"What?"
"Your hair is light," she said. "And your eyes are amber. You look more like our people than I do, and you are half human. I am... I wish I had hair and eyes like yours."
Her words were sickeningly ironic. Leesil wanted to tell her that in his world, growing up, his hair and eyes cut him off from everyone but his parents.
"There's nothing wrong with who you are, Leanalham," Wynn replied. She sat on a folded blanket at the fire's far side, fingers laced around her pulled-up knees.
"Leanalham," Leesil asked slowly, "how did you come to be here?"
"I wanted to tell you that first night you came to our home, but my grandfather and uncle are always worried."
She watched the fire for a while, and Leesil waited in silence until she spoke.
"My grandmother was not only bond-mate to my true grandfather, the brother of Gleanneohkan'thva-or Gleann, as you call him. She was also under Gleann's tutelage to become a healer. I call him grandfather because he is the one who raised me. It is the closest word in your tongue for the title.
"My grandmother traveled with Gleann as needed, helping those who had no healer among their own enclave. Illness spread through another clan's settlements to the southeast, and they went to assist. Grandmother was gathering basha basha weed in the hills near the shore, which helps lower fevers. She was attacked... by human men." weed in the hills near the shore, which helps lower fevers. She was attacked... by human men."
Leanalham paused and did not look at Leesil. "Do you understand?"
"Yes," Wynn whispered.
"She was badly hurt when Gleann found her and brought her home. In another moon, they knew she was with child. My grandparents did all they could to make certain their coming child would not be treated as an outsider."
Leanalham's voice broke with a painful breath. Firelight glistened in the tears running down to the edge of her triangular jaw.
Leesil understood. Even if Leanalham's grandparents had accepted and shielded their half-blood child, some among their people still wouldn't accept it.
"Grandmother died the night my mother was born," Leanalham went on. "Grandfather was broken inside, as happens among many who are bonded. He left my mother for Gleann to raise. No one saw him again.
"My mother was... not right in her mind. She wept often and seldom left the enclave's dwelling trees. Except at night, when she might sit alone in the forest. It was difficult for Gleann, as he never found a way to make her feel like one of the people.
"By the time my mother was of age, Gleann was a most respected healer. A young man with the Spirit awareness came from clan Chiurr to ask that she bond with him-but only if Gleann took him under tutelage as a healer. I think Grandfather was desperate to see my mother have a normal life. He agreed to the bargain. But my parents' bonding was short and then broken by my father, as my mother did not change. He left after I was born and returned to his own clan. By then it was clear that he had never truly loved her, or he would not have been able to leave."
Leesil knew better. Love didn't always last-and sometimes it wasn't enough.
"Not long after," Leanalham continued, "my mother disappeared one night. Some in the southwest say a woman was seen heading for the mountains. She evaded all who approached. Perhaps she found a place among humans."
Leesil waited for more, but Leanalham went silent.
"You grew up alone with Gleann?" he asked.
She nodded. "Except for Sgaile, but not until after my mother left... and his last testing to be Anmaglahk. He was then free to see family again and to live where he wished, though most of his caste live in Crijheaiche."
Leanalham turned to face Leesil fully.
"Sgaile's grandfather was bond-brother of my grandmother's father, though he calls Gleann his grandfather in respect. Sgaile and I share blood. He is often away, but his acceptance of me weighed greatly. Sgaile never knew my mother, but he stood for me among our clan, and he is Anmaglahk."
She nodded slowly, as if remembering something.
"He has traveled many lands, but other mixed-bloods are unknown. So you are the first half-blood he has ever met."
Osha stepped from the trees with two gutted and cleaned rabbits ready for roasting. He also carried a bulging square of canvas tied up by its corners. Leanalham took a long breath and stood up.
"I should help prepare the meal, as it grows late and we are all hungry... yes: Leesil nodded to her. He had no notion what else to say, no matter how much they shared. Words would weigh nothing against the life she had led and the one he had lived. He glanced across the clearing to where Magiere faced Sgaile engaged in some talk he couldn't quite hear. Chap was with them as well. Leesil couldn't help studying Sgaile for a moment.
The man must have more immediate relatives than Leanalham and Gleann. Yet he chose to call the dwelling of a mixed-blood girl and an eccentric old healer his "home" and these two people his "family."
Leesil didn't believe he would ever understand Sgaile.
Magiere approached in quick pounding strides. Sgaile's tension rose and he broke off his discussion with Urhkarasiferin.
