“What do you mean by that?” Sadira demanded in a sharp voice.
“Nothing at all,” Faenaeyon answered. “Just that life can be as surprising as it is short.”
“I suppose that’s so-especially for elves,” the sorceress said. Under the pretense of looking out on the street below, she stepped into the arrow loop and turned her back to her father. The sorceress pretended to be interested in the pedestrians below, watching them swish along the lane in their bright saramis. Upon hearing Faenaeyon begin to gulp down more wine, she glanced over her shoulder to be sure his attention was entirely consumed by his drinking.
Sadira found the chief with his head tipped back and the cask braced against his chin, wine rushing down his throat in a steady stream. She removed the antidote from her satchel and dabbed two generous drops onto her tongue.
The sorceress had barely slipped the bone vial back into its hiding place where Faenaeyon let a loud belch escape his lips. “The only thing I like more than wine is silver,” he pronounced, setting the cask on the floor with a bang.
Sadira turned away from the arrow slit. Faenaeyon had slumped down beside a bench and wrapped one massive arm around the cask. “Why are you so fond of silver?” she asked. “After all, you can’t drink it.”
“A chief needs silver,” Faenaeyon declared, his face grimly serious. “It’s the measure of his power and of his warriors’ respect for him.”
Sadira shook her head at this superficial definition of leadership. “That’s not true,” she said, sitting on the bench at his side. “I’ve heard the warriors speak of you. They talk about your feats of bravery and your skill as a warrior-not how much silver there is in your purses.”
Faenaeyon looked at her, his head cocked in surprise. “Truly?” he asked, his speech slight slurred.
Sadira nodded. “I’ve heard it said that when Faenaeyon was young, nothing was impossible for him.”
“That was so,” Faenaeyon said, a wistful light in his gray eyes. “Nothing in the desert ran as fast as I did, and even the falcons had reason to fear my arrows.” The chief stared into the air a moment longer, then the happiness slowly faded from his eyes. “And what do they say now?”
He seemed unable to look at Sadira as he asked the question.
“Nothing you could not change,” she answered, ignoring for the moment that soon he would be beyond changing anything. “They say you claim for your own too much of what they’ve earned.”
Almost unconsciously, Faenaeyon’s fingers played over the hilt of his steel dagger. He nodded sadly, and Sadira wondered if Rhayn and Magnus might be acting prematurely in moving to replace him.
Her doubts came to a quick end. Faenaeyon jerked his hand away from his dagger and shoved her off the bench. “What do you know of our ways?” he demanded. “You’re not a Sun Runner-you’re not even an elf!”
“You don’t have to be an elf to know what makes a good chief-or a bad one, either,” Sadira countered, picking herself up off the floor.
“Our friendship goes only so far,” Faenaeyon warned, a cold light glimmering in his steely eyes. “Do not speak to me in such a manner.”
“In what manner?” asked Huyar, stepping from the stairwell. In his hand, he held a grimy soapstone mug. “What has this woman said to anger you, my chief?”
“Only the truth,” Sadira answered, keeping her eyes fixed on Faenaeyon.
Smirking at Sadira’s recklessness, Huyar extended his empty hand to take the sorceress away. “I’ll make certain she doesn’t bother you.”
Sadira jerked away. “If you touch me, it’ll be the last time.” Her reaction was deliberately extreme. She did not know how much longer she would need to stay with the Sun Runners and she wanted to make it clear that her visit was on her own terms.
Huyar flung his mug aside and moved to grab Sadira with both hands. Faenaeyon was on his feet and between them more quickly than Rikus could have been.
“She might make good on her threat, and I don’t want to have to avenge your death,” the chief said, speaking with a drink-thick tongue. “I’ve got plans for this woman.”
Faenaeyon pushed Huyar toward the discarded mug. “Now hand me that cup,” he said. “I promised this woman some wine.”
Huyar did as his father commanded, and held the mug while Faenaeyon filled it. Then, with a final glare at Sadira, the warrior handed the vessel to her and stalked back up the stairs.
As soon as Huyar had ascended the stairs, Sadira asked, “What plans?”
Faenaeyon gave her a muddle-headed frown. “Huh?”
“You told Huyar you had plans for me,” the sorceress said. “What are they?”
“Oh, those,” the chief answered. “Don’t worry. We’ll earn lots of silver, and you can keep your share-after you repay what you cost me at the gate.”
The sorceress did not tell her father so, but she had plans of her own. Tomorrow she would return briefly to Sage’s Square to see if she could find Raka-or at least discover whether or not he had escaped Dhojakt’s servants. If that failed, she would return to the camp of the Sun Runners, and use it as a base for trying to reestablish contact with the Veiled Alliance.
Sadira spent the rest of the afternoon watching Faenaeyon drink. It was impossible to tell how much of the chief’s growing torpor was due to the bard’s poison and how much to the wine itself, but it hardly mattered. He sank steadily into a stupor, growing less and less aware of the world around him. Occasionally, he remembered to offer the sorceress more to drink, but she rarely accepted. Not eager to test the limits of the antidote, the half-elf sipped only enough of the fruity liquid to make her father believe she was enjoying it as much as he. Finally, Faenaeyon slumped down against the wall, his long legs splayed before him and red wine dribbling off his pointed chin. Sadira put her mug aside and stopped drinking altogether.
Soon, the sky outside faded to dusky purple. The Sun Runners began returning to camp in small groups, usually carrying with them some small prize they had stolen from an unwitting victim. Upon reaching the second story, they looked more than a little surprised to see Sadira sitting on a bench near Faenaeyon’s snoring form, but no one spoke to her. Instead, counting themselves lucky to have returned while their chief was oblivious to the world and could not claim their stolen goods, they snuck past as quietly as possible.
A little after dark, a boy descended the stairs with a wedge of faro bread and a skin of broy. “Rhayn thought you might be hungry,” he said.
“Thanks,” Sadira replied, accepting the food from him.
The boy glanced at the half-empty cask at Faenaeyon’s side and licked his lips. “How’s the wine?” he asked.
“Not bad,” Sadira answered, giving him a sidelong glance. “Why don’t you try some-unless you think Faenaeyon would object?”
“I’m not that thirsty,” he answered, retreating to the arrow loop.
There, he took up his position as a sentry. Sure that the youth had come to watch her as well as the lane outside, Sadira finished her meal. To be sure the young guard did not get any ideas about sneaking a few swallows of wine from her mug, the sorceress drank the last of it, then lay down on the bench and covered herself with a cape. Within a few moments, she was fast asleep, for it had been a trying day and she needed rest.
Sadira woke to the sound of scurrying feet. The room was still as black as obsidian, but her elven vision enabled her see the last of a long line of warriors descending to the ground floor. Behind them came Rhayn and Magnus, who stopped in Sadira’s room.
“What’s happening?” Sadira asked, quickly sitting upright.
“Huyar and some friends are going to look for his brother,” Rhayn explained casually. “The foolish boy has not returned yet.”
“Gaefal?”
Sadira mouthed the dead elf’s name quietly, for the young sentry that had come down earlier still stood at his station. Rhayn nodded, and Magnus went over to the arrow loop.
“I’ll take over,” the windsinger said to the sentry.