Chapter 2 - Part 6

Khundran watched them go, in a way envying his cousin, but in a way not. Of the twelve Dragonmarked Houses – thirteen now actually, there were only a few members within each who made policies that affected the world. Khundran was one, and was enjoying the power of it far too much to follow the song of the open road.

“But you do envy him,” came a soft voice.

Khundran jumped in the air an each, surprised that the old woman had managed to sneak up on him. The wizened orc face stared at him while her snake slithered in the dirt at her feet like a child at play. “You read minds now, Mother of the Marsh?” he asked.

“Heh, some do, from far across the oceans, but I do not,” she said. “I merely read the pages of your face. Within your compound you do not hide your thoughts.”

“I have none to hide it from,” he said, giving her a slight bow. “Do I?”

“Not from me,” the elderly Gatekeeper told him. She squinted in the daylight, staring at the closed gate, her yellowed tusks old but steady. “I may not officially be of this House, but I have aided it in the past, you know this.”

“Yes I do, Mother of the Marshes,” he replied. Khundran was always very polite with this woman. He once saw her wipe out an entire clan of Dragon Below worshippers with lightning called from a calm sky. “I, ah, tried to get him to talk to you.”

“I know.”

“I think he would have if you had come to him.”

“I know.”

“But you’re not going to tell me why you didn’t.”

“Correct.”

“You are a mysterious woman, Mother of the Marshes.”

“I spoke to Feather, I learned what I needed for now,” she said, which was the most explanation he had ever gotten from her. “Delegado’s path will soon cross with the path of the Gatekeepers again, and then he will be willing to listen. Now I wish you good day, Khundran, for I must rest.”

“Good day,” he said to her as she left.

In the morning she was gone, and no one had seen her leave.