Wynn stood on the clearing's edge with Nein'a's domicile elm at the green lawn's center.
Nein'a huffed. "Now do you see?"
"Whenever you try to leave, you just end up back here?" Wynn asked.
"No…" Nein'a answered. "I have thrice wandered, lost in the outer forest, only to be captured again. This is the first time I returned directly to my prison. But I have never before had anyone try to lead me out."
Wynn was not listening closely. She was too preoccupied, spreading the tall ferns with her hands to peer back down the passage through the tangled woods.
"I did not know the forest had thickened outside," Nein'a continued. "It has been years since I last tried to leave. Perhaps it is a new safeguard placed by Aoishenis-Ahare… since my son's return."
The title caught Wynn's attention. It was not Most Aged Father but the Fay who had raised the barrier woods. And Nein'a's misconception suggested something more.
Most Aged Father had some hand in cutting the woman off from the forest, leaving her susceptible to its bewildering influence. If that were so…
Wynn grew more wary and mimicked Nein'a's study of the surrounding trees. How much influence did Most Aged Father wield over this land, let alone its people?
Most Aged Father wormed his awareness through the forest. He drifted from tree to bush to vine as he followed Frethfare. Though he watched her run hard through the night without pause, he worried that she would not catch Leshil in time.
He slipped ahead and came upon Sgaile and his procession, pushing on with just as much speed. Most Aged Father clung to his calm, watching as they ran past. His awareness caught for an instant on the one called Magiere.
Before this woman's arrival, countless decades had passed since he had looked upon any human. Of those he remembered, not one breed matched her white skin and black hair. There was something wrong about her-more than just the flawed nature of a human.
The sun had risen, glinting off the crimson shimmers in her hair.
Most Aged Father raced on, but his awareness halted in a cedar strangled by blackberry vines growing all the way up into its branches. A lingering prickle within its living wood stung his mind.
Many years had passed since a majay-hi or a clhuassas had come close enough to his home for him to feel their difference from the forest's mundane creatures. They shied from him, and even sensed his presence slipping through the forest's growth. But here in this tree, in these newly grown brambles, he felt it…
The same lingering touch as in the descendants of the born-Fay.What did this mean?
Most Aged Father drifted within the barrier woods, as if the very walls of his own home had been altered while he had slumbered. His panic mounted.
Footsteps approached in the outer forest. He slipped away, burrowing inward toward Cuirin'nen'a's clearing.
The farther north they ran, the more desperate Sgaile became.
He had never seen the prison glade of Cuirin'nen'a, though most longstanding anmaglahk knew its location. A select few chosen only by Frethfare went regularly to check upon Cuirin'nen'a's needs. At the inception of her internment, some expressed concern for her well-being in isolation. Most Aged Father assured them that he would be aware of her needs-or if and when more was required for her. Frethfare held firm to limiting contact, and none but those she chose ever went to Cuirin'nen'a.
At the start of this pursuit, Sgaile did not believe Wynn and Chap could reach her before they were caught. The majay-hi might, but not with a small woman slowing them down. Then he had seen their tracks halt, and Wynn's boot prints vanished amid the hoof marks of a sentinel deer.
That a human rode a clhuassas, like some servant animal, was sickening. The sun had risen, and Sgaile knew the prison glade was not far off.
Someone called out from behind him.
Brot'an'duive was the first to halt and turn. As if summoned by Sgaile's heated thoughts, Frethfare came at a run up the path behind them.
Haggard and panting, she stopped near En’nish and her two comrades. Frethfare's face dripped with sweat that matted her hair against her forehead.
"Turn back… by word… of Most Aged…" she gasped out, hands braced on her knees. "Do not go farther!"
Sgaile tensed in confusion. "I have oath of guardianship to fulfill, and the retrieval of a human wandering our land."
"No one goes near the traitor," Frethfare insisted.
This was the second time in Sgaile's life that he was ordered to violate the ways of his people. The first had been when he was sent to kill a half-blood, also marked as a traitor.
None of his people, the an'Croan, would willingly spill the blood of their own. But the Anmaglahk obeyed the direct wishes of Most Aged Father. Only the presence of a majay-hi and the half-blood's ignorance of his own people had justified Sgaile's disobedience.
Brot'anduive spoke evenly. "Why would Most Aged Father force this upon Sgailsheilleache's and those he has chosen to share his purpose?"
"What now?" Magiere spoke up.
Through his fatigue and strain, Sgaile had forgotten that neither Leshil nor Magiere understood Elvish.
"We have been ordered to return," he answered in Belaskian, "by Most Aged Father."
Anger spread on Magiere's sweat-glistened white face. Leshil took two steps down the path toward Frethfare.
"I don't serve your master," he said. "Go back on your own!"
"Wait!" Brot'an'duive snapped, and stepped between them.
"Get out of my way!" Leshil demanded.
Magiere turned from Frethfare, but Sgaile was not sure if her eyes were on Leshil or Brot'an'duive.
"Why am I forced into shame?" Sgaile demanded, keeping to Belaskian in the hope that it might distract his angered charges a little longer. "You trap me between caste and people with no way to serve both."
"Nothing is greater thanservice to the caste," Frethfare returned. "That is our service to the people. In silence and in shadows… obey!"
En’nish stepped closer to Frethfare, a new eagerness washing over her sharp features.
"No," Brot'an'duive commanded.
En’nish’s two companions-and Osha — stood with attention shifting between Brot'an'duive and Frethfare. Like Sgaile, they were at a loss as to who had the greater authority here between Most Aged Father's trusted counselor and a revered master among the Anmaglahk. En’nish’s allegiance was clear. Frethfare remained certain of her position, and her words were only formally polite.
"You disagree with our father, Greimasg'ah? You question my place as Covarleasa?"
"Yes," Brot'an'duive answered."When it is used against our people."
Sgaile did not know what to do when he heard this. Brot'an'duive had not only rejected Frethfare's position, he had denounced it-and that of Most Aged Father. Sgaile found himself in an untenable situation and wanted no part of this.
Frethfare stood to full height. "Careful, Greimasg'ah… you are not so highly honored as to change caste ways at your whim."
"And what purpose do those ways serve?" Brot'an'duive returned. "They serve our people, first and foremost. Guardianship was an old tradition before the first supplicant bent knee before Most Aged Father. Break the ways of our people, and what is left for us to protect?"
Frethfare remained unconvinced, but Brot'an'duive cut off any rebuttal.
"Take this before the elders, if you wish. Even now they gather at Crij-heaiche. It is for them to decide-not you orI- if the people's ways shall be altered. Would not Most Aged Father agree, as first servant to the people?"
True as this was, Sgaile was still reluctant. En’nish closely watched Frethfare's silent frustration, waiting for the Covarleasa to counter Brot'an'duive's words.