War of the Words/Chapter 24

Travel to Sentar remained slower then Darin would have preferred, but true to the captain's word their pace did pick up a bit. Darin was not confident they would reach the small port town before dark. It was what to do when they arrived that left him cold. He had been debating it for some time. He could lead Tralin back to the front, to be sure, but he was fairly certain it would be abandoned. At least it would if Delnar was as skilled a person as Darin believed he was. Finding Delnar became the issue: he could have fled in any direction other than into the sea and be in a more defensible place. Delnar likely originally stayed at the sea in case retreat was ordered, but as that had become impossible...

"Would Delnar not leave if he believed retreat was necessary for survival?"

"Ordinarily," Tralin responded, "except that our naval vessels were recalled to bring the Frogzard Knights and my company of mages to the front."

"Company of mages? Frogzard Knights? You really meant to turn the battle's tide at the expense of leaving your home flank undefended."

"This was before we found Jano," Tralin responded. "We believed we fought a battle on enemy soil, and enemy soil not even that familiar to the enemy."

"Does Draynor have no spies?" Darin asked.

"Certainly," Tralin quipped. "He has you, hasn't he?"

"Very funny, Drakel. I meant, does he employ no espionage?"

"Do you honestly think any answer you got to that question would be true, Darin? You are a foreign dignitary and a potentially hostile one as well. If we had none and I told you, you would set about furthering your own hold. Were I to say the king had the best in the world, carefully trained as part of an intricate network, you would seek to uncover its secrets."

Darin sighed deeply. "Ordinarily perhaps, but I was upfront. My network is dead. This disaster is being placed on my head. I cannot even return to Delkirk."

"Interesting," Tralin responded without emotion.

"Are all Drakel as cold as you?" Darin asked boldly.

Tralin surprised Darin with a relatively candid answer, considering his general secretivness. "Are all humans as skilled at espionage as you? Are all humans as good at fishing as the master fishermen at Quoru? No? Then why would you presume I were anything like 'all' Drakel? You seek a generalization where one is invalid; we are not insectoids with a hive mind. That should be apparent, or else there would not be outcasts and renegades like the Water Casters."

"And you?" Darin asked. "What is your position in Drakel culture?"

"You could not possibly understand, nor am I inclined to share such information with you."

"Legendary Drakel secretiveness returns."

Tralin merely gestured acquiescence to this charge.

"Land Ho!" a voice shouted aboveboard.

"What? We must be making better speed then I thought!" Darin exclaimed, and went above deck with Tralin trailing. "How shall we find Delnar when we get there?"

Tralin looked across the night sea at Sentar. "I suspect we shall not need to look far," Tralin said over the odd cacophony of music that was their constant night companion, and he gestured at the city.

Darin looked and noticed that the port city of Sentar was ablaze.