"No," he whispered, panic-stricken. "Not now..."
Magiere kicked into the back of Sgaile's leg.
Sgaile buckled, dropping to his knee. Frethfare and en'nish's two companions descended on Magiere. Leesil tried to rush in.
en'nish dodged in his way, a long-bladed stiletto in each hand.
Anxiety overwhelmed Most Aged Father. The little human woman had reached Cuirin'nen'a. When Leshil and the others arrived, all his careful plans evaporated.
He heard Cuirin'nen'a's repeated refusals to come away with Leshil and grew even more frustrated. Her words would only make Leshil lose hope, and without that, he would become more difficult to manipulate. It was clear that Cuirin'nen'a would sacrifice any tie to her son to protect him.
Most Aged Father writhed as the means to ferret out her confederates shriveled before him. She was a cunning one. He had hoped long isolation might make her desperate enough that Leshil could be used against her. Or his attachment to his mother could be used against him.
The only relief came at Sgailsheilleache's urgent attempt to remove Leshil from the encounter. The longer Leshil faced his mother's denial, the greater the risk he might turn from any lingering desire to free her.
The pale woman grabbed for the back of Sgailsheilleache's cloak.
Most Aged Father's frail heart began to race.
Magiere's eyes locked on Nein a the moment she stepped into the clearing. Less than a year past, Leesil had told her of Nein a and Gavril. How many years before that had he drank himself to sleep, hiding from nightmares of a past he couldn't bear and a guilt he couldn't escape?
And here was Nein'a, finally, yet she offered little welcome to Leesil. Magiere barely heard what was said as she waited for the easing of Leesil's pain.
It never came.
Leesil deserved more than this. It didn't matter what he'd done. There had to be more than the denial of a cold-blooded mother.
The low thrum in Magiere's body, which she'd held down for days and nights, began to make her shake. When Sgaile closed on Leesil from behind, it lunged up her throat like hunger and filled her head.
She snatched Sgaile's cloak from behind.
Her throat clenched when he struck. She fell back and lost sight of everyone.
She hit the ground, and hunger devoured the pain in her throat. The sun blinded her for an instant when her vision widened. She writhed around to glare at Sgaile's back, his hair now brilliant white in her sight. Then she saw Leesil's glimmering amber eyes fill with anguish. He stared right at her.
Magiere kicked the back of Sgaile's knee as the first tear ran from her burning eyes.
No one was taking Leesil from here until he got what he came for.
Her jaws began to ache the instant Sgaile buckled. When she slapped her hand to the ground to get up, someone pulled it from under her. Anger mounted as her face struck the moss and she lost sight of Leesil.
Magiere twisted on the ground and a flash of gray passed above her. Chap slammed into Freth with a snarl, and Magiere's wrist jerked free of the woman's grip. She pulled her feet under herself as one of en'nish's companions came at her. Magiere lunged from her crouch and slammed her hand into his midsection.
Her hardened nails bit through his tunic, and she grabbed his collar with her other hand. Turning, she dragged him in an arc as she rose. Gray-green fabric tore in her grip as she flung him into the clearing's border trees.
Where was Leesil?
Urgency shivered through her and she wanted to rend anyone who touched him. The bright sun made the world burn and blur in her expanded sight. Something struck her lower back.
Moss tore under Magiere's boots as she ground her feet in resistance. What was it-this thing that tried to stop her from finding Leesil? Magiere turned on it.
She saw a gray-green cowl around an astonished tan face. Her anger turned manic as it backed away. She lunged at it.
Leesil twisted aside as en'nish slashed her right blade at his face. Her left stiletto thrust instantly for his gut.
He speared his hand downward and slapped away the blade, and it passed harmlessly off his side. Her lunge brought her close. Leesil twisted sharply right, driving his left elbow at her face.
en'nish ducked, and her parried stiletto slashed across Leesil's midsection.
He heard it skitter across the rings of his hauberk. He felt its tip catch in one laced ring at his left side.
She shifted behind the blade to thrust with all her weight, and Leesil spun quickly, trying to turn out of her path.
The tip held and tore through. Leather split.
Leesil felt no burn of pierced skin, but he heard the tinkling of metal. One of his hauberk's steel rings dangled against the round guard of en'nish's blade.
Leesil grabbed en'nish's wrist below that dangling ring, and his gaze caught on her amber eyes so close to his face.
Another time and place-another woman with a knife-had looked at him with the same desperation. All because he'd killed someone she loved.
He raised his other arm on instinct, and en'nish's free blade slashed his forearm.
Leesil shifted weight into his rear foot, prepared to throw a shoulder into en'nish and take her to the ground. His rear foot jerked from the mossy ground and a soft-booted foot struck his hip.
Without footing, Leesil flipped sideways. A grunt erupted from him as his back hit the ground. When he rolled to his feet, Brot'an stood in his path. But the scar-faced elf wasn't looking at him.
"Enough!" Brot'an ordered. "Both of you!"
He held a wide and low stance with his right palm out at arm's length. But not toward Leesil. A half dozen paces beyond Brot'an's hand lay en'nish.
She was curled on the lawn, holding her chest and gasping for breath. One of her long stilettos lay at Brot'an's feet.
Chap ground his forepaws in Frethfare's stomach as he snarled into her face. The woman went rigid on her back staring up at him. But Chap faltered at Magiere's hissing screech.
She lunged into one of en'nish's companions. Tears ran from her eyes around a mouth wide with sharp teeth and fangs.
Magiere had lost all control in front of the Anmaglahk.
She sank hardened fingernails into her target as Sgaile closed on her back.
The other majay-h circled away from the conflict, but the pack elder lifted his grizzled muzzle. He stared intently at Magiere, and his jowls wrinkled.