After their confrontation with the aruin'nas, it had taken a long and heated argument with this woman to keep her and Leshil from reclaiming their weapons. Apparently that debate was not yet settled.
"No more," Magiere growled at him. "Give me our arms... now!" Sgaile took a long breath. "I understand your concern, but if you had been armed today, we might not have talked our way out. I gave you my word. You will be protected."
"You can't," Magiere insisted. "We saw that today. What if those people hadn't listened? I won't risk those I care for, whether I believe you or not. It's not about your word or keeping it... it's about failing, regardless."
Sgaile was not certain how much insult hid beneath her words. He had his ways and customs to follow with faith, and his oath of guardianship to fulfill, and arming this human woman would make neither easy to accomplish.
"You couldn't even keep Leanalham safe," Magiere whispered.
Sgaile fought down rising anger. Her voice carried no malice, but his frustration made it seem so.
"Get me my weapon, or I'll get it myself," Magiere threatened. "Choose!"
Sgaile hesitated too long, and Magiere took a step toward him. A snarl rose up, and she halted.
Chap stood between them, braced in Magiere's path against her legs, but his crystalline eyes looked up at Sgaile.
"Get out of the way!" Magiere snapped.
The majay-h only growled and would not move.
Sgaile felt a moment's relief that this Fay-touched creature shared his concerns. Then the dog trotted around him, skirting Urhkarasiferin, and headed straight for the bundle and pack that held the weapons and armor. Sgaile went cold inside as the dog sat down next to the arms and stared at him.
Did Chap not understand anything he had tried to make this ill-tempered human accept? Now the majay-h appeared to side with her.
Ever since the time Sgaile went to kill a half-blood marked as a traitor, this unique being's presence had shaken all he believed concerning the ways of his people.
A memory surfaced in Sgaile's thoughts, of Magiere, her white face aglow, standing by her companions in the forest the night he and his brethren had come to take them. Sword out, she stood ready to defend them from whatever came.
The memory snapped away, replaced with one of a terrified Leanalham huddled next to Wynn amid the aruin'nas.
The majay-h lifted its paw and shoved the pack over.
Urhkarasiferin whispered in Elvish. "What is it doing?"
Still Sgaile hesitated and glanced at Magiere. She folded her arms, waiting, as if the dog's action required no explanation.
How could Sgaile explain to Urhkarasiferin what he saw and felt? How could be justify relenting to the majay-h's request?
Sgaile was bitterly forced to admit that Magiere might speak the truth.
They had escaped the rightful anger of the aruin'nas, but it had come too close to bloodshed. Leanalham had suffered for it, despite the final outcome.
Sgaile knelt before Chap with uncertainty. He unbound Magiere's heavy blade and lifted it with the rest of the arms still in the pack. He held out the sheathed sword, and Magiere wrapped her hand solidly around it.
Sgaile did not let go. His gaze drifted across the clearing to Leanalham. The girl was assisting Osha in spitting rabbits to cook over the flames.
Magiere followed his glance and then turned her hard eyes back on him.
"No one will touch her," she said. "That's my word."
Sgaile released Magiere's sword.
Chapter Eight.
W ynn walked beside Osha with Leanalham nearby as they passed through an aspen grove filled with low grass and patches of dandelions. Magiere trudged ahead in her studded hauberk, the falchion strapped on her hip. Leesil was fitted with his weapons and hauberk covered in steel rings. Wynn was still uncertain how Magiere had managed all this, but part of her was relieved when she saw the two gearing up that morning, until Magiere forced Wynn to strap on the battle dagger over her short robe. ynn walked beside Osha with Leanalham nearby as they passed through an aspen grove filled with low grass and patches of dandelions. Magiere trudged ahead in her studded hauberk, the falchion strapped on her hip. Leesil was fitted with his weapons and hauberk covered in steel rings. Wynn was still uncertain how Magiere had managed all this, but part of her was relieved when she saw the two gearing up that morning, until Magiere forced Wynn to strap on the battle dagger over her short robe.
The last time Wynn tried to use a weapon she had been beaten to near unconsciousness by two of Darmouth's soldiers. The sheathed blade thumping against her side was an unpleasant reminder. She tilted back her head and saw a thousand green leaves haloed by the bright sun. Ahead, she heard the sound of running water.
"We have reached the river people," Leanalham said. "Our journey will be easier."
"Why is that?" Wynn asked.
Leanalham smiled. "You will see. Sgaile will arrange passage down the Hajh."
"The... 'spine'?"
"Yes. The river passes by Crijheaiche, the settlement of the Anmaglahk, on its way to the northeast bay."
