Wynn shifted, turning toward that voice. “I think not.”
Althahk hesitated. By the furrowing of his brow, Magiere guessed Wynn’s answer was less than satisfying. But if the sage hadn’t said so, Magiere would have—and not so politely—for she had something else in mind for Osha.
“What of the Foirfeahkan?” Althahk asked. “I have not seen her since last night.”
That seemed to distress him, and Magiere followed his gaze to Wayfarer.
The girl lowered her eyes and looked only to the fire. Stranger still, Shade rose up at Wynn’s side and growled at the tall Lhoin’na. Chuillyon was slow in answering.
“I have sent Vreuvillä and ... and her tribe ... home with their dead.”
Magiere knew that “her tribe” referred to the majay-hì.
Althahk remained silent a moment longer. “Then you will do the same for the Shé’ith at dawn.”
He turned back and mounted without another word. Those with him did the same, and all four Shé’ith wheeled and left.
Chuillyon was quiet after that. And no one noticed—or at least no one said anything—as Magiere looked about the camp and beyond it. They also wouldn’t know how far she could see in the dark, though she wasn’t watching the riders.
—He left ... again ... upon hearing ... you ... rise—
Magiere found Chap watching her.
—Are you ... well ... enough?—
She didn’t answer, merely got up, and in leaving said, “I need to walk.”
Wayfarer grasped her hand, and Leesil was on his feet instantly.
“No you don’t!” he warned. “You’re staying—”
Chap’s sudden snarl cut off everything, and even startled Ore-Locks.
“You keep out of this,” Leesil said to Chap.
Magiere grabbed her husband’s arm. “I’m all right,” she whispered. “Just stay with Wayfarer. Maybe it’s time to tell her some things, and I won’t be long.”
—Find him ... before ... it is ... worse—
At that Magiere sighed in frustration, though she nodded to Chap. On her way out, heading west, she saw something more.
Her falchion lay in its sheath next to one tent. It didn’t matter that someone tried to clean the blood and other stains. That sheath would never come fully clean.
Magiere walked on into the dark.
She’d failed to control the horde and had instead driven it into a frenzy around her. That might have kept it from going after the others outside the mountain, but she’d killed more than undead out there. She’d endangered everyone, and what more could have happened if she hadn’t been stopped?
Everything that she, Leesil, and Chap had seen in those phantasms long ago in her homeland had been true. It simply hadn’t happened the way they’d seen. It hadn’t ended the same way either because ...
Magiere slowed upon hearing someone ahead coming upslope in the dark. And that someone stopped in three steps upon spotting her. Osha backed away and quickly turned.
“Stop!” Magiere ordered.
He dropped his head. She went for him, and when he heard her, he tried to walk off again.
She grabbed the back of his cloak and jerked him to a stop. When he refused to turn and face her, she forgot pretending that she was as unhealed as the others. Throwing an arm around him, she pulled him against herself.
“You listen to me,” she began softly.
Back in the camp, Leesil fidgeted and forced himself not to pace again, but he still kept looking off to where Magiere had vanished in the dark.
—Leave ... her ... alone—
He turned about to fix Chap with a stare.
—What she does ... is necessary—
Leesil turned toward the open darkness again, though Magiere was long gone.
—The worst wounds ... are not ... of flesh— ... —Healing his ... will heal ... hers—
Maybe Chap was right, if she found Osha.
“So, we are done,” Wayfarer whispered. “And everyone goes home, at least most.”
She sat staring into the fire.
“There is a place for all,” Chuillyon said, speaking to the girl, this time with his typical soft smile. “When I return the Shé’ith, I will take you to—”
“No,” Leesil cut in, also speaking to Wayfarer. “You’re going home, to a real home.”
She looked up at him. “I do not have a home anymore.”
“Of course you do! You’re coming with us.”
Everyone around the fire fell silent. Even Wynn raised her head. Shade’s ears pricked up, and Chap hauled himself up with a dog’s grumble.
Wayfarer’s eyes were locked on Leesil.
“If I don’t convince you,” he added, “I’ll never hear the end of it from Magiere. And if you’re around, maybe you can keep that mangy mutt clean.”
Chap growled and wrinkled his jowls.
Magiere tightened her arm around Osha every time he tried to pull free. He still hadn’t said a word.
“You stopped me when no one else could!” she told him. “No one else could’ve done what you did, made that shot ... or I wouldn’t be here.”
She felt him shudder.
Magiere half pulled, half stepped around Osha. When he turned his face away, she took hold of it, though he was taller than she was. She forced him to look at her.
“You saved me,” she added, more softly this time. “Don’t you ever think of it another way.”
There’d been too much harm done because of her. He’d suffered more than most would for skills that no one else had. Certainly Brot’an, if he’d been there, could’ve taken that shot, but only Osha had done so with any thought for her life.
He’d missed her heart and still stopped her. An anmaglâhk wouldn’t have bothered. No matter what he thought he’d lost, he was better than they were.
Osha finally looked at her, his eyes glassy. Before his tears fell, and she couldn’t stop the same ...
“Come on,” she added gruffly, “or they’ll start talking about us being out here alone so long.”
At that, Osha blinked, making one tear, but his eyes then widened in shock.
Magiere sighed. Leesil was the funny one, and she just wasn’t any good at it.
“Oh, forget it,” she grumbled, jerking him around to push him ahead.
By the time they’d neared the camp, they could already hear Leesil.
“What?” he half shouted. “That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard you come up with.”
“It has to be that way,” Wynn countered. “We have to be certain.”
Magiere stepped around as Osha slowed. Chane stood behind Wynn, dour as ever. Ore-Locks was eyeing Chane, not Wynn, and he didn’t look happy. Chuillyon was the only one who appeared to contemplate whatever Wynn had said that set Leesil off.
Strangest of all, Chap was still and silent—and that worried Magiere the most.
“What’s going on?” she demanded.
Leesil threw his hands up, bit off something foul before he said it, and coughed an exhale instead. He jabbed a finger at Wynn.
“She wants to stay here ... in the mountain!”
Magiere stopped in her tracks and felt her own mouth drop open.
“What?” she finally got out.
“I must,” Wynn continued calmly. “If the staff goes out, someone must reignite it. That can be only me.”
Magiere was still numb, and any outrage wouldn’t come out. Leesil got to that before she did.
“You can’t stay out here,” he snarled. “There’s nothing to eat, there’s no water, there’s no—”
“I’ll manage,” Wynn interrupted.
“And I will stay with her,” Chane added in his rasp.
Another shocked silence came and went, though not without Osha stepping past Magiere to look between Wynn and Chane.