"Then think or something-anything that gets to you." He grabbed her forearm. "Wynn is in that keep, and the rest of us don't stand half the chance you might in that water. You have to try.'
It wasn't that he was asking her to do something difficult. Magiere would do anything for him. He was asking something she didn't know how to do.
"Remember the schooner to Bela," he said, cocking one white eyebrow. "You gave me com to buy wine, because I was seasick, and I lost it all gambling with sailors. Then you got attacked by thugs, and I was so drunk that…"
Magiere crossed her arms and glared at him. Yes, and it was still one of the stupidest things he'd ever done, but not exactly the kind of thing that would accomplish what he asked of her.
"What?" Emel asked blankly, and looked at Byrd. "What has this to do with anything?"
Byrd shook his head and threw up his hands in disgust. "Why are you asking me? Leesil-"
Leesil shot him an angry glare, and Byrd rolled his eyes, grumbling under his breath.
"This isn't going to work," Magiere said.
Chap loped over, his long, silver-blue fur glinting in the moonlight. His crystalline eyes locked on hers. She felt a tickling at the edge of her thoughts.
Memories began to surface.
The dark world around her flashed white, as if someone had shoved a torch in front of her eyes. She blinked hard to shield her vision.
And there she saw the graveyard of Chemestuk, her home village. The memory was so strong, it blocked out the lake and forest around her for the moment.
Adryan had hated her since childhood, whispering his lies to the other villagers. They'd shunned her, tormented her, and she'd grown up alone but for Aunt Bieja. She saw Adryan's greasy black hair and scarred face as he swung an iron-shod staff in his madness and spite. And she was afraid of him, as she scurried across the damp ground of the graveyard.
Hunger boiled in Magiere's stomach, and rage heated her flesh. She grabbed for her falchion, but it wasn't there.
The night sharpened as her sight expanded. The ache in her jaws brought tears to her eyes. She kept her lips tightly pressed together.
Adryan wasn't truly there, and she wanted something to kill.
"Hold on to it," Leesil ordered, "but don't let it take you. You take it instead. I'm right here with you, always, and Wynn needs us."
Chap's summoned memory of Adryan faded, and Magiere saw only Leesil's narrow face. His hair burned with moonlight, and his amber irises were two suns that pained her eyes. But this was a pain she wanted, and it made her long for him. She clung to his presence, holding him in her awareness against the hunger burning up her throat.
Magiere looked to the lake. She tore at the hauberk with her fingers, and Leesil stepped close to help. He barely had it off of her as Magiere stepped into the water.
"What is she doing?" Emel said, and stepped toward her. "The lake is too cold."
Magiere pivoted toward him and tensed, waiting to see if this were some thing she could fight.
"Get back!" Leesil warned, and shoved Emel away. "Magiere?"
She snapped her head toward him. His face brought clarity again. She nodded and stepped farther out, water rising past her waist and up her rib cage. The wet feeling left a distant sting upon her skin. It balanced the hunger, and she waded in until the water lapped over her shoulders.
"I'm right here," Leesil called. "Don't go under until you're ready."
Magiere kept moving, listening to Leesil's voice. She let hunger stay with her, stronger than she'd ever allowed it by choice.
"Has she found anything yet?" Byrd asked from a distance.
"It has been too long," came Em el's voice. "Get her out of there. She is in danger."
A slight wave of cold passed through Magiere.
Had it been a long time? She shut out their voices. There was only Leesil, and hunger, and Wynn waiting. The cold passed away, and she took another step.
Her boot scraped across something hard. A boulder in the lake bottom?
Magiere let Adryan's face return… then the image of Welstiel stand-ing over her mother's bed, watching Magelia bleed to death… and Chane stalking them into the Apudalsat forest.
Rage spread the hunger into her limbs, until she felt its heat in her face. She dove under, her night sight fully open.
Scant ripples of moonlight danced across the lake bottom, making mud, water weeds, and stones quiver before her eyes. She saw a clear patch that appeared to be made of stone, but when she scraped at the mud around it with her boot, she couldn't be certain it was more than boulder. Magiere swam deeper toward the lake bottom, clawing through mud with her hands.
She uncovered a flat panel of stone, too flat and smooth to be natural. When she dug away more silt, she exposed a clean edge. It ran level out into the lake, where it was too dark for even her eyes. She faced along the direction of its line and pushed off the bottom.
Magiere shot up through the lake's surface to see the braziers of the keep dead ahead. She thrashed around toward the far shore.
"Here!" Magiere tried to call, though she couldn't be certain the word came out. Her teeth hurt, and speaking was difficult.
"Come back," came Leesil's voice.
He looked small and far away in Magiere's sight. And he began to fade, as if the darkness suddenly grew deeper. Coldness began burrowing into her limbs and chest.
"Magiere," Leesil shouted. "Come back-now!"
She couldn't feel the lake bottom and started clawing at the water's surface to pull herself toward him. He became clearer again as she grew closer.
He looked afraid, staring at her with wide eyes, and he stepped forward until she heard his boots crack ice and splash into water. Why was he afraid?
Hunger vanished, and the water felt like ice shards being dragged across her skin.
"Magiere!"
Her legs and arms went numb. She found the lake floor when her legs stopped kicking and her feet hit something solid. She forced herself toward Leesil, and the water receded to her waist. Then she started to sink again, and couldn't stand up anymore.
Leesil splashed toward her and grabbed her wrist. The last thine Magiere saw was Emel dashing in beside him to take her other arm.
Magiere opened her eyes again and found herself looking up into the dark forest canopy. Leesil's face was above her, his hair glinting in the moonlight. She tried to reach his face and found she was wrapped in wool blankets, lying in his lap.
"That was foolish," Emel said. "You could have died."
Byrd stood a way off, staring out over the lake. "But she found it."
"Yes, she did," Leesil said, his eyes remaining on her.
"How… long?" Magiere asked, and heard the chatter of her own teeth as she shivered.
"You were out for only a moment," Leesil whispered. "And you need to stay awake now."
Her teeth kept chattering. "It's… a tunnel. Straight line from where I stood… in the water. Exit must… behind us."
Leesil looked up at Emel. "We need a fire, somewhere out of sight. Now!"
Emel nodded, crouching down. "I will take care of her. You help Byrd find the exit."
Leesil looked down at her uncertainly, and Magiere felt his arms close tight around her, not wanting to let her go.
Magiere closed her eyes and saw an image of Wynn. "Go," she said to him.
Leesil headed into the trees behind Byrd, with Chap loping out.
He didn't like this. He should be the one to watch over Magiere.
Perhaps Emel's concern for Hedi Progae was genuine. Perhaps he wasn't a complete toady to a tyrant. And he'd run into freezing water to help save Magiere. None of this meshed with what Leesil knew of would-be nobles, who sat and nodded agreement like bobbing crows on Darmouth's council.