Chap inched forward, and he peeked around the corner.
Wynn stood off to the right, directly in front of a small archway, with her back to the open chamber. In her left hand she held the staff with its leather-sheathed top tilted slightly out. Her other hand was braced on the opening’s right, and the spread of her robe and sleeves somewhat blocked the entrance—so that whoever was inside might not see out.
Her free hand suddenly dropped and swung behind her, repeatedly waving off toward the far stairs.
“I’m sorry,” she said to the person in the chamber. “I thought I locked the door behind me when I came down.”
A humph rose sharply from beyond Wynn as Chap padded softly across the chamber between its four long tables. He heard Magiere and Leesil creeping along behind him.
“Do you know what the premin wanted to see me about?” Wynn asked.
Chap reached the stairwell and ducked in, but he did not climb up. He waited as Magiere and Leesil slipped past him and up the stairs.
“No,” the other voice answered. “I would imagine it has something to do with your latest excursion.”
“All right,” Wynn answered. “And again, I’m sorry about Shade ... and the mess.”
It was only a breath or two before Wynn appeared around the corner to the upward-curving stairwell. Chap waited for her to lead onward, but she paused, looking up the stairs.
The barest flash of two images passed through Wynn’s thoughts. Just as quickly, those surfacing memories vanished. This time Chap caught the second, as well. The first was again that of a tall figure in a black robe and cowl, its cloak appearing to waft under the pull of a night breeze. The second was even more bizarre.
A man in a long cloak with a full hood, wielding a longsword of mottled steel in one hand and a shorter, true sword blade in the other, turned his head. Within his hood, where there should have been a face, Chap saw only a leather mask and black-lensed spectacles with heavy pewter frames where there should have been eyes.
That was all Chap caught before Wynn’s memory vanished, and she hurried up the stairs, brushing one hand over his head as she passed. He hesitated a little longer, watching her disappear around the turn in the steps. All notions of memories slipped away as he thought of a young charcoal majay-hì, someone he should have known before yet had only met but moments ago.
That someone would be waiting at the door above when the others arrived.
Chap slunk up the stairs, his head down, thinking of the daughter who had turned away from him. He could not raise his eyes, even when he reached the top and the others were waiting for him in the keep’s back passage.
Wynn crept around another corner, always peeking ahead before she led the others onward. Shade remained silent at her side the whole way. Wynn looked back once or twice, checking that everyone was still with her. Now Chap remained at the rear.
Shade never looked back once.
Much as Wynn wished there was something she could do for Chap concerning Shade, a much bigger problem clouded her thoughts and filled her with fear.
It wasn’t that she was worried about running into other sages along the way. True enough: visitors shouldn’t be found wandering the halls at this time of night. And she, of all people, being their escort, wouldn’t count for much. No, even encountering Domin High-Tower or High Premin Sykion didn’t worry her.
The only place Wynn could take Chap, Magiere, and Leesil at this time of night might be the last place they should go: her room. And that would also be the first place Chane would wait if he found she and Shade weren’t there.
Wynn fervently hoped that Chane hadn’t returned yet. Or perhaps had come back early and after waiting all this time, he might have gone on to his own guest quarters.
She led her companions all the way to the keep’s front and stopped in the main entryway, holding everyone back again. Her eyes lowered to an unexpected object sitting to one side of the entryway: a small travel chest. Leesil hefted it up and over his left shoulder.
“You left your chest up here?” Wynn asked softly.
He shrugged. “Why not? It was getting heavy. I figured it would be safe among sages. Now, you’ll be finding us rooms here, I’d guess.”
“Well ...” Wynn began to answer. “Yes, of course.”
Normally, the sages welcomed visitors, especially ones from far off that might offer useful information about the world at large. But how could she explain to Leesil, standing here in the entryway, that she was practically a renegade among her own kind, and anyone with her would be treated with equal suspicion by her superiors. The mood of the whole guild had changed over the past six moons, partly because of her.
There wasn’t time to explain it all, let alone all the other questions everyone had.
Wynn glanced left and then right down the long passage running along the front of the keep. Then she stepped forward and cracked open one of the great double doors and peeked out into the courtyard.
It was empty, but this didn’t reassure her. She looked left toward the barracks and up to its last window slit at the far end of the top floor. No light shone there, but that didn’t mean anything; Chane never minded the dark. At that thought, Wynn grew frantic, looking about the courtyard for anywhere else to go.
There simply wasn’t any place to take strangers at this time of night. She couldn’t possibly just tell them to leave and come back tomorrow. Could she? The high premin was already waiting for her, and who knew what trouble she was in now. If it was as bad as the last time, she might not get to speak with her long-lost friends for days, and there was far too much catching up to do.
“What’s the problem?” Magiere whispered.
Wynn turned her head quickly, straining her tense neck. Magiere was flattened against the passage’s nearer side, with Leesil just behind. Chap lingered farther back beyond them. Magiere scowled and settled a hand on the hilt of her falchion. That certainly didn’t help Wynn’s state of mind.
“It’s ... nothing. Nothing’s wrong,” she whispered.
Before Wynn could say more, Shade thrust her head through the cracked door and forced it open as she wriggled out. There was nothing Wynn could do but wave the others on as she stepped out, as well. She only hoped she could make them all wait downstairs from the barracks, on whatever pretense, until she checked her room. And if Chane was there ... then what?
Wynn hurried onward, waving her companions along, though Shade led the way.
“Journeyor Hygeorht.”
Wynn was barely halfway to the barracks door when she spun about at the sharp call of her name.
Chapter 2
IF WYNN THOUGHT HER panic couldn’t get any worse, she was wrong. From out of the northwest building that housed storage, guest quarters, and sublevels of laboratories came five sages, and High Premin Sykion was in the lead. Right behind the tall, willowy, and stern elder of Wynn’s order of cathologers came Premin Hawes of Metaology in her midnight blue robe, and Domin High-Tower, Wynn’s most direct superior, in gray. Last came two other metaologers that she couldn’t place at the moment. The entire group walked straight at her with tense determination on their faces.
Wynn briefly wondered what Sykion had been doing in the northwest building, since she’d been told to go to the high premin’s office in the main keep’s upper floors.
Shade wheeled and rounded in front of Wynn as Magiere and Chap halted at the approaching entourage of sages. Leesil watched them, as well, as he stepped closer to Wynn.
“What’s going on?” he asked in a hushed voice.
“Shush!” she answered, glancing anxiously at Magiere. “Let me do the talking.”
High Premin Sykion stopped four paces off, not even looking at the night visitors with Wynn.