Thread Slivers (Golden Threads Trilogy) (43 page)

Dohma choked on his bite.
Oh ya, I need to ensure the line. That will take some getting used to, too.
“I had a hunch.”

Duke chuckled and grimaced again. “Ouch. More like you didn’t like being left out of the fight. You were in the right place at the right time, and willing to do what was needed. You’d have made a good Dagger.”

He enjoyed the swell of pride that came with that.
High praise from Duke. He really takes Daggers very seriously.
Dohma chewed on his food for a while, thinking about the Daggers and guards. “Excellency, I have been meaning to ask you. Did you really start the Daggers with Damega, like the pretenders said?”

Duke smiled. “I didn’t start them, I just continued them.”

“You can’t just drop that, it demands an explanation.”

Duke looked at him with a serious look in his eyes. “The Daggers are continuing an honorable and proud tradition of military service that goes back further than you would believe.”

“My ability to believe has had a lot of exercise recently. Try me.”

Duke moved to get more comfortable. “We have time, so alright, you get your wish. Just the short version though. Daggers, like the knives they are named after, are not just born — they are forged by masters over time with great care. If anything goes wrong they don’t become Daggers. All Daggers start learning a profession as they grow. All are very knowledgeable, and some are even learned scholars. Because they are the people they are, they see to the physical as well as the mental, and tend to end up getting some military experience in a guard or army somewhere. Then, if they want to be Daggers badly enough, are right in the head, and haven’t been perverted by their associations, they get picked up for more training by an experienced Dagger.”

Duke was looking at the ceiling and he lost himself in his explanation. His voice changed slightly, getting softer and somehow more dramatic. It seemed as if Duke were actually travelling further and further away and leaving only his voice behind to tell what had become of him. Dohma noticed that Ladro had not changed papers yet and was holding very still, with his head shifted to hear every word of the coming tale.

“Long ago I was just such a man. I was born to a family that had an honorable tradition of being Daggers so far back it was already lost in time and legend. Hell, one of my ancestors earned a Dukedom for his service. But although this made our family rich, he made sure his children grew up with the right values of honor, courage, and commitment; his children did the same. So it was that in my family we all served when our time came — woman or man, we served. I enjoyed the work, and though not necessary made a full career of it, rising to a very high rank before I became as you see me now.” Duke chuckled ironically. “In fact it was because of my commitment to the Dagger ideals that I stuck my nose in where I wasn’t supposed to and ended up as you see me now.

“You see, a disaster of a magnitude you would find hard to imagine was in progress. All our lands and those of the peoples of magic, including those of the Gods, were threatened with total destruction. The Gods, with the secret aid of our government, were trying desperately to find a way to save everyone or at least some. The result was that our people, along with many of our creatures, were migrated to many new lands with the help of the Gods and the peoples of magic. This was no small task, and it cost all dearly in lives as well as cultures and resources.

At first our original government and civilization held together and we worked with the Gods, elves, and dwarves to build cities and establish ourselves in this new land. It was then we discovered the unexpected results of living with magic we spoke of earlier. Our populations began to shrink and the resources needed to sustain our old ways were simply not feasible, given what was left in knowledge, power, and people to do the work. The old government and militaries started to break down. We did all we could to create a sustainable, safe society, and thus a new empire was born.”

Duke’s eyes glossed over as he went back in his mind. Dohma had one of those feelings.
He is going to reveal something important. I must concentrate, this is a key.

