Then Chap glanced his way.
A memory of grief-enraged en'nish rose suddenly in Sgaile's mind. He did not know why this came to him now, and he pushed it aside.
One of the diminutive pair before Urhkarasiferin was called Rujh. Sgaile had seen him before as a messenger sent to the an'Croan by the man's own people-the aruin'nas. They had been in this land long before Sgaile's people, or so it was said.
Rujh spat an accusation at Urhkarasiferin. "You break faith with the trees!"
The elder elf shook his head with steady calm. "No. We are in guardianship of these humans and act on behalf of Most Aged Father."
His words had no impact on Rujh. "Your aged leader has no right to such a choice. We do not answer to him or your kind. The forest's own law is above his wishes-and yours."
"We escort these humans to him for questioning," Urhkarasiferin explained. "We must know how they entered this land... before others follow in their path."
"The forest has its way to deal with such!" Rujh nearly shouted. "It has no need of your assistance. You defile it with no remorse, and it is offensive enough that we now find mixed-bloods walking here."
He gestured to Leanalham and then to Leshil. Sgaile crept slowly inward, blocking Leanalham from Rujh's sight.
"They have the blood in them," Sgaile insisted. "And the forest has not seen fit to reject them."
Rujh turned his head toward Sgaile, and frustrated reluctance filled his angry face.
"We accept those who have blood that should not be spilled, but the other two..." He pointed to Wynn and then Magiere. "If you will not kill them, then we will do it."
"Do not attempt to violate guardianship," Urhkarasiferin warned.
Rujh tilted his spear slightly toward Urhkarasiferin, but the elder elf did not move or flinch.
Sgailes stomach began to tighten. No doubt Urhkarasiferin and Osha would follow his orders if violence broke out, but it was the last thing he wanted. They could escape Rujh's numbers, but getting Leshil and his companions out would be a harder fight.
en'nish's face flashed again in Sgaile's thoughts. He pushed the image away. Why did he keep thinking of her? Then came a memory of Rujh appearing out of the forest at Crijheaiche.
It startled Sgaile. He could not clearly remember which occasion this memory came from or why he thought of it now. But it made him study the short man.
Rujh had spotted Leshil too quickly as half-blooded. Had he known before Leshil appeared?
A flash of en'nish came again. It flickered in and out with the memory of Rujh appearing from the forest. Sgaile felt dizzy, and then he realized...
There were too many aruin'nas here at once. Not a hunting party or even an envoy to one of the elven clans. They lived to the northwest, where the forest thickened against the range. How had Rujh known to come here?
Someone had sought out the aruin'nas, or sent word to them.
en'nish's blind anguish and hunger for vengeance went further than Sgaile had thought possible. Perhaps Urhkarasiferin should not have dismissed her from his tutelage but kept her close and watched.
Urhkarasiferin sharply backhanded Rujh's spear aside. "You are not a judge of the forest's natural law."
"Neither can your Most Aged Father take exceptions upon himself," Rujh answered.
"You will do nothing without the will of all blood," Urhkarasiferin warned, "that of your people and of mine."
"Have your clan elders agreed to allow humans to walk among the trees?"
A ray of hope grew inside Sgaile. "Nor have they agreed to execute them."
"Speak when spoken to!" Urhkarasiferin snapped, and Sgaile clenched his jaw.
He watched Rujh's face. Only clan leaders decided such weighty issues for Sgaile's people. Rujh knew this, for it was much the same among his kind. The small man scowled.
"There is a judgment to be made," he said, and turned away. "We will meet at Crijheaiche... where all will hear of this matter."
Sgaile quickly reached down and pulled Leanalham to her feet, her innocent face still full of fear.
"Up," he said to Wynn. "Everyone return to our path."
Magiere grabbed Wynn's arm and turned back with Leesil close behind. Urhkarasiferin took the lead as Sgaile pulled Leanalham along. Not one of the aruin'nas remained among the trees. They had all vanished from sight.
What fuel of lies had en'nish used to kindle this fire in her hunger for vengeance?
"Do not stop and do not look back," Sgaile said to the others.
He knew where en'nish would head next. The same place he must take his own group in order to shorten the journey. Traveling alone and unburdened, she would beat him to the river and passage down to Crijheaiche. Leanalham's hand trembled in his grip.
"You are safe," he whispered, pulling her close.
An anmaglahk's duty, by life oath, was to protect his people. Sgaile had one failing in this. Leanalham's safety came before all others.
Chap trotted beside Wynn, longing for the lost talking hide and the privacy to use it.
He needed to speak with Leesil, and he did not know how else this could be done.
Chap had never met the aruin'nas-had never even heard the word until it rose from Sgaile's memories. But now, Chap had things to tell... things he'd seen in Rujh's memories.
en'nish, for one.
The instant he realized what the female anmaglahk had done, he pulled upon Sgaile's memories, until he felt Sgaile reach a realization. But Chap could not shake off his puzzlement over the tone Rujh used when speaking of Most Aged Father.
In youth, Chap had known but a few of the Anmaglahk. Most Aged Father was no elder of a clan, for Anmaglahk were a caste apart and servants to their people, but their patriarch was still held in high esteem. His word carried the weight of a clan elder, if not its authority. His word held power among the elves. Was that now changing?
Brot'an and Eillean had believed they took great risks in defying Most Aged Father. The patriarch believed an Ancient Enemy would return, as did Chap's kin. It was the reason they had sent him to Magiere-to keep her from falling into the hands of those who searched for her.
But what of Leesil?
