But the other word Sgaile spoke, another elven name…
Leesil grew angrier by the moment.
Three anmaglahk jogged down the lane between the trees. The first was Sgaile's returning messenger. The second was Urhkar, looking none too pleased, and he wasn't carrying the bundle of weapons. The third and last of the trio…
Leesil flushed with heat, and the air turned cold upon his skin.
Bro'tan.
The deer lifted its head from Chap and stood to full height. Its long ears rose, each turning of its own accord. After one step, its head swung northeast and it became still again. Both ears turned that same direction.
Chap followed the deer's gaze. What was it listening to?
The deer clopped off along its chosen path. The pound of its heavy hooves vibrated through the boulder. It headed into the trees.
The dark pack elder huffed to his kin and turned to follow the deer. All the other majay-hi scurried upslope around the boulder. Lily licked Chap once across the face and loped off behind them.
Chap stared after them. What was happening? Did they know where they were going? There seemed little to do but follow, and then a voice cried out from below.
"Chap… wait!"
He turned as the pack froze on the hillside. He ran out to the boulder's lip and looked down.
Wynn teetered into the clearing. In the moonlight, her face glistened with a thin layer of sweat, and she dropped to her knees.
Chap lunged off the boulder's side, claws digging into the earth. What was this foolish little sage doing out alone in the forest? Somehow, she had snuck out and trailed him without getting lost. As he rounded the boulder's base, he heard a deep rolling growl.
The elder majay-hi came around the boulder's far side toward Wynn, his jowls pulled back from yellowed teeth. Snarls grew one upon the next as the pack spread around the clearing. Their crystalline eyes locked on the sage crumpled to the earth. Chap turned to face them, and the elder made an arcing inward charge to get around him.
Chap lunged around Wynn into the elder's path, snapping and snarling. The elder slowed, coming in a pace at a time with his shoulders rolling.
The pack tightened its circle.
Chap could not face all of them at once. Only Lily held back, watching from hisright, and the silver yearling paced sideways in uncertainty. Lily suddenly bolted in, shoving the young one aside, and headed straight at Wynn.
Numb shock ran through Chap as he whirled to face her. He had no wish to fight Lily.
She slowed, creeping forward, and lowered her head, sniffing.
"Please… Chap, please," Wynn moaned. "Take it away!"
Lily shook her head, sneezed, and whined deeply.
Chap's eyes widened as Lily circled around, placing herself between Wynn and the other half of the pack. Chap backed up to Wynn, trying to think of some way to assure her that at least Lily meant no harm.
Wynn rolled on her back, squinting, and shielded her eyes from him.
"Please… take it," she whimpered, "from my eyes."
Her hand lowered to her mouth as she gagged. Her irises shrank at the sight of him-as if he were too bright to look upon.
Chap felt his breath turn thick and stifling in his chest. Wynn was not pleading for him to remove Lily.
Her mantic sight had risen. The little fool had somehow used it to find him and madeherself sick again! He did not have his kin to call upon for aid in cleansing her.
Chap ground his paws into the clearing's floor, binding himself to the forest through Earth, Air, and his own Spirit. He leaned down and nosed Wynn's small hand aside, and ran his tongue firmly over her closed eyelids.
He could taste it. Rampant energies running like a disease still within her, which emerged to alter her sight. He swallowed them into his body, and forced them through his flesh, down into the earth… out with his breath to dissipate like vapor.
If only this were the end of it.
Wynn dropped her hand with a limp thud upon the ground. Shesighed a long breath and swallowed hard.
The last thing Chap needed was someone to watch over in the forest. And worse still, a human wandering the territory of the majay-hi. Wynn had to go back-but would the pack wait for him to return?That was, if he could return Wynn unseen, and not end up fighting the whole pack just to get her out of this clearing.
"Where do you think you are going?" Wynn asked in a weak voice.
Chap was half-ready to snarl at her-witless girl.
Wynn sat up, and her eyes widened at Lily standing so close. She reached out her hand, but Lily backed away one step. Then Wynn noticed the pack surrounding them.
"Chap?" she said, scrambling to her knees.
He had no time to scold her. What he needed was a quick way to put the pack at ease.
Chap circled watchfully around to Lily's side. He touched his head to hers and called up a flurry of memories of every time and place he had shared with Wynn.
Lily pulled away with a grunt and shook herself. She eyed him for a moment, and then hopped off a pace and paused to stare at Wynn. With a whine, she trotted to the steel-gray male nearby and their heads grazed.
The male jerked away-with a snarl as his twin sister inched close behind him. Lily butted him in the side and growled back, then turned to his sister.
The pack began mingling, touching heads as they passed each other. Their growls became broken with huffs and whines, and Chap saw it was still not enough. Perhaps there was nothing that could balance against human interlopers.
Chap barked for Lily's attention. When she returned, he gave her memories of Wynn brushing out his coat. He clung to the sensation of the sage's small fingers running through his fur.
Lily pulled away. But she turned her long head to Wynn, stretching out to sniff at the sage. Chap ducked his head under Wynn's hand, squirming to make it slide down his neck.
"What are you doing?" she said. "Stop playing around. This is serious!"
Oh, how he wanted a voice, just to tell to her to shut her month. He waited with his eyes on Lily.
She inched closer, and Wynn leaned away in fear. When Lily put her nose right in front of Wynn's face, the sage lifted a hesitant hand.
Wynn lightly touched the bridge of Lily's snout and slid two fingers over Lily's head.
A deep snarl filled the clearing.
The elder glared at the three of them-a human touchingtwo majay-hi. He turned away with a clack of his jaws and headed back up the slope. Soon all the pack drifted after him, all but the steel-gray twins, who held back a moment to study the trio curiously.
"What is happening?" Wynn asked.
Lily pulled out from under Wynn's hand and trotted a short way across the clearing. She stopped to wait. Chap grumbled and jerked Wynn's sleeve. He had little choice but to take her with him.
"I heard you," Wynn said. "I heard you calling… for Nein'a."
Chap looked up into her worried face.
He had called up Nein'a's name for the deer, and somehow Wynn had caught it amid her mantic state. She had mistakenly heard something unintelligible the last time he had communed with his kin. But not words.
Chap let out a deep sigh. He had no time for this.
Another aberration had surfaced from Wynn's meddling with magic and the sickness it had left within her.
How much more trouble was this little woman going to be?
Wynn ran after Chap and the majay-hi as fast as her short legs could carry her.
She guessed that Chap had somehow learned of Nein'a through the pack, but how far off was Leesil's mother? Would Most Aged Father want Nein'a close to Crijheaiche-close to other Anmaglahk? Or would he put her where she could never interact with them or any of her people?
The inky old majay-hi in the lead was out of sight, and the others were getting well ahead. Wynn had counted seven in the pack besides Chap but now saw only three. Chap lagged behind, slowing again and again for her, and the white female hung back as well. Beyond her were the two dark gray ones identical in their markings.