“Eventually even that empire was too large to sustain itself and it began to fall. As a final effort to prevent total chaos, the Emperor created the concords which established the smaller kingdoms you now know. Damega learned all this and much more. It was he who showed me what I didn’t understand before. Damega was the one to finally break through my optimism for humanity and proved to me the true state of things. People are people, and a few thousand years wasn’t going to change that. It was humanity’s struggle against its greed and thirst for power which caused empires to fall and change. People are born with certain behaviors and attitudes built-in, which are filtered by their experiences through childhood events, resulting in adults of all types. Most are good, yet some are bad, and enough are really evil. Without a proper balance the majority of good people suffered at the hands of the truly evil controlling the bad. From time to time a hero emerged. But one person was not enough to balance the world. We were missing an organization of men and women with the abilities, training, and commitment to do whatever it took to do what was right. People committed to a higher standard, who could be looked up to and trusted by the majority of good people and feared by the bad and evil, keeping them from making bold sweeping moves. An organization that had to reach out across kingdom borders to touch all realms. That is when I realized every world needs Marines. You see, the three tenants of a Dagger are honor, courage, and commitment.

“Daggers are required to live and exemplify an ultimate standard in honorable ethical and moral conduct. Honor encompasses and requires many traits and behaviors. A Dagger must never cheat, steal, or lie, but that is not enough. Each Dagger must cling to an uncompromising code of personal integrity, accountable for their actions and holding others accountable for theirs; and above all, honor mandates that a Dagger never sully the reputation of being a Dagger.

“Then there is courage. Courage isn’t just blindly doing idiotic things for glory. For a Dagger courage is honor in action, a moral strength, willing to do what is right, regardless of the conduct of others. Courage means willingness to take a stand for what is right in spite of adverse consequences. Every day a Dagger can wake up and smile, knowing they did right and will do it again.

“Finally, Daggers have commitment, which is a total dedication to the Dagger ideals and to the world as a whole. Some call it ‘all for one and one for all’. But that is too simple an explanation, because commitment includes the ideal that if you want a job done right you give it to a Dagger. To a Dagger, commitment is a combination of a relentless dedication to excellence and selfless determination. Daggers never give up, never give in, never willingly accept second best. Excellence is always the unachievable goal that must never be forgotten or abandoned. There is no such thing as an ex-Dagger — once a Dagger, always a Dagger, because commitment never dies.

“I was a career Dagger officer and I tried to live by that standard always. But after coming here I had become the hero, just one soul, who could only be one place at a time. Damega showed me we needed Daggers everywhere.

“I taught him all I was, all I knew, and he embraced it like none I have ever seen before or after. He was an unbelievably good template for others to work towards. I was only the trainer; Damega was this world’s first true Dagger, son.”

Duke sat silently and Dohma noticed tears beading off of Duke’s eyes.
He misses Damega. If Damega was the first Dagger then Duke probably thinks of him as a son; which means he had an argument with his son and went away, only to…
Dohma sat up as the realization hit him.
The pretenders said Shar-Lumen delivered Damega’s dead body. Oh Lord — in Duke’s eyes Shar-Lumen killed his son! Worse, he killed him before they made up.
Dohma sat respectfully quiet, watching Duke in his silent remembrances of things long past.

Duke pretended to adjust the pillow, but Dohma knew he was cleaning his eyes. Duke’s ear twitched. “Ladro.”

“Yes, sir?”

“Get back to work.”

“Yes sir.” Ladro smiled and put Duke’s seal on the document in front of him, grabbing the next.

I wonder if Ladro knew this all before. Still there is something I wonder, which will distract him from his mourning of Damega.
“Why did you call them Daggers instead of Marines?”

Duke’s eyes snapped open and he looked at Dohma for a minute. “How do you know that name?”

“You said, ‘That is when I realized every world needs Marines.’”

Duke chuckled and grimaced again. “I need to watch it around you. After nearly fifteen thousand years this place had forgotten that name and many others. There was a pattern here of calling mercenaries Blades, brokers Hands, and so on. So using a name like Green Berets, Seals, Star Legion or Marines would not have invoked any special feeling, and hell, I haven’t seen a beret since just after the migration, why the hell would I want to introduce that silly headwear again? Damega came up with the idea of sticking his dagger in the table to call attention to himself over other mercenaries. Those we started training did the same, so calling them ‘Daggers’ just made sense.”

