Chapter 8 – Part 4

Delegado knew he was in for trouble when he sat down across the battered desk from Baruk. The steely-eyed half-orc looked unpleasant, tough, rigid…but not surprised.

“You’re going to Yrlag,” the commander of Blood Crescent said bluntly.

Delegado pursed his lips, and then sighed. There weren’t too many people who could speak to him that way…and they were all high-ranking members of his House. This is why I stay away from the Marches. “You want to tell me why these are your first words to me?” Delegado asked. “You want to tell me that, Baruk? Or did my sister not give you permission?”

The green skin of the other half-orc didn’t flush, and his eyes didn’t twitch. “Tatyanna doesn’t give me orders, Longbow,” Baruk said, using an old childhood nickname of Del’s. “I answer to the Triumvirate. Thought you knew that.”

Del ground his tusks. “Thought you knew Tatyanna is the one who called me Longbow because she didn’t me to have my sword.” He was trying to hold in his temper but not succeeding. “My father’s sword. My father who I found, a prisoner in the Wastes.”

“I’m not responsible for Bartemain getting taken!” Baruk snapped, finally showing some emotion.

“Didn’t show well on you though, did it?” Del noted. “And the thanks I get is what – being treated like a naughty child who can’t go an play?” His voice was rising.

“Keep it down, we’re not putting on a show for your friends down the hallway,” snorted Baruk. “I’m boss here, and I can’t let these thugs see me weak before you, got it?”

“You think they don’t know?” Del said. Baruk had kept Ois and Orphan out of this little sit-down, but as sure as an ogre slept in his own waste, the warforged could hear every word. “I’m sponsoring the warforged into our House, by the way.”

“Like I give a sh’pash?” Baruk asked. “My job is keeping the profit moving out of here. My job does not allow for you to come here and argue with me. I have Khyber shards and narstones to harvest. I have crews to keep in line. I have a ledger sheet that has to justify the cost here. I’ve got no time for your emotions. The Triumvirate says that you go to Yrlag, so you go to Yrlag. Your pet warforged want to go somewhere else, or that lady you picked up – who the Medani sensors identify as a changeling, if you didn’t know – I don’t care. They came get on the Lyrandar supply ship that’s coming tonight and continue on to wherever it’s heading.” Baruk exhaled slowly, then inhaled even more slowly. “But you are going to Yrlag.”

Del looked at him. They stared at each other for over a minute.

Del broke first. “So, you gonna tell me why?”

“Null contract,” Baruk said.

“What?” Delegado said, blinking.

“Null contract, you heard of it?” Baruk asked.

“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about,” Delegado said.

“Null contract is when somebody pays for an agent of a dragonmarked house to not do anything,” Baruk explained. “It’s mostly used when someone wants a Thuranni contract killer to stay out of the game for a bit, or a Phiarlan agent, or someone. The price is very high. The last I heard of it, some ten years back Karrnath paid Jorasco’s best healer to stay out of Mror for six months. They were trying to send the dwarves a message.”

“Who paid for my null contract, and for how long?” Del asked.

“You have a greater dragonmark now, don’t you?” Baruk asked.

“You’re not answering my question.”

“You think I know the answer.”

“I think you know more than you’re telling.”

Baruk finally cracked a smile. “I always do.”

Delegado leaned back and put his dirty, booted feet atop Baruk’s desk. It was hard as stone. Word in the House was it was carved out of a demon’s bones or something. It sure wasn’t wood. “Don’t play Phiarlan with me, commander. We’re the people born from nature’s strength, not snippety woodfey. Tell me what you know.”

“Breland,” Baruk said. “I’m not supposed to know, but I do. Breland paid for a sixty-day null contract on you at a greater dragonmark rate. When you were supposed to be dead. Not one diviner could find you. And Breland drops a ton of cash on a null contract, stating that if you showed up, you were to be kept within a hundred miles of the Shadow Marches. The null contract is paid through and including the first of Ollarune.”

Delegado blinked. “Are you – are you kidding me? What the Mabar for?”

“I was hoping that you could tell me,” Baruk said. “Now if you weren’t dead, how come nobody could find you?”

“I was outside of time,” Delegado explained.

Now Baruk blinked. “What?”

“I don’t understand it either,” Delegado sighed. “I came here on a ship captained by a fiend who isn’t evil, drives something called the Crimson Ship. He got us off the beach when we thought we were dead. A half-daelkyr screwed around with the Crimson Ship and shot us forward a month or so.”

Baruk rubbed his eyes. “I got less than half of that. And what I got tells me the fiends want you, and I get enough attacks on this outpost as it is. You are definitely on the next ship to Yrlag.”

“Medani,” Delegado said.

“What?”

“Medani. Who else would Breland listen to and drop a bundle like that?”

Baruk snickered. “Yeah, that was my first thought. Second was the Dark Lanterns. Ahh, f’test it.” The other half-orc reached into a drawer and pulled out a bottle and two cups. “Gnoll whiskey. Usually it’s horrible, this time it came out okay.” He poured a cup and handed it to Delegado.

Del took the cup, understanding that with this, Baruk was telling him the business was over, and that he wasn’t trying to treat Del like one of his soldiers. “So, while I’m waiting on the next boat that’s bound to Yrlag, what do you let the fellows do for fun here?”

“We expect a small horde of come Carrion Tribe folk to swarm attack us in a few hours,” Baruk said. “A local hag is testing our defenses with her dumber worshippers. Your warforged any good?”

Delegado smiled. “You want a wager?”