Rebel Fay

Chapter Nine

Magiere watched the light wane below the doorway curtain's hem as dusk settled in. All she could do waswait and listen, but she heard no footfalls outside.

Where was Leesil?

She paced their one-room quarters, glancing at the curtain each time she drew near it. Even if she got by Osha or whoever stood post outside, she had little chance of finding Leesii. And she no longer had her falchion or even the dagger she'd made Wynn carry.

The strange vibration in her bones returned. It had faded to an almost unnoticeable level once they'd boarded the barge. Here in this place of the Anmaglahk, it built in her flesh once again. It made her even more anxious to take Leesii and run from this land by any passage they could find.

She finally sat and watched Wynn writing out one enlargedElvish letter after another upon a piece of Gleann's paper.

"This will not be as quick as the talking hide," Wynn said with frustration. "Chap will have to spell out every word. Another hide would be better, or something less fragile than paper."

"At least we can to talk to him," Magiere said.

For once she took comfort in Wynn's sudden bursts of chatter. Wynn carefully scribed and blew dry two pages of symbols and pulled out another blank sheet.

"I did not expect their dialect to be so different," Wynn said, "until I heard these elves speak. It is no wonder Chap and I have problems communicating… beyond his frustration with language. If only I could dip into that messy head of his, in the same way he sees and uses other people's memories."

Magiere didn't answer. No one had come to their quarters after Sgaile took Leesil away. She hardly considered him or his companions to be friends, but it was strange that not even Leanalham had looked in on them.

"Do not start pacing again," Wynn said. "If the elves wanted Leesil dead, none of us would have made it this far… nor would Sgaile have gone through so much to guard us. Our bodies would have vanished like any other curious human who came looking for this land."

How blunt the little scholar had become. A far cry from the soft-spoken sage Magiere had met back in Bela.

"I know," Magiere said. "It's just that lately Leesil has been so-"

"Erratic, pig-headed, idiotic, obsessive-"

"Yes, yes, all right," Magiere interrupted.A far cry indeed.

Wynn smirked slightly, her strange new stylus scratching out the next symbol. Just how many letters were there in Elvish?

Magiere hadn't bathed, wanting to be ready the instant Leesil and Chap returned. But she did change her clothing, tossing aside the elven attire for a pair of dark breeches and a loose white shirt. It was warm enough to leave off the wool pullover, but she had strapped on her hauberk again. It made her feel more secure-more like herself.

She closed her eyes.When all of this was over and done, perhaps Leesil might find his old self again. The one she'd fallen in love with so reluctantly at first. And if he didn't-she still couldn't see any day ahead of her without him.

The doorway curtain wafted inward, bulging up from the ground, and Chap slipped in under its hem. The curtain swung aside, and Leesil entered right behind the dog. Magiere was on her feet before the fabric settled into place.

"Are you all right? Did you see your mother?"

One look at his face answered both questions.

"What happened?" Wynn asked, and set aside paper and quill.

"He wants a bargain with me," Leesil answered flatly, and Chap issued a low rumble. "Most Aged Father wants the names of every Anmaglahk who might have a connection to my mother. If I get him those names, he'll release her."

Of all unsettling possibilities, this wasn't among the imagined worries that had run through Magiere's head.

"What makes him think any of his butchers would talk to you?"

"Because I'm Nein'a's son."He looked up, eyes sad and distant. "But he's lying. No matter what I do, I don't believe he'll release Nein'a-or us. You should've seen him…"

His eyes squinted and his mouth tightened as though he'd tasted something stale and bitter.

"Why go to such lengths?" Wynn asked. "By bringing you here, he has clearly alienated his people, even some of his caste. He must be desperate."

"Who better to hide from the Anmaglahk than an Anmaglahk?" Leesil retorted. "I think he's already exhausted his own means. I'm guessing my mother's refused to tell him anything in all these years. And I think he suspected my grandmother, but she's beyond his reach now."

"Chap, careful!" Wynn snapped. "I am not done… You are slobbering all over the pages!"

Chap was pulling Wynn's papers off the ledge seat, and Wynn couldn't keep up with him. He dropped them on the ground, separating the sheets with his nose, and began pawing theElvish symbols.

"Ancient Enemy," Wynn translated.

They'd heard this from him before outside of Venjetz, when he'd tried to explain that it was Eillean's skull, notNein'a's, that Leesil carried. And that Neina, Eillean, and perhaps even Brot'an, had some hand in a conspiracy surrounding Leesil's birth and training.

Chap continued, and Wynn shook her head in puzzlement. "He spelled out…'il'Samar'… or as close as he could."

The name snapped a memory in Magiere's head.

She and Chap had closed on Ubad within a forest clearing near the abandonedvillageofApudalsat. Enormous spectral coils of black scales had appeared in the dark between the wet, moss-laden trees.

