Lucien walked over to join them, having grown strong enough to be able to stand on his own. “I saw you and that fake D’Jacques exchange looks. You two knew each other.”
Yulen continued. “What was the plan? Was it something the two of you cooked up together? Or is there a third person in on this? Is someone waiting to hear back from you?”
The emissary continued to give them heated looks, but he refused to say anything else. Yulen sighed and gripped the hilt of his sword. The movement was not lost on the man, and his face went from red to bleached white.
“Here’s what I think was supposed to go down. That fake D’Jacques, whatever his real name is, was to cause as much chaos as possible. By claiming to be me, and slaughtering innocents, you wanted to destroy the treaties formed between Mutah and Normal. Or maybe you hoped to rile up other battle lords who’d heard of me but never met me, and have them eventually declare war on me and my compound for betraying their trust.
“While he’s doing that, you were to lure me away from Alta Novis, leaving my compound with fewer men to protect it. You knew the Bloods were in this area. You probably also knew they’d taken Whiterock, and you were hoping we’d fall victim to their ambush. But in case they didn’t manage to overcome us, you hoped you could pass the virus along to as many of us as possible. Make us too sick to defend ourselves.” Yulen bent down to stare him in face. “One small problem with that. All the men I brought with me, with the exception of my son and wife, already had the virus. That left you in a quandary, didn’t it, Pechard?”
The emissary remained mute and defiant.
“What were you two cooking up? To defeat me once and for all? To claim Alta Novis for yourself?”
“Or is your motive to ultimately get rid of every Mutah you can find?” Lucien probed.
“You never figured on us discovering your ruse. You never thought your fake battle lord would come across us, either, did you? That’s why you acted so indignant when you came unannounced into my tent and demanded we keep moving west. It was so we’d miss each other in passing. But because we’d pitched camp, you realized we might encounter each other, and you started to panic,” Yulen surmised. “There are no survivors in Green River, are there? Are you even from Green River?”
“Is there even a Green River compound at all?” Mastin added.
Another thought from out of nowhere struck him, and Lucien took a step closer to the emissary. “That man who escaped Whiterock to let us know the Bloods were there. Durrow. He was part of this scheme, too, wasn’t he? But you had him ordered killed to prevent him from saying anything, didn’t you? So who slit his throat? You or one of your guards?”
Pechard cast a hateful look at Lucien, which answered at least some of their questions. Yulen stepped back in disgust.
“You cast your die with us when your fake friend tried to make a run from the Bloods, and ended up on their dinner table instead. You never anticipated the shit would get this deep. You were thinking your friend and his men would be able to overcome us, or at least provide enough of a diversion to allow you to get away and join up with him later, didn’t you?
“So what’s your plan now, Pechard? In the event I chose to keep going because I’d given my word to help out your fake compound, what were you going to do when we supposedly got there and didn’t find anything?”
“There’s a compound there,” the man finally admitted.
“And probably in the same state of abandonment and decay as this one,” Lucien surmised.
Pechard went silent again, confirming the young man’s guess.
Yulen gave a wave of dismissal. “Bind him and his two henchmen. They’ll be our prisoners until we return home.”
The emissary was lifted to his feet and almost dragged out of the dining hall, when he yelled back over his shoulder, “At least that Mutah bitch of yours got what was coming to her!” The soldiers hurried him outside before he could say more, but Yulen knew the man would be informed that if Atty died, or ended up Damaged, he’d sealed his death warrant.
Mastin grunted, then turned to Yulen. “Are we going to check out Green River, just to be certain?”
“I haven’t decided,” he admitted.
“Don’t forget boom, boom, boom,” Lucien mentioned. “What did he say? There were nine of them in a row?”
“I say it was all a ploy,” the second remarked. “If they couldn’t get rid of you here in Schutz Ridge, then he hoped for better luck when we reached Green River. If not Green River, he’d play on your sympathy to go on to the next compound. Then the next, if there are any. He’d keep playing on your good will to make you push onward until we caved or got wiped out.”
“Sir!” A soldier ran into the room from the main doors. Pausing briefly, he waved an arm and pointed outside. “They’re back!”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Desertion
They ran from the dining hall to the front of the compound and climbed the wall to the parapets. As he hurried to keep up with his father, Lucien stopped one of the archers and confiscated the man’s sword. Feeling the heft of the weapon in his hand gave him a sense of security, even though he didn’t have any of his armor. At least, if they were forced into direct combat, he’d have something to protect himself with.
Renken, Echo, and Paas were already up there when Yulen, Lucien, and Mastin joined them. The sun was still hidden behind the trees to their left, but it already gave out enough light to see the landscape before them.
Lucien paused to stare at the sight of the Bloods standing in a tight cluster about a hundred yards from the main gate. Glancing around, he could see evidence of spilled blood on the ground in front of the compound walls, and splattered over the rocks at the top of the barricade, but the bodies were gone. Carried off before daylight. Everyone knew Bloods ate their enemies, but no one knew if the same fate was dealt to their own kind.
“What’s happening?” Yulen whispered as they joined the others.
“Don’t know, and can’t tell,” Echo replied. “It’s a whole different strategy.”
“You’ve never seen them do this?” Renken questioned his wife.
She gave a shake of her head in answer. Echo was never able to tell them much about Blood behavior, even though she’d spent several years as a slave of one of their leaders. Much of her lack of knowledge was due to the fact that she’d been kept within the tight-knit company of the woman named Mink, a self-confessed goddess who’d met her fate at Echo’s hand. Although she’d heard some of the woman’s discussions with other Bloods, much of it had been incomprehensible to her. And when the woman wasn’t looking, she spent that time hunting for something to eat.
“But I think they’re getting ready to leave.”
That last remark caught everyone’s attention.
“You sure?” Lucien asked.