"Dauntra and Juskra, of the Aumrarr," came the curt reply. "We brought you here, and we'll be taking you away again. Now."
"Why?" Iskarra snapped, from behind the table. "I'm finding I like Stormcrag Castle."
"The time is come," said the other Aumrarr, in a slightly kinder voice. "We need you."
"For what?" Garfist asked suspiciously. "Just how quickly is this going to get us killed, hey?"
"No time for that now," Juskra snarled, her sword starting to grate out of its scabbard-whereupon Isk held out the mindgem above the table, swinging her arm sharply to warn them she could at a whim swiftly bring it down, and shatter what she held.
"Oh," she told the two Aumrarr softly, as they stared at her with thinning lips, "I think there is."
Juskra's eyes blazed, and she strode forward almost panting in rising fury-only to stop abruptly, hissing, as Gar moved to bar her way to the table and drew back one arm, as if a solid punch could prevail against her sword and dagger.
"Dyune," he said firmly. "She left us. Just left us. What's befallen her?"
The two Aumrarr looked at each other, and then back at Gar and Isk.
"She has… perished," Dauntra said reluctantly. "In battle with a greatfangs. Along with our sisters Ambrelle and Lorlarra."
She shuddered as she fought back tears, then swallowed, sighed, and added, "Ambrelle died so we might live. She used the flame of life that burned within her to work a great magic."
"That blew the beast's brains apart from within," Juskra said grimly, "and slew it."
A little silence fell, until Garfist said into it, "Tell us more."
When neither of the Aumrarr spoke, he sighed and waved a hand at the mindgem Iskarra was holding over the table. "We know what we have, but where's the skull?"
"The skull?"
"Ortbaunt's skull," he growled disgustedly. "An' just for that, ye can tell me what ye're planning to use it for-or we, an' this oh-so-precious mindgem with us, stay right here."
The Aumrarr traded glances with each other again. Juskra was visibly itching to bury her sword in Garfist, but Dauntra gave her a glare, shaking her head.
"I know where it is," she told Garfist, slowly and reluctantly, "but we've not sought to recover it, yet. That-" She pointed at the mindgem. "-we came seeking first. Dyune was supposed to have hidden it here at Stormcrag and then departed without the two of you-or anyone else-ever seeing her."
"Ever kings scheme, yet the Falcon rends all bright plots awry," Garfist quoted an old ballad archly. "Even, it seems, the clever plans of Aumrarr."
"Enough of this," Juskra snapped, glaring at Iskarra. "Give us the gem, or I'll start cutting large slices off your man, here!"
Garfist grabbed for her sword then, barehanded. She backed hastily away and brought its point up to menace his face and throat.
He gave her an unpleasant grin. "Threaten someone it'll work on. For us, save yer breath. Ye need us, not just yon stone and the skull. Hey?"
Dauntra sighed, shoulders sagging. "Yes."
Garfist gave Juskra a sardonic look, arching one eyebrow. She grimaced in disgust and lowered her blade.
"That's better," he growled. "Now, the two of ye, heed: Isk and I may well be quite willing to aid ye. If ye speak truth, and keep nothing back from us. Ye Aumrarr love to keep secrets, but there's none but us to say ye didn't, hey? If you speak truth, the Falcon might even smile on ye, for once! So speak. We know ye need us, so what we're to do is something no Aumrarr can succeed at. We know 'tis dangerous and urgent, or ye wouldn't be here in the dead of night drawing steel on us. So spill all, lasses! What d'ye need us for?"
"If we tell you," Dauntra said quietly, "the mere knowing leaves you standing in danger."
"Sister, no!" Juskra snapped. "We dare not-"
"You daren't not tell us," Iskarra snapped out, her voice louder than the scarred Aumrarr, and ringing with the iron of command, "or you lose your chance. Either we refuse, you slay us, and you go out into the night with no gem and the need to hunt down more humans who'll aid you-or you tell us all, and we can begin whatever task you need us for. I will not aid and serve captors who hurl us hither and yon like old cloaks and tell us nothing, but I could very well fight alongside someone who trusted me, and treated me as worthy to know what is going on."
Her words rang out into a sudden stillness, as the two Aumrarr turned to lock eyes with each other.
A swift and silent war was fought in a few unfolding moments, through their sharp eyes, and then Juskra tossed her head, sighed loudly, and announced, "Very well. The truth. We, yes, need humans, because the warning-spells on Lyraunt Castle are keyed to rouse the place if any Aumrarr comes within their reach."
"Malraun's spells," Garfist rumbled. Both Aumrarr nodded, so he asked, "And ye need to get into Lyraunt Castle why?"
"To put the skull in… a particular place, therein," Dauntra replied, "and the gem in another specific spot."
Letting the weariness of worn-thin patience sound clearly in his voice, Gar asked flatly, "Why?"
"The Doom you named has created gates-magical ways to and from far places, traversed in a step; waerways, some call them-in the castle," Juskra replied. "Two of them."
"We know what gates are," Isk said softly. "You seek to close them."
Dauntra nodded. "The spells on the skull will disrupt the enchantments of the larger gate, yes. The second, smaller one we believe to be the Doom's secret; his 'back door' if you will. If we can place the mindgem in it, and he later tries to use that way into the Castle, quite likely to find out and fix what happened to his other gate, the powers of the gem will affect him."
Garfist glared at her ere asking patiently, "And do what?"
"Scramble his mind to drooling idiocy, if the luck of the Falcon is with us," Juskra muttered.
"And if it isn't?"
"Enrage him into setting aside his schemes for as long as it takes to come after us, and destroy us," Dauntra said quietly.
Iskarra frowned. "So the gem won't close the gate?"
"No." Juskra grounded the point of her sword on the floor, leaned on its quillons, and sighed, "Yon stone will just sit there in it, waiting for Malraun to get too close."
Garfist nodded. "So, now, where are these gates?"
She fixed him with a hard, direct stare. "Telling you where the larger one lies is a waste of breath if you haven't been inside Lyraunt Castle, until we're flying above it and I can point the right roof out to you. The second one is in a bedchamber at the top of Lyraunt's tallest tower. The bed all but fills that room, and the gate awaits anyone squeezing under the bed, right at the back, by its headboard."
Acquiring the ghost of a smile, the sword-scarred Aumrarr added, "You're too fat to use that waerway, unless you've brawn enough to heave the whole thing up on your back."
"You welcome would-be allies so charmingly," Isk told her sharply.
The reply was a shrug, but Dauntra said, "Juskra, please. Garfist, Iskarra; we need you to be the ones who place the skull and the gem for us. Now."
"Why now?" Garfist asked, suspicion sharpening his voice from its usual growl.
"Because," Juskra told him grimly, "the armies of monsters and mercenaries Malraun has sent flooding across all Falconfar this side of Galath will reach Ironthorn soon enough. Then it'll be too late, and you can die smug and secure, knowing you could have saved the world. But chose not to."
Taeauna smiled up at her Master, there on the hilltop. Looming above her, the gloating Doom threw back his head to laugh at the stars, and compelled his wards-the spells that would turn aside any arrow, hurled weapon, or hard-swung blade the more ambitiously treacherous of his warriors might decide to send his way-to glow more brightly, outlining him in eerie flames that burned nothing and gave off no heat.