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‘Your thoughts?’
‘Summon a Builder.’
Hood bared his tusks in a bitter grin. ‘You test my temper, captain.’
‘Then what do you suggest?’
‘The Seregahl.’
Haut squinted across at Hood. ‘Not company you’d willingly keep, then.’
‘Sheer arrogance has gifted them godly status. They grate. They pall. They earn endless derision from the other Toblakai, and fierce enmity from the Thelomen. Worse yet, they have forgotten the art of bathing.’
‘Set them a challenge, will you?’
‘The best outcome is they succeed even as they fail. I imagine our nine lost kin will oblige me in welcoming them to the yard.’
‘And the dying house?’
‘Summon your Builder if necessary, Haut. I doubt it’ll rush here, eager as a pup.’
Haut continued staring at Hood for a few moments longer, and then with a sigh he straightened. ‘She’s a precipitous child, I’ll grant you. Yet—’
‘Her instincts were sound.’
‘Just so,’ Haut said, nodding.
‘Send the Seregahl to me, then,’ Hood said. ‘They deem themselves worthy of my vanguard? Empty words. I will see them tested.’
‘In the Azath yard?’
‘In the Azath yard.’
‘Hood, you will be the death of us all.’
Hood barked a laugh. ‘I will indeed, Haut. Do you now hesitate?’
‘I need to find her a minder.’
‘No you don’t. Arathan will be with her. Together, they will return to Kurald Galain.’
Haut scowled. ‘Prophecy now, too?’
‘No,’ Hood replied, ‘I will send them on their way home by a more prosaic pronouncement. My boot to their backsides.’
* * *
The nameless leader of the Seregahl clawed through his tangled beard, forcing out twigs and old flecks of food that drifted down on to his chest. ‘A voice roars in challenge,’ he said in a caustic rumble. ‘It aches in the skull. In my skull. In the skulls of my companions. We are not like the other Toblakai. We have come into power. Others of our kind worship us, and rightly so. The Thelomen and Thel Akai fear us—’
There was a snort from just beyond the pallid light of Hood’s hearth.
As one, the eleven Seregahl turned at the sound, various visages twisting in various ways. Haut stifled a sigh and then grunted. ‘Don’t mind her,’ he said to the Seregahl leader. ‘A curious Thel Akai. Seems in the habit of following you lot around, in case you haven’t noticed.’
The leader bared his yellow teeth. ‘Oh, we have noticed, captain. Though she’d rather hide like a coward in the gloom.’
The vague, hulking figure in the darkness seemed to shift slightly. ‘I but await one of you to wander off,’ she replied. ‘Then I would challenge that one, and kill him. Instead, you find courage only in your pack. I name you bullies and cowards.’
Haut rubbed at his face and swung round to face the Thel Akai woman. ‘Enough, Siltanys Hes Erekol. Choose another time for such challenges. Hood has need of these Seregahl.’
