Leesil was no one's tool. Why had Nein'a wanted a half-blood for the plans of her dissidents? And what did Most Aged Father really want with Leesil?
Chap steeled himself for what would come at Crijheaiche, and what he might have to do to protect Leesil, Magiere, and Wynn from all sides.
His thoughts were broken as the white majay-hi loped toward him from the trees. Wynn had once compared her to a water "lily."
Chap agreed.
Lily kept her distance, glancing hesitantly at those walking with Chap along a wide-open way through the forest. Whenever the breeze shifted Chap's way, he caught her earthy scent.
His thoughts tumbled through memories passed between them in the night outside the elven enclave. He wanted more of this-more of her. He wanted to run with Lily among the pack.Or without them.
Was this what passed between Magiere and Leesil? A depth of longing he had not felt since Eillean had taken him from his siblings?
Lily yipped once in a standing pause, watching him. He did not need touch, as the other majay-hi did, to see her memories. Images of leaves and brush and grass and trees whipping by in the night filled his head. He caught a flash of silver gray running beside her.
A memory of him.
Chap remained beside Wynn, but he often turned his eyes to Lily.
Past nightfall, Leesil sat staring into the campfire that Magiere stoked with more wood. Wynn sat on the ground and struggled with a hay-bristle brush Leanalham provided. But try as the sage might, she couldn't get the last mat out of Chap's coat. The dog's restless fidgeting didn't make it any easier.
At a light footfall, he turned to find Leanalham approaching. She crouched near him, her expression uneasy. Perhaps the encounter with the aruin'nas still troubled the girl. It certainly troubled Leesil.
Leanalham watched Wynn's efforts and Chap's scant tolerance with fascination. The girl obviously hadn't known what the sage intended with the brush.
Osha had gone in search of food, and Sgaile stood at the clearing's far side, speaking in low tones with Urhkar.
"Magiere, come and hold him down," Wynn called, and Chap tried to belly-crawl out of reach. "He is a mess, but he will not let me finish."
"You hold him, and I'll do it," Magiere said.
Chap saw her coming. With a rumble, he licked his nose.
"I saw that," Magiere warned.
"You lose again," Leesil said to Chap. This resulted in another tongue-and-nose gesture just for him.
Leanalham leaned forward. "Why are you talking to the majay-hi?"
Before Leesil could think up an answer, Wynn pounced on Chap and grabbed his neck with both arms. Magiere dropped on her knees, pinning the dog's hindquarters as she took up the brush.
"Oh… you stink!" Wynn said, wrinkling up her face.
The sight of the two women wrestling the dog into submission, and getting as dirty as he, was almost amusing enough for Leesil to forget the day's troubles.
"No! Do not treat him that way!"
Leanalham's thick accent made her words hard to catch, and she jumped to her feet indignantly before Leesil understood. She grabbed for the back of Wynn's coat, and Leesil shoved his arm in her way.
"He is a guardian of our forest," the girl shouted. "Let him go!"
Both Magiere and Wynn froze and stared at Leanalham.
Chap's ears perked as he ceased struggling. He rolled crystalline eyes and huffed once in agreement with Leanalham's outrage. It sounded a bit too pompous to Leesil.
A way off, Sgaile and Urhkar looked on, and neither appeared pleased.
"It's all right," Leesil said, pulling Leanalham down on the log."Chaps a bit of a pig. If we don't clean him, he gets unbearable… and he knows it."
Chap growled at him.
"Oh, be quiet!" Wynn snapped, and clamped the dog's snout in her little fingers. "Magiere, finish it."
"And if he didn't really like it," Leesil added, "he wouldn't make it so easy for them."
Leanalham's face filled with hesitant wonder. "He… understands?"
Chap shook his snout with a grunt, nearly toppling Wynn forward into the dirt.
Leesil sighed. They couldn't hide Chap's unusual intelligence forever, but perhaps it was best not to answer too many questions.
"Done," Magiere said and got up. "It might have gone quicker if you'd kept your butt still!"
Chap wrinkled a jowl at her and slunk off to the clearing's far side. He flopped down to clean himself. Wynn picked herself up, brushing dirt from her breeches.
Leanalham was still watching Chap.
Leesil studied her face. A small loop of her light brown hair was pulled through a wooden ring and held there over a crosswise wood peg. From there, her hair fell down her back in a tail. Her skin was a bit lighter in tone than his, which was strange considering he had more human blood. She turned to warm her hands by the fire, her expression suddenly too serious.
"You all right?" he asked.
She only nodded.
"If elves don't spill the blood of their own," he asked, "why did you cry out?"
"I have only seen the Aruin'nas a few times," she answered, "but never so many at once… and so angry."
This was the most Leesil had heard the girl say to anyone but Sgaile or Gleann.
"They wanted to kill your companions," she added, "humans, but… they hated me the same way… and you. The words they spoke… terrible things… before my uncle came."
Leanalham went silent, staring into the fire.
"People say terrible things about me all the time," Leesil answered. "Don't let it bother you."
He heard a hiss, and looked up. For an instant, he thought Magiere's vicious expression was aimed at the girl. She stepped slow and steady in front of him, until she stood beside Leanalham while facing away from the fire. Leesil couldn't see her face.
Magiere's fingertips gently touched Leanalham's shoulder. The girl jumped slightly, but Magiere headed off across the clearing toward Sgaile and Urhkar.
What was she doing? Leesil was about to go after her before she stirred up another conflict.
"You are fortunate to have the right hair and eyes," Leanalham said.
"What?"
"Your hair is light," she said. "And your eyes are amber. You look more like our people than I do, and you are half human. I am… I wish I had hair and eyes like yours."
Her words were sickeningly ironic. Leesil wanted to tell her that in his world, growing up, his hair and eyes cut him off from everyone but his parents.
"There's nothing wrong withwho you are, Leanalham," Wynn replied. She sat on a folded blanket at the fire's far side, fingers laced around her pulled-up knees.
"Leanalham," Leesil asked slowly, "how did you come to be here?"
"I wanted to tell you that first night you came to our home, but my grandfather and uncle are always worried."
She watched the fire for a while, and Leesil waited in silence until she spoke.
"My grandmother was not only bond-mate to my true grandfather, the brother of Gleanneohkan'thva-or Gleann, as you call him. She was also under Gleann's tutelage to become a healer. I call him grandfather because he is the one who raised me. It is the closest word in your tongue for the title.
"My grandmother traveled with Gleann as needed, helping those who had no healer among their own enclave. Illness spread through another clan's settlements to the southeast, and they went to assist. Grandmother was gathering basha weed in the hills near the shore, which helps lower fevers. She was attacked… by human men."
Leanalham paused and did not look at Leesil. "Do you understand?"