"That's the name Ubad cried out before…" Magiere couldn't finish.

Looking at Chap with that memory in her head made her shiver. The dog had gone intoa frenzy at the sight of those coils, which had seemingly come to Ubad's plea. They didn't answer the old man, but instead spoke to her, Magiere, in a whispering hiss of a voice.

Sister of the dead… lead on.

And then Chap had torn out the necromancer's throat.

"What do you know about this?" Magiere asked of Wynn.

"It is definitely Sumanese. Samar is obscure, meaning conversation in the dark, or something secretly passed. And 'il' is a prefix for a proper noun… a title or name."

Wynn shook her head with uncertainty and perhaps a taint of fright.

"Back in Bela, Domin Tilswith showed me and Chane… a copy of an ancient parchment believed to be from the Forgotten. I cannot remember the exact Sumanese wording, but it mentioned something called 'the night voice'. Perhaps… from what you told us of Ubad in that clearing…"

Magiere wasn't listening anymore. The name that Ubad had cried out echoed in her mind. And then came a piece of the vision that her mother's ghost had shown to her.

Her so-called half brother, Welstiel, walked alone in the courtyard of their father's keep. As Magelia came upon him, he whispered to himself in the dark… or in answer to a voice no one else heard.

Chap struggled with how much he should tell them-and how to manage complex ideas with only a few sheets of large Elvish letters. The idea that Most Aged Father had been alive during the ancient war seemed too much for the moment. There was no telling what Leesil, or even Magiere or Wynn, might do in this strained moment if they knew.

Leesil and Wynn were little help with their tangled debate and speculations, and Magiere seemed lost within her own thoughts. For now, it was enough that they learned of an enemy that was known by many names in many places-and that Magiere was never as far from its reach as she might assume. Chap knew better.

As he was about to bark for their attention, the room blurred slightly before his eyes. It was more like a waver in the living wood of the wall. Then it was gone an instant before he fixed upon it.

Chap shook his head and looked about. Nothing had changed, yet he had felt something. Elation and then anxiety rose in him.

Had his kin finally come?But surely not in the presence of others, especially those in his charge?

They would not reveal- themselves so explicitly to mortals. He sensed no echo within his own spirit that marked their presence and shook off the strange sensation. There was nothing here, and he was being foolish. Even so, the disruption left him restless. He padded to the outer doorway and stuck his head through its curtain.

Osha looked down curiously at him from the doorway's far side. Chap ignored him, and searched the trees.

There was no sign of Lily, and she had not been waiting when he emerged from Most Aged Father's home. Something about this place-and that one great tree-frightened her. It frightened all themajay-hi, and they would not come near. Lily had only come to try to drag him from it.

He heard a soft whine and raised his ears.

The barest hint of creamy white showed beneath a bush of lilacs beyond one domicile tree. Between its lower branches, two crystalline eyes stared back across the open space at Chap.

Lily hid where she might not be noticed. For all her fear of this place, she had come back and silently watched for him.

Chap glanced up at Osha, but the young elf had not noticed her. He wanted to run beside Lily through the wild forest and let nature's ebb help him decide what course to follow.

He knew he should stay and help his companions consider this shackling bargain with which Most Aged Father tried to bind Leesil. Magiere and Wynn were also in danger here as unwanted outsiders. And in some way, great or small, this was all bound together by the hidden whereabouts of Nein'a. Chap's companions desperately needed to gain some element of power here.

Nein'a's location was the crux of it all.

If they only knew where she was imprisoned, that would remove a good deal of Most Aged Father's hold on Leesil.

Chap heard Wynn half-shout behind him, "This is futile! We will not figure this all out tonight."

"It's all we have to work with," Leesil growled back. "And I'm tired of waiting."

"Stop it, both of you," Magiere said. "Leesil, come take a bath and let it rest for now. I can't even think anymore."

Chap looked out to Lily hiding among the white lilacs. He caught her memories of the two of them running with the pack-and alone by themselves.

Unlike her, Chap could read and even recall and use another's memories within line of sight, but he could not send Lily his own without touching her. There was something he must tell her… something she and her pack needed to help him do.

He had no time to tell his companions and have them argue over it.

Osha still watched him, so Chap turned away from Lily as he slipped out.

He trotted down toward the riverside bazaar, hoping she would circle through the forest and follow. When he cut between a canvas pavilion and a stall made of ivy walls, she was waiting for him.

Lily slid her muzzle along his, until they each rested their head upon the other's neck.

Chap rolled his face into her fur and recalled Lily's own memories of her time with her siblings under the watchful eyes of her mother. He sent his memory of tall Nein'a and a young Leesil together.