His own mother and grandmother had conspired to create him, to train him, in order to kill this same enemy Most Aged Father feared. The thought rankled Chap, and he growled.
Leesil was no one's tool. Why had Nein'a wanted a half-blood for the plans of her dissidents? And what did Most Aged Father really want with Leesil?
Chap steeled himself for what would come at Crijheaiche, and what he might have to do to protect Leesil, Magiere, and Wynn from all sides.
His thoughts were broken as the white majay-h loped toward him from the trees. Wynn had once compared her to a water "lily."
Chap agreed.
Lily kept her distance, glancing hesitantly at those walking with Chap along a wide-open way through the forest. Whenever the breeze shifted Chap's way, he caught her earthy scent.
His thoughts tumbled through memories passed between them in the night outside the elven enclave. He wanted more of this-more of her. He wanted to run with Lily among the pack. Or without them.
Was this what passed between Magiere and Leesil? A depth of longing he had not felt since Eillean had taken him from his siblings?
Lily yipped once in a standing pause, watching him. He did not need touch, as the other majay-h did, to see her memories. Images of leaves and brush and grass and trees whipping by in the night filled his head. He caught a flash of silver gray running beside her.
A memory of him.
Chap remained beside Wynn, but he often turned his eyes to Lily.
Past nightfall, Leesil sat staring into the campfire that Magiere stoked with more wood. Wynn sat on the ground and struggled with a hay-bristle brush Leanalham provided. But try as the sage might, she couldn't get the last mat out of Chap's coat. The dog's restless fidgeting didn't make it any easier.
At a light footfall, he turned to find Leanalham approaching. She crouched near him, her expression uneasy. Perhaps the encounter with the aruin'nas still troubled the girl. It certainly troubled Leesil.
Leanalham watched Wynn's efforts and Chap's scant tolerance with fascination. The girl obviously hadn't known what the sage intended with the brush.
Osha had gone in search of food, and Sgaile stood at the clearing's far side, speaking in low tones with Urhkar.
"Magiere, come and hold him down," Wynn called, and Chap tried to belly-crawl out of reach. "He is a mess, but he will not let me finish."
"You hold him, and I'll do it," Magiere said.
Chap saw her coming. With a rumble, he licked his nose.
"I saw that," Magiere warned.
"You lose again," Leesil said to Chap. This resulted in another tongue-and-nose gesture just for him.
Leanalham leaned forward. "Why are you talking to the majay-h?"
Before Leesil could think up an answer, Wynn pounced on Chap and grabbed his neck with both arms. Magiere dropped on her knees, pinning the dog's hindquarters as she took up the brush.
"Oh... you stink!" Wynn said, wrinkling up her face.
The sight of the two women wrestling the dog into submission, and getting as dirty as he, was almost amusing enough for Leesil to forget the day's troubles.
"No! Do not treat him that way!"
Leanalham's thick accent made her words hard to catch, and she jumped to her feet indignantly before Leesil understood. She grabbed for the back of Wynn's coat, and Leesil shoved his arm in her way.
"He is a guardian of our forest," the girl shouted. "Let him go!"
Both Magiere and Wynn froze and stared at Leanalham.
Chap's ears perked as he ceased struggling. He rolled crystalline eyes and huffed once in agreement with Leanalham's outrage. It sounded a bit too pompous to Leesil.
A way off, Sgaile and Urhkar looked on, and neither appeared pleased.
"It's all right," Leesil said, pulling Leanalham down on the log. "Chaps a bit of a pig. If we don't clean him, he gets unbearable... and he knows it."
Chap growled at him.
"Oh, be quiet!" Wynn snapped, and clamped the dog's snout in her little fingers. "Magiere, finish it."
"And if he didn't really like it," Leesil added, "he wouldn't make it so easy for them."
Leanalham's face filled with hesitant wonder. "He... understands?"
Chap shook his snout with a grunt, nearly toppling Wynn forward into the dirt.
Leesil sighed. They couldn't hide Chap's unusual intelligence forever, but perhaps it was best not to answer too many questions.
"Done," Magiere said and got up. "It might have gone quicker if you'd kept your butt still!"
Chap wrinkled a jowl at her and slunk off to the clearing's far side. He flopped down to clean himself. Wynn picked herself up, brushing dirt from her breeches.
Leanalham was still watching Chap.
Leesil studied her face. A small loop of her light brown hair was pulled through a wooden ring and held there over a crosswise wood peg. From there, her hair fell down her back in a tail. Her skin was a bit lighter in tone than his, which was strange considering he had more human blood. She turned to warm her hands by the fire, her expression suddenly too serious.
"You all right?" he asked.
She only nodded.
"If elves don't spill the blood of their own," he asked, "why did you cry out?"
"I have only seen the aruin'nas a few times," she answered, "but never so many at once... and so angry."
This was the most Leesil had heard the girl say to anyone but Sgaile or Gleann.
"They wanted to kill your companions," she added, "humans, but... they hated me the same way... and you. The words they spoke... terrible things... before my uncle came."
Leanalham went silent, staring into the fire.
"People say terrible things about me all the time," Leesil answered. "Don't let it bother you."
He heard a hiss, and looked up. For an instant, he thought Magiere's vicious expression was aimed at the girl. She stepped slow and steady in front of him, until she stood beside Leanalham while facing away from the fire. Leesil couldn't see her face.
Magiere's fingertips gently touched Leanalham's shoulder. The girl jumped slightly, but Magiere headed off across the clearing toward Sgaile and Urhkar.
What was she doing? Leesil was about to go after her before she stirred up another conflict.
"You are fortunate to have the right hair and eyes," Leanalham said.