There was only one course left to Chane.
He pressed forward along the left wall, nearing where the central passage met the main one at the entryway. The main doors were so close, but he feared stepping into view. He lingered, listening, and then glanced the way Rodian had gone. Finally, he began slipping forward to peer around the corner after Hawes.
A hand shot out from Chane’s left, in front of his chin. He was so startled he did not see where it came from, until its narrow fingers clenched the front of his cloak and shirt.
The forearm below that slender hand protruded from out of the passage wall’s stone.
In shocked instinct, Chane pulled back, but he could not break free. Even before he could grab his sword hilt, the hand dragged him face-first into—through—the passage’s left wall. Only one thought remained as he was swallowed into cold, dark stone.
That narrow hand could not have belonged to Ore-Locks.
Wynn tried to come up with some plausible excuse for being out of her room once Rodian spotted her. Maybe it would be better for Chane—and Shade—if she faced down the captain and took all consequences on herself. After all, what could Rodian do without formal charges? What more could the Premin Council do?
They still wanted her under their watchful eye, so they wouldn’t make any legal claim against her. That would put her permanently in Rodian’s hands and off guild grounds. Of course, there was still an unconscious guardsman in her room. That was something the captain would pin on her, though she doubted he’d believe she’d done it herself. But he’d still arrest her, thinking she might eventually give up who had.
Wynn closed her eyes and bit down on the tip of her tongue. No matter which way she worked it, there was no good outcome. And the moments just kept creeping along.
She opened her eyes, peering toward the door to the courtyard ... and it was closed again.
Wynn just kept staring at it, waiting. She finally got up, hesitantly creeping back up the passage. When she reached the door, she pressed her ear to it and listened, but she heard nothing at all ... except a shift on stone behind her.
A hand dropped heavily on her shoulder.
She inhaled in fright and whirled about with a clenched fist. A thick hand clamped over her mouth as another one caught her punch.
“Shush. It is me, you fool,” Ore-Locks whispered into her face.
Wynn pulled his hand from her face, her heart still racing.
“Was that really necessary?” she hissed at him.
He rolled his eyes in a glower and pushed her out of the way. Reaching for the door, he cracked it open and peeked out.
“Is he gone?” she whispered, thinking that hardly likely. Once Rodian took after something, he was impossible to shake off.
Ore-Locks shot her an annoyed glance and cocked his head, motioning for her to follow. She was still shaking as she followed him out into the courtyard, but she was both astonished and relieved to find it empty.
It was not the time to question good luck, and she stayed right on Ore-Locks’s heels as they inched along the barracks to the courtyard’s corner. Chane must be wondering where they were by now, but Wynn was wondering something else.
Where has Rodian gone now?
Rodian walked his half of the front passage, past the common hall’s main arch, and rounded the right-hand turn toward the library’s north entrance. He passed the common hall’s small side arch on his right and the kitchen’s entrance across on the left. He peered into both, and both were empty, though he hadn’t expected to find anyone there. When he reached the left-hand passage leading to the northern tower, he paused to check the library door at the turn.
It was locked, as it should be. He shook his head, wondering what Hawes was up to with this nonsense errand. Something was clearly happening here. And still, while he was here ...
He glanced down the way toward the door to the northern tower. The cold lamp above him at the library’s north entrance didn’t cast enough light that far, so he walked past the kitchen’s rear entrance and stopped to check the door across the way into the bailey’s rear.
It was locked, as were the tower door and the door next to that for the archives below.
Rodian had had enough of this and exhaled in exasperation as he headed back. It was time to get some answers out of Hawes.
Chapter 16
WAITING ALONE IN THE alley with Chap, Magiere found that she had too much time to think. Much too much. Of all that she might’ve wished for tonight, the last was abundant time to think—especially while suffering in ignorance over what was happening with her companions.
She assumed that Osha and Leanâlhâm were on the way back. It depended on how long it had taken to unload that wagon. Leesil and Brot’an must have breached the keep by now. But every time Magiere blinked, she saw flashes of what she’d done in the northern white wastes to find and secure the second orb, to get Leesil and Chap out of that frigid land alive.
To return here and learn there were yet more orbs, that more of the Ancient Enemy’s minions were on the move, searching as well, was too much. And the one person besides Chap who might have real answers was locked up beyond reach.
Magiere had such a burning urge to go after Wynn herself, and she glanced down. Chap was watching the street, his ears pricked up. She wondered if he’d caught any of these brief memories of hers. She didn’t ask him or warn him to stay out of her head.
In truth, she wasn’t worried about Chap. He’d had his own agenda from the beginning of all this and would see it through to the end. Neither was she worried about herself—at least not about her purpose for the future.
Leesil was another matter. There was nothing Magiere wouldn’t do to keep him safe, even when he tried to stop her from doing so. All his life, he’d been either a slave assassin to a warlord or a slave to the open road or a slave to fates they couldn’t shake, especially hers. All he really wanted now was to go home to their tavern, the Sea Lion, in the little coastal town of Miiska.
That had once been Magiere’s strongest desire, next to him.
Over and over, the warm image of hearth and home had wavered like a mirage, just out of reach. Over and over, it had vanished more quickly as each seemingly insurmountable task had fallen on them. In the beginning, it had been him who’d kept her going, held her up in the face of it all.
How much had changed ... and now there were two more orbs to find.
Chap suddenly rumbled, just once. Magiere found him watching her with his crystalline blue eyes.
She’d never told him, but she’d come to see him as the strong one among the three of them. Chap would face anything as long as the purpose was clear, and if it wasn’t, he would hold everything in place until it was. He’d been the one to take the two orbs into hiding, so that no one but him knew where they were. How he’d accomplished that in the end he’d never said, but she remembered the way he returned to meet up with her and Leesil.
Chap had padded back into their sight as if he carried some internal burden that gave him unbearable shame. He would take whatever fate threw at him and snarl in its face, but upon his return, he’d been silent. He’d ignored any attempt Leesil made to get him to use the talking hide.
Magiere ran her hand down Chap’s neck.
He hated being relegated to the “distraction” as much as she did. Like her, he hadn’t been able to fault Leesil’s plan or come up with anything better.
“Shouldn’t be much longer,” she said.
Chap’s shoulders stiffened under her hand. An instant later, she heard the creak and clatter of wagon wheels on cobble.
Drawing her falchion, she rested it against her thigh as Chap shot across the alley’s mouth to lurk at its other side. They were ready, for even when Osha and Leanâlhâm arrived, the “distraction” was far from over.