A/N: So in an attempt to make up for both the long wait and the awkward brevity of the last chapter, this chapter is nearly twice as long. Does that save me from being lynched? I do hope so.


Chapter Twenty-Nine

The planning room had been entirely silent and undisturbed since Kharshai had left nearly five hours ago. Zamorak wasn't necessarily enjoying the silence, but it certainly was conducive to thinking.

When the door slammed open and Enakhra all but fell into the room, Zamorak knew immediately that his thinking time was over. He jumped up and moved quickly across the room to stand next to her.

"What happened?" he asked.

She didn't look at him, just brushed past him to collapse into one of the chairs that sat near the table.

That was… odd.

"Enakhra." He turned to face her, his tone sharp. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know," she said tersely. "I… I think they captured him. Trapped him, maybe. He could be…"

Zamorak waited for her to elaborate, or at to least finish her sentence, but neither happened.

"Who are you talking about?" he asked. "Where have you been?"

She took in a deep breath, which would have been strange enough under normal circumstances and only added to his disconcertion now. "I asked Zemouregal to go with me to find Moia. I thought maybe he could help me recruit her. I don't know why, I guess because they're related. It didn't work."

"Okay," Zamorak said, his brow rising. So Enakhra had wanted to recruit Moia. Interesting. "That doesn't explain anything."

She looked at him long enough to glare at him, before returning her attention to her own hands. "After we… failed…" She spat out the word like it was poisonous. "…Sliske and Azzanadra showed up and did… something. I don't know what it was, but I think Azzanadra might have been holding a diamond so I assume that it was soul magic of some kind. I got out of the way, but… they caught Zemouregal. I left before I saw what happened."

Zamorak just stood there for a long moment, processing what she had said.

"So you're telling me," he said finally, "that the Zarosians have captured Zemouregal. He could be dead for all we know."

Enakhra flinched. "No. We would know if he was dead."

Well, okay, that was true enough.

He ran a hand over his face. "Okay. Great. We're still nearly two weeks away and we've already lost a main player. That's brilliant."

"Hey!" Enakhra said heatedly. "He's not lost. We just have to figure out how to get him back."

Zamorak shook his head. "No. Too risky. I can't lose anyone else."

Enakhra's chair clattered to the floor as she stood up abruptly, fire in her eyes. "You're telling me that you're just going to leave him there?"

He took an involuntary step backward, shocked by the force of her reaction. Enakhra had always been behind him one hundred percent, she had always done what he asked of her, and she had never argued with him.

There was a reason that he was in charge. Maybe she had forgotten that in his absence, but it was about time she remembered. He stepped forward, regaining his lost ground and then some.

"Yes," he told her sharply. "I am going to leave him there. We don't know where he is and we don't know what the Zarosians have done to keep him there. I will not lead any of my people into a trap just to recover one person. There is too much riding on this."

"I realize that," Enakhra said, "but he's better with magic than Khazard, he's got more resources than I do, and he's smarter than Hazeel. He's one of your best assets. You can't just leave him to die!"

"I can," Zamorak said, "and I will. I don't like it either, but until a better option presents itself this is how it's going to be. Understood?"

She stood there, her posture stiff and her jaw tight, until finally she nodded once. "Understood."

Then she turned on her heel and stormed out of the room.

He stared after her for a long moment, wondering what had happened to the Mahjarrat who had fallen over herself again and again in an attempt to do anything he asked. It would seem that she had found something she cared about more than making him happy.

That actually bothered him a bit.


Enakhra learned the meaning of the term "blind rage" when she abruptly ran into another Mahjarrat after her furious exit from the planning room.

Once she had righted herself, she looked up to see Khazard looking at her in confusion.

"Enakhra?" he asked.

"Yes," she said tersely. Before he could say anything to the contrary, she continued, "I'm fine."

He only frowned at her.

She ignored him, realizing that she was talking to Khazard. This was perfect! After all, what was a little betrayal between Mahjarrat?

"Khazard," she began slowly, "would you like to know who your father is?"


Zemouregal was still conscious, unfortunately. He couldn't move in the slightest, but he was still witness to the incredibly inane argument that Sliske and Azzanadra were having in front of his strange little prison.

"It was my plan!" Azzanadra was saying heatedly. "I should be the one to tell him."

"It was not your plan," Sliske returned. "You did not have a plan. You had an idea, and I did the work to turn it into a plan."

They had been making the same points at each other for nearly five minutes now, which was frankly a little much for Zemouregal to take.

