Jukung stood up at once. “Then we must get there before him so that we may greet him properly. Contact the Quorums wherever they are and have them journey at once to the mud dome cities of the northern Savanna. Have them determine if Drakis and his companions have been there.”
“And what are their orders then?” Mendrath asked.
Jukung smiled once more. “Our orders are explicit, Codexia. Capture this Drakis and bring him to me.”
“It will be done,” Mendrath said and turned to move away.
Jukung’s arm restrained him.
“There is more.” Jukung removed his hood, exposing his hideously deformed face. “Anyone who has had contact with this Drakis-anyone at all-is to be killed at once.”
“I. . I am not sure that I understand the order, Master Inquisitor,” Mendrath said. “There are entire cities of these gnomes who may have had some contact with this Drakis human. .”
“And you will find them and kill them all,” Jukung said quietly.
“That could be thousands of gnomes,” Mendrath said, still uncertain he understood the order correctly.
“I do not care if it numbers in the tens of thousands,” Jukung said, irritation rising in his voice. “Towns, cities, females, children. . if they have had contact with this human pestilence, they are to die!”
“But, Master Inquisitor!”
“Do you question the Imperial Will?” Jukung screamed. “This is the order of the Keeper of our Order and the direct expression of the thoughts of the Emperor! Will you shirk your duty and forfeit your honor to his glorious ideal?”
“No, Master Inquisitor!” the Codexia stiffened.
“They will die!” Jukung said, his breathing labored as he spoke. He reached up with his right hand and ran his fingers lightly along the melted skin of his face. “They must pay for what they have done. The Emperor has declared them poisoned to his Will by this Drakis. Any creature that has any contact with him must die. . they must all die!”
“Elders of the Sondau,” Urulani said, dropping to one knee and placing her right hand against the floor as she bowed her head before the three older men. She knelt in the center of the lodge, the long building that served as the heart of the Sondau Clan’s society. The walls were framed from wood hewn from the surrounding forests and carved intricately with the tales and legends that formed the foundation of their laws and beliefs. The vaulted ceiling was supported by thick beams, each carved with different and portentous figures overhead. The floor was planked from the same wood as the walls though this was scrubbed and sanded to a smooth and carefully maintained finish. Flaming torches mounted to the walls and angled out above the floor filled the space with guttering light. “I am Urulani, daughter of the Sondau Clan. I have done as the Elders have asked.”
“The Elders praise the gods for your return-and are astounded that you should return, it seems, on the very heels of your departure,” stated the balding Elder with the short cropped hair who sat in the middle of the three. “Thus said, we welcome you before the Elders’ Council.”
Urulani stood at once. “The Elders honor me.”
“As apparently do the gods to an extent we had not hoped possible,” said the man with the long, iron-gray hair pulled into a ponytail at the nap of his neck.
“As you say, Elder Harku,” Urulani replied, glancing toward the ceiling.
“You have returned with him so quickly?” asked the bearded man on the left who was sitting back in his chair.
“I have done as the Council has asked,” Urulani responded. “I have the man and, I must also report, several of his companions with him. I thought it prudent to bring them as well-and not risk their tongues waggling once we had left.”
“Wise, as always, is our Urulani,” nodded the man with the iron-gray hair.