He seemed to pick words from her memories faster and faster with each passing day. In not knowing whether they were followed or not, all they could do was reach the inn as quickly as possible.
Nodding, Wayfarer followed Chap around a turn down an unfamiliar path, deeper inland into the city.
In the cutway beside the harbormaster’s office, Brot’ân’duivé was confused and then wary as he watched Wayfarer and Chap leave the Djinn and come down the pier. The girl suddenly abandoned all efforts at disguising herself as Chap set a brisk pace toward the shore.
Brot’ân’duivé looked about the port and glanced up once at the rooftop edges above. He had chosen to stay at ground level to move as needed, but now he was limited in looking for whatever had driven the majay-hì into a rush.
Wayfarer had been raised well by his friend, the old healer Gleannéohkân’thva. She would do as she promised and come straight to this cutway if something was wrong. He waited for her to reach the waterfront walkway and then come to him.
She did not. To his disbelief, Chap turned down the waterfront’s edge.
Brot’ân’duivé peered around the cutway’s corner and watched as the pair turned through the crowd into the first street—not the last—along the harbor. They vanished from his sight into the city.
He turned and ran down the cutway into the broad alley behind the warehouses and then slipped quickly to its end, where it met the next street. But when he peered out, he saw only olive-skinned people in brightly colored clothing.
What had that foolish majay-hì done now?
Brot’ân’duivé spun back into the alley’s shadows and scaled the wall to the nearest roof.
Chap led the way for a few blocks until he spotted a narrow, less traveled street leading into the city, and there he turned again. He was well aware of the risk in taking Wayfarer out of the more populated areas, but if Brot’an had paid attention, the shadow-gripper would have freedom to act as he saw fit. And Chap as well.
Such actions had to take place away from public eyes or authorities. He paused for only an instant in looking up at Wayfarer.
—Release my straps—
The girl stalled, perhaps knowing what this implied, but then she quickly pulled on the ends of the leather straps at the back of his head. It was a relief not to have his ears and jaws bound, and he shook the straps off to let them fall.
—Hurry—
Chap broke into a trot, with Wayfarer nearly running beside him. Later he never remembered seeing or hearing the briefest flash of movement.
A tall figure dressed in dark blue materialized from nowhere directly beside them. Before Chap could think or move, the figure grabbed Wayfarer, lifted her off the ground, and veered at a run for the closest building.
Chap had barely glanced at the sudden movement when that figure leaped from a porch railing to grab the awning above with a slender tan hand. White-blond hair fluttered from the side of the cloak’s hood. It all happened so quickly that only then did Wayfarer cry out.
Chap’s instant of confused hesitation ended.
He swerved after the figure in blue and leaped upward, catching the cloak’s hem before he dropped and hit the railing.
He, the anmaglâhk, and Wayfarer all crashed down in a tangle on the street’s side. Wayfarer cried out again as her hand latched on his tail, and his panic sharpened.
He had to send her away from this quickly, but there was little time. And their room at the inn was only a few city blocks away.
Chap took only a glance at Wayfarer. —Run to Magiere!—
Wayfarer felt the shock of pain as her back hit the street. She could not help crying out, but the strong arm that had lifted her off the ground released. In panic she grabbed for Chap and caught hold of only his tail. At that touch, an image of Magiere and Léshil in the inn’s little room rose in her mind and stunned her.
Chap’s head twisted until his eyes were on her.
—Run to Magiere!—
The image and those words tangled in Wayfarer’s head. She did not snatch her hand away from touching Chap, as she had on the waterfront. Her first impulse was to refuse: she could not abandon him. But Magiere and Léshil were alone in their room and did not know what was happening.
Wayfarer let go of Chap’s tail and rolled out of reach as the anmaglâhk tried to grab her. Chap launched into that tall man’s chest with his teeth snapping for the man’s throat.
Wayfarer turned and ran.
Dänvârfij looked down from a rooftop above Rhysís and was startled at the speed of the majay-hì. It had not occurred to her that the dog would close on Rhysís before he reached the rooftop. Rhysís’s hand barely gripped the awning’s edge, and Dänvârfij could not grab his wrist in time.
The awning crackled as Rhysís’s grip on it broke.
He fell in a tangle with the girl and deviant majay-hì. The girl cried out, grabbing the majay-hì’s tail, and the dog turned instantly to look at her. Dänvârfij was about to drop over the edge when Rhysís made a grab for the girl. The majay-hì lunged into him as the girl ran off down the street.
Dänvârfij hesitated between going after the girl and aiding Rhysís.
From the beginning, all her team had wavered at the thought of injuring a majay-hì. But the dog had no such restraint in going for Rhysís’s throat.
Dänvârfij pulled a stiletto from her left sleeve and prepared to drop to the street ... when something on the skyline toward the waterfront caught in the side of her view. A shadow floated—ran and leaped—between two rooftops one city block away. It was coming for them, and fear flooded through her. She vaulted out over the roof’s edge before the traitor closed. As soon as her feet hit the ground, she kicked the majay-hì’s side behind its foreleg. It let out a choking yelp as it tumbled away from Rhysís, who had drawn a blade, though his hands were bleeding.
The dog righted itself and made to charge.
Dänvârfij grabbed Rhysís by his cloak’s shoulder and took off down the street.
“Run! The traitor comes.”
She rushed into a cutway to the next street and could hear Rhysís directly behind her. Then she swerved down half the street before veering to another cutway on the street’s far side. The traitor was not her main concern anymore, for from up on the rooftops he could not have seen where they ran. Only the majay-hì could track them and might alert the greimasg’äh to where they fled. At the back of the second cutway, she turned left into the adjoining alley, heading away from the path and whatever destination that the majay-hì and the girl had sought. Near the alley’s end, she dropped to crouch behind a barrel filled with rainwater and cursed herself for a fool.
Most Aged Father had told them they were too few to attempt anything in this city. He had given her clear instructions about how to acquire assistance in il’Dha’ab Najuum. And what had she done? She had allowed her team to manipulate her into rash actions.
No more.
Ignoring Rhysís’s torn hands and wrists, she hissed at him in a whisper, “The traitor will go after the girl and check on his other charges, which gives us time. You get Én’nish and Fréthfâre and all of our gear, including what I brought in last night. Go directly to the Falcon and wait.”
Breathing hard through his nose, Rhysís stared at her for a moment, but he quickly dropped his eyes with one curt nod.
Brot’ân’duivé heard Chap’s snarls and growls from a block away. Abandoning stealth, he ran openly, leaping from one rooftop to the next. Before he reached the roof’s edge over the next street, a yelp and then the sound of feet running rose from below. One last snarl followed, and then silence as he reached the edge and looked down.