Leesil’s throat went dry. Chane should be an entire continent and ocean away. And he was here, and Wynn was here.
What had that naive little sage done this time?
Leesil jerked out a winged blade, snapping its sheath lashing in half.
Chane froze as the taller elf drew two long stilettos out of his sleeves. Both blades appeared too light-toned for normal steel. He tilted his sword up, raising its tip in preparation, and the shorter elf ripped something out of a sheath on his thigh. Chane instantly fixed on that weapon.
He knew it, and he looked in the first elf’s eyes, glaring back at him.
Chane froze in indecision. It was Leesil.
Leesil inched to the far edge of the entryway and shifted sideways, clearing the way for his taller companion.
Chane’s hunger rose as the beast inside him thrashed in panic for self-preservation. Despair came, as well. It was all truly over now.
Magiere, Leesil, and Chap must have devised their own scheme to reach Wynn. In such a sick turn of fate, they had launched their attempt on the same night as Chane. Now he had run right into one of them in his own attempt to rescue Wynn. Even if he had been willing to explain, Leesil would never hesitate long enough to hear him.
Chane’s promise to Wynn became worthless under the hate in Leesil’s amber eyes. He braced himself, ready for Leesil to close in, and kept one eye on the taller elf with the stilettos.
Then he heard one of the main doors open.
Flattening against the passage’s wall, he watched Leesil and his tall companion do the same on the entryway’s far side, and then Chane leaned his head out, trying to see.
Two guards with red tabards over chain armor stepped through one of the main doors.
Chane’s thoughts went blank for an instant. How much worse could this situation become? And then ...
Anyone who cared for Wynn had to remain free in here, especially any who were capable of finding, protecting, and rescuing her. It simply could not be him.
Chane knew Leesil would think exactly that. Between the choice of getting to her or getting rid of him, Leesil would choose Wynn. And Chane knew what had to be done.
He stepped away from the wall into full view, sword in hand. To his frustration, neither guard looked his way. Before Leesil could shout a warning at them, Chane snapped his sword tip against the passage wall.
At that sharp ring of steel, both guards looked his way, and their eyes widened.
“Stop!” one of them shouted.
Chane took off up the passage, heading north, as two sets of running, booted feet sent echoes chasing after him.
This time, Wynn clearly heard an unfamiliar voice shouting “Stop!” out in the passage. Only an instant of confusion came and went before she thought of Chane.
He must have tried another route into the library and been spotted. He’d have to fight, perhaps kill a guard, to avoid being captured. If they captured him, locked him up in a cell—even one without a window—by dawn they would see him go dormant. Anyone checking on him would find a dead man ... until he rose again at dusk.
In being seen here, Chane’s skulking would cause a guild-wide alarm, and it would all get even worse.
Wynn grabbed the door’s handle, and Ore-Locks reached out to stop her.
“We have to go now!” she whispered, and jerked the door open.
Leesil’s mind went blank as two guards raced away up the passage’s other half after Chane. A barrage of horrors from the past flooded his emptied head, rushing in on him all at once.
Chane had been with Welstiel when they’d all converged upon the ice-bound castle of Li’kän, that ancient undead. That had been where they’d found the first orb, and Wynn had found all of those old, rotting books she’d so desperately wanted to bring home, though there were vastly more than they could carry. But to get that far, they’d fought against healer monks turned to feral undead by Welstiel ... and Chane.
Osha had been badly injured, as had Chap, who had also nearly been pulled over the side of an abyss. Chane had been there, in the middle of it all.
The night before, Chap had sensed an undead in this city, in Calm Seatt. It had happened somewhere near where Shade disappeared. And Shade was supposed to be with Wynn.
Every time Chane crossed their path, it always had something to do with Wynn.
Leesil snatched up the amulet hanging about his neck. Magiere had given it to him long ago, once she no longer needed it to track undeads. It always glowed whenever one was near.
It wasn’t glowing even a little as he dangled it before his face. It would’ve by the time he’d even entered this building, but it hadn’t even grown warm against his chest to warn him. Yet Chane had been standing there, barely a dozen paces away.
“We move on,” Brot’an said quietly.
Leesil startled to awareness, looked at the main doors, and everything seemed wrong now. An extra guard had appeared on the wall. Two more had come into the building from the courtyard. There was no way to see what was going on out there. Something had changed since he and Brot’an had scouted this place.
“No,” he answered. “There will be more guards outside, so we need to find a way from one building to the next. We head back to this passage’s far end and look for another door that might lead into the structures along the keep’s southeast side ... where Chap spotted Wynn.”
He didn’t like taking blind paths in desperation, but he saw no other choice. As he turned, he found Brot’an looking up the passage where the guards had now vanished. The distinct pucker of a scowl showed between the butcher’s feathery eyebrows, but he finally nodded in agreement.
Leesil stepped beyond Brot’an, leading the way, and then stopped.
Just beyond the first intersection they’d come out of into the main passage, a door swung open.
Chapter 18
CHANE GAUGED HIS speed to stay just in sight of the guards. He needed to give Leesil time to slip through and hopefully find Wynn, while keeping these guards out of the way. It was galling to find himself actually helping that half-blood, but there was no other option where Wynn was concerned.
“Stop!” a guard shouted somewhere behind him. “By order of the Shyldfälches!”
Did they really think that was going to work?
Beyond the common hall’s front archway, he rounded the passage’s corner and took off at full speed. He raced by the common hall’s narrower side arch and the kitchen entrance across from it.
Much as he was tempted, he could not duck into the kitchens just yet. The guards were too close, and he had to lure them farther away from the main entrance. Some parts of the main building were familiar to him; other parts were less so. Stuck with what little he knew, he was already growing frantic.
Chane skidded to a stop where the passage turned left before the library’s northern entrance. Down that turn lay the north tower, where High-Tower had his study. Short of that was the door leading to the inner bailey’s backside. That was likely locked up due to Rodian’s security measures. No doubt the same had been done for the tower’s door or even the archive’s stairwell to its left.
He noticed the kitchen’s side door across from the rear exit into the bailey. Then he heard the guards round the previous corner.
Chane bolted off, running for the kitchen’s side door, a place he knew little about. But if he kept the guards busy long enough, perhaps he might still find a way through the kitchen into the storage building.
He still needed a look across the courtyard to see if Wynn was trapped in her room.