Brot’an was here for a reason: to keep his own kind and Most Aged Father from getting to Magiere and what she’d recovered. What could—would—Brot’an do for such a weapon himself if he learned of it?
It was bad enough that Wynn had sent that journal with Osha to be given to Brot’an. It was the worst outcome of how naive she’d once been. When she looked down again, Chap stood glaring at the door. He began to shake with hissing breaths between bared and clenched teeth. He understood the implications of what Shade had relayed to him and exactly why Wynn had dragged them out into the hallway. Upon reaching for the door, she faltered at Shade’s memory-words in her head.
—I ... understand ... too—
Shade ignored her father, watching only Wynn.
“I know you do,” Wynn whispered.
At that, Chap looked between them, and his ears stiffened. Know what? Was ... is she.... talking to you?
Wynn hung there, still gripping the door’s handle. Shade was talking to her—in a way. It was only by having learned to isolate certain sounds—spoken words—from memories seen inside of Wynn, and also by Shade’s learning what they meant. On the other hand, Wynn could only hear Chap, as a true Fay, in her head because of the taint left in her from a failed thaumaturgical ritual.
Wynn’s eyes widened at a notion. Aside from being a Fay, Chap had been born into a majay-hì body the same as his mate Lily ... and his daughter, Shade.
“Oh ... have I got a useful trick for you,” Wynn whispered, and then smiled.
Chap’s ears fell, flattening in apprehension.
Wynn only giggled. “And it’s going to drive Leesil to fits!”
Back inside the room, as Chap sat with Wynn before the sketched map on the floor, Leesil finally looked up from the map’s other side at everyone.
“Is that clear enough?” he asked. “Any last doubts?”
Chap knew there were—he had plenty himself. Yet no one, not even Brot’an, had offered anything better. Leesil looked at Wynn kneeling beside Chap.
“Can you and Ore-Locks take care of what we need?” he asked.
She, in turn, looked up at the dwarf standing behind her, but when Chap glanced back it was at his daughter.
Shade lay removed from everyone, especially him, lying in the far corner next to the pile of gear Osha had stored there.
“It can be done,” Ore-Locks said with a nod.
“Then it is time,” Brot’an cut in. “I will escort you back to your inn.”
As Wynn rose, Chap got up, as well, turning about for the door. Brot’an was already there.
“No,” he said, shaking his head once. “I alone will take them.”
Chap snarled, stalking straight at Brot’an, and Wynn’s hand dropped on his shoulders. He looked up at her, his jowls still curled back.
You are not to be alone with him.
Wynn frowned at him.
“Dawn will come soon,” Brot’an said, drawing Chap’s attention. “And ... respectfully, you are the hardest to move through the streets without being spotted.”
Chap merely stared in Brot’an’s eyes until Wynn closed her little fingers in his scruff.
“Don’t you have something to say to them?” she asked, and glanced over her shoulder.
Chap knew Wynn was looking at Leesil and Magiere.
“What now?” Leesil grouched.
Chap was not looking forward to this. After the last additional thing that Wynn—and Shade—had shown him outside the room, he already felt shamed ... and stupid. And Wynn had been right.
Once Chap showed—told—Leesil, he was going to throw a fit. Probably a big one.
The instant Brot’an opened the door, Shade hopped to her feet and scurried through. Wynn scratched her fingertips quickly on Chap’s scalp and whispered, “Get it over with.” She followed Ore-Locks out, and the last to leave was Brot’an.
“Chap?” Magiere called. “What’s going on?”
He slumped, hanging his head, and finally turned about. First, without looking at Magiere or Leesil, he snatched up the talking hide in his teeth and dropped it on top of the sketched map. He might need it to help clarify what he was about to do.
Leesil looked at the hide with a frown, but Chap did not start pawing the letters. Instead, he began messing about, as Leesil would say, with all of the memories he had ever dipped from within his lifetime companion. It was not easy to find all that he sought, and Leesil flinched more than once.
“Will you get to the point already!” Leesil snapped, and then suddenly he went flat-faced and held his breath.
Magiere was watching Leesil. As he stiffened all over, she grabbed him and shook him. Still, he just stared back at Chap. Before Magiere could speak, Leesil’s left eye twitched.
“What was that?” he whispered.
Chap did not know if Leesil asked if he had heard right or at all. It was one thing for Chap to call up a series of memory fragments inside Leesil or Magiere to make his intention clear as a communication. It was entirely another matter to call only the sound of voices from those long past moments—and, again, even harder to pick out and raise particular words or phrases arranged in the right order.
Chap was the one who had the headache this time. It went all the way into his eyes and ears. But it appeared he would not need the talking hide after all, and he repeated those fragmented spoken words gleaned from Leesil’s memories.
—not—remember—only hear—my—words—from the—past—voices— ... —I—can ... speak—and you—hear—me—now—
How Shade had figured out how to do this left Chap in dismay. Then again, she had grown up with her own kind, unlike him. She knew only memory-speak, as Wynn called it, from the very beginning. She never had to deal with spoken language until finding Wynn, while he was still not as skilled at memory-speak as other majay-hì.
This new trick with memory-words would be useful, but it was not easy to do.
Leesil’s expression began to darken.
“All of this time,” he whispered, “before we even knew what you were ... could do.... You’ve been messing around in my head.”
Osha finally spoke up. “Why Léshil be angry to Chap?”
Even Leanâlhâm was staring in worry.
Leesil lunged from where he sat, shouting, “Come here, you mangy mutt!”
Chap tried to retreat, but his back paws did not catch. He ended up on his rump as Leesil dived for him with one outstretched hand. Magiere jumped on top of Leesil’s back, pinning him to the floor, as Leanâlhâm scrambled on hands and knees to shield Chap.
“Do not touch him ... speak to him that way!” the girl shouted at Leesil. “You will treat majay-hì with respect!”
“Respect?” Leesil echoed amid frantic breaths. “That deceitful, conniving—”
Leanâlhâm swatted him across the top of his head. “I not warn you again,” she added emphatically.
“Leesil, what’s this about?” Magiere demanded, still holding him down.
Leesil glared at Chap beyond a surprisingly angry Leanâlhâm, and he whispered, “It’s him ... talking at me ... in my head.”
“Well, what did he show you?” Magiere asked.
“Not memories ... words!” Leesil barked, and tried again, unsuccessfully, to get out from under her. “He’s putting words in my head.”
Chap cowered behind Leanâlhâm, even as the girl looked back at him over her shoulder. Puzzled astonishment spread over her face. Osha, too, looked completely dumbstruck.
“Chap talk now?” he asked.
Magiere was watching Leesil, but she glanced sidelong at Chap in suspicion. So far, only Leesil truly understood what was going on, and Chap swallowed hard, waiting for Magiere to catch up.