Thankfully, before Duke could go back to remembering, Elades stepped into the room. Duke looked at him and nodded.

“Excellency and Lord Dohma, we have broken the code used by the Nhia-Samri. We have deciphered most of the materials captured when we took the Llino Outpost.”

Duke smiled. “First, what was that bird carrying?”

“Sir, the bird’s message was ‘abort and track.’”

“So the whole mess with Ticca at the gate would not have happened; which means we wouldn’t have been able to track them down so efficiently. Excellent, this will make sending the commander’s odassi home so much funnier as they won’t know he didn’t get the order. Continue.”

“The majority of the materials are expected logistics. We now are aware of two other outposts nearby. One is situated to record all merchant traffic.”

Duke nodded. “That is not surprising. Monitoring the merchant traffic will reveal much about who is in favor and not. Anything else?”

“Two items of extreme importance, sir. The first is that we have answered two of your primary objectives. Specifically, who killed Magus Vestul and why.” Elades pulled out a paper and held it to read it directly. “‘Llino Outpost, you are instructed to intercept Magus Vestul before he meets with Duke. He is carrying vital information on his person in his pouch at all times. The pouch is to be seized and sent to Hisuru Amajoo unopened. In no way is a Nhia-Samri to come into direct contact with Magus Vestul, and anyone not Nhia-Samri involved is to be eliminated without a trace.’”

Duke started a low rumbling growl. “That answers why but not who.”

“Sir, according to the reports, the second-in-command, by the name of Ossa-Ulla, hired a Knife named Keelun who vanished at the same time Magus Vestul did. They suspected Ticca intercepted him since she publicly wore Magus Vestul’s pouch the next day. She trapped them by hiring a mage named Lebuin who blocked their assassination attempt on her to recover the pouch. They were not sure if Magus Vestul was dead or alive. The final report, addressed to a Warlord Maru-Ashua, written for delivery when the documents were recovered, suggests the theory that Magus Vestul hired Ticca prior to coming to Llino. Ticca arrived early and pretended to be inexperienced while making similar arrangements with Magus Lebuin, who they also suggest is a Guild special operative, perhaps even a Dagger himself. Ossa-Ulla is blamed with falling for the entire trap and exposing their presence; the commander also accepts blame for not more directly overseeing Ossa-Ulla and allowing this to happen.”

Duke’s tail wagged in spite of the growling. “This is very good news — one of ours completely foiled them. But if correct, she failed to protect Magus Vestul. She could not know of the Nhia-Samri element until too late and that would throw any Dagger for a loop if unexpected. Hell, I didn’t know they were here. This has been a very surprising trip. But why didn’t she just report to me if she was working with Vestul? We have confirmed she is carrying his pouch, so she must still be operating under some instructions we are unaware of. He was coming to give me something important. Now we know it is some kind of data, most likely that damned research project he has been so secretive about for the last few decades. But how did Shar-Lumen learn about it when even I didn’t know?”

Elades looked slightly worried. Duke picked up on it. “There is more, what is it?”

“Sir I don’t think we killed Ossa-Ulla. The local commander wanted to kill him for his mistakes but Warlord Maru-Ashua wouldn’t condone the request. Instead he was demoted and the commander sent him out on a mission outside Llino the day before you started the hunt.”

Duke did not look happy. “Details, please.”

“Sir, Ossa-Ulla was ordered to take an additional agent and proceed to Algan to burn Magus Vestul’s home to insure any possible copies of the information sought would not fall into your possession. He was to then proceed to Rhini Wood and gather intelligence on just who Ticca is, before reporting back to the outpost just east of Llino. He left via the Delivery Channel using something they call a breather.”

“God damn it! When the hell did they get scuba gear? We have been letting ships out since before the hunt after careful inspection. If they have scuba gear there is no need to be on or near the ship he could just wait at the gate.”