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 the Elvish dialect of this land. Beneath those were the same echoed in Belaskian and in her own tongue of Numanese. One voice spoke in many tongues at the same time, all words with the same meaning. Again, no chorus answered back.
Who did Chap 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 the mist... 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, pulled herself 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 than himself, 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 nature rise 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-h 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-h."
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.