Chapter 18 - Part 7

“You told me the babau would keep everyone else away,” whined the kyton into the enchanted glass. An image of a tiger-headed humanoid was staring back at him. “You told me you would keep this operation secret. There is fighting in the upper tunnels!”

“You told me you could handle it,” the rakshasa sneered. “Maybe I should have picked someone else.”

“You reinforcements aren’t getting here,” the kyton said. “Something is killing them. I can’t leave this cavern to deal with it, the dretches would bolt, and they will tell tales.”

“You keep this operation secret or I will eat your skin,” the rakshasa snarled. “Do you understand me?”

The kyton swallowed. “Yes, lord,” he said.

“I can tell there is some interest, others have noted the missing troops,” the rakshasa said. “I have had to make some excuses, but I am on my way there now. We will end this interference within two days. Break the glass, we will not talk again until I arrive.” The rakshasa’s image winked out.

The kyton growled, and smashed the glass into splinters and dust with its chains. He had been promised much reward and glory, a chance to sit at the right hand of the throne, and now it was seeping away from him. He stalked out of the small cave that he used as a planning station. He had about ten more of the mindless lemures left. In an hour he’d send them charging down the tunnel to their death, but after that he would either need to start sacrificing the dretches – who were finally trained to use the crossbows correctly, or sit on his chains and do nothing. The latter option would just leave him open to more blame.