“They are short!”
“Dandra? Dandra!”
Ashi, Nevchaned, and Singe. She blinked and glanced up at them. Ashi had her sword out and looked ready to kill. Nevchaned and Hanamelk looked startled. Singe just looked concerned, though relief passed over his face when he saw her eyes focus on him. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.” She sat up. Her jaw ached where Erimelk had kicked her. The mad kalashtar was still screaming and spitting, though at least he was howling curses instead of the killing song. One of his arms bent at a strange angle. He’d dislocated his shoulder in his struggles. There was no sign of the lassitude that had held him before. She was glad he was still chained. “How long was I in kesh?”
“Long enough that we were starting to worry,” Singe said. “What happened? One moment Erimelk was quiet, the next he was doing everything he could to reach you.”
“I was inside him too long, or maybe I pushed too deep.” She looked to Hanamelk and Nevchaned. “It’s not Dah’mir. I know his touch and this isn’t it. Your guess was right-something else is causing the song.”
Hanamelk’s lips pressed together. “I’d rather I’d been wrong.”
“Well, you’re not.” With Singe’s help, Dandra climbed to her feet. “What do we do now?”
Somewhere above, the chime of Nevchaned’s shop door rang. Nevchaned ignored it. “We’re going to have to go back to the council of elders,” he said. “This is going to frighten some of them-they hoped we’d found all of our answers.”
“I hoped we’d found all our answers,” Dandra said. “Which do you think the elders will feel more threatened by, the killing song or Dah’mir?”
Nevchaned and Hanamelk glanced at each other. “The killing song,” Hanamelk answered. “They know it’s a threat. They see it in front of them. It may be infecting another kalashtar right now. But Dah’mir …” He shook his head. “You’ve put a compelling case before us, Dandra, but we don’t know anything yet. Maybe Havakhad and the seers will find something. For now, there’s no immediate danger. Dah’mir hasn’t moved against us yet. He may not move against us for weeks or months.”
“You can’t wait until he strikes!” said Singe. The wizard’s angry words were partly drowned out by Erimelk’s screams and by a new series of rapid, insistent chimes from above. Nevchaned’s face flushed dark. He reached out and jerked the door of the storeroom shut, dampening one source of noise.
“We know!” he said. “But if we have to choose between something that threatens our community now and something that may threaten us weeks from now, we have to deal with the urgent threat.”
“You’ve warned us. We’ll be ready,” Hanamelk added. “But what is there we can do until we know more? We may seem like a large community, but we’re not. We don’t have the resources to fight two dangers we only barely understand.”
“You have us,” Ashi said. “Help us to find Dah’mir and-”
She didn’t finish. The chimes from the shop ended and replaced by a loud impact and the sound of splintering. Nevchaned’s eyes went wide. “My shop!”
Hanamelk’s face slackened for a moment, colors danced in the depths of his eyes, and he appeared to look into the distance. “There are humans at your door,” he said. “Five men. They’re trying to break in-” There was another crash. Hanamelk blinked and corrected himself. “They’re in.”
“What?” Nevchaned sprinted for the stairs.
“Wait!” Hanamelk called after him, but the old man didn’t stop. Hanamelk turned to Singe. “He’s not going to be able to stop them.”
Singe glanced at Dandra. She nodded to him. He and Hanamelk raced after Nevchaned. Ashi’s eyes followed them longingly. She still had her sword drawn. “Should we go?” she asked.
Dandra leaned against a wall. Her head still spun slightly from Erimelk’s kick. “Just a moment-”
“No, don’t go!” Shadows moved on the stairs. Moon stepped down into the corridor. It seemed he hadn’t followed either her request or his father’s orders-he hadn’t washed and he was still in the house. He looked unsteady or nervous, and when he met Dandra’s eyes, she once again saw that same soft love in them.
This time, however, it was mixed with a strange determination. She frowned in concern. “Why not?”
“There’s something I need to tell you-” The young man seemed to brace himself, then added “-Dandra.” He flinched as she stood up straight and Ashi tensed, and continued in a rush. “Last night at the Gathering Light, I eavesdropped on what you told the elders. I know what you told them-”
She looked at him. “I spoke to them through kesh.”
He blushed. “When there are so many people participating in kesh, it’s easy for one more to join. I’m sorry. But I heard what you told them. About Dah’mir. About his herons. I heard what you were just talking about now too. I can help-”
There was a shout from above as Nevchaned raised his voice in challenge to whoever had invaded his home. Ashi’s head snapped up like a dog scenting prey.
“Moon, we have to help your father!” Dandra said. “Tell us later!”
“No!” the young kalashtar blurted. “You have to listen now! I’ve seen the herons in another part of the city. I know where you can find Dah’mir!”
For an old man, Nevchaned could move fast. Singe supposed that he would move quickly too, if someone were breaking into his home and shop.
He caught up to the smith and grabbed his arm before he could race up the stairs to his shop. A hand over Nevchaned’s mouth and a hard look silenced him before he could say anything. Singe pulled him back from the door to the stairs, pushing him into Hanamelk’s hands, then stepped up to the doorway himself and listened. He could hear the men moving around, but it didn’t sound like they were trying to steal anything. The sounds of the square outside the shop were muffled. They must have closed the broken door behind themselves. The wizard frowned. Broad daylight-who would be so bold and why?
Floorboards creaked at the head of the stairs and someone finally spoke. “Stairs,” growled a soft voice. “Dol Dorn’s mighty fist, what’s that screaming?”
The response that drifted down the stairs answered Singe’s question and left him cold at the same time. “Forget the screaming and go down,” said Mithas d’Deneith. “I can feel the mark. She’s close!”
CHAPTER 11
Singe’s heart seemed to stop. He stepped back, his hand darting to his sword. He felt a touch on his shoulder-Nevchaned-at the same moment that he felt a touch against his mind. He opened his thoughts to the elder and felt Hanamelk through the kesh as well.
Nevchaned’s mental voice was stronger than his speaking voice, and Singe could imagine that he must have commanded impressive respect in his younger days. What’s going on? he asked.
House Deneith, Singe said. They’re looking for Ashi.
Even communicated at the speed of thought, the whole story would have taken time they didn’t have. How, he wondered, had Mithas managed to find them? He didn’t doubt that the sorcerer was using some kind of divination magic, but he shouldn’t have been able to locate them all the way across the city. Singe still couldn’t believe that he would try to draw on the resources of Deneith-he’d want to keep Ashi’s secret to himself.
Ashi’s secret … With a sinking heart, Singe remembered Ashi’s cry of glee during their escape: “I like Deathsgate much better than Overlook!” Someone had probably sold the memory of that shout to Mithas. As much as Singe disliked the man, he had to admit that he wasn’t stupid.