Wynn admitted that traveling by boat was more convenient, but it offered less of an opportunity to see this world up close. Still, she might get a thorough overview from the river's open way.
"Chap!" she called, scanning the trees. "Come back here, unless you wish to swim the rest of the way."
Sgaile turned his head with a warning frown, and Wynn fell quiet.
It was not hard to fathom his worry. Soon Sgaile would face another encounter with his people. Anmaglahk he might be, but his social skills were as stunted as Magiere's. Unlike Magiere, this shortcoming appeared to concern him.
"Gather," he called out in Elvish.
Osha and Urhkar took parallel positions at the procession's sides. As the aspen grove thinned, Wynn drew a long breath. Through the trees she saw three broad vessels slipping past upon the wide Hajh River.
The barges looked like massive flat-bottomed canoes as opposed to their square and flat human counterparts. Laden with twine-bound bundles and smooth, slatless barrels, they rode lightly like leaves in a stream. Two headed downriver, while the other passed on its way up.
Each had a central mast of polished yellow wood. Their sails were furled, but the bound fabric was brilliant white in the bright sun. Where their raised sides turned inward at the pointed bow and stern, single tines sprouted to either side of their hulls like straight, bare branches on a tree's trunk. Wynn could not guess what these were for.
Elves front and rear in the barges held long poles but seldom dipped these. The downstream vessels moved on the current, and although the one headed upstream traveled as smoothly as the others, behind its stern, river water churned softly, like the slow thrashing of a giant fish just below the surface.
"Wynn! Get up here!"
Leesil's harsh shout broke Wynn's enchantment. She had unwittingly stopped while staring at the barges. Leanalham pulled on Wynn's sleeve, while everyone else stood waiting. Their entire procession had halted and not one of them looked pleased with Wynn.
She hurried to catch up as Leanalham outdistanced her. Magiere firmly pushed Wynn out ahead of herself, and Osha sighed some exclamation under his breath.
Chap charged through the aspens, the white female on his heels. Wynn saw no sign of the majay-h pack, and Chap's companion stopped short, hanging back to shift uncertainly among the trees. Before Wynn tried coaxing her closer, Sgaile urged all of them onward. Just ahead lay a settlement more diverse than that of Sgaile's clan.
A few domiciles were made of stout aspens bent toward each other overhead, with vines of spadelike leaves woven into walls between them. In the upper branches of an elm, wood platforms supported partitions of anchored fabrics as well as shaped vines. One tall building was made of planked wood, grayed with age and weather. Thin smoke rose into the air from somewhere hidden at the settlement's far end.
The elves worked at varied tasks, mostly to do with goods near the docks. Their clothing had more hide and leather than the people of Sgaile's home wore. Many wore their hair cut midlength or even short to the scalp. Dock-workers picked among barrels and bundles, taking stock of goods arriving or awaiting departure.
Few noticed the newcomers at first, but by ones and twos they paused and called or gestured to companions. Wynn saw displeasure and even hatred, as in Sgaile's enclave, but none showed initial shock upon seeing humans. This made her more anxious.
"Is this a center of commerce?" Wynn asked.
"Commerce?" Leanalham said. "I do not understand this word."
"The way you purchase... acquire with money."
Leanalham blinked twice. "Money?"
"The people trade," Osha explained in Elvish, "all knowing the value of a thing, by its make and the time and effort involved. We barter, but we do not have..." He stumbled and switched to Belaskian: "Money. And An-maglahk do not trade."
"Why not the Anmaglahk?" Wynn asked, still baffled.
"Quiet," Sgaile said.
A darker-skinned elf in matching leather breeches and tunic-style shirt rose at the head of one dock from inspecting bales of cattail heads. He appeared neither hostile nor surprised, and Wynn suspected all here somehow knew they were coming.
Leesil and Magiere hung back as Sgaile approached, but Wynn crept a little closer to listen.
The leather-clad man scanned them all, with an especially close study of Leesil and then Magiere. His blond hair was cropped semishort and stuck out in bristles. Soft lines creased his brow as if he frowned too often, and his tan skin glistened with sweat.
"Sgailsheilleache," he said. "You are always welcome."
"My thanks, Ghuvesheane," Sgaile answered.
It took Wynn some thought to discern the man's name-Black Cockerel. It matched his demeanor if not his appearance.
"I need passage to Crijheaiche," Sgaile said, "for seven and one majay-h."
Ghuvesheane shifted his weight to settle on the other foot. "I cannot ask this of any bargemaster. Not even for you."