Reaching out, she touched his hand. “I need to tell Shade good-bye.”
He nodded as she turned toward the younger majay-hì.
“Take this.”
The sudden other voice startled him, and he turned his head quickly.
Ghassan il’Sänke held out his hand, and Chane looked down. In the ex-domin’s palm was a tiny nondescript pebble.
“Keep it with you,” il’Sänke said, “on your person at all times.”
Chane’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. Likely, none of them would ever return to the ensorcelled sanctuary hidden in the empire’s capital.
“Why?” he asked.
“I am the one who placed the ensorcellment upon it, so that it could be used to open the hidden sanctuary doors. I therefore have a connection to it and will be able to gauge your general distance and direction. It will be easier to find and meet you when you and Chap return to this region.”
Chane still hesitated; he did not like being “tracked.”
Il’Sänke glanced toward Wynn, who was kneeling before Shade. “How else will I—or she—find you along the foothills, mountains, or a vast desert?”
With some reluctance, Chane took the pebble, knowing he was being manipulated.
When Wynn turned from Chane, she forced herself not to look back, or she might say something she’d later regret. There were others watching that she also had to face. All of this was harder than she’d expected.
It could be a whole season—maybe more—before she would again see those who had traveled at her side for so long. Parting with Chane was especially difficult.
There was nothing else to be done. They all had tasks to complete.
Shade stood waiting, eyeing Wynn fiercely with her hackles slightly bristling. Wynn knelt down on the dock and took Shade’s charcoal-colored face in her small hands.
“Please, sister,” she said quietly. “Don’t make this any harder for us both. You have to watch over Wayfarer ... and Osha.”
Shade remained silent for a long moment, and her hackles stiffened upright as she gave a rising growl. One memory-word exploded in Wynn’s mind.
—No!—
Shade pressed her whole head into Wynn’s face.
— ... Not go!— ... —Wynn cannot be ... alone— ... —... unsafe ... dangerous—
Shade’s grasp of words was far less developed than Chap’s, even though she’d been the first to figure how to single out words from Wynn’s memories and use them to “speak.” Unlike Chap, Shade could do this only with Wynn and only when they physically touched.
Wynn had not expected another outright refusal immediately before boarding. She wasn’t angry. How could she be? Shade wasn’t being overprotective here, as she sometimes could be. Of course, Wynn would be at risk without Shade—or Chane or even Osha.
“You must go,” Wynn whispered, glancing at Wayfarer, who was thankfully occupied in checking the contents of her pack. “Wayfarer needs at least one majay-hì who will be on her side, no matter what.”
Closing her eyes, Wynn recalled a night not too long ago, when Wayfarer, Chap, Magiere, and Leesil had been freed from a whole moon’s imprisonment. Upon emerging, the girl had leaned on Chap, unable to walk on her own. In remembering, Wynn reminded Shade of that moment.
“She will need you,” Wynn whispered into Shade’s ear, “as I have needed you ... and your father.”
Shade jerked back with a snarl, but Wynn didn’t let go of her.
Wynn had hoped this journey might bring some understanding in a daughter for why a father had both abandoned her and through her mother sent her away from her home. Wynn said nothing more about it, as it would do no good here and now. As with everything else, she could only hope.
“Take Wayfarer to Vreuvillä,” Wynn added, “and guard her. Only you can do this.”
Shade’s neck muscles tightened under Wynn’s hands, though she did not pull away.
“I will miss you, sister,” Wynn murmured. “Until I see you again.”
She could at least say such things to Shade, if not to Chane ... or Osha. And she rose quickly before any tears fell, prepared to face the last one.
Osha eyed her, his expression full of pain and maybe spite. He turned his back to her and crouched to fuss with the luggage for the journey.
Wynn clenched her jaw, breathing hard to hold back more tears. And when her sight cleared ...
Magiere, farther down the dock, turned to look back, her pale face emotionless.
“Boarding has started,” she called. “Sailors are coming for luggage.”
Leesil stood a few paces short from her and hadn’t said much in the past four days. Chap stood beside him and, thankfully, refrained from any more snarling at Chane. Wynn knew the situation went against all his instincts, but it was his plan.
Three pale-skinned sailors came trotting down the dock.
“Anything else?” the lead one asked in Numanese with a glance at the three chests.
“Just those,” Chane answered, as he always carried his own packs.
Magiere strode over to embrace Wayfarer, whispered something in the girl’s ear, and Wayfarer held on until Magiere had to pull free. Osha came and took Wayfarer’s hand to lead her after the sailors carrying the chests. Chane followed them with a last slow nod to Wynn, which she returned, and he called to Shade.
Shade lingered.
Wynn nodded with a weak wave to push Shade onward and then dropped her gaze. She couldn’t watch any longer.
There had been painful partings in the past among all of them. Two groups who’d grown to depend upon and trust those with them had been split and mixed in ways that would make trust among some of them almost impossible. More than just sorrow now weighed upon everyone.
It was the worst of partings in Wynn’s whole life.
It will not get better, but you can face it, little one.
Wynn raised her eyes to meet Chap’s. He hadn’t called her “little one” in years.
I trust you most of all. Watch yourself until I find you again, but watch those two most of all.
Wynn looked to Magiere and Leesil.
No ... the other two.
Wynn hesitated but did not turn. Somewhere behind her, Ghassan and Brot’an stood waiting. They were the only two, besides Chane when he was wearing his ring, from whom Chap could never see any surface thoughts.
Chap huffed once at Wynn, and she barely had time for a wave before he trotted up the dock after the others who were boarding the ship.
Khalidah returned to the tenement with Magiere, Leesil, Wynn, and Brot’an. Upon reaching the warped front door, he led the way in without pause and upstairs to the top passage, where he stopped before the paneless window at the far end. Khalidah closed his grip hard on one of Ghassan’s pebbles.
The shadowy form of a heavy door overlay the window.
He twisted its lever handle, and, as he opened it, the door became solid and real to all present. He held it open and ushered everyone else inside.
The first to enter was the dhampir, and he purposefully avoided eyeing her in any conspicuous way. But the last to enter gave him reason for a second glance. Brot’an’s—Brot’ân’duivé’s—first step through the doorway was almost hesitant.
It was so brief that anyone else might not have noticed.
For Khalidah, once leader of the triad called the Sâ’yminfiäl—“Masters of Frenzy”—under Beloved, very little of true use escaped his notice. More so where enemies were concerned. The elder “shadow-gripper” took one quick glance at the door’s frame as he entered. Perhaps a slight frown crossed that scarred face, and his large amber eyes narrowed for an instant.
“Well, it’s done,” Leesil said.