Pashkah didnt smile, but contentment shimmered around him in a swirl of charcoal fog. I have no mercy.
Additional members of the Guard dragged a pair of men into sight and thrust them to their knees, flanking Pashkah.
Kavya gasped. No, no, no . . .
A hand wrapped around her mouth. She struggled until Talliss words found their way into her short-circuiting brain.
Quiet, he hissed softly. His arms were strong around her, which was welcome rather than abhorrent. She was ready to shudder apart, disintegrated by fear and utter outrage.
Tallis ducked her back into the tent. They could see through a small sliver that parted the folds of canvas. He kept his mouth near her ear, as if any stray syllable could be a death sentence. Still a Pendray, relying on words. For the Indranan, thoughts were louder.
Who are they?
Representatives to the factions Leaderships, she replied. My allies. Oh, Dragon save them.
Pashkah was a man of his sick, malevolent word. He stood over the representatives and spread his hands with a flourish. These are the presents the Sun was going to offer at dusk.
Omanand of the North. Raghupati of the South. She wouldve stood behind them and smiled that tranquil, happy smile and watched as they shook hands. Ended the civil war. Healed the breach. Wouldnt that have been lovely?
Is that true? Tallis asked against Kavyas cheek.
Yes, she whispered. A foundation for lasting peace. But it doesnt matter now. Nothing will matter now.
One of the Guardsmen handed Pashkah a sword that gleamed with a golden sheen.
Tallis drew in a sharp breath. Thats Dragon-forged.
Her lucidity was slipping away, along with her hopes. She was physically ill, so painfully, violently ill. Yes.
Pashkah lifted the blade. With one blow, he beheaded Omanand. With another, he separated Raghupatis head from a body that flopped onto the altar. Terror echoed through the valley like the shrieks of demons.
Kavya saw only blood.
CHAPTER 
FOUR
Yet hed thought about Lady Macbeth. Although hed wiped clean his armor and his weapons, he would never be able to wash away the stains. The exact temperature of a dying mans blood became an indelible detail.
Subsequent kills had meant less to him. The repetition of it. The rhythm of following orders and detaching his morality. The deaths hed brought about had created peace in places where Dragon Kings squabbled, where rifts threatened to break fragile alliances. His dirty work had been successfuluntil it had ruined Nynns life.
He was unnaturally good at his work.
Pashkah of the Northern Indranan was better.
Had the man felt any emotion about beheading two fellow clansmen, it would be satisfaction. He stood like a triumphant god who, dissatisfied with sacrifices made in his honor, had taken the task upon himself. Two lifeless bodies slumped at his feet. Two heads had rolled awaydistended tongues, bulging eyes, matted hair. The pair of Guardsmen stepped back from what remained of the prostrate men theyd forever immobilized. Their expressions were even more vacant. They radiated none of Pashkahs silent triumph.
If Tallis could ever read minds, this was the moment. He sensed more than satisfaction radiating from the murderer. He sensed glee.
The camp was a riot.
The Black Guard descended from the altar and strode through the tents. They grabbed women. Young women. Dark robes and saris were subsumed by men in black brigandine armor. Little blackbirds chased by avaricious ravens. In the melee, only flashes of mirrored armor plates distinguished predator from prey.
The Indranan men fought back. Their punishment was that from which a Dragon King could not recover: crippling injuries. Their kind had remarkable healing powers, but they couldnt regenerate limbs. Extreme wounds left scars. Suffering those ramifications could last the length of their two-century life span.
We have to go, Tallis said plainly. His mission hadnt changed, no matter the hysteria that tainted the air as surely as his nostrils scented blood. Wouldnt they love to get their hands on you.
They wouldnt keep me for long. Theyd hand me over to Pashkah and my severed head would lie on that altar within minutes. The Sun had revealed herself as just an Indranan woman, not a goddess, but she shot sparks from her eyes. You brought this on us.
She stood and scampered free of the tent so quickly that Tallis was thrown off-balance. He caught his momentum with a backward twist of his hand. Without wasted motion, he grabbed his pack and tucked one seax into the scabbard crossing his back.
He launched into the crowd, gripping the other blade. The unmistakable swirl of a golden sari was his only means of tracking Kavya through a circus of flailing, screaming, and maiming. She headed toward the outskirts of camp, not toward the round valleys sole exita narrow ravine. Likely shed chosen this place for symbolic reasons. Circles and unions and the security of being held within the majesty of timeless mountains. Shed also chosen the worst place for a group of defenseless parishioners to escape trained killers.