"What are you doing?" Wynn asked.
He ignored her and turned to face the field. "I call the right of proxy, as the accused's advocate."
Halfway to her own table, Freth spun about. Even from the distance, Wynn saw her eyes widen.
"No!" Most Aged Father screeched. "That would prove nothing! The human is an abomination, and you would challenge your own caste for her sake?"
Wynn grew dizzy, trying to translate amid the noise rising from the onlookers and still follow all that was happening. Nausea surged in her stomach under Chap's leaf-wing voice.
Too quick a denial! He is eager for this.
She looked down to find Chap with ears flattened, glaring across the field at Most Aged Father.
For all the old elf's accusations, and his attempt to deny Brot'an, the An-maglahk patriarch appeared to quiver with anticipation. Chap spoke again in Wynn's head.
Brot'an's intercession fuels the old one. He sees opportunity... he wants Brot'an to fight.
Most Aged Father tried to stand and failed, slumping into his chair. He lifted his frail face to all those around the clearing.
"Do you see what this thing has wrought? She has poisoned us and driven our own people to violence against each other!"
Brot'an turned to Sgaile. "By law, this is my right."
Sgaile was slow to respond. He said something Wynn could not hear over the crowd. But his answer was clearly a confirmation to Brot'an, and he hung his head.
Wynn did not know Sgaile well, but she knew where his loyalties lay. The last thing he would want was for his own caste to turn upon itself.
This is no longer just about Magiere , Chap said. , Chap said.
Wynn saw Most Aged Father's shouted denial for what it was-a calculated misdirection. If Brot'an won, it would shake his own caste's faith in him and might even lead to claims that he sided with enemies of the people. If he lost, though that seemed so unlikely, all that remained was the council's final judgment for what to do with Magiere. Either way, Most Aged Father would have his way in some part.
Wynn could do nothing but wait and watch.
Brot'an stood relaxed but erect upon the clearing's turf as he looked to Freth.
"Whenever you are ready."
Chap knew Brot'an grasped for the only option he had left, but Most Aged Father spoke one truth. At any violence among the elves, Magiere would be seen as the cause. Even if found innocent in Brot'an's victory, it would only settle the immediate claim. In the end, it would weigh against all three of Chap's charges when it was time for the council to consider the human interlopers in their land.
He did not care what the Anmaglahk did to each other, but he would not allow Magiere to be used anymore.
Chap bolted across the clearing, not caring about any attention he called.
"What are you doing?" Wynn shouted after him.
There was no time for explanations. He raced for the clearing's far slope and lunged up the incline straight at Gleann and his clan.
The old healer's jaw dropped halfway open. Chap let out a snarl. It was the only way, the safest place, to break through. Only Leanalham stood transfixed with fright. Before Chap had to swerve to get around the girl, Gleann jerked her aside. The rest of his kinsman scrambled out of Chap's path.
He shot through to the open forest beyond.
Even his own presence as a majay-h no longer counted for Magiere. He had felt the doubt and suspicion behind those who watched him from around the clearing. They saw a puzzle they could not unravel in a majay-h who kept company with humans, and most believed that he was wrong-deviant and twisted by a life no majay-h would choose.
They did not know how close to the truth they were-for all the wrong reasons.
If the Anmaglahk and the elders wanted battle to find truth, he would give them one.
Chap cut through brush and trees, until he broke into a wide alley created by a deep brook. He leaped up a smooth boulder overhanging the rippling water. In the distance behind him, he heard the crowd in the clearing.
Their sounds drowned from Chap's ears as he ripped the forest's peace with a howl.
Sgaile felt as if his heart would rupture. He no longer knew what was right or wrong. He knew only the ways of his caste and of his people. He had followed both with such devotion and conscience. But since the humans' arrival, one had been continually pitted against the other. Now two of his own turned on each other over an outsider.
Brot'an'duive and Frethfare. Greimasg'ah and elder of caste against Most Aged Father's chosen Covarleasa. Two of the caste's most honored.
At its worst-if neither yielded-one would die.