He was not as adept as her kind with this memory speech, and his limitation was frustrating. He had "listened" in as Lily and one of the steel-gray twins did this. Memories came and went in such a quick cascade. Whenever she spoke to him, the images were slow and gentle in simple sights, sounds, and scents. She understood he needed time to learn their ways and always showed him patience.

Chap repeated the parallel memories of mother and child. This time, when he called the one of Nein'a and young Leesil, he pulled away Leesil's image, leaving Nein'a alone. He then recalled Lily's memories of her pack hunting in the forest, and did his best to mingle it with his own memory of the tall elven woman.

The last image he sent was one stolen from Most Aged Father-a memory that had now become his own. Cuirin'nen'a, in a shimmering sheot'a wrap, sat in a glade clearing beside a basket of cocoons.

Lily grew still beside him. She sent him no memory-talk. She nudged his muzzle with her own and took off, out of the settlement and into the forest.

Chap raced after as Lily cut loose a howl. Somewhere in the distant trees, the pack answered.

"Where's Chap?" Wynn called out.

She sat alone on her ledge bed with the occasional splash coming from the bath area at the room's rear.

"At least one of us can get out of here for a stretch," Magiere grumbled from behind the curtain.

Wynn was a bit uncomfortable with Magiere and Leesil back there together, with only that gray-green fabric providing privacy. And with all the arguing over Most Aged Father's bargain and Chap's few troubling words…

She climbed to her feet. "Why would Chap slip out without telling us?"

"Who knows?" Leesil called back. "Stick your head out and call him, but don't go wandering about."

Wynn left the two of them to talk-or whatever they did in there. She pulled the outer doorway curtain aside and looked out, but Chap was nowhere in sight. Neither were Sgaile or even Osha. She stepped out for a better view.

There were no elves in sight, and Chap was gone. Both worried her.

Wynn took a few more steps, looking up and down the lane of cultivated trees. To her far left she could just make out the silent and still remains of the dockside bazaar.

"Chap?" she called in a harsh whisper.

Chap rushed into a gully behind Lily. Ahead, the pack waited by a tiny stream. The black-gray elder lifted his head from lapping water gurgling over stones.

Chap had not expected the pack to be so near, but they must have gathered to wait on Lily. As he approached beside her, the majay-hi circled about with huffs and switching tails, one by one touching heads as they passed her or him.

Spry bodies surrounded him with warmth. One yearling colored much like himself charged playfully and butted Chap with his head. Chap shifted aside.

He rejoiced in their welcome, but urgency kept him from languishing. He was neither certain how they could help nor how he could ask. Lily seemed to understand but would the others? On impulse, he pressed his head to hers and again showed her the stolen memory of Nein'a's hidden prison.

Lily stayed against him, listening until he finished, then darted away.

She brushed heads with the large black elder. An instant later, the male turned and touched a passing steel-gray female, the other twin. The rest joined in, and Chap watched the swirling dance of memory-talk as it passed through the pack.

The elder's crystal blue eyes turned upon Chap.

The old one tilted his gray muzzle, and then hopped the stream and scrambled up the gully's embankment more fleetly than his age would suggest.

Lily trotted back to Chap and pressed her head to his. He saw a memory of the two of them resting beneath a leaning cedar after a long run. It seemed he was to wait-but for what?

Chap's frustration mounted, still wondering if the pack truly understood what he needed.

A rolling, moaning howl like a bellow carried through the forest. It came from the direction where the elder had disappeared.

Lily brushed Chap's head with a memory of running as the rest of the pack charged off. He followed her up the embankment and through the woods. When he cleared the close trees, he saw the elder.

The black-gray majay-hi stood on a massive cracked boulder jutting from a hillside of sparse-leafed elms. The pack remained below, and he appeared to be waiting and watching for something. The elder glanced upslope over his shoulder, and Chap stepped back from the boulder's base to see.

Branches of a hillside elm appeared to move as if drifting through the trees. Two eyes high above the ground sparked in the half-moon's light andcame downslope into clear sight.

Head high, the silver-gray deer descended, coming up beside the grizzle-jawed old majay-hi. Its tineless curved antlersrose to a height no man or elf could reach. The shimmer of its long-haired coat turned to pure white along its throat and belly. Its eyes were like those of the majay-hi, clear blue and crystalline.

The deer slowly lowered its head with a turn of its massive neck.

Lily nudged Chap, pushing him forward.

Chap did not understand. Was he to go to this creature?

She shoved him again and then darted around the boulder's side. She stood waiting, and Chap loped after her. Before he caught up, Lily headed upslope, and he followed. At the height where stone met the earth slope, she stood aside and lifted her muzzle toward the silver deer.

Chap hesitated. What did this have to do with finding Nein'a?

Lily pressed against him. Along with a memory echo of the tall elven woman he had first shown her, Lily showed him something more-a memory of the pack elder touching heads with one of these crystal-eyed deer.

Chap froze as the deer swung its head toward him.

He could not have imagined this creature might communicate in the same way as the pack. A tingling presence washed over him as he peered into the deer's eyes.

It felt so vague… like one of his kin off at a distance. And yet not quite like them.

The majay-hlwere descended from the first born-Fay, born into flesh within wolves. Over many generations, the majay-hl had become the "touched" guardians of these lands.

But there were others, it seemed, as Chap had almost forgotten.

Within this deer, the trace of its ancestry was stronger than in the majay-hl, the lingering of born-Fay who had taken flesh in the form of deer and elk.

Chap crept forward to stand below the tall creature-this touched child of his own kin. It stretched out one foreleg and bent the other, until its head came low enough to reach his. Chap pressed his forehead to the deer's, smelling its heavy musk and breath marked by a meal of wild grass and sunflowers. He recalled the memories of Nein'a that he had shared with Lily.

The deer shoved Chap away, nearly knocking him off his feet. It stood silent and waiting.

What had he done wrong?

Lily slid her head in next to his, muzzle against muzzle. Images-and sounds-filled his mind.

A majay-hl howling in the dark.An elven boy calling to another. Singing birds, jabbering fra'cise, and the indignant screech of the tashgalh he had trailed out of the mountain tunnels.

Chap grasped the common thread. The deer wanted a sound. He approached as it lowered its head once more.

With the image of Nein'a in the clearing, Chap called forth a memory of her voice… and that of any who had ever spoken her name.

Nein'a… Cuirin'nen'a… Mother…

Wynn scurried around a domicile tree closest to the forest's edge. She still did not know why there was no one on guard outside, and she could not find

Chap anywhere. But as she turned to go back before being discovered, she heard footsteps.

She ducked low into hiding behind a tree, hoping whoever it was would just pass onward. As she leaned carefully out, she never made it far enough to see.

Wynn's vision spun blackly on a wave of nausea.

Her legs buckled, and she slumped down against the tree's base, clinging to its bulging roots as she covered her mouth and tried not to gag. Bisselber-ries and smoked fish rose in her throat from the evening meal, and the combined taste turned sour.

The loud buzz of an insect or crackling rustle of a leaf in the wind filled her head.

There were no insects and not even a breeze around her in the dark.

Wynn had not heard these in her mind for more than a moon. The last time was at the border of the Warlands.

Somewhere out in the forest, Chap now called to the Fay.

It had all started with a ritual in Droevinka, when she tried to make herself see the Spirit element that permeated all things. She had been trying to track an undead for Magiere, and then could not end the magic coursing through her flesh. Chap had to cleanse the mantic sight from her. But on the border at Soladran, it began to return in unexpected ways. She heard the buzz of leaf-winged insects whenever Chap communed with his kin.

Wynn swallowed her food back down, trying to quiet her gagging breaths. She braced for the onslaught of Chap's kin answering back in a chorus of leaf-wings that would make her head ache and the world whirl before her eyes.

It never came. Only one leaf-wing buzzed in her mind. The sound began to shape into…

Nein'a… Cuirin'nen'a… Mother…

A chill ran over Wynn's skin.

Words?They came in theElvish dialect of this land. Beneath those were the same echoed in Belaskian and in her own tongue ofNumanese. One voice spoke in many tongues at the same time, all words with the same meaning. Again, no chorus answered back.

Who didChap call out to? Had he found Leesil's mother so close by? He would never try to commune with her-it would not work. To Chap's own knowledge, Wynn was the only one who had ever eavesdropped on him while communing with his kin. And she had never heard words before.

The buzz faded from her mind, leaving only a lingering ache.

But she had clearly heard those words.

There was no time to ponder another disturbing change in her unwanted gift. Chap was out in the forest, seeking Nein'a, and Wynn could not let him go on his own. How did he think he would speak with Nein'a, even if he found her prison?

Wynn braced on the tree's trunk and worked her way to her feet. She looked out into the wild and panic set in.

She could not navigate the forest without someone to lead her. It did not want her… a human. Even traveling with the others, it had tried to make her lost. Leesil, with his half-elven blood, had to concentrate to escape the forest's influence.

For once, Wynn wished the burden of mantic sight would come. But unpleasant as it was, it only came to her erratically. Once, it had overwhelmed her while she was alone with Chap, her fingers deep in his fur.

Wynn forced down fear until she reached calm. She closed her eyes, recalling all the sensations she had felt in that moment alone with Chap. She sank into memory until it blocked out all else.

Chap had sat before her, staring into her eyes. The room turned shadowy beneath the overlaid off-white mist just shy of blue. It permeated everything like a second view of the room on top of her normal sight, showing where the element of Spirit was strong or weak. Chap was the only thing she saw as one image, one whole shape.

His fur glistened like a million hazy threads of white silk, and his eyes scintillated like crystals held before the sun.

