Wynn watched its wild maturity turn back to infancy as the thorny plant grew younger and smaller. It receded into the earth from whatever fallow seed it had sprouted.
"You reverse the course of life?" Wynn whispered.
Chap stepped into the hollow left by the vines, and the leaf-wing whispered in Wynn's head.
Only to take my kin's touch… what they leave of their will upon the world… as I took the pieces of them reaching for you.
She had grown accustomed to picking meaning from his multitongued voice, though it still made her stomach roll. The inky elder followed Chap inward. Wynn stepped in with Lily, and the other majay-hi came behind.
Dawn grew to day as Chap led them, tunneling through the barrier woods. Wynn watched in awe as again and again he bit and licked its altered life into retreat. The sun had nearly cleared the treetops when the last bramble curled away before Chap. Wynn stepped out behind him through a patch of enormous verdant ferns with fronds reaching up taller than her head.
She emerged at a clearing's edge where the ground was covered in soft emerald grass. Here and there patches of darker moss were thick and spongy. At the center was a domicile elm as wide and massive as any oak or cedar in Crijheaiche.Beside its curtained opening sat a stool and a basket filled with white lumps. A small brook gurgled across the clearing several paces beyond the tree.
At the water's edge, a slender woman perched upon a wide saffron cushion. With her back turned, she did not notice the visitors.
Bright sunlight turned her hair nearly white, and its long glossy tresses hung forward over one caramel-colored shoulder. The folds of her shimmering wrap were pulled down, and she was naked to the waist. She washed with a square of tan felt in one narrow hand.
Wynn thought she saw lighter scars in the skin of the woman's back, as if she had been clawed by an animal long ago.
As the majay-hi wormed around Wynn and into the clearing, Chap hesitantly stepped across the green.
The woman paused and turned just a little. White-blond hair slipped from her shoulder and swung down her back almost to the cushion. She set down the felt and pulled up her wrap. Chap barked loudly and ran forward, and the woman whirled to her feet, even taller than Wynn had first guessed.
Wynn had seen elven women both here and on her continent, but none like this one.
Her face was triangular like all elves', though its long angles swept in soft curves down to a narrow jaw and chin. Her skin was flawless but for the scars Wynn had seen. White-blond eyebrows swept out and up above her temples like downy feathers upon her brow. A long delicate nose ended above a small mouth a shade darker than her skin.
Her almond-shaped eyes were large, even for her own kind.
She did not seem quite real.
"Chap?" the woman said.
He scurried to her side and rubbed into her legs a bit too hard. She crouched down and lifted an uncertain hand under his muzzle. Chap twisted his head to drag her palm and long fingers over his face.
This was Leesil's mother-Nein'a-Cuirin'nen'a, as her own people called her.
Wynn found it difficult to see her as one of the Anmaglahk, spy and assassin, let alone a traitor to her caste or people. And Nein'a did not appear to be imprisoned.
She finally looked up at Wynn. An instant of surprise passed over her fine features before she turned with narrow-eyed suspicion to study the surrounding trees. The majay-hi spread across the green, sniffing about, and their ease in her glade seemed to calm her.
Wynn approached cautiously, uncertain how she would be received.
Nein'a stood, looking down upon the sage.
"How does a human come here?" she said in Belaskian. "And where did you find this dog?"
Beneath cold demand was an unsteady quiver in her voice.
"I came with Chap," Wynn said, "as did Leesil. He is here among your people, trying to find you… and free you."
Nein'a blinked once as her expression flattened. "That is not possible. He would not be allowed amongthe an'Croan… no more than you would, girl!"
Wynn had not expected such cold and sharp words from her, though Nein'a had been alone for a long time.
"Chap brought us through the mountains. Sgaile came to escort us by the request of Most Aged Father. I swear to…"
At the patriarch's name, fear washed through Nein'a's beautiful face. It was quickly replaced by something coldly vicious as she peered again into the trees around the clearing.
"Get out!" she snapped at Wynn. "Do not bring Leesil here. Take him from this land while you still can."
Wynn was shocked into silence until Chap's voice scratched in her mind.
She must come now, before pursuit catches us all.
Wynn stepped closer to Nein'a. "Come with us. Chap and I can hide you. I will get Leesil and Magiere from Crijheaiche, and we-"
"Leesil is among the Anmaglahk?" Nein'a cut her off. "You are all fools… rabbits who crawl into a den of wolves! How did you even find my prison?"
Before Wynn could sort out answers, her stomach rolled at Chap's words.
No more time for this-we leave now!
Wynn swallowed down nausea under Nein'a's wary gaze and then gestured at Chap and the other majay-hi.
"He brought me… and they led him. They can bring us back. But you have to come. There are others pursuing us, and we do not know how close they are."
Nein'a looked away. "What makes you think I could leave… not having done so in the long time I have been here?"
"Of course you can leave," Wynn insisted. "There are no walls, and Chap knows the way."
He barked once as his leaf-wing voice began to rise again.
"I heard you the first time!" Wynn snapped at him. "Keep quiet for a moment!"
Nein'a frowned at them both.
Wynn had no time to explain, and all Nein'a heard was Chap's agitated bark in reply.
Nein'a shook her head. "I am cut off, girl. I can no more walk the forest than you. It rejects me. If I step beyond the clearing, I am lost… wandering until I am quickly retaken and returned to his place. Do you think I have not tried?"
Wynn did not understand this. Every elf she had met was at home in this great forest and none suffered the confusion it pressed upon her.
"Trust me, or at leastChap," she urged. "He can lead us back."
Lily remained close by. In two steps, Chap brushed heads with her and tossed his nose toward the tall ferns. Lily yipped and the pack elder echoed her. All the majay-hi began to gather.
Nein'a watched them, but her large eyes kept drifting warily about the clearing, as if searching for some assurance. She sighed and scratched Chap's head.
"I have nothing to lose. But not so for you, girl, when we are caught."
"Just keep your eyes on Chap and the others. The forest cannot make them shift in your mind like it does with its own flora."
Chap led the way with Nein'a following, and Wynn fell in behind with Lily as the majay-hi swarmed around them. They stepped through the giant ferns and down the channel that Chap had created in the barrier woods.
"It took us all night to reach you," Wynn said, "but Chap and the pack know where to go. We still have a long trek ahead."
Nein'a did not answer, and seemed overly disturbed by the barrier woods, as if she had never seen it before.
Wynn tried to understand what the woman must feel, trapped alone for eight years. It would take longer than a few steps for Nein'a to accept she was free.
Another patch of tall ferns appeared ahead, blocking the path. Wynn didn't remember ferns at the passage entrance, only its exit into the clearing. But she put her faith in Chap's clearer perception as they stepped through the fronds.