“Beside the warehouse,” she whispered as she spun.
She threw her second stiletto down at the charging black majay-hì, and the sage screamed. Én’nish heard a guttural rasp from the pale man now behind her, and his rapid footfalls warned of his charge as she grabbed for Rhysís. A sharp hiss in the air gave her only an instant’s warning as the majay-hì lunged aside and her blade careened off the cobble.
Én’nish threw herself against Rhysís half an instant too late. The sharp sting of something burned across the right half of her back. She did not slow at the pain of an arrow tearing her tunic to skim her flesh.
“Run!” she ordered, dragging Rhysís toward a path between the buildings and the docks at its far end.
Rodian saw Wynn standing midstreet beside a man with a bow and long blond hair. Then he spotted the one she called Chane and the black dog. They were trying to surround two others wearing gray outfits and with the lower halves of their faces covered.
In spite of the bizarre sight, it was instantly clear who was the threat. Then the gray pair broke through the dog barring the way and ran between two warehouses.
Rodian swung out of the saddle as Snowbird slowed. “Lúcan! Angus! With me!”
He took off running after the fleeing pair as he pulled his sword.
“Rodian, no!” Wynn shouted. “Don’t follow them.”
He ignored her, rounding the corner in pursuit.
Wynn wanted to curse at the captain, but she turned quickly to look up at Osha. This was the moment to get him out of here, as planned, while the city guard was occupied.
“Go,” she whispered. “Now, before the captain returns ... with a lot of questions.”
Osha looked down into Wynn’s eyes, and for an instant, she regretted that she’d never taken a moment with him in these past few days and nights. There had been too much to do, and too many burdens on all of them. And then there was Chane, so close by.
Osha didn’t say a word, didn’t blink, as his gaze roamed her face like someone seeing something he’d lost and suddenly found.
“Hurry!” Wynn urged, glancing once toward where Rodian had gone. Already other guards were in the street around them, but they were too busy heading for various other ways to the docks.
When Wynn looked back, Osha was gone.
She hadn’t heard or felt anything; he just wasn’t there anymore. In that moment, she was the one who felt as if she’d found something she’d left behind only to have it vanish before her eyes. She hadn’t even thanked him or said good-bye this time.
Shade appeared at her side and looked up the cutway toward the wagon. Wynn looked, as well, perhaps hoping, but there was no sign of Osha. She ran to the wagon, looking in its back for one thing. But the long and narrow canvas bundle that Osha had brought with him was gone, as well.
It was so strange the way he had insisted he bring it rather than stow it with the rest of the gear to be loaded on the ship. Stranger still, he treated it as some burden that revolted him.
Wynn was suddenly aware of someone behind her, and she cringed in shame.
“Are you all right?” she asked, unable to look back.
“Yes ... only one partially penetrated,” Chane answered. “The wood plank did well enough, but you will need to pull the other arrowhead out.”
As she turned around, Chane dropped to one knee and looked away. She found two broken-off arrows in his back. One protruded more than the other, the back of its white metal head still showing through Brot’an’s forest gray cloak.
Wynn quickly jerked that one out, for it had only stuck in the plank that she’d fastened onto Chane’s back before they left the inn. They’d known whom the anmaglâhk would shoot first, and that had been why they’d dressed Chane in the anmaglâhk cloak and boots that Brot’an had acquired.
The other arrowhead was deeper in Chane’s back. Wynn could feel that the plank had split on its impact.
“Brace yourself,” she whispered, but she hesitated as she gripped the second snapped-off shaft.
It was coated in Chane’s black fluids, which had already soaked into the cloak. Her grip slipped as she pulled, and she felt him flinch once. She finally had to wrap a corner of the cloak around the splintered shaft’s end.
Chane winced as the arrow came out, and the black stain spread through the cloak and across his back. There was nothing more to do, as they’d have to wait to remove the broken plank.
“It will heal,” he whispered as he rose.
Several guards stood nearby, and Wynn worried about how much they had just seen. It was night, and even real blood didn’t look red in the dark. She held on to Chane’s forearm as she looked toward where Rodian had gone. Now all they could do was wait for the captain’s return.
That, too, was part of the plan.
Rodian nearly collided with two of his men as he ran out of the path’s far end at the dockside. Lúcan caught up with him, but Angus lagged behind.
“Where are they?” he demanded.
The two guards before him looked about, shaking their heads.
“We never saw them,” said the first. “And they didn’t get by us.”
Lúcan rushed out, peering both ways along the waterfront. He stepped to the left of where one pier jutted out into the bay and looked down toward the water below. Rodian watched his trusted corporal take a slow breath as he looked about again—and then he cursed several times.
It was as if the strangely garbed pair had vanished. What was it about them that had kicked all of his instincts into alarm? And Wynn Hygeorht still waited in the keeping of his men.
Rodian called Lúcan to follow and strode back between the warehouses. When he came out onto the backstreet, Wynn stood there beside Shade. She looked far too composed for his waning patience. Behind the pair stood that tall, pale bastard who’d struck Snowbird on his escape from the guild grounds.
Rodian glared at that one, at Wynn and the dog, and then looked around. There was one more who was missing—the one with blond hair and a bow. It didn’t matter as much as it should have, for he had found Wynn Hygeorht.
“Who were those people?” he demanded. “And why did they come at you?”
Wynn shrugged. “I don’t know, but I feared turning myself in until I had enough protection from you. And now I am safely in your custody.”
Rodian clenched his jaw to keep from shouting. “You expect me to accept that?”
“I assume your orders are to return me to the guild.”
He paused to take a few breaths. Angry and confused as he was, his ultimate problem had been solved. Wynn was in his custody, and with no bloodshed. Forcing calm, he clung to that and tried to ignore all the questions nagging him. But in spite of everything, he still wasn’t prepared to force her back to the guild if she didn’t want to go, and as of yet, no one had filed a formal charge against her.
It would have been much easier for him if he just did so. That was what the royal family wanted—demanded.
“I want some answers,” he said.
“I’ll try,” she replied, “but I have a few requests.”
Rodian raised one eyebrow at her continued audacity. “And what are those?”
“That my companion and dog be allowed to come with me ... and that they can stay with me at the guild.”
The Premin Council had not filed any charges against Wynn Hygeorht or her tall companion, let alone the dog. Wynn’s request seemed a relatively benign—and unnecessary—condition. Rodian could certainly file assault charges on the one called Chane, but it was too damn much trouble.