The strong hands and arms that held her suddenly slackened.
"Frey, please," the woman whispered, and then cried out, "Chuillyon, Tristan … help me!"
Wynn didn't know who held her. With the spear aimed at her throat, she couldn't twist her head to look.
"We're coming!" someone called, and more splashes came from the pool's chamber.
Chane erupted from the water again, just beyond Shade.
Before cascading droplets settled, three teal-skinned beings burst up and were on him. With a grating hiss, he shouldered one into the tunnel's wall. Shade twisted back, lunging and snapping at the first being's forearm. That one turned at the dog's assault, and his spear wavered.
Wynn jerked free and spun partway, groping for her staff. Then her gaze caught on a man's face pressed hard between the gate's bars.
The anguish there made her falter.
His half-mad eyes might've shed tears, but any such were obscured by water running down his face from his drenched dark-blond hair. His mouth gaped as he stared into the tunnel, but not at her. He looked only at the teal-skinned being holding off Shade with a spear.
Wynn had seen that expression, or ones so similar.
It showed on the faces of peasants in the worst corners of this world, such as Leesil's birthplace in the Warlands. Starving, dying of thirst, or beaten down, for them hope had become a lie. Worse, the man looked at the teal-skinned being as if his relief dangled tauntingly just beyond his reach.
The woman's voice shouted, "Chuillyon! Get the gate open!"
A woman had her arm wrapped over the madman's shoulder and across his chest, pulling on him to no effect. When she turned her head back from crying out, Wynn looked into the panicked face of Duchess Reine.
"Frey, stop it!" the duchess ordered.
"Wynn … get away from them!" Chane rasped.
He slapped away his assailant's spear. Shade clawed along the tunnel wall, floundering as she tried to get around her own opponent. With two companions desperate for help, Wynn could only try for the closest. She took a step to grab for Shade.
The point of a long, narrow blade struck the tunnel wall before her eyes.
Wynn's feet slipped as she tried to duck. She toppled against the curved wall to keep from sinking. The long blade levered in, and its edge set against her throat.
Duchess Reine had her arm thrust through the gate, pinning Wynn in place with a saber.
Shade let out a wild snarl, and then all sounds of struggle quickly lessened.
The duchess's enraged eyes turned away.
Wynn could barely move with the sharp edge at her throat, but she followed that gaze to Chane.
"Yield or she's dead!" the duchess commanded.
Chane froze in place, surrounded by the trio of strange beings, while a fourth held Shade off with its spear.
Wynn nodded once at Chane and turned only her eyes toward the gate.
As the duchess withdrew her saber, the white-robed elf tried to pull the wild-eyed man away. The captain, sword in hand, jerked the gate open, forcing both to retreat a little.
"Inside," he ordered, leveling his long sword at Wynn.
Wynn hesitated. Amid the confusion, her pack had sunk. She wasn't sure she'd be allowed to fish it out, but she wasn't leaving the sun crystal's staff behind. She reached for it.
The captain surged in, grabbed her tunic front, and jerked her through the open gate. She floundered, swallowing a mouthful of water, and another Weardas dragged her to one side. Shade came splashing after her, snarling and coughing. The captain ducked into the tunnel, sword out toward Chane, and grabbed the staff.
Chane came through next, all the teal-skinned newcomers herding him. He paused, raising one open hand as he pulled Wynn's pack from the water. He was soaked from head to toe, and his colorless eyes shifted rapidly as he watched everyone. As he passed through the gate, another Weardas snatched the pack away and herded him at sword point to the pool's far side.
Then the wild-eyed man tore from the elf's grip, lunging for the tunnel opening.
The duchess threw herself on top of him, screaming, "Freädherich, no!"
They both toppled and sank, but that name overrode Wynn's fear for an instant. She recognized it.
The pair heaved up, splashing water everywhere.
Wynn sucked in a panicked breath as the captain flung the staff onto the pool's far edge. And the bodyguard before her flattened his sword in warning against her chest.
The captain and the elf rushed toward the duchess as the third Weardas circled around, blocking off Chane. Like Wynn, Chane watched everything in complete confusion.
The closest teal-skinned being stepped to the half-open gate.
The wild-eyed man shrieked like a mourner, reaching out to it. Even with the duchess atop him, and the elf and captain trying to get a grip on him, his fingers kept clutching the air toward the visitor.
The visitor slowly stretched out its hand in turn. Long, narrow fingers, ending in claws, were webbed in the spaces between.
"Get away from him!" the duchess shrieked. She rolled off the madman, ducked around the tall elf, and slashed her saber. Its blade clattered across the gate's bars.
But the being in the tunnel didn't even lift its spear. It just slowly lowered its hand.
Duchess Reine threw her whole body against the gate. It slammed shut with a clang that reverberated through the chamber.
"You're not taking him!" she hissed, backing away with saber held out. There was less rage than terror on her face.
All the being did was quietly grip one iron bar and gaze through the gate with its black-orb eyes.
The duchess whirled in the pool as the captain and the tall elf heaved the whimpering man onto the pool's rear ledge. She looked as if she might break right there, collapse, and sink beneath the water.
"Highness?" whispered the bodyguard before Chane.
With a convulsive shudder, Reine straightened and turned her eyes on Wynn. In place of the whimpering man's madness, some fear-driven rage filled her features. She surged through the pool straight at Wynn with the saber thrust out.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded.
Wynn might've come up with something if she weren't so overwhelmed. Her gaze flicked erratically about. She knew of only one man named Freädherich, though she'd never seen him up close.
The younger prince of the Âreskynna, thought dead for years, was locked away in the Stonewalkers' underworld.
Wynn couldn't get out one word.
Chapter 17
Reine stood numbed by shock, barely aware that she shivered in the pool's cold water. The chamber was half-illuminated by light leaking from the sitting chamber. On the side nearer the door leading out, a dark and dripping wolf stood upon the pool's edge above the sage.
Reine couldn't believe anyone, less that Wynn Hygeorht, had found their way in here.
Better that the sage and her companions had been drowned in the rising tide. It would have made things simpler. No one in the outside world must ever know Frey still lived.
Yes, it would've been easier on Reine if Wynn had simply died by her own fault. But the sage hadn't come seeking Frey. That she'd found him was just the worst happenstance.
How had Wynn known where the texts were being kept? Was this why she'd schemed her way into speaking with Ore-Locks?
Reine lowered her saber slightly as she backed away.
"If you've nothing to tell me," she growled at Wynn, "then you and yours will remain silent!"
Wynn nodded slowly.
These outsiders had already seen too much to ever leave this place. But the longer temptation remained in the tunnel, the worse Frey would suffer. Reine turned at the pool's center.