The second one was naked with nearly colorless flesh, even to the slits where there should have been nostrils. All over it, bones showed beneath shriveled, shrunken skin, and it began to outdistance the other one.
A handful of majay-hì rushed for the first attacker ... just before a huge silver-gray dog came out of nowhere and slammed into the naked monster.
Wayfarer could not help a gasp, cringing back against Chuillyon, as that gray majay-hì tumbled with the creature and came up atop it. It began savagely shredding flesh with it teeth and claws. Amid the growls came that thing’s screams. She lost sight of it for an instant, looking to three of the pack that set upon the pale one in shredded clothes. But for the first ...
She knew who it was.
Wayfarer had seen few majay-hì as large as that one except for Chap.
A pure black majay-hì suddenly charged in to help the gray one, but its prey had already fallen limp and silent.
Chap lifted his head and trotted toward Wayfarer, his muzzle stained with black fluids, but it was Shade who reached her first, brushing her hand without passing any memories. The pale target of the other three majay-hì somehow broke free and scrambled back toward the chaos.
Wayfarer pulled from Chuillyon’s hold and dropped to her knees to grab Shade first, but she then threw one arm around Chap’s neck, ignoring the stains that his head smeared upon her shoulder.
He had wanted the majay-hì and the Shé’ith to come here this night. She and Osha had helped make that happen, though Vreuvillä had been reluctant to deal with Chuillyon. None of them could have known Magiere would not gain control over the undead among the horde, or lose control over herself.
“What do we do?” she whispered.
Before Chap could answer, Vreuvillä brushed her free hand over a majay-hì’s head. That one wheeled to bump shoulders with another, which in turn did the same, and onward. Whatever message the priestess gave to the first spread quickly as half those nearby dispersed, running off in both directions parallel to the battle’s edge.
Wayfarer quickly touched a passing mottled one before it rushed northward. She caught the message passed through the pack via memory-speak.
Chap asked her a question.
—What ... is happening?—
She was too focused on turning flickering images, smells, and sounds into needed words. And when she did, she hesitated.
“They are to find all of their kind,” she answered, “and pull back to any fringe and out of reach.”
Chap’s eyes widened in his stained face. The instant he looked to the priestess, Shade spun as well and snarled, but Vreuvillä had already rushed Chuillyon.
“Heretic!” she accused. “I will cut you for every one of us lost because of your deceits—and leave you to bleed out like them!”
Wayfarer rose, fearful of what might happen. Vreuvillä saw herself as one with the packs, and even Wayfarer had come to feel this in some ways, but she had no chance to intervene.
“I could not have known,” Chuillyon answered, and looked out again toward the battle. “Not that, not this.”
—She is ... correct ... for now—
Wayfarer’s eyes dropped to Chap.
—Magiere ... may attack ... anyone ... now—
“What is he saying?” Vreuvillä asked, her voice filled with fury.
Wayfarer flinched.
“He says you are right. Keep the packs out of the battle for now.” And then, at more of Chap’s memory-words, “Let the undead turn on others in the horde, such as the goblins, and decrease their numbers.”
Wayfarer did not mention Chap’s concern about Magiere. In her current state, Magiere might slaughter anything that got in the way of her going after the next undead in her sight.
“Where is that light coming from?” Vreuvillä demanded.
“It must be Wynn Hygeorht,” Chuillyon answered. “And her staff, with a unique crystal.”
“How long can she keep it ignited?”
When no one answered, Wayfarer’s fright increased.
Vreuvillä’s savage and mournful eyes only looked upon the battle. “You must go! I will stay with our own ... for changes that may come.”
Wayfarer nearly stopped breathing. “What am I to do?” she exhaled.
“Wish for the light.”
—What ... does this ... mean?—
Wayfarer could not answer Chap. She had never done what Vreuvillä now asked—a true wish, as some would think of it who did not understand. What if she could not? What if she failed, and Wynn could not hold that light any longer? What if Wayfarer herself could not maintain that “wish” for long enough?
And what if she succeeded at what price?
—You ... must ... try—
Wayfarer found Chap watching her. Had he caught what she feared surfacing in her thoughts? Before she asked, his head swung aside, and he huffed at his daughter. Shade circled in, wriggling her head under Wayfarer’s left hand.
—Follow—
Shade took off northward, but Wayfarer still stalled as Chap headed for the battle.
“Where are you going?”
He halted, and his stained face swung toward her.
—To stop ... Magiere—
In panic, Wayfarer shouted to Vreuvillä, “Help him!”
Wayfarer had to turn away and run at Shade’s bark. She followed as Shade veered closer to the foothills and away from the battle’s edge. The noise of bloodshed grew less overwhelming, mostly because of her panting breaths at trying to keep up with a majay-hì.
She did not hear the hoofbeats until they were almost at her back.
Wayfarer veered left, screaming, “Shade!”
When she spun to face whatever threat, nothing more would come out.
Osha quickly reined in his horse, or perhaps it pulled up on its own to a stuttering stop. He looked down at her and then back along the edge of the foothills. He suddenly thrust his hand out and down at her.
She knew he had not abandoned the other Shé’ith for her.
There was no time to feel anything even though he had come for Wynn.
Wayfarer took his hand, but she had to jump and wriggle to get up behind him.
“Go,” she shouted around his side, and Shade wheeled and bolted off again.
Osha’s mount lunged, and Wayfarer threw her arms around his waist. The farther they raced toward the light, the more they left the sounds of rage and agony behind.
Then an agonized scream carried from something ahead.
The light went out.
Sau’ilahk lingered in hiding, clutching the medallion around his neck at a loss. Khalidah had instructed him to help distract some of the horde long enough for Leesil’s team to slip past—without knowing they had received any help. So Sau’ilahk and Ubâd had split up, each with several plans to distract the horde, and he waited—and waited—for Khalidah to contact him and tell him when to act.
Even as majay-hì and Shé’ith had come out of the foothills, he still waited for a message from Khalidah.
At the bright light appearing twice in the night, going on and on the second time, he knew Wynn Hygeorht was out there to the north with her staff. At first, he had cringed down behind a boulder in fear that it might affect him as normal sunlight did not.
Nothing had happened to him, and he had risen to squint northward.
Still no word came from Khalidah.
His hatred for the wayward little sage grew into satisfaction, replacing frustration. Soon enough, he had to look away, for he now had eyes that could be damaged.
And this thought brought him a smile.
Blocking out the world, he focused inward. Within his thoughts, he stroked a glowing circle for Spirit upon the ground’s heat-baked earth. Within that came the square for Earth, and then a smaller circle for Spirit’s physical aspect as Tree. Between all of those lines, he stroked glowing sigils with his intention.