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Chane.
Welstiel was surprised by how much this thought disturbed him. He tried to rise but collapsed again upon the ground.
Magiere pushed herself to keep up and didn't call out to Chap.
A short distance into the trees, the dog ceased wailing but continued to run. Magiere trusted Chap's judgment in a fight against the undead. If he chose to run in silence, he had a reason.
With Ubad dead, perhaps Chap had picked up on Vordana or another of the necromancer's minions. If such still moved and searched in the forest, there was hope that this meant Leesil and Wy
She ran on and on behind Chap, using her blade to slash away anything in her path that she couldn't force her way through. When Chap stopped ahead of her, Magiere slowed as she approached him.
He was alert and tense, and stepped forward through the brush between two oaks. She followed, sword at the ready.
Chap paused as they entered a clearer area and stared at the base of a tree across the way. Magiere followed that gaze.
The sight was unreal, and it took her a moment to believe she was not seeing some vision like the coils in the forest.
The headless bodies of both undead mariners lay before her. The neck stump of the nearest one was ragged and torn, its head nowhere to be seen. The other lay farther off, a longsword impaled through its chest, pi
A man with red-brown hair and a handsome face knelt upon the ground, holding someone in his arms. Magiere saw his profile and remembered the last time she'd seen him in the sewers of Bela.
Chane.
The person he held moved and sat up.
Magiere looked into Wy
The sage's shoulder was bleeding badly beneath a makeshift wad of cloth Chane pressed against it. Magiere had no idea what was happening here, but she didn't care. She stepped forward with her falchion out.
"Get your hands off her!"
At the sight of Chap and Magiere, Chane scrambled out of the way, reaching for the longsword embedded in the headless corpse.
"No, Magiere," Wy
"Came to help you?" Magiere's rage increased. "Wy
She charged toward Chane as he jerked out the longsword and turned to face her. Black fluids stained his shirt around a tear in the fabric. She thrust under and up, breaking inside his guard and slicing him across stomach with the falchion's tip.
Chane gasped at the touch of her blade and retreated. Magiere knew it would burn him as a mortal weapon would not.
"Stop it!" Wy
Chap rushed by and launched into Chane with snapping teeth. Both dog and vampire toppled back across the wet ground. Magiere followed, waiting for an opening to pin the undead down by ru
Chane rose up, shifting his gaze between his two opponents. Magiere sidestepped, watching for an opening.
"Wy
"Liar!" Magiere snapped, and she felt her canines extend as she shook her head. "You're nothing but a killer… and you're getting tired."
Chap was on his feet again, but he limped upon his rear left leg. He growled again, watching Chane's every move, and hobbled closer. The calm in Chane's light brown eyes faded, and he looked at Magiere in anger.
"So are you," he replied.
Magiere charged Chane, swinging for his head. He dodged, spun, and swung back. When she blocked, he let his blade slide off hers.
He turned so fast, she could barely follow. Instead of slicing back with the sword, he slipped inside her guard and slammed his fist into her cheek. Only Rashed, the Suman undead of Miiska, had ever struck out with such force. Magiere went down.
A moment later, he was standing above her, sword gripped in both hands, its tip pointed down at the center of her chest.
"No!" Wy
Chane hesitated, lowering the blade as he stared at Wy
Magiere reached up and grabbed his wrist. He tried to jerk away, and his own effort pulled Magiere to her feet and Wy
The falchion's tip bit into the soft skin below Chane's jaw, tearing his neck open as it slid out over his right shoulder. Black fluid spat from the wound. He toppled back, and Magiere fell on top of him, flattening the longsword between them. She rolled left, blade up, and swung down on his exposed neck.
Chane's head shot off his body and rolled through the mulch.
She remembered Wy
Wy
"No… oh, Magiere, no," she whispered.
"Stop it," Magiere told her.
Wy
Enough anger swelled in Magiere that she almost slapped the sage. The little fool had put her trust in a monster. Then she remembered Wy
Chane had come to help her.
"How long has he been following us?" Magiere asked. "How long have you known?"
"Since Stefan's village," Wy
Wy
Magiere stood up and backed away.
"You lied to us? Betrayed us? All those nights you curled up with Chap, you knew an undead was trailing us. You even knew who it was-and you didn't say a word?"
She trusted few people, and she had trusted Wy
Chap ceased growling and stood watching them both. He looked to the south and whined as he trotted toward the heavy brush. When he barked once, Magiere joined him, peering out into the forest.
Leesil came toward them, at times leaning against or catching himself on a tree trunk or low branch. Relief washed everything else away for the moment, and Magiere hurried to him. As he grabbed for her, she pulled him close. He threw an arm over her shoulders for support.
"I'm so glad to see you," he said, half-breathless. "I lost Wy
"Are you hurt?" she asked.
"Just weak. Vordana caught up to me."
She looked back the way he'd come. "Where is he?"
Leesil lifted his other hand, waving off her concern. "He's back there somewhere… most of him, that is. We won't have to see that awful grin of his again."
Magiere pulled his face in close to hers without a word. Leesil, always so constant, who kept her in the light.
"We have to find Wy
Magiere pulled him through the brush, and he took in the scene of the decapitated mariners, and Wy
"What in? Wy
The sage lifted her face, but she didn't look at him. She had ceased weeping and stared vacantly into the dark.
Magiere had no pity for her. She had betrayed them.
"We have to burn the bodies," Magiere said.
Wy