Wynn opened her eyes, and her food lurched up her throat once more.

Blue-white mist permeated all things of the forest. She felt so sick inside that it dampened any relief at her success.

Wynn stepped into the forest, and the trees began to look the same all around.

She turned too quickly, searching for the way she had come. The world spun in a dizzying blur. Breath pounded from her lungs when she hit the ground on her side, and she struggled up to her hands and knees.

"Only themist… see only Spirit," Wynn whispered.

She tried to ignore the trees' true shapes and focus only on the permeating glimmer of Spirit in all things. Nausea sharpened, but as she turned her head, a sense of place became clearer.

Wynn saw glimmering silhouettes of trees and bushes, one overlaying the next into the distance, like silent blue-white ghosts in stillness. And beyond was a cluster of bright spots far off.

They moved, circling about each other like fireflies in the night. Three were higher above the rest, and one of those was larger than the others. A fourth glimmer separated from the largest one and shone in a sharp brilliant white.

Chap.

Wynn knew it was him. She scrambled on all fours to the nearest tree, pulledherself up, and stumbled toward him as her beacon.

Fully dressed again, Leesil pulled the bathing area's curtain aside enough to step out.

The press of Magiere s body in the hot bath still lingered on his skin. He loved her, but would she still love him when she realized he was only a thing to be used for killing? How long before she could no longer face what he really was? He would have to let her go, if that was her choice.

Knowledge of the pain yet to come felt like almost an illness in his body.

He wondered why she kept shaking slightly while immersed in the hot water.

He'd asked if she was all right. She hesitated, saying it was nothing more than all this mess they were in. Leesil knew better, but battling with Magiere was too much to face. He'd rather have one more quiet moment in her arms.

She wasn't sleeping well either, and ate too little each day. Yet she showed no more fatigue thanhimself, perhaps less.

"There has to be some way to get around Most Aged Father," Magiere said behind him, pulling her boots on.

Leesil wasn't really listening. Bowls of cold vegetable stew and a pitcher of water sat to one side of the room's floor. Wynn's scribbled sheets still lay on the ground where Chap had left them.

"Where's Wynn?" he asked.

"Probably at the door, looking for Chap," Magiere answered, and pulled the bath curtain fully aside. "She won't be satisfied until…"

Magiere looked about the empty room, lips still parted in unfinished words. Her breath drew in sharply before she snapped, "That little idiot!"

Leesil headed straight for the outer doorway. He swatted the curtain aside and looked out. There was no one on guard. Or had Osha gone with Wynn to look for Chap?

Magiere stepped past him as he looked off through the domicile trees. Then he glanced down toward the distant dockside bazaar. Among the structures there, from canvas tents entwined in briar and roses to the rising platforms in one wide walnut tree, there was no sign of Wynn or Chap.

Leesil heard footfalls coming his way.

Osha walked along with a soft smile as he studied an open cloth in his palm. Nestled in the cloth were small brown and cream lumps. He picked one and popped it in his mouth, not even looking up.

Leesil ignored the young elf and called out, "Wynn…Chap?"

Only then did Osha raise startled eyes.

"Stop!" he said, quickening his pace. "Stay. No leave."

"Where were you?" Leesil snapped.

Stunned at the demand, Osha quickly closed the distance to Leesil.

"I bring sweets," he began, stumbling over his Belaskian. "Honey cooked on nuts… for to give comfort. All you will like."

Leesil wanted to slap the nuts from the witless elf's hand. While this young whelp abandoned his post for dessert, Wynn had slipped off after Chap… wherever that dog had gone now.

"Get Sgaile," Magiere growled at Osha. "Wynn is gone… get him now!"

Osha shoved Leesil aside and peered into the tree. He turned about, panic-stricken, and pointed at Leesil as he backed away.

"Stay," he said, then turned at a run.

Leesil noticed lights all about him, spilling from doorways as curtains were pulled aside. Here and there, elves peered out at the noise. One or two even stepped from their homes.

Magiere wasn't looking at them, and Leesil saw her irises blacken. She shook visibly, though it wasn't cold, even for night. She was letting her dham-pir naturerise enough to widen her night sight and search between the settlement's trees and brush.

"We have to find Wynn," she whispered, "before any of these people catch her wandering about."

"Just wait," Leesil warned. "We're no better off if we do the same as her."

"And what if she followed Chap into the forest?"

"Again, we're no better off," Leesil argued. "Even I have to think hard not to lose my way out there."

"I don't," she snapped at him.

The harsh reminder made him wonder over her strange symptoms of late.

"That's where she is," Magiere said, lifting her chin toward the open forest beyond the domicile trees. "She followed Chap… out there."

"She's not that stupid," Leesil replied. "Curious to a fault, maybe, but she knows she'd just get lost."

