? We can't kill him, for the same reasons. And if he has already confessed, it won't matter what we do," Astar said.

"Exactly!" Jungor exclaimed. "We must assume that he has already told everything. I want you to concentrate your efforts on securing the dungeon where they are keeping him. We'll need those cells. But do not touch him yet. He has disappointed me for the last time. I want that miserable Daergar for myself."

Astar's face grew pale and he dropped the sheaf of reports he'd been holding. "Take the dungeons? Now? But that means…"

"War," Jungor said, his scars flushing red. "The time of Daergar plots is ended. We fight now for control of Thorbardin. Our soldiers were trained to quell a civil war, not start one. But they are ready and willing, and the populace supports us. After Tarn is defeated and dead, or driven from our sacred home, the people will embrace my rule. Those who do not love us will learn to fear us. But they will embrace our rule."

33

The third watch of the morning had just been called when Tarn strode into the courtyard. Fully armored now, his sword at his hip, long golden beard brushed and braided for battle, he looked every bit a king. A roaring cheer went up from his soldiers gathered along the walls and mustered in the courtyard.

Tarn greeted them with a joyfulness that he did not feel in his heart. Word had come within the hour of fighting in the Daergar quarter of the Anvil's Echo, in the Hylar and Daewar markets of the first and second levels, in the Klar quarter of the second level, around the Council Hall, and at all forges and dungeons on the first and second levels. Jungor's followers had struck everywhere at once, it seemed, in a marvelously coordinated assault that achieved many of their objectives with little or no loss of life.

Tarn reviewed his maps as the reports came in. Jungor had moved to cut off the third level at all the transportation shafts, isolating Tarn from his food supplies and his armories. The Council Hall had fallen without a fight, the majority of its guards being loyal solely to the Council of Thanes. Since the majority of the Council were allied with Jungor, the guards had merely turned over control of the Hall to Astar Trueshield. Now, Jungor's captain was using it as a base of operations and communications center to coordinate the takeover on the southern half of the second level. The northern half-containing the largest concentration of Hylar and Daewar in Norbardin-was already under control. Those council guards still loyal to Tarn had slipped away before Astar's appearance on the scene and now had joined their king at the fortress. Among them was General Otaxx Shortbeard.