Nasaug let out a howl of anguish and fury, then fell silent.
For a moment, Tavi thought that Varg had killed him. Then he realized that Nasaug still breathed. He simply lay there, unmoving, not struggling, and there was a quality of exhausted frustration in the snarls that continued bubbling from his throat.
Tavi looked up and met Durias's gaze. Then he put his sword away and took a step toward the two Canim.
Varg released Nasaug's throat, and Tavi heard the big Cane growl, almost too quietly to be heard, "Gadara-lar."
Nasaug shuddered. Then one of his ears twitched in assent. "Gadara-sar."
"Honor," Varg said.
"Honor," the smaller Cane echoed.
Varg rose slowly from Nasaug. The Canim commander turned to face Varg, and each of them bared their throats to one another, Nasaug more deeply.
"Lax"Tavi said quietly. "It means boy."
The two Canim turned their heads to face him.
"Sar," Tavi said. "It means sire. He's your son."
"Obviously," Varg growled.
"Andgadara," Tavi said. "It doesn't mean 'enemy.'"
"The people of the snows," Varg said, "you call them the Icemen. They have twenty-four words to name snow. Alerans have one. In the same way, Canim have eleven words to name enemy."
Tavi nodded slowly. "Can you tell me what gadara means? Describe it?"
Varg gave Tavi a very Aleran-looking shrug. "It means that you are a foe that is equal. Honorable. Trusted."
"A trusted enemy?" Tavi asked. "And you name your son as such?"
"Enemies are far more faithful than friends, Aleran, and more dependable than allies. One can respect an enemy far more easily than a friend. It is considered a mark of respect," Varg said.
Nasaug, meanwhile, had dropped to his haunches in a relaxed crouch, still panting to regain his breath. Struggling in the armor had wearied him far more than it had his unarmored sire. "Aleran," he said. "Why did you turn an honorable war into a slaughter of makers and females?"
"I didn't," Tavi replied. "I've been gone more than six weeks, bringing Varg to you, as we agreed." He frowned. "Your people didn't kill those holders?"
Nasaug spat. "No. Cavalry from your Legions have been striking steadholts for weeks now." He jerked his muzzle at the draining tables. "So I have allowed the bloodspeakers to drain the blood of the dead and so avenge them."
Tavi lifted a hand to his face for a moment. "These riders," he said. "Alerans?"
"Aye."
"Not Marat?"
"The white-hairs. No."
Tavi exhaled slowly. "Then it hasn't been the First Aleran. Arnos must have ordered the Guard's cavalry to do it."
"That matters little to the dead," Durias said quietly. "Or to their families. Manus's wife and children were killed two days ago. That's why he reacted as he did, Captain."
"Why would Arnos do such a thing?" Kitai asked quietly.
Tavi shook his head. "To ensure that there would be no peaceful conclusion to this campaign, maybe. Or..." He glanced at Durias. "Has the Free Aleran Legion engaged the Crown forces yet?"
"No," Durias said quietly. "We've been holding off as long as possible."
Tavi spat a bitter taste from his mouth. "That's why, then," he said. "This campaign has been about ambition from the start. Arnos wants to be sure you have reason to fight. Then he gets the credit for defeating an invader and putting down a slave revolt as well."
"If he wished to anger us," Nasaug said, "then he has succeeded. There will be no quiet end to this struggle, Aleran."
Tavi frowned. "I lived up to my end of the agreement."
"I agreed that if you freed Varg, we would talk. I have talked, and you may go in peace, gadara. But I will not allow those who murder makers and females to walk away unpunished." He jerked his muzzle at the besieged ruins. "They will not last the night."
Tavi clenched his jaw. Nasaug was no fool, and he could clearly see that the Legions were already in desperate straits. They'd been taken off guard, and the ongoing sorceries seemed more than able to pulverize what little shelter they had, given enough time.
And blood.
Tavi racked his brain desperately. There had to be some way out of this mess, some way to save the First Aleran, some way to...
"And what then?" Tavi heard himself ask quietly.
Nasaug tilted his head to one side.
"After you've killed them," he continued, struggling to keep up with a sudden flood of possibilities. "They'll be replaced by more Legions-and you'll be long gone. But the Free Alerans won't. And you can bet that whatever force comes next will have orders to wipe them out. They'll be the ones to pay for what you do to the men on that hill."
Durias lifted his chin defiantly-but there was something in his eyes that was not at all certain.
"For that matter," Tavi said, "how do you expect to get across the sea? When your fleet came, they used a storm the ritualists summoned to travel swiftly, and they came in large numbers to get through the leviathans. You won't be sailing nearly so swiftly on the way back. How many more ships will you lose? How much weaker will your army be when you finally return to your home?"
Nasaug growled in his throat. "We are willing to face those dangers, Aleran."
"What if you didn't have to?" Tavi asked.
Varg's ears flicked in amusement. "Perhaps you noticed," he growled to Nasaug, "that our young gadara is clever."
Nasaug snapped his jaws pensively. "What do you propose?"
"I'm going to give you the man responsible for those deaths," Tavi said. "I'm going to punish those who carried out his orders. I'm going to see to it that the Free Alerans are not treated as criminals for what they have done-and after that, I'm going to make sure your fleet gets safely over the sea and back to your home."
"And in exchange for all of this?" Nasaug asked, his tone clearly skeptical.
Tavi gestured at the ocean of Canim surrounding the hill. "You surrender."
Nasaug lifted his lips from his teeth. "What?"
"You surrender," Tavi repeated.
"Even if this was possible, I will never surrender to Alerans or their Legions," Nasaug said. "Too many of them are no better than animals."
"You won't be surrendering to Aleran Legions," Tavi replied. "You'll be surrendering to me, personally-a gadara."