Brot'an'duive had right of proxy for Magiere, and Sgaile could not help but agree with his decision. It was proper, for what he saw of the woman's sudden failing condition. He did not understand why the healing Anasgiah Anasgiah had done this to her, nor did he care for the manner in which it was done. had done this to her, nor did he care for the manner in which it was done.
Frethfare's only goal appeared to be forcing Magiere to transform before the gathering. Perhaps they should see this. Perhaps Frethfare was not wrong either.
Sgaile's mind spun as Brot'an'duive stood waiting upon Frethfare's response.
And then Chap raced away across the clearing and through the crowd.
That instant of distraction left Sgaile up repared. Every muscle in his body clenched as Frethfare rushed at Brot'an'duive.
All Sgaile could do was wait for one to yield-or one to die.
Leesil stood speechless as Chap vanished through the crowd. Then Freth struck out at Brot'an.
Her palm strike never landed. Brot'an spun away low with a sweep of his leg. Freth hopped back into a crouch. Before her feet touched earth, Brot'an was already up.
Leesil only cared that Brot'an won. That hope didn't even grate upon him in this moment.
Brot'an didn't close on Freth but stood his ground, waiting as she circled. When she charged again, even Leesil was startled. It all happened before he could blink.
Freth's lunging foot slid forward along the ground. Brot'an took a wide step left, and upon the twist of his torso, drove his right fist for her face.
She hit the ground in a hurdlers straddle, and Brot'an's strike passed over her head. She struck out for Brot'an's bent knee with her momentum. He shifted quickly into his other leg, but the change put him into Freth's path. She pushed off with her rear cocked leg and shot upward for his abdomen with straightened fingers.
Brot'an twisted away, dropping to his back, as Freth rose into her forward leg. She speared her hand downward at his exposed throat.
Leesil felt Magiere's hand close tight on his arm.
Sgaile took two quick steps forward before stopping.
Brot'an pulled his head aside, and Freth's ridged fingers embedded in the clearing's earth.
"She's trying to kill him," Magiere hissed.
Leesil already knew this. Freth would know she couldn't win unless she threw everything she had at Brot'an. Or maybe there was more to this than just Magiere's life-maybe a way to get around their custom of not spilling the blood of their own.
Most Aged Father watched without the slightest flinch at the way Freth went after Brot'an. However it ended, Leesil feared that Magiere's fate would still be left dangling.
Brot'an swung his leg to the side, and the force rolled him over onto his face. As Freth pulled soiled fingers from the earth, Brot'an's second leg shot out into her chest.
It was almost the same move Leesil used himself when trying to catch an undead from below while on the ground. Sgaile had once called it by some strange name that meant "Cat in the Grass."
Freth wasn't fast enough to get out of the way.
Leesil heard the impact, and Freth's body arched.
Her feet left the ground as she shot backward, headfirst. Her shoulders hit the earth a dozen steps away. Impact and momentum whipped her legs over her head. Leesil thought for certain her neck would snap under the fast folding curl.
She flattened on the ground, facedown, and then pushed herself up and got to her feet. She didn't waver, but struggled quietly to regain her breath.
For all Brot'an's size and age, he was nearly as fast as Freth. And any slim advantage she might have in that wouldn't be enough to counter his experience.
"Yield," Brot'an demanded, circling around her.
A thin bloodied line marked the side of Brot'an's neck. Freth had grazed him with her fingernails.
"Why is he holding back?" Wynn whispered.
Leesil swallowed any response, as Freth went at Brot'an again.
Brot'an stamped hard against the earth with his right foot. An instant later he was turning fast in midair. His other leg whipped toward her at a downward angle.
His knee struck her forward arm, but his foot smashed her hip.
Freth toppled under the impact. Her lighter body didn't have the mass to endure it. She slammed down sideways into the ground and somehow managed to kick out. She caught Brot'an's other foot just before it settled to the earth.
Brot'an spun sideways in the air. As he fell, he flattened one hand against the ground, but he crumpled and his right shoulder struck. He rolled away into a crouch, shaking his head. Freth tottered as she got up, and then she stumbled to a halt as a howl echoed over the clearing.
