163 - Not Going to Happen!

“Amir.”  The Emir-al stood up, brushing himself off. “Off you go, check that villain to make sure of him.  If he’s still breathing we may get a name out of him.”

“Naser!” Dukir snapped a very proper salute.  He didn’t think that anyone else had caught the look he’d flung the young officer, but Raghnall had picked up on it fast enough.

The Emir-al yanked a broken fang out of his boot, checked the end to see if it had succeeded in working its way all the way through his skin, without the leverage of a body behind it, tossed it to one side. “Surdeniliarch.  Brilliance.  I have, in deference to your respective stations, held back.  However, it is at His Radiance’s orders that I command here and at this point I think I must be resolute on my insistance that I resume that command.”

Dukir didn’t need to see the look the two older men exchanged and the look they surely must have flung after his retreating back, as he clambered up to check on the assassin and see if he could divine any clues from the body.  It was unlikely that he or she had survived the arrows and darts.   

“My Amir has been very good at smoothing our journey and I will commend him for his timely actions and presence of mind.  At this point I absolutely insist that we press on, to where I will have re-supply waiting for us, at a military well only a few hours out of the city. The Surdeniliarch of Milar and his family and entourage, his husband the newly discovered Kraghanz of Lainz himself and his son, the Siwion will NOT straggle into their own city with dirty faces and broken equipment, whipped by the badlands and the efforts on your lives.  I refuse to show these cretinous fools who think they can succeed by deadly force that they’ve had any effect on you in the slightest! It is not going to happen while this is my duty!”

They all stared at the formerly soft-spoken officer, glanced up at the diligent Amir and back at Raghnall. Maryu and Elemfias were the first to start laughing.  “Nice to see you actually on the job, Emir-al!  You were letting your Amir do all the work!”

“As is proper,” he said stiffly. “Gentlemen, if you would let your children know that we will climb the rockfall to help them properly address the matter of the murdered road-crew?”

“Of course, Emir-al,” Ilax said, a smile spreading on his filthy face.  “Is there enough water at this well to allow us to clean up completely or will we have to go back to the wadi for that?”

“There is enough water.” Raghnall said.  “Or there will be.” His voice brooked no doubt that there would be, or someone would be very sorry.

Excellent, boy.  You picked the right time, the right tone.  Let me fade back into obscurity. My actions were all your plan all along.  Any good Amir will make the Emir-al look good.  Let this whole thing become that.  Dukir checked the corpse. 

A frober.  Someone used to city but not out here.  He’s both pale and sunburnt in a pattern that shows he wasn't used to going out to either desert or badlands.  The forehead band of his sarband has left a raw place.  Soft hands. Deadcliner.  One of the good ones.  No sign of who paid him, or ordered him out here.  No fading code.  No matter how over-elaborate his schemes were, he wasn’t inexperienced enough to bring anything tying him to anyone else.

No papers at all.  His supplies were clearly enough to keep him till we showed up, give or take a day or two. He pulled open the bags in the back of the leather-lined hole.  He was out front to see, to direct his creatures, where we could reach him, rather than holing up in the back here.  These supplies are clearly from city markets, not deep desert ones.  Fak, he even has a package of Trovi sweets, half eaten.  We don’t have enough extra birds to haul him in.  I’ll wrap him up and we’ll leave word with the new road crew and warriors that Shashi is sending along.

“All clear, Emir-al!” he called down to Raghnall.  “Just the one man. No identifiers.”

“Very good, Amir. We’ll leave him for the clean-up crew.”

“As you command, Naser.” Good boy, keep it up.