I had struggled to keep up with their exchange, but even without the moon’s pull, I would have had trouble. How did Namid and Red-Cahors-know each other? Had Red trained with the runemyste, too? Had he once been like me?
“You cannot guard this one forever,” Cahors said at last, still staring at me from the lawn. “Your vigilance will slacken, and when it does, I will be ready.”
Namid said nothing. Cahors’ lips curled upward in a smile that made my stomach turn.
“You know I am right,” Red told him. “And you know that he cannot stand against me.”
“That has yet to be scryed,” Namid said. “As I said, you have changed the rules. Where you are concerned nothing is certain anymore.”
“This is, Namid’skemu. This is.” He spared me once last glance. “Farewell for now, little weremyste. We will meet again soon, you and I. And we shall see how you do sans ton ami, oui?” He laughed again. Then he turned and walked out into the street. An instant later, he vanished.
For several moments, I continued to stare out at where he’d been standing, fearing that he’d reappear, wondering if I’d imagined it after all. Already the moon was dulling my mind again. I felt as though I’d downed a bottle of wine.
“Ohanko.”
I turned to face Namid. His waters had softened, though the glow of his eyes remained as intense as it had been when he spoke to Red.
“You’re really here?” I asked, sinking to the floor. “This was real? It wasn’t just the phasing?”
“I am here. Cahors was as well, but he has gone. You did well. Very well. Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m. .” I took a breath. “I’m fine. Who is he, Namid?”
The runemyste shook his head. “Tomorrow. In the morning, when you can understand what I tell you. Now you should sleep.”
As soon as he said this, I realized that I was exhausted. I nodded. “Yes, all right.” I started to close my eyes, then jerked myself awake. “No!” I said. “I never sleep during the phasings. You know that. The dreams. .” I shuddered.
“You will be all right tonight. I will remain here until you wake.”
“You will?” Even on this night, my mind drifting again, I knew how unusual an offer this was.
Namid lowered himself to the floor. To the ground. Sun reflected off his waters. He appeared calmer now, more at peace. “I can guard your sleep, keep the moon from intruding too much, as I am doing now. You will sleep.”
“Why would you do this?”
Again he shook his head. “Tomorrow. Sleep now.”
The sun shone overhead, and bees buzzed in the clover and cinquefoil. I lay down where I was, my head cushioned in fresh grass, and I slept.
CHAPTER 21
Another reason I didn’t like to sleep during the phasings: waking up during the full of the moon was a bit like waking up after a night of heavy drinking. I wasn’t sick to my stomach, but my head felt thick and dull, and my muscles were stiff. I’d left the light on all night, and my face felt weird where it had been pressed into the bedroom carpet. If I was going to sleep, why the hell hadn’t I climbed into bed?
I sat up, rubbed a hand through my tangled hair. Namid sat cross-legged on the floor a few feet away. His face and body like glass, his eyes bright.
“Ohanko. You slept well?”
“What are you-?” Memories of the night before flashed through my mind, vivid and terrifying. “Crap,” I whispered. “It was real, wasn’t it? He was here, in my house.”
“Yes. It was real.”
“And you know him,” I said. It came out as an accusation.
“Yes.”
“Yesterday, when I told you that the guy was French, and I repeated the name I’d heard Shari Bettancourt use, you knew right away, didn’t you? You disappeared pretty quickly to check it out, but you already knew.”
“I did not know for certain, but yes, I had some idea that it was the man you saw here last night.”
I said nothing, but stared back at him, waiting.
“His name is Etienne de Cahors. He was a druid in Gaul during what you would call the early dark ages. At one time he was a member of my council, but over the centuries he grew resistive. Eventually he began to challenge our adherence to the Runeclave’s directives. He was particularly dissatisfied with his inability to use magic directly on your world.”
“You mean he’s a runemyste?” I asked.
“He was.”
“Tell me there’s some good news in this, Namid.”
“There is not. Somehow he has managed to master the magic that first created him. He has assumed corporeal form and is now free to roam your world. But he retains something of what he used to be. That is why I have been able to keep him out of your home. He. . well, you would say that he changed the rules.”
I remembered Namid saying something similar to Cahors the night before.
“And you guys allowed this to happen?” It was the first thing that came to mind, and I knew as soon as I said it that it wasn’t fair, not when one considered all the stupid things we humans had managed to do to the world on our own. “I’m sorry,” I said.
“You should not apologize. The Council has asked the same question of itself, and the answer is simple: yes, we allowed this to happen. He has made his displeasure known for a long time. We should have been vigilant and we were not.”
“We allowed it, too,” I said. “That’s what he was doing when he was killing those kids. He was gathering power from them somehow, and using it to break free of what he was. If we’d caught him sooner, we might have stopped him.”
“Maybe. Or he might have killed you.”
“Wait a minute,” I said, my mind still struggling to keep up with all he’d told me. “He’s one of you? How come I’m still alive? He should have been able to kill me with a thought. You could, right?”
“As always, Ohanko, you simplify things too much, and you make them too complicated as well. You are most difficult. Yes, my kind are powerful, which is why we place limits on ourselves, limits Cahors has rejected. But you have powers of your own. Your wardings, while still crude and weak, can offer you some protection.”
“Is this supposed to reassure me?”
“It is supposed to inform you. Cahors has become something other than a runemyste. We do not know what exactly. But in winning his freedom from the limitations placed on our powers he has weakened himself. Not a great deal, and not forever, but enough it seems to have saved your life a few nights ago. And perhaps again last night.”
I nodded, considering this. “All right,” I said at last. “Then what do I do?”
“I am not sure that you can do anything,” he said, sounding surprised by the question.
“Then what are you going to do?”
“He is part of your world now-”
“So you’re not allowed to kill him. You weren’t even allowed to ward my house, were you? The rules haven’t really changed. You were just telling him that.”
“Attacking you in the moon-time is. . not fair,” he said, an admission of sorts. “I could not allow that.”
“Not fair,” I repeated, chuckling to myself. “And Kona called me a piece of work.”
We both fell silent. I tried to kick my brain into gear. Despite Namid’s doubts, I knew that we had to stop Cahors, and we had to do it soon. Last night, facing Namid, he’d run up against the limits of his power, and he wouldn’t be happy about that at all. He was going to kill again in two weeks, when the moon reached its first quarter, and he’d be coming after me before then. I knew too much about him now; he couldn’t have me around alerting other weremystes to the danger.
“He’s still more like you than he is like me,” I said, the thought coming to me with unexpected clarity.
“What do you mean?”
“The phasing didn’t bother him at all, just as it doesn’t bother you.”
Namid regarded me with interest. “True.”
“Which means that, comparatively speaking, I’m more of a match for him now than I will be at any other time. That’s why my spell worked last night. The phasings are hard on me, but they also make me stronger.”