"Not if she caught Chap quickly enough." Magiere's anger intensified in her features. "He went looking for the pack… yes, and she just had to see the majay-hi for herself. I could kick that curiosity right out of her skull!"

A tall form came running through the wide trees.

Sgaile sprinted up, wearing a long white gown to his bare feet. Deep green oak leaf patterns were stitched around the split collar. His hair hung loose and wild around his long face, as if he'd just risen from bed. Osha came behind him, looking again like he was in serious trouble.

Accompanying them were two anmaglahk Leesil hadn't seen before, both in the full dress of their caste.

"Do you know where your companion might have gone?" Sgaile asked immediately.

"We're not sure, but-" Leesil began.

"Get my weapons," Magiere cut in. "She's out there… in the forest."

Sgaile ignored her demand. "Why? A human would not last long, alone in our land. She will lose her way immediately."

All this delay frustrated Leesil. "She may have gone after Chap… if she thought he was headed for the other majay-hi."

Sgaile's lingering patience broke. "A pack will not tolerate a lone human wandering out there."

For an instant, Leesil was speechless.

"I kept your supervision to a minimum, wishing not to make you feel like prisoners." Sgaile glanced once at Osha, who flinched. "I trusted that all of you would have sense enough to follow my instructions. That is now finished."

Sgaile whipped about, growling at the two anmaglahk. He turned on

Osha again as the pair stepped around him, one toward Leesil and the other closing on Magiere.

"Tashghealhi En’nish!" he snapped. "Me feumasij foras aiche ayagea."

Osha took off running.

"What about En’nish?" Leesil asked.

Her name was the only word he picked out. The anmaglahk closest to him shoved him back toward the tree's doorway, and Leesil set his footing in resistance.

"I merely wish to know her whereabouts," Sgaile answered. "Go inside and stay there!"

The instant Sgaile's other companion reached for Magiere, and the only warning Leesil got out was "Don't-"

She slammed her fist into the elf's face with such speed that he lurched over backward, one foot slipping up from the ground. As his back struck the earth, he rolled away in retreat, coming up unsteady and so shaken he nearly lost his footing again. Blood ran from one narrow nostril and the side of his mouth.

The one near Leesil shifted his weight, a stiletto already in his hand.

"We're going after Wynn," Magiere said to Sgaile, her breath coming long and hard."With you… without you… through you. What's your word worth now?"

Leesil didn't like how she was handling this, but it was too late to stop her. All he could do was back her up. If En’nish was loose and heard about Wynn, what might she do for vengeance if she couldn't get to him?

"You should've watched that murderous bitch," Magiere warned. "If she gets anywhere near Wynn…"

"It'll end any hope of agreement with your patriarch," Leesil added. "I'll have no part of the search for his dissidents."

Sgaile's attention shifted instantly to Leesil-in open confusion. Could it be that he didn't know of the bargain Most Aged Father tried to strike? Was he even aware his own caste wasn't as unified as he believed?

"We can get on with it," Leesil continued, "or we can have it out right here. But it'll cost you to keep us back… if you can."

Sgaile stood in angry indecision, eyes shifting between Leesil and Magiere.

Leesil slowly reached for Magiere's arm. She jerked away but settled back, waiting. He just hoped she kept her self-control, as he had one more thing to attend to.

He ducked inside and retrieved the chest containing his father's and grandmother's remains. He slipped into its rope harness and returned with it mounted on his back.

Sgaile hissed something at the bloodied anmaglahk facing Magiere, and the man trotted off into the night.

Leesil caught two of Sgaile's words, but his thought was interrupted as Sgaile spun back and stared at the chest.

"I'm not leaving it out of my sight," Leesil said. "I won't have anyone touching them while I'm gone."

Another flash of tension rippled across Sgaile's features. Even Magiere grew quiet and still.

Of the words Sgaile had spoken to Magiere's opponent, one was Urhkar's full elven name, who still held Leesil and Magiere's weapons. At least that much had been settled, and it appeared Sgaile had sent for their arms.

But the other word Sgaile spoke, another elven name…

Leesil grew angrier by the moment.

Three anmaglahk jogged down the lane between the trees. The first was Sgaile's returning messenger. The second was Urhkar, looking none too pleased, and he wasn't carrying the bundle of weapons. The third and last of the trio…

Leesil flushed with heat, and the air turned cold upon his skin.

Bro'tan.

The deer lifted its head from Chap and stood to full height. Its long ears rose, each turning of its own accord. After one step, its head swung northeast and it became still again. Both ears turned that same direction.

Chap followed the deer's gaze. What was it listening to?

The deer clopped off along its chosen path. The pound of its heavy hooves vibrated through the boulder. It headed into the trees.

The dark pack elder huffed to his kin and turned to follow the deer. All the other majay-hi scurried upslope around the boulder. Lily licked Chap once across the face and loped off behind them.

