First and Last Sorcerer

Chapter Nineteen

Wynn counted the days since Magiere and the others had left. More than a moon had passed. At first the days and nights had felt long, but then the five left behind fell into a routine.

Without much discussion, they all took to Chane’s sleeping schedule for the most part, though this surprised Wynn slightly. Neither Osha nor Wayfarer had any interest in spending time with Chane. Wayfarer simply claimed it would be easier if they were all awake together. Then again, perhaps she was afraid to fall asleep when Chane was up, now that Magiere and Leesil—and especially Chap—were away.

Aside from this, much of the tension over Chane’s presence vanished.

While Osha and Chane didn’t like each other, they had learned to work together without the past glares and posturing. Wayfarer didn’t interact with or speak to Chane unless necessary, but if she disapproved of him, she was too well mannered to show it.

They were all in limbo, waiting to learn the fate of departed friends and companions.

Wynn and Shade tended to rise first in the late afternoon. Since Chane remained dormant all day, this was longer than the rest of them could stay asleep. Before dusk came, one of them would walk to the market for fresh food or anything else needed. Later, they ate supper together, though of course Chane only sipped water or tea.

After that usually came chores.

Wynn attempted to reorganize various texts and scrolls on the shelves. She scanned through all of them, but none held anything related to Ghassan and his sect’s practices.

Osha, having acquired more materials, set to fletching additional arrows to replace the ones lost. More than once Wynn glanced at the new steel arrowheads, knowing he still had white metal ones in his quiver.

Wayfarer mended a few items of torn clothing she’d found in the travel chest, though she soon ran out of much need for that. Late one afternoon Wynn decided it was time to act upon something that Leesil and then Chap had asked her to do.

Getting Shade to cooperate was a bit of a bother.

“Make it something not ... disturbing,” she instructed the dog. “Maybe from childhood, just running about with your brothers and sisters.”

Shade’s jowls quivered with a hiss through her teeth. So far, she had refused to interact with her father, Chap. Any references to the short childhood she’d be driven from, to cross the world to Wynn’s side, was something Shade avoided.

“Go on!” Wynn insisