Страница 87 из 91
The large silver-gray dog leaped through the brush behind Leesil and crept forward with its head low, watching Hedi with crystal eyes.
There were tears ru
Hedi looked into the face of a monster and did not care. All that mattered was that Leesil died, here and now. She inched forward, ready to gouge out this monster's eyes.
"Hedi, get back," Wy
Hedi rushed at Magiere, and someone grabbed her wrist.
"Stop it," Emel snapped, and jerked her back against his chest, closing his arms around her from behind. "You do not understand."
"Yes, I do!" Hedi shouted, but no matter how she thrashed, she could not break free of Emel's hold. "He is the one! He took my life and did not bother to kill me for it."
"He was a slave," Emel said. "Like all those who serve Darmouth. Like his parents, Nein'a and Gavril. No different from that girl you brought out with you. What would have happened to Leesil's parents if he refused to obey Darmouth? You know the answer. You of all people know how Darmouth works, just as he used you against me for years."
Hedi stopped struggling, but she had no outlet for the hate inside of her.
Leesil huddled on the ground with his back turned and would not move at all.
The monster, Magiere, backed toward him, torso and inhuman jaws expanding in deep, agitated breaths. Her appearance slowly changed, becoming more human as her lips closed. She crouched over Leesil and took hold of his shoulders. By the time she had him on his feet, Hedi saw only a pale, tall woman in leather armor and long black hair.
Hedi kept her eyes on Leesil until Magiere led him out of sight beyond the tree shielding the fire. Then she saw Korey huddled in terror in Wy
"No more killing," Emel whispered. "There will be more blood in the days to come than any of us can bear."
She did not understand and did not care.
Hedi crumpled. Rage's heat and anguish bled out in tears as Emel gripped her in the black cold of the forest. There had been nothing but deceit and betrayal living under Darmouth. Slaves murdering one another to live one more day.
But Hedi had no pity for Leesil, and wished his life filled with all the suffering forever buried within her.
Magiere sat on a fallen log near the newly built campfire. All of them had returned to the wagon and then traveled northeast along the road. Not far, but enough that they'd never be spotted from the keep upon the lake. Far enough that she would never have to look at it again. Yet Leesil was still here to remind her of what she'd learned of his past in that place.
What she'd learned about him.
Emel gathered canvas tarps from the wagon's back and busied himself constructing makeshift tents. Korey scurried about in wool footings Wy
Hedi assisted Emel as well, keeping her head turned away from Leesil. Magiere didn't believe so much hatred would ever die, and kept her eye on the woman when she strayed too far toward the trees beyond the camp.
Out there, at the edge of the fire's orange light, Leesil sat against a tree, gripping the bundled skulls. Chap paced back and forth at the camp's edge, watching him. The dog was still unsettled. Magiere had not forgotten Chap's maddened outcry in the crypt. It worried her almost as much as Leesil's silence.
Wy
"Take off your hauberk and that wool pullover," she said.
Magiere did so, and Wy
"Is Leesil injured?" she asked.
"He's not bleeding," Magiere answered, though she'd seen the welt line around his throat. "I don't think there's anything to be done for him-for now."
Not in the flesh, at least. Wy
Wy
Magiere was grateful that the little sage was still with them. Wy
"I have something to tell you," Wy
Magiere frowned as Wy
"Chane is still alive… or exists." She pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders. "I ca
Magiere absorbed Wy
"Hedi said he ca
Too many thoughts filled Magiere's mind from this long night. She dropped off the log to the ground beside Wy
"There is more," Wy
I sent back to the guild… Not everything I wrote was about the people and lands we passed through."
"You mean about me," Magiere said flatly.
Wy
It hadn't been hard to guess. From the very start at the Guild of Sage-craft in Bela, Wy
"You're not very good with deception," Magiere said with only a touch of ire, and as her gaze drifted to Leesil, her voice dropped to a whisper. "Not like the rest of us." She took a long, slow breath before she looked back at Wy
Wy
Magiere didn't know how. He had ensured more death and suffering in his homeland. And all he had to show for it were the last remains of his parents.
Leesil had lived with years of wine-smothered nightmares over what he believed had happened to his parents when he fled his first life. She had held him in the night, felt him twist and mumble in his sleep. Then in Bela, the Anmaglahk named Sgaile had given Leesil a spark of hope that at least his mother had survived. Along the way he'd chosen to go looking for his father as well.
He'd returned here to have his worst guilt-driven fears become real. This night, hope had died in that crypt more quickly than Leesil's last victim.
"Leave him be for now," she said to Wy
"Emel told me. You did what you could, but I ca
Magiere gazed into the fire, not looking at Wy
Korey and Hedi laid out remaining blankets in the tents as Emel came to join Magiere and Wy