Leesil looked about for the sound. The gathering broke into startled cries. Elves on the forest side of the clearing scattered downslope.
Chap lunged out through the crowd, tearing up sod as he charged straight at Brot'an and Freth.
Chapter Twenty.
M agiere didn't know what to think when Chap charged into the council clearing, but shock followed an instant later. He wasn't alone. An entire pack of majay-h spilled through the crowd in his wake, including the white dog she'd seen with Chap more than once. agiere didn't know what to think when Chap charged into the council clearing, but shock followed an instant later. He wasn't alone. An entire pack of majay-h spilled through the crowd in his wake, including the white dog she'd seen with Chap more than once.
Chap bolted straight at Brot'an and Freth. He cut between them with a vicious snarl and bared teeth. Without pause, he ran to Magiere. Even Wynn backed up as the dog dug in his front paws and lurched to a stop.
Majay-h of all shades, all with crystalline eyes, ran one by one through the clearing. The white female came directly to Chap. The dark one with grayed muzzle who'd charged Magiere in Nein'a's clearing circled in on Brot'an, cutting between him and Freth.
Freth backed up several steps, but Brot'an looked about in open confusion. Sgaile tried to step in then froze before the maniacal snapping of a tall steel-gray dog.
Wynn grabbed Magiere's hand, pulling her forward toward Chap. "Come on! You have to go with him-now!"
"What are you doing?" Leesil asked.
"Chap says she must come," Wynn answered.
Magiere stepped out in a daze. In three breaths, all but two majay-h closed on her. The remaining pair paced like guardians before Brot'an, Freth, and Sgaile. Leesil ducked around in front of Magiere to face any dog that came too close. Only the dark one with the gray muzzle growled as he approached.
More cries and shouts erupted in the crowd behind Magiere, and she looked back with Leesil and Wynn.
Another pack wormed through the gathering above. The only elf who stood her ground, watching without surprise, was the elder female in maroon holding a scroll. This second pack spread around the clearing's side slopes, pacing before the wide-eyed gathering of elves.
A third pack burst out, upslope behind Most Aged Father. These gave the old elf a wide berth as they circled around the clearing's side. As the packs met, they spread, bordering the clearing floor on all sides.
Those with Chap stayed close around Magiere, and the white female nosed her way nearer. Leesil set himself in her path, but Wynn pushed him aside as she knelt by the female.
"Stop it," she said. "Her name is Lily, and she will protect us."
Chap barked once.
Everyone, including Brot'an, Sgaile, and Freth, looked about in shock. At least three dozen dogs ranged within the clearing, long legs trotting, long fur bouncing up and down. Four of the dogs gathered around Magiere to form some sort of vanguard. She watched them in wonder. What did it mean?
Gleann called out in Belaskian from where he stood above the dogs pacing the clearing's slope. "I think they try to tell us something." His lined face held a hint of amusement. Then he spoke in Elvish to the others around him.
"This settles nothing!" Most Aged Father shouted. "Disperse the dogs and end this interference."
"He's right," Magiere said at Wynn's translation. "We're not getting out of here this way... not without bloodshed."
"Stay where you are," Wynn ordered. "Chap, make that old man be quiet!"
Chap turned toward the patriarch but held his ground in front of Magiere.
Wynn flinched sharply, glanced at Chap, and then turned wide eyes upon Leesil.
"What?" Magiere asked. "What did Chap say?"
A handful of Anmaglahk came out of the crowd in answer to Most Aged Father's demand. But any attempt to descend into the clearing was cut off by snarling dogs charging. One anmaglahk drew a blade.
Magiere grabbed Wynn's tunic shoulder, shouting at Chap as much as the sage. "Stop this, now! It's not going to work."
"What else have we got?" Leesil argued. "I'm not letting them take you."
"Leesil, go with Chap," Wynn said suddenly. "Now... and when he barks once at you, only you, give Most Aged Father his message from the ancestors."