"Why do you care?" Azzanadra asked, his arms crossed. "Does it even matter?"

"Absolutely not," Sliske said.

They stared at each other for a moment.

"Fine," Azzanadra said, and left.

Sliske smirked, then turned to Zemouregal. "Are you enjoying your stay?"

Zemouregal did his best to glare at the other Mahjarrat, but he was fairly certain the effort was futile.

"Excellent," Sliske said. "I'm afraid your stay may be rather short, however. I'm sure Zaros will want to move you to a less awkward location. Who knows, he may even decide that we have no use for you. That would be interesting."

Zemouregal couldn't imagine any scenario in which he would think that was 'interesting', but it wasn't like he could say anything on the matter. He just hoped Sliske wasn't planning to have a one-sided conversation with him until Azzanadra got back.

He was saved from that unpleasant fate by the sudden arrival of another Mahjarrat. Although he had to admit that if this was the rescue team, it was an incredibly crappy one.

Strangely, Sliske seemed to be somewhat intimidated by the new arrival. But when he spoke, his tone was calm and his stiff posture was the only thing to give away his discomfiture.

"Khazard," he said coolly.

"Sliske," Khazard replied. His eyes were blazing with something unidentifiable, and Zemouregal wondered what the hell was going on. His throat was practically burning with all of the questions that he couldn't ask.

"What are you doing here?" Sliske asked. "Come to rescue your teammate? I would have brought more firepower, myself, but then I always have been slightly more intelligent than the rest of you."

"I don't care about him." Khazard offered a vague motion toward the suspension cage, and Zemouregal had to admit that he was rather offended by the dismissal. "I have come to pick a bone with you."

Sliske's jaw tightened. "Have you."

"Enakhra just informed me of a rather interesting piece of information," Khazard said. "She told me something that I think I maybe should have already known, and don't even say that you don't know what I'm talking about."

Oh, hell, Zemouregal thought, his curiosity yanking brutally at its short chain. Just spit it out.

"I don't have a clue what you're talking about," Sliske said, deadpan.

Khazard's teeth made an audible click as his jaw snapped shut.

Sliske smiled tightly.

"You," Khazard growled, "are…" His fists clenched and his jaw worked, and Zemouregal wanted badly to just choke the information out of him. "You…"

Sliske's brows rose. "Your eloquence is astonishing."

"You are my father!" Khazard roared. "You're my father, and you never told me!"

What.

Interestingly, the first thought in Zemouregal's mind was that apparently Enakhra had known. She must have loved digging up that bit of dirt. He wondered how long she had been sitting on it.

Then he remembered how she had come back bearing the Staff and looking mysteriously smug. Now it kind of made sense. Blackmail was definitely her style.

"I don't see why it matters," Sliske said shortly. "What would have changed?"

Khazard just stared at him.

Then he opened his mouth, and closed it again, and stared some more.

Sliske crossed his arms. "If you're going to speak, do so. If not, you may as well leave."

"I…" Khazard straightened. "I'm not leaving."

Zemouregal was certain there was more to that sentence than a comment about physical movement. He had always thought that the young Mahjarrat had trouble sticking with any kind of ideals, and it seemed Khazard was now properly living up to that opinion. Which was not a good sign for the rest of the Zamorakians.

Sliske sighed. "Fine. Just don't get in my way."

Whatever Khazard may have said in reply to that was lost to Zemouregal, whose attention had shifted to the dark shape that seemed to be moving quickly up to him from the opposite side. He couldn't quite make out what it was until it stopped just beside him and the shadows fell away to reveal Enakhra.

And in her right hand was the Staff of Armadyl. There was no way that Zamorak had let her take the Staff and come on a rescue mission by herself. Which meant that she had probably either not told him or had actually defied him.

Zemouregal wished that he could express his intense gratitude at that moment, but the cage still held him, trapped in immobility.

Enakhra frowned at the problem in front of her, then lifted the Staff. It seemed that she was going to stab the cage with the Staff, but before she had the chance, a thick whip of shadows threw her backward.

Zemouregal looked toward the origin of the shadows and saw that Sliske had noticed Enakhra's approach.

"You brought the Staff?" he asked, watching her scramble back to her feet. "How forward of you. Shall we see if you have what it takes to wield it?"

Zemouregal had a moment of fear, and was forced to remind himself that she was armed with enough power to strike down a god.

She wasn't going to lose.


A/N: I do always so look forward to reviews. :)