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Most Aged Father drifted into sleep-but, as always, a fitful one. Among all other dreams, one had come each night for centuries.
Broken corpses lay strewn across a bloodied land as far as he could see. Numb in heart and mind, he stood unmoving until the sight was slowly swallowed by dusk. Only then he turned away, stained spear dragging in his grip and his quiver empty.
Somewhere in the growing dark, he thought he heard something struggling to get up.
Wy
He would never become conversant by the time they reached the elves-if they reached the elves-but he insisted that she teach him. And she had agreed.A bad decision, upon reflection.
At least it passed the time, as they climbed ever downward through the mountain toward an uncertain destination. Chap had convinced them to follow him, and as they walked, Wy
"Soob!" Leesil said again.
Wy
"No." She tried not to sigh. "The ending is like the V in your language, but the lips close on its termination, like a B."
"So which is it?" Leesil snapped. "B or V?"
"Just"-Wy
"That's not yourElvish word for your bisselberries," Leesil sniped.
Wy
She carried his pack slung over her good shoulder. He paused ahead of her without turning and shifted the lashings holding the chest of skulls to his back, trying to resettle his burden.
Wy
"Everything in Elvish," she continued, "has its root word to be transformed to noun, verb, adjective, adverb-and so on. But there are general terms for things of like kind."
"So, 'eat a berry' is…" Leesil mumbled, trying to remember. "La-hong-ah-jah-va… soob?"
Wy
"Leesil, please," Magiere growled behind Wy
He glanced over his shoulder with the cold lamp crystal held high like a torch. Its light turned his glower into a misshapen mask that would frighten small children. Wy
They had traveled downward for more than a day, perhaps two. And yet they had stopped only three times. She was cold and hungry all the way.
Leesil sidestepped a twisted angle in the passage, and a jagged outcrop caught his shoulder.
"Valhachkasej'a!" he barked.
Wy
"Do not ever say that around an elf!" she snapped at him. "Or is profanity the only thing you can pronounce correctly?"
Leesil blinked. "It's something my mother said. You've heard me use it before."
"Your mother?" Wy
The last thing they needed was Leesil's ignorant expletives offending someone, especially one of those bloodthirsty Anmaglahk.
"Smuan'thij arthane!" Wy
Chap waited out in front and stared at her with his ears ridged in surprise. He cocked his head, glanced at Leesil, then huffed once in apparent agreement with her outburst.
Wy
"Time for another rest," Magiere said.
"No," Leesil said, his expression cold and pitiless. "We keep moving."
She ignored him and unstrapped her pack to drop it with the saddlebags she carried.
In their early days, Wy
Chap padded back up the tu
Wy
Magiere dug out what remained of their rations. The last of the bisselberries were nearly gone, and they had discovered no more such gifts along the way. Magiere held a few crumbling biscuits and a handful of venison jerky strips.
"That ca
Magiere uncorked a water flask and dropped down beside her. "We'll find more once we're out of this mountain."
Wy
"What was that Elvish you just said?" Magiere whispered.
"It was… nothing," Wy
"Yes, I got that." Magiere rolled her eyes and bit into half of a dry biscuit, still waiting for a better answer.
Wy
Magiere coughed up crumbs and covered her mouth."Rock-head? You called him a rock-head?"
A flush of shame heated Wy
Was Magiere trying not to grin?
"I'll remember that one," Magiere whispered back.
"I heard that," Leesil growled.
He sat on the chest with his back turned to them, like some monstrous guardian statue perched the wrong way upon a castle parapet.
Wy
She felt the tu
It was a feather.
Mottled gray, it was longer than her outstretched hand, with downy frills at its base. It seemed familiar, and that was unsettling, for she could not think why.
Where had she seen it before?
Chap's rumble startled her. He glared intently at the feather and then lifted his muzzle high to gaze about overhead. Wy
"There's a quill in the making," Magiere said, and reclined on the cold stone. "All you need now are ink and paper. Get some rest while you can."
She rolled onto her side, eyes open, watching Leesil perched upon the chest.
Wy
Cuirin'nen'a… Nein'a… Mother…
Memories flickered through Leesil's thoughts as he followed the others down the passage. He hadn't slept during their last pause, even after the crystal waned and went out. How long did he sit in the dark before waking the others to move on? It had been hard to meet Magiere's eyes when he finally shook her by the shoulder.
She might see him for what he really was. It hadn't been long since he'd realized it himself.