“Then, if we have the time, there is something we ought to do first,” she said.
He watched as she walked over to the bowl. She warmed the water with a little magic, then glanced up at him. “Turn around—and no peeking.”
A faint smile curled his lips. He turned his back and crossed his arms. Keeping him in sight, Sonea pulled off her clothes a piece at a time, washing them and herself, then drying off with magic. She had to wait for the bowl to refill a few times as her clothes soaked up the water. Finally, she emptied the bowl over her head. She scrubbed at her scalp and sighed with relief.
Straightening, she shook her hair out of her eyes.
“Your turn.”
Akkarin turned, then approached the bowl. Moving away, Sonea sat down with her back to him. A nagging curiosity stole over her as she waited. She pushed it aside and concentrated on drying her hair with magic while combing out the knots with her fingers.
“That’s better,” he said eventually.
Glancing back, she froze as she saw that his shirt was lying on the ground beside him. Seeing his bare chest, she felt her face flush and turned away.
Don’t be ridiculous, she told herself. You’ve seen plenty of bare chests before. The workmen in the markets wore little more than short trousers in the summer heat. That had never embarrassed her before.
No, a voice in the back of her mind answered, but you’d have felt differently about those workmen if you’d fancied any of them.
She sighed. She did not want to feel like this. It made the situation more difficult than it needed to be. She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. For once, she wanted to be moving, so that all her attention was focused on traversing the rough terrain of the mountains.
She heard footsteps behind her. Looking up, she saw with relief that he was fully dressed again.
“Come along then,” Akkarin said.
She rose and followed as he started down the mountain slope. The journey did seem to clear her mind. They descended quickly, taking a direct route to the Ichani and their light. After more than an hour had passed, Akkarin slowed and stopped. His eyes were fixed on a distant point.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Lorlen has put on the ring,” he said after a long pause.
“He isn’t wearing it all the time, then?”
“No. Until now, it has remained a secret. Sarrin was reading the books and would have recognized it for what it was. Lorlen usually slips it on a few times each evening.” He started moving again. “I wish I had some glass,” he murmured. “I would make you a ring.”
Sonea nodded, though she was heartily glad he hadn’t. A blood ring would have revealed too much of her thoughts. Until she managed to rid herself of this foolish attraction to him, she did not want Akkarin knowing what was going on in her mind.
They continued slowly. After several hundred paces, he pressed a finger to his lips. They crept forward slowly, pausing many times as Akkarin noted the direction of the wind. Sonea saw a glimmer of light between two boulders ahead of them, and knew they had arrived.
Faint voices grew more audible as she and Akkarin approached the boulders. They stopped and crouched behind the rocks. The first voice Sonea heard was male and thickly accented.
“... better chance than I had, with a yeel.”
“She’s a smart girl,” the woman replied. “Why don’t you have one, Parika?”
“I did once. Last year I picked up a new slave. You know how the new ones can be. She took off on me and when the yeel found her she killed him. He’d torn her legs up, though, so she didn’t get far after that.”
“You killed her?”
“No.” Parika sounded resigned. “As tempting as it was. Too hard to find good slaves. She can’t run now, so she isn’t as much trouble.”
The woman made a low noise. “They’re all trouble—even when they’re loyal. Either that or they’re stupid.”
“But necessary.”
“Hmmm. I hate travelling on my own, with nobody to serve me,” the woman said.
“It’s faster, though.”
“These Kyralians would have slowed me down. I’m almost glad I didn’t find them. I don’t like the idea of keeping magicians prisoner.”
“They’re weak, Avala. They wouldn’t have been much trouble.”
“They’d be less trouble dead.”
A chill ran down Sonea’s spine, then prickled over her skin. Suddenly she wanted to get as far from this place as she could, as quickly as possible. It was not a comfortable feeling, knowing that two powerful magicians who wanted her dead sat just a dozen or so strides away.
“He wants them alive.”
“Why doesn’t he hunt them himself?”
The male Ichani chuckled. “He’s probably itching to, but he doesn’t trust the others.”
“I don’t trust him, Parika. He might have sent us to find the Kyralians to get us out of the way.”
The man didn’t answer. Sonea heard a soft rustle of clothing, then the sound of footsteps.
“I did what I could to find them,” Avala declared. “I won’t be excluded. I’m going back to join the others. If he wants these two, he’ll have to hunt them himself.” She paused. “What will you do?”
“Return to the South Pass,” Parika replied. “I will see you again soon, I’m sure.”
Avala gave a soft grunt. “Good hunting, then.”
“Good hunting.”
Sonea heard footsteps, growing faintly softer. Akkarin looked at her, jerked his head in the direction they had come. She followed him slowly and silently away from the boulders. When they had walked several hundred paces, he quickened his stride. Instead of heading to the higher slopes of the mountain, he set off in a southerly direction.
“Where are we going?” Sonea murmured.
“South,” Akkarin replied. “Avala was anxious to get back to the others, as if she feared she might miss something. If she is travelling back to meet Kariko without Parika, who is heading to the Southern Pass, that suggests Kariko intends to enter via the North Pass.”
“Yet they said they’d meet soon.”
“In Kyralia, most likely. It has taken us four days to reach here, and it will take Avala the same time to return. If we hurry, we’ll reach the South Pass before Parika. We must hope it is not guarded by other Ichani.”
“So we’re going back into Kyralia?”
“Yes.”
“Without the Guild’s permission?”
“Yes. We will enter Imardin in secret. If they ask for my help, I want to be close enough to act quickly. But we have a long way to go yet. Save your questions. We must try to put some distance between ourselves and Parika tonight.”
“I think that is all we’re going to get,” Lorlen said. He unclasped his hands from Balkan and Vinara’s, and leaned back in his chair. As the pair released Sarrin’s hands, the three magicians turned to stare at Lorlen.
“Why haven’t you told us about this ring before?” Sarrin asked.
Lorlen took off the ring and set it on the desk before him. He regarded it a moment, then sighed.
“I could not decide what to do about it,” he told them. “It is a thing of black magic, yet it does no harm and it is our only safe means of contacting Akkarin.”
Sarrin picked up the ring and examined it, taking care to touch only the band. “A blood gem. Strange magic. It allows the maker access to the wearer’s mind. He sees what the wearer sees, hears what the wearer hears, and absorbs what the wearer thinks.”
Balkan frowned. “That does not sound like a harmless magical object to me. Whatever you know, he learns.”
“He can’t search my mind,” Lorlen said. “Only read my surface thoughts.”
“That can be damaging enough, if you happen to think about something he shouldn’t know.” The Warrior frowned. “I don’t think you should wear this ring again, Lorlen.”
The others shook their heads. Lorlen nodded reluctantly.