Last night, Leanâlhâm had told them Gleann was dead. Had he contracted a sickness from one of his patients? The thought made Magiere sad, for she’d truly liked that old healer. They all had.
With Sgäile gone, as well, perhaps Brot’an saw no choice but to take Leanâlhâm into his own care. Magiere would never say so aloud, but Nein’a, Leesil’s mother, wasn’t exactly the mothering kind ... not like her son. Magiere would never trust Brot’an, but she didn’t hate him as did Leesil and Chap. No matter what Brot’an’s own motives, he’d once defended her, fought for her, and risked his own life when she’d been dragged on trial before the an’Cróan elders.
Magiere briefly stopped chewing. It was so unreal that she, Leesil, and Chap should be hiding out on a foreign continent with Osha, Leanâlhâm ... and Brot’an. After swallowing hard, she gulped from the water pitcher Leesil offered her.
“You’d better call him in,” she said. “We need to talk.”
“Good luck with that,” Leesil muttered.
Before he could get up, Osha rose and opened the window to utter a strange birdlike chirp. Magiere downed the rest of the water pitcher, which was only half full. Leanâlhâm stirred and sat up, but after glancing at Magiere and then Leesil, she quickly dropped her gaze.
Magiere could only imagine how last night had looked to Leanâlhâm. Frightening, at least. She wished she knew what to say, but no words came.
A large, gloved hand wrapped over the window’s upper edge.
Brot’an dropped into the room, landing too lightly on the floor for someone of his size. He was so large that his body seemed to fill the room, and his gaze locked immediately on Magiere’s leg—with its missing wound.
She jerked the blanket over her legs again as she swung them over the bedside. Leanâlhâm shifted out of her way. The movement hurt, but Magiere tried to ignore it. She needed the spare pants out of her pack, but there was little privacy to be had at the moment.
Chap was on his feet. Though he hadn’t growled, he paced over to the bed’s foot, sitting between it and Brot’an.
With everyone assembled, Magiere suddenly felt lost for how to begin. They all had questions full of fear and suspicion for each other. But if a team of anmaglâhk was here in the city—sent by Most Aged Father—she wasn’t about to turn down help from Brot’an or even Osha. But their first concern was Wynn.
“Is Wynn ... prisoner?” Osha asked, breaking the silence.
It was almost a relief that he’d spoken up first. Osha’s Belaskian wasn’t perfect, but it was better than Leesil’s bumbling Elvish. Osha always got straight to the point where anyone who mattered was concerned.
“That’s what we need to find out,” Magiere answered.
“Then someone has to get inside,” Brot’an said.
Leesil climbed off the bed, crouching down beside Chap. “Not by breaking in ... at least not yet. We don’t even know where Wynn is, specifically.”
“Then what do you suggest?” Brot’an returned.
In watching him, Magiere wasn’t certain the master anmaglâhk was all that interested in the answer.
“We ask the sages,” Leesil said flatly. “We simply ask to speak with her. If they refuse, we’ll know she’s in trouble. If not ... then we find out what’s happening.”
Magiere opened her mouth and then closed it, grinding her teeth. She knew Leesil had more in mind than this.
“Watching the guild castle is most likely how your enemies picked up your trail,” Brot’an responded. “They will continue to do so, with no other leads to find you. The sages have seen you. Reappearance will only raise suspicion if the little one is in trouble.”
Magiere felt exhausted again. All this talk seemed pointless. She much preferred to just break in and find the “little one,” as Brot’an often called Wynn. But Wynn herself was the one who’d wanted to stay, and Magiere still wasn’t fully certain why.
“Asking to see her is a foolish approach,” Brot’an emphasized. “Any of you will be recognized.”
As much as this rankled Magiere, she couldn’t argue.
“Not all of us,” Leesil countered. “Not all of us ... present here and now.”
Magiere grew suddenly wary, for Leesil was up to something again. Just before the memories rose in her head, she saw the back of his head turn just a little, as if he’d glanced to his right. There was one person he could’ve looked at. And worse, apparently Chap agreed with him.
Image after image of Leanâlhâm raced through Magiere’s mind as Chap continued to call up more memories. She rolled out of bed to stand protectively in front of the girl at the same instant that Osha shouted at Leesil.
“No!”
Chap did not react to either Magiere or Osha’s outbursts.
“It’s the only way,” Leesil said, for Chap had suggested it to him just before informing Magiere.
“She’s the only one who ... looks innocent enough,” Leesil went on. “And no one there has seen her.”
“Leanâlhâm? That is his idea?” Magiere asked, pointing at Chap. “She doesn’t know this place, these people, or anything outside her own world.”
No one appeared to question how Magiere knew Chap was the one who had started this. But he could not have cared less about her anger, nor the bitter argument that followed. He merely waited as everyone vented on each other—everyone except Leanâlhâm, who kept watching the others in a worried state of bafflement.
Leesil had clearly stated the problem regarding anyone else going. Brot’an and possibly Osha were known to the other anmaglâhk and might be spotted by any such watching the guild. The only one who remained potentially unknown to all was the girl.
That Brot’an went quiet halfway through this loud debate was the only other element that gave Chap pause. But Chap had never intended to send Leanâlhâm out alone.
“Why are you talking about me?” Leanâlhâm finally asked.
Her words were so soft that perhaps only Chap heard her above the others. Of course he had expected a fight with Magiere, but it was Osha who turned the most vehement.
“Magiere right!” he shouted into Leesil’s face and then bent over above Chap. “No Leanâlhâm!”
Chap ignored him, as did Leesil.
Brot’an’s eyes narrowed as he looked down at Chap.
Still, Chap waited. This needed to reach a head before he would put an end to it, as what came next would only bring more for them to argue about. They needed to understand who was making the decisions here, should the girl agree.
“It’s settled,” Magiere stated flatly, and Osha came up, taking position behind her. “It doesn’t matter who’s seen. Leanâlhâm isn’t going. I’ll do it myself.”
That was exactly what Chap had waited for—another ultimatum from Magiere.
Perhaps it was unwise to do this now, or unfair to use the girl. But Magiere’s judgment and changes had too often pushed them into further peril at every turn. She was going to listen to him from now on.
No one but him, and especially not Brot’an, was making the choices anymore.
Chap wheeled with a grating snarl and bit Magiere’s ankle.
It wasn’t enough to break the boot’s leather, but it had to hurt. Magiere toppled on the bed and rolled away in startled anger. She never had a chance to say a word.
Chap went straight at Osha, snapping and snarling. A wolf doing so would have been frightening enough, and majay-hì were all bigger than wolves. Unfortunately, Leanâlhâm was too close and scrambled away to the bedside in terror. Chap did not stop snarling until wide-eyed Osha was pinned in the corner beyond the room’s door. Only then did Chap slowly turn around upon the others.
There was Brot’an in the middle of the room, half-crouched.
Chap took a moment’s pleasure at the shadow-gripper’s tension. He glanced toward Leesil, calling up Leesil’s memories of Leanâlhâm in the cutway last night—fully cloaked and hooded. He added a cascade of every single memory in Leesil that showed Chap himself ranging city streets at night.