Chap grew frantic. He had no more time to keep Frethfare pinned.
Lily paced behind the elder, looking into the trees where Magiere had flung her first opponent. That anmaglahk had not gotten up.
Chap could not turn from Frethfare to touch heads with Lily. All he could do was reach for her own memories. He dipped into Lily's mind, calling up her sight of Frethfare standing before Most Aged Father's massive oak, and added the memory she had shown to him in fear-the dark opening in that tree. He repeated these in an alternating flurry and hoped she understood.
The pack elder charged at Magiere with an eerie howl, and Chap bolted toward Magiere and those closing on her.
Magiere rushed the anmaglahk drawing his blades and drove one hand at his throat. Instead of slashing at her, he ducked into the brush beneath the closest birch. Something snagged Magiere's hair, jerking her head back. Her legs buckled under someone's whipping leg.
Her knees hit the ground. With her head pulled back, she looked up to see Sgaile, his grip tangled in her hair. He sucked a sharp breath at the sight of her face.
Magiere swung a hand upward to claw his astonished features, but Sgaile fell away beneath a snarling silver-furred bulk. Magiere toppled sideways as Sgailes grip tore from her hair. Her hand slapped firmly against the base of the birch.
Shock ran through her and every muscle clenched tight.
A wild rush of nervous energy flooded her limbs from that brief touch and filled her up with its intensity.
Magiere jerked her hand away, rolling to her feet. Sgaile struggled under Chap's assault, but the dog wheeled around, charging the other way.
He was hunting-like her-and Magiere's hungry gaze traced the path to his target.
A dark-furred dog rushed at her, its gray-peppered jowls pulled back from yellowed teeth.
Leesil heard Magiere's feral screech as she reached for one Anmaglahk with Sgaile coming at her from behind. Chap took Sgaile down but not before Magiere toppled. When she rose, shuddering as she snatched her hand from a tree, Leesil saw her face.
Her teeth... the tears... her irises so full black they nearly blotted out the whites of her eyes. He started to run for her.
Brot'an stepped in his way, and Leesil threw himself at the tall elf.
"Leesil... no!" his mother shouted.
Brot'an's palm slammed against Leesil's chest, driving the air from his lungs. But it wasn't enough to stop him.
Leesil fell on Brot'an, and they both hit the ground. He tumbled away as Brot'an tried to grab him. When he reached his feet, Wynn raced by him, clutching something in her arms. She threw it, and only then Leesil saw the large, grizzled majay-h charge Magiere.
Bits of fluffy white nodules spun from the basket Wynn had thrown. It hit the charging dog in the shoulder. The impact startled the dark majay-h. It spun away, and Chap barreled into the dog. Both wheeled around each other in snapping growls.
Osha finally flew into motion, running after Wynn.
Leesil sidled around Brot'an, trying to reach Magiere, but he backed into someone else.
He pivoted, cutting upward with a fist at whichever Anmaglahk was behind him. He saw a flash of shimmering white before his wrist was snatched.
His mother twisted his swing aside, throwing him off balance. Leesil righted himself in panic at what he'd almost done.
Nein'a glared at him. "What have you brought among us?"
Leesil floundered in confusion until his mother raised her head. Her gaze fixed upon Magiere.
Most Aged Father's awareness flitted around the clearing from one tree to the next. Watching from within an elm, all he perceived left him overwhelmed, including the strange majay-h assaulting his treasured Frethfare. Then his awareness fell upon Magiere.
Far from the glade and deep within his massive oak, Most Aged Father curled into a twitching ball. No one heard his whimper.
He saw the pale woman with her bestial face slap a hand against one tree. He felt the forest's life shudder under that touch. It hurt, as if a piece of him had been bitten away.
Ancient memory writhed in the back of his mind. In sickening fear, he slipped his awareness around the clearing toward the pale monster.
All of Magiere's rage turned on Sgaile.
"Undead!" he hissed, and a blade appeared in his hand.
She saw only one more obstacle to reaching Leesil. Her jaws widened but no words came out. A rustle of movement sounded in the brush behind her at the clearing's edge.
Sgaile held up his hand, but not at her, and he snapped some command in Elvish. He never took his eyes off her, and his horror fed Magiere's hunger.
"Stop! All of you. Stop this now!"
Brot'an's deep voice carried through the glade. Magiere twisted her head around, tensing at the threat. Behind the tall elf stood Leesil, his wrist gripped tightly in his mother's hand.
Osha had Wynn pinned in his arms.
"Magiere... enough," the sage shouted. "Please... get control of yourself."
Freth knelt nearby, mouth ajar at the white majay-h blocking her off. Just short of them, Chap crouched in the way of the larger dark dog. The rest of the pack began to circle in.
Magiere's head began to ache as the hunger shrank into the pit of her stomach. The more it receded, the more she started to shake. As if she'd swallowed too much drink... too much of Wynn's tea... or too much food, too much... life.
She stumbled back, and her heel caught in a bush. She toppled, falling against a tree trunk, and slapped her hand against its bark to steady herself.
Another shock ran deep into Magiere.
The world went black before her eyes. In that sudden darkness, strange sounds and sights erupted in Magiere's head.
Chapter Thirteen.
C urled in his tree's bower, Most Aged Father gaped in pain. The pale-skinned monster touched the birch the instant his awareness slipped into it. urled in his tree's bower, Most Aged Father gaped in pain. The pale-skinned monster touched the birch the instant his awareness slipped into it.
He felt the tree's life slipping away into her flesh. He felt it as if she touched his skin, feeding upon him, and memory welled up to wrap him in suffering.
Another like her had come for him in the dark... long, long ago...
Sorhkafare-Light upon the Grass. That was his true name back then.