Chap stared after them. What was happening? Did they know where they were going? There seemed little to do but follow, and then a voice cried out from below.

"Chap… wait!"

He turned as the pack froze on the hillside. He ran out to the boulder's lip and looked down.

Wynn teetered into the clearing. In the moonlight, her face glistened with a thin layer of sweat, and she dropped to her knees.

Chap lunged off the boulder's side, claws digging into the earth. What was this foolish little sage doing out alone in the forest? Somehow, she had snuck out and trailed him without getting lost. As he rounded the boulder's base, he heard a deep rolling growl.

The elder majay-hi came around the boulder's far side toward Wynn, his jowls pulled back from yellowed teeth. Snarls grew one upon the next as the pack spread around the clearing. Their crystalline eyes locked on the sage crumpled to the earth. Chap turned to face them, and the elder made an arcing inward charge to get around him.

Chap lunged around Wynn into the elder's path, snapping and snarling. The elder slowed, coming in a pace at a time with his shoulders rolling.

The pack tightened its circle.

Chap could not face all of them at once. Only Lily held back, watching from hisright, and the silver yearling paced sideways in uncertainty. Lily suddenly bolted in, shoving the young one aside, and headed straight at Wynn.

Numb shock ran through Chap as he whirled to face her. He had no wish to fight Lily.

She slowed, creeping forward, and lowered her head, sniffing.

"Please… Chap, please," Wynn moaned. "Take it away!"

Lily shook her head, sneezed, and whined deeply.

Chap's eyes widened as Lily circled around, placing herself between Wynn and the other half of the pack. Chap backed up to Wynn, trying to think of some way to assure her that at least Lily meant no harm.

Wynn rolled on her back, squinting, and shielded her eyes from him.

"Please… take it," she whimpered, "from my eyes."

Her hand lowered to her mouth as she gagged. Her irises shrank at the sight of him-as if he were too bright to look upon.

Chap felt his breath turn thick and stifling in his chest. Wynn was not pleading for him to remove Lily.

Her mantic sight had risen. The little fool had somehow used it to find him and madeherself sick again! He did not have his kin to call upon for aid in cleansing her.

Chap ground his paws into the clearing's floor, binding himself to the forest through Earth, Air, and his own Spirit. He leaned down and nosed Wynn's small hand aside, and ran his tongue firmly over her closed eyelids.

He could taste it. Rampant energies running like a disease still within her, which emerged to alter her sight. He swallowed them into his body, and forced them through his flesh, down into the earth… out with his breath to dissipate like vapor.

If only this were the end of it.

Wynn dropped her hand with a limp thud upon the ground. Shesighed a long breath and swallowed hard.

The last thing Chap needed was someone to watch over in the forest. And worse still, a human wandering the territory of the majay-hi. Wynn had to go back-but would the pack wait for him to return?That was, if he could return Wynn unseen, and not end up fighting the whole pack just to get her out of this clearing.

"Where do you think you are going?" Wynn asked in a weak voice.

Chap was half-ready to snarl at her-witless girl.

Wynn sat up, and her eyes widened at Lily standing so close. She reached out her hand, but Lily backed away one step. Then Wynn noticed the pack surrounding them.

"Chap?" she said, scrambling to her knees.

He had no time to scold her. What he needed was a quick way to put the pack at ease.

Chap circled watchfully around to Lily's side. He touched his head to hers and called up a flurry of memories of every time and place he had shared with Wynn.

Lily pulled away with a grunt and shook herself. She eyed him for a moment, and then hopped off a pace and paused to stare at Wynn. With a whine, she trotted to the steel-gray male nearby and their heads grazed.

The male jerked away-with a snarl as his twin sister inched close behind him. Lily butted him in the side and growled back, then turned to his sister.

The pack began mingling, touching heads as they passed each other. Their growls became broken with huffs and whines, and Chap saw it was still not enough. Perhaps there was nothing that could balance against human interlopers.

Chap barked for Lily's attention. When she returned, he gave her memories of Wynn brushing out his coat. He clung to the sensation of the sage's small fingers running through his fur.

Lily pulled away. But she turned her long head to Wynn, stretching out to sniff at the sage. Chap ducked his head under Wynn's hand, squirming to make it slide down his neck.

"What are you doing?" she said. "Stop playing around. This is serious!"

Oh, how he wanted a voice, just to tell to her to shut her month. He waited with his eyes on Lily.

She inched closer, and Wynn leaned away in fear. When Lily put her nose right in front of Wynn's face, the sage lifted a hesitant hand.

Wynn lightly touched the bridge of Lily's snout and slid two fingers over Lily's head.

A deep snarl filled the clearing.

The elder glared at the three of them-a human touchingtwo majay-hi. He turned away with a clack of his jaws and headed back up the slope. Soon all the pack drifted after him, all but the steel-gray twins, who held back a moment to study the trio curiously.

"What is happening?" Wynn asked.

Lily pulled out from under Wynn's hand and trotted a short way across the clearing. She stopped to wait. Chap grumbled and jerked Wynn's sleeve. He had little choice but to take her with him.

"I heard you," Wynn said. "I heard you calling… for Nein'a."

Chap looked up into her worried face.

He had called up Nein'a's name for the deer, and somehow Wynn had caught it amid her mantic state. She had mistakenly heard something unintelligible the last time he had communed with his kin. But not words.

Chap let out a deep sigh. He had no time for this.

Another aberration had surfaced from Wynn's meddling with magic and the sickness it had left within her.

How much more trouble was this little woman going to be?

Wynn ran after Chap and the majay-hi as fast as her short legs could carry her.

She guessed that Chap had somehow learned of Nein'a through the pack, but how far off was Leesil's mother? Would Most Aged Father want Nein'a close to Crijheaiche-close to other Anmaglahk? Or would he put her where she could never interact with them or any of her people?

The inky old majay-hi in the lead was out of sight, and the others were getting well ahead. Wynn had counted seven in the pack besides Chap but now saw only three. Chap lagged behind, slowing again and again for her, and the white female hung back as well. Beyond her were the two dark gray ones identical in their markings.

Without mantic vision, Wynn had to keep one of them in sight, or she would succumb to the forest tangling up her sense of direction. But her throat was already ragged and dry. She stumbled to a halt, bending over, trying to catch her breath.

"Chap!" she panted. "Chap, wait!"

He circled back, fidgeting anxiously.

"Ican… cannot keep this pace," she panted.

The white female let out a howl that startled even Chap. The cry faded, and she drew a breath to offer another one. The pair of steel-grays returned immediately, and the leader and the others appeared shortly after.

Wynn watched the dark old male stroll toward them with head low and lips quivering beneath a threatening glare. Chap might have convinced the white female, but the pack leader barely tolerated her. Beyond him, a young silver male made a great show of mimicking the elder's displeasure.

Chap spun toward the white dog, and they touched heads. She loped off to the elder and did the same. He jerked away and snapped viciously at her, but she curled her own lips in response and would not retreat. Chap trotted up behind her, leaving Wynn nervously alone.

A lanky silver male with a light blaze down his chest raised his head and snorted at her.

Chap remained still as the white female slid her head along his and paused. An instant later, she began to howl again.

It came out like a moaning bellow that carried through the trees. The dark elder snarled.

Chap circled back to Wynn, his glower all too familiar. Like the time she confessed to overhearing him when communing with his kin. He cocked his head, studying her with parental displeasure.

"I am not the one who snuck off first," she grumbled at him.

Chap let out a rolling exhale, like a growl without voice. He twisted paws into the ground as if securing his footing.

Wynn's stomach lurched.

The chattering crackle of a leaf-wing filled her head. This time the strange way it shaped was clearer than the last.

You… ride… keep up…

Wynn went slack-faced, even with nausea twisting her stomach. She only caught those few words, but she held her breath and blinked.

The leaf-wing vanished from her thoughts, and Chap lowered his muzzle, almost mournfully.

Perhaps neither of them truly believed she had heard him the first time. Now it was certain. It might have been a wonderful new thing if not for making her sick every time… if not that it was onemore wild symptom of what she had foolishly done to herself in Droevinka.

Chap lifted his muzzle toward the white female, and the flutter of a leaf-wing rose again in Wynn's head.

…Lily…

Wynn remembered the first time she saw the white female as the pack surrounded them upon entering the forest. She had said the dog's color looked like a water lily.

…yes…

Wynn held a hand out to Chap's companion, and the white majay-hi remained poised and still. She carefully touched the female between her ears, and the dog lifted its nose into her palm.

"Lily," Wynn repeated.

Lily spun about, staring through the trees with raised ears.

A large silver form stalked through the underbrush and walked slowly through the pack. The dogs dispersed out of its path, but the dark leader still rumbled. Wynn felt the tall deer's thudding hooves beneath her own feet, and the vibration grew as it approached.

Chap's multitongued words rose in her head: You will ride.

Wynn had to tilt her head back to look up at the deer's muzzle. Its large head was crowned by two tineless antlers longer than Chap's body. The crystalline eyes above her were so large they made her cower.

"Oh no."She backed away. "No-no-no!"

The deer swung toward Lily, stretched one foreleg and bent the other, and lowered itself until the two touched heads. Then the animal folded its legs and lowered its white belly to the ground.

"You cannot be serious!" Wynn exclaimed. "What about a horse… or pony… anything else?"

Chap growled and huffed twice for "no." This time, it was not his voice in her head that made Wynn queasy.

"All right," she said uncertainly."All right."