“Oh, that’s even better!” Magiere finally erupted, fixing on Wynn and forgetting any sorrow for her friend’s loss of sight. “And where are you going to find enough livestock for him if you can’t feed yourself? A moon at most, and he’ll be hunting again.”
Chane’s answering rasp was more pronounced. “I have no need to hunt. There is one orb still exposed. It will sustain me ... as I have not fed—in any way—since before we even arrived in the empire’s capital.”
“We’ll be all right,” Wynn said. “What would happen otherwise if the crystal goes out? We must stay to make certain it remains lit. There’s no one else who can do so.”
Magiere couldn’t find another argument, and as Leesil said nothing, he was at a loss as well. Even Osha didn’t make a sound and just stood there. But to Magiere, the pain on his face was evident until he looked to Chane.
Everyone knew the unspoken contention between those two concerning Wynn.
Wynn had made a choice. She’s chosen to remain here, and she’d chosen Chane.
But in addition to Osha, there was another affected by Wynn’s choice.
Magiere carefully glanced aside and found Wayfarer watching Osha. She hoped the girl didn’t see this as an opportunity. Leesil would’ve already told her where she was going, where her home was now—with them. But Osha would not forget this moment for a long time to come.
If Wynn wouldn’t be swayed, then something had to be done for her survival. The sage had already lost too much for what had to be done. A few ideas came to mind, though they might involve a small breach concerning Althahk’s demand for secrecy.
Still, that would have to wait as well.
Magiere reached out, grasped Osha’s shoulder, and pulled him around. “Take the tent with Wayfarer and Ore-Locks.”
He barely looked at her, not saying a word.
“Be packed and ready in the morning,” she added. “You’re going home—to our home—or I’ll come after you again.”
Osha walked off, and Magiere waved Wayfarer after him. She wasn’t certain of the latter choice but didn’t want him to be left alone.
“Ore-Locks,” Leesil said, “we need to talk about some ... arrangements in the morning.”
“He and I have already spoken,” Chane interrupted. “If you have considerations we have not thought of, those are welcome.”
Magiere eyed Leesil, wondering whether he’d had notions similar to hers where Wynn was concerned.
“I would appreciate it,” Wynn began, “if all of you stopped fussing! I am not half as incapable as everyone keeps assuming.”
Magiere couldn’t remember how many uncomfortable pauses had passed, but there was another one. How they could part this way, even if there were plans as yet so that it wouldn’t be forever?
“Chuillyon,” Magiere said.
The elder sage, who’d been watching in uncomfortable silence as he sat near the fire, looked up and blinked in surprise.
“You’ll be needed in what we have in mind,” Magiere added, exchanging a glance with Leesil. “I’ll tell you more tomorrow.”
Chuillyon frowned in puzzlement. “Very well.”
“And Shade,” Wynn began, catching all off guard, but then her voice began to falter, “you are going with them ... little sister.”
“Wait, what?” Leesil cut in with a step.
Even Magiere had assumed Shade would stay with Wynn—and Chane. Wynn ignored Leesil, but Shade was already up on all fours, as was Chap.
“You have to go, Shade,” Wynn added.
The dog’s ears, though pricked up, flattened as Shade gave a mewling growl. She began barking, even snapping, but Wynn dropped off the stone she sat on and grabbed for Shade’s head. Fresh tears flowed down Wynn’s cheeks.
“You need to have a life of your own,” Wynn said. “It’s not here in the heat and sand. Go with Wayfarer and your father. At least, you’ll have trees, rain, forest ... and I believe we will see each other again, somehow.”
Magiere then noticed Chane.
He looked down upon Wynn and Shade with an expression she couldn’t have imagined on his face, the face she’d see more than once turn into the bloodthirsty monster that he was inside.
Was that sadness?
The sight hit her hard as she thought on how the past few years had changed them all. Here they were at the end of it—the trials and battles they had never asked for, never wanted.
It was finally over.
Shade pulled out of Wynn’s hold. A strange mewling whine shook her all over. She turned and raced off toward where Osha and Wayfarer had both vanished into their tent. Chap just watched after his daughter for a moment and looked back to Wynn, who crumpled upon the ground in tears. Chane knelt beside her.
Battles were done, but there were still wounds being inflicted. Hopefully, time could heal those as well.
Chane raised Wynn up and started to see her off to their tent.
Ore-Locks cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I—I will look in on the younger ones.”
“I think I shall retire as well,” Chuillyon said.
Both went off.
“Come on, Chap,” Leesil said, heading for their tent, and then he looked at Magiere.
She nodded silently and turned to follow. Leesil lifted the flap, Chap crept in slowly, and Leesil looked up. Magiere faltered upon spotting something else beside that tent.
“In a moment,” she said.
Leesil frowned but nodded and slipped inside.
Magiere stood paused over her falchion. There was no other blade like it for what it could do to the undead. She picked it up, began to draw it slowly, and stopped before a three-finger breadth of the blade showed. Then she turned as Chane was about to duck inside a tent behind Wynn.
“Wait,” Magiere called.
Chane froze without flinching, though he eyed the sword and then her. Magiere slammed the falchion back into its sheath and threw it at him across the camp. Stunned, Chane straightened in dropping the tent flap as he caught the weapon.
For a moment, Magiere couldn’t speak.
“Just in case,” she said finally, “should something come looking for what we left in the mountain. I won’t need that blade anymore.”
Before he could say anything, she turned and swatted her way into the tent.
Inside, with the cold lamp she’d left there now dimming, Leesil lay on his back upon a bedroll with his head propped against Chap’s shoulder. Both had their eyes closed in exhaustion.
If they were actually asleep, she didn’t want to wake them, and if not ...
Magiere dropped and crawled in, putting her back against Leesil’s chest and her head up against Chap. Nothing more needed to be said, though she heard Leesil whisper, whether asleep in exhaustion or not.
“Home ...”
EPILOGUE
Chane stepped to the chasm’s edge beneath the mountain peak at the easternmost end of the Sky-Cutter Range. Wall-mounted lanterns with alchemically heated cold-lamp crystals lit the half cavern around him. Their light still could not reach the chasm’s far side as he stared numbly along the cable-suspended bridge that spanned the wide breach.
The stench of lamp oil filled the air around him.
On the chasm’s far side, along another hidden tunnel, was another cavern where grew a new child, or grandchild, of Chârmun among a skeleton of huge bones. The bridge was not the only transformation made beneath the mountain over the past thirty years. Other comforts had long ago been arranged for the two guardians who lived here—himself and Wynn.
Ore-Locks with his stonewalker brethren, Chuillyon and several more legitimate white sages, and a select few of the newer green order had all contributed. There were gifts and other support from the small number of allies who knew what had happened here.