All was quiet, and the only movement was the flickering light of the tripod braziers. She ran up the road to the last place she remembered of the battle with Vordana. Her torch and Leesil's punching blades lay abandoned on the ground. She gathered them up.
"Magiere!"
She whirled at Wynn's voice and saw the young sage round the corner from the inland manor road. Leesil was beside her.
Magiere's breath released in relief as she ran toward him. But she stopped short, remembering again the half-real moment he'd tried to make her feed upon him. She couldn't reach out, afraid to step too close. Wynn grabbed her by the arm, surprising her. The young sage faltered a moment, blinking twice.
"Look at me!" Wynn demanded. "What did you see?"
"Don't ask me."
Wynn shook her. "It was all a he. Vordana's spell took your inner thoughts and turned them on you. Do you hear? It was not real. What you saw never happened."
Magiere looked down into the sage's face. Wynn was so resolute and certain, but Magiere would never be sure. If what she'd experience had come from within herself, then not all of it was a lie.
Wynn suddenly swallowed hard and pulled her hand from Magiere's arm. She turned her face away, as well. Leesil stared up the inland road toward the forest.
"He was lost, like you," Wynn said. "And Chap is still out there. We have to find him."
Magiere reached out for Leesil's hand.
It remained limp in her grip for a moment, and a sharp edge of fear arose in Magiere when he didn't look at her. He said nothing, not even one of his irritating quips tossed out at the wrong moment. What had he seen in the forest?
Leesil finally squeezed her hand with a deep breath, and took his punching blades from her.
"Where is that monster?" he asked. "We can't just drop our guard."
Magiere heard running footsteps and released Leesil's hand, ready to draw her sword. It was only Geza hurrying toward them down the main road. His own sword sheathed, his blue-gray cloak billowed behind him, exposing his learner armor.
"You destroyed it," he panted. "People are waking, and for the first time, I no longer feel the fatigue that comes when I step outside the manor grounds."
Magiere glanced up and down the road. "We didn't destroy anything."
"But you must have. Can't you feel it yourself?"
She shook her head. She'd never felt the slow drain of this place as the others had.
"Maybe," Leesil replied. "But I'm too tired to be sure."
"I did it," Wynn whispered.
All eyes turned on the little sage in her snagged breeches and soiled short robe. Her braid had come loose, and her hair hung in tangled waves about her face as she stared at the ground.
"You?" Magiere asked. "How?
Wynn remained silent for a moment and didn't raise her eyes.
"After you ran off, I was alone," she said. "I shot Vordana through the eye and fled to the smithy. He caught me in there. I think he wished to toy with me. When he was close enough, I pulled the brass vial from his neck and threw it into the forge coals. It melted and broke open. Smoke rose up everywhere. When it cleared, he was gone."
As Wynn's words sank in, Magiere shook her head. "I'm sorry, Wynn. I'm sorry we left you with that thing. Are you sure he's gone?"
The sage still wouldn't lift her head. Magiere realized Wynn had been through too much for one night. She should never have come on this journey, but if she hadn't… what would have become of Leesil? Of this town?
When Wynn finally looked at Magiere, she cringed away immediately. Her eyes rolled, and she clutched her head. Before anyone could catch her, she toppled to the ground. Leesil dropped down beside her.
"What is wrong with her?" Geza asked.
"I don't know," Leesil answered, and he pulled Wynn up to lean against him.
"I cannot stop… seeing," Wynn moaned. "Please make it stop!"
"Oh, damn!" Magiere said. "I'd forgotten her eyes."
"We should take her back to the manor," Geza suggested, reaching down to lift the sage.
"And do what?" Leesil asked. "She can't take any more. We have to stop it, now!"
"How?" Magiere answered too harshly. "She's the only one who understands what happened. At the manor we can at least care for her until she can undo this herself."
"She's not the only one who knows," Leesil said, his voice quiet and cold. "There is someone else. Stay here where I can find you, or bring her if you hear me call out."
The moment Wynn was settled in Magiere's arms, the sage began struggling, trying to squirm away. Leesil was on his feet, already heading toward the inland road.
"Geza, check the woods to the east," he called. "If you see our dog, tell him Wynn is in trouble, and bring him here."
The captain stared at him. "What?"
"Just do it!" Leesil shouted back. "He'll understand."
Geza took off the other way, and Magiere sat in the road, gripping Wynn. The young sage cried out at her, as if Magiere were the source of her suffering.
"Wynn, enough," she said. "Just stay with me. Leesil will find Chap, and we'll make this stop."
Wynn twisted suddenly, wrenching herself to the side. She rolled away to scurry across the ground.
"Ribbons… shadows in you," she whispered. "Pulling at me, at my spirit. Do not touch me!"
She backed against the nearest building and curled up to hide her face in her hands.
Magiere crouched within reach, unable to understand why Wynn feared her.
Wynn heard Leesil's voice calling Magiere's name from far away and then felt herself lifted from the ground before she could escape.
She didn't open her eyes-couldn't open her eyes-to watch the writhing black ribbons flowing through Magiere. She knew Magiere only tried to help, but could not stop herself from struggling. All she wanted was to crawl away into the darkness, where those black tendrils in Magiere's essence couldn't find her.
"Wynn, don't!" Magiere snapped. "I'm taking you to Chap. Be still so I can carry you!"
"Magiere!" Leesil called. "Here, across the stream!"
Wynn clenched in panic at the sound of Magiere's boots splashing through water. Then everything turned end over end as she tumbled to the ground out of Magiere's arms.
She felt the soft earth beneath her, and its loamy scent filled her head. She straggled to push herself up and opened her eyes slowly for fear of what she might see.
Through the blue-white mist woven amid the branches and brash, a gleam of white danced down the slope. Wynn dug her narrow fingers into the earth, frantic, ready to scramble away into hiding.
Leesil's hair flashed as he ran toward her. His eyes were amber stones lit from within. Beside him loped something on four legs. Shade. Though she possessed her own living inner glow, Shade's essence was far less than what Wynn saw in Leesil.
Where was Chap?
Leesil skidded in the mulch as he dropped down beside her. He glanced back over his shoulder.
"Chap, get down here… now!"
Out among the trees, Wynn saw another glimmer of movement.
At first, it was nothing more than a moving bright spot amid the forest's essence, but it grew in intensity as it neared. She had seen Chap during the village battle, and his presence was as strong as Leesil's, but it was not what she saw now. Like a brilliant cold lamp crystal, a light loped through the trees.
As it approached, the very essence of each living thing lit up where it passed.
Wynn forgot nausea and vertigo and everything else that plagued her mantic sight.
Unlike all else in her confused vision, she didn't see one blue-white shape laid over the physical form before her. Chap was but one image, one whole shape, glowing with brilliance.