Inside was a midnight blue sage’s robe.
Nearly half the night had passed, but neither Magiere nor the others with her had mentioned going to bed. They all waited to hear from Wynn. At the three bells of midnight, Brot’an finally got up to go find out what was keeping Wynn. Chap had immediately risen to follow him, as had Magiere and Osha, much to Leanâlhâm’s alarm. Before Magiere got far, Leesil grabbed her arm.
“Let Brot’an go alone,” he said.
As Magiere tried to pull free, Chap snarled at Leesil. Osha ignored him entirely, but Brot’an stood in his way. Leesil shook his head, hanging on to Magiere.
“Your going at Wynn again isn’t going to hurry her along. Everyone, sit down. And Brot’an ... make it quick!”
Brot’an nodded, slipping out the door before Chap or Osha could follow.
Magiere had turned on Leesil, but he wouldn’t back down.
So now Magiere and the rest waited even longer for Brot’an’s return. Leesil tried to distract everyone with a sketch of the city’s districts that he and Brot’an had made during their scouting trips.
Osha merely sank down below the window as he asked, “Will work?”
“Depends on what Wynn has to say,” Leesil answered, “and who’s going where. But yes, the plan has a chance ... and some flexibility.”
Magiere’s feelings toward Wynn were still too conflicted to agree with Leesil, even after he explained their options in the face of not knowing where to go once they left the city.
“If anmaglâhk split?” Osha asked. “If not to gather, then they—”
He was cut off by a light double knock on the door. Before anyone moved, it opened.
Brot’an stepped in with Wynn and Shade—and a cloaked dwarf carrying an iron staff.
Osha immediately rose and fixed on only Wynn.
Magiere had seen a few dwarves about the city, but none up close—as she had on their journey north into the Wastes. One in particular she had gotten to know a little. Much as this stranger caught her attention, her gaze quickly shifted to the open door as she reached for her falchion leaning against the bed.
Brot’an shut the door, but Magiere didn’t relax. Chane hadn’t come. It should’ve been a relief, but it wasn’t.
Last night, Wynn had been disheveled, wearing a wrinkled gray robe. Tonight, she was dressed in her old elven pants and tunic from their time among the an’Cróan, with an open cloak thrown over the top. She carried the long staff with the odd leather sheath covering its top. Her hair was pulled back into a tail. Chap’s daughter, the black majay-hì, pressed up against the sage, as if anxious at being among so many strangers.
Then Wynn looked at Osha, and her gaze lingered on him. As he seemed about to speak, she looked away, gesturing to the dwarf.
“This is Ore-Locks Iron-Braid,” she said. “He can be trusted.”
Leesil had mentioned the dwarf last night, but this one was nothing like the one Magiere had met in the earliest days of their journey to the northern wastes. Unlike that fierce and boisterous warrior, Wynn’s companion was clean-shaven and wore a simple orange vestment under his cloak. He was quiet, intently watchful, and simply nodded to all in place of any greeting. Not at all dwarfish by what little Magiere knew of these strange people.
“You learn ... news?” Osha asked Wynn.
“Yes,” she nearly whispered without looking at him.
Magiere shook her head slightly over the trouble that remained for those two.
Wynn pulled off her cloak and leaned her odd staff in the corner behind the door. As she stepped closer, standing before Leesil’s sketch on the floor, Shade followed her. She looked down at Magiere sitting on the floor with Leesil and Chap.
“Can we talk?” she asked bluntly. “Can we make plans?”
Magiere waited for Leesil to answer, but he didn’t, and apparently neither had Chap, in his own way. Magiere found herself stuck in the role of peacemaker, something she was never good at and was not in the mood for right now.
Nodding once, she gestured to the open paper map. “Don’t think we have a choice. You’re the only one who knows where to head next.”
And wasn’t that an annoying twist of fate?
Wynn settled on the floor, resting a hand on Shade’s back.
In a happier memory, in what seemed a lifetime ago, Magiere recalled waking in Leesil’s arms for the first time after they’d finished driving Welstiel out of the capital of her homeland. They were preparing for another journey, and Wynn had burst through the door of the little inn’s room, shouting, “I’m coming with you!”
She’d seemed almost a child back then, full of wonder, and nothing like the hardened young woman who now knelt on the floor. This woman solved mysteries and uncovered secrets that others wouldn’t admit existed.
Wynn half turned, looking back. “Ore-Locks, grab a stool and join us. And Osha ...”
She never finished, but Magiere saw her swallow hard, perhaps breathing too quickly.
“So ...” Leesil began awkwardly. “This premin came to you? You have a direction for us?”
Wynn studied him. “Yes.”
Wynn kept as calm as she could, but her heart pounded. It might’ve been the clear rift between herself and Magiere, Leesil, and Chap. Yes, that was most of it: knowing how much they opposed Chane having anything to do with what had to be accomplished. She’d expected them to be opposed but never thought it would fray and tear the ties they had to one another.
Yes, it was all that, but it was also Osha.
She felt him watching her, and she wanted to turn to him. This was not the moment or the place for that. She fought to shove aside memories of the time they’d spent together, up to that final instant on Bela’s crowded docks.
How different he looked now, and it was more than that he no longer dressed like the Anmaglâhk. She desperately wanted to know what had happened to him. Then there was poor Leanâlhâm, of all people, here with the others. Worse, the young girl looked as much changed as Osha in the past two years, perhaps a little taller, and not at all happy to see Wynn. They had at least been friendly in the Farlands, for as little as they’d gotten to know one another. What had made Brot’an bring Leanâlhâm here?
Shade was no help in easing the tension. She pressed in against Wynn, as if everyone here were an enemy.
This was not going to be easy. But with the possible exception of Leanâlhâm, everyone in this room had the skills needed to track and obtain the remaining two orbs. Wynn finally had some real help besides Chane and Shade. She wasn’t about to lose that now.
She steeled herself and looked Chap in the eyes.
“We didn’t decipher much,” she said. “We know the three recovered orbs are for Water, Earth, and Fire. So we’re searching for Air and Spirit.”
You are certain?
Chap glanced again at Shade, who continued to ignore him.
“Yes,” Wynn answered him, and then turned her attention to Magiere. “We were able to decipher that the orb of Air is somewhere in the south, possibly in the Suman Empire or the great desert just north of it.”
“On this continent?” Magiere asked, and all traces of stiffness vanished from her expression. “We’re that close?”
“Close?” Wynn repeated. “Have you seen a map of this continent? Do you know how long it will take to reach the Empire, how large it is, and the desert even more than that?”
“Hopefully you’ve got more to go on,” Leesil said.
Wynn shook her head. “Not exactly, but Premin Hawes has a suggestion. It is risky, but I can’t think of anything else, and we need to move quickly.”
“What is this suggestion?” Brot’an asked.