Balinor slumped back down in his chair with a despairing expression.
“That I disagree with. I'm not going to sit here in the safety of your camp and feed you information. There are many more useful things that I can be doing instead of that.” Urake flexed his wrists yielding several satisfying pops while Balinor scrutinized him.
“Are you saying that you want a company of your own to command?”
“While I am fully capable of such a task, I am currently better suited to other tasks. You are incessantly reminding me that I'm an assassin by trade. I don’t fight battles in the open with armies. My wars are fought in the shadows.”
“You want to leave us. What about the intel that you promised?” Balinor straightened up and tried to stare Urake down.
“You already are able to get information on large troop movements and once they are actually in the Outlands, nothing else in the Braebach will matter to you. You can harass them to your heart’s content, but the price of milk or what the Fork’s commander had for breakfast will mean nothing. The same could be invaluable if in my hands.”
“I don’t trust you any more than you could assassinate an army.” Balinor scowled as Urake smiled wanly, as if to say it wasn’t as impossible as the general thought.
“And you are partially responsible for my family and friends being massacred. We will call it even.” Urake’s gaze was as steady as Balinor’s until the general glanced away.
“How do you plan on getting out?”
“Five men and whatever supplies we need.”
“If you count that boy that hangs around you then I suppose I could spare four more.” Balinor looked a little perplexed.
“Five men of my choosing, not counting Emeck. I would prefer to leave him here; however, something tells me that is not going to happen.”
“Not on your life! I would climb the Garoche if I had to in order to stay with you.” Urake kept his expression unchanged as the eavesdropping Emeck exploded in his head.
“Five men? On the condition that they freely go with you of their own volition.” Balinor was still perplexed, but he didn’t argue Urake’s proposal.
“Agreed. I will start with Torroth and Inadar.”
“The prisoners?” Now Balinor was thoroughly confused.
“They are hiding something and have been on the run for a while. Excellent experience for what I will be doing.” Urake rose to leave. “I will let you know who else I want as soon as I pick them.” When Balinor didn’t reply, Urake departed and made his way to the room where he knew Emeck would be waiting.
“That was incredible! You threw them all off their balance and then they landed exactly where you wanted them. I have never seen anything like it. One moment they were angry then the next they were afraid then I'm not sure what they were.” Emeck described his perspective as Urake sat on his bed and leaned against the wall.
“They would never have believed me otherwise. Was Balinor afraid?”
“You bet. He thought that you had switched sides and was going to kill all of them. Then you told him who you were and he started thinking that he didn’t know anything about you when he knew more about you than anyone ever had. It was like watching a sculpture make a masterpiece.”
“So you would disobey a direct order to stay here?” Urake’s comment made Emeck falter.
“I… Yes I would. I can be a huge help at your side. Here, I'm nothing more than a groom or kitchen help. Besides, you are planning on going into the Garoche Heights aren’t you? We both know that Skeln is up there someplace.”
“Good. You are an immeasurable help. More importantly, I like having you around.” Emeck looked about ready to start dancing in glee.
“I won’t let you down. I promise.”
“You haven’t yet. Get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day.” Emeck hastened to obey, not that Urake figured he would be able to sleep in his current state of excitement. Laying down himself, Urake stared at the flickering shadows cast on the ceiling by the torch at the door. He preferred darkness when trying to sleep, but in the caves, one would have to find their way to another torch should theirs go out so the constant flickering light was a necessary evil. It seemed the hours stretched on to become eternities without more than a couple minutes of sleep at a time.
Chapter Four: Discovery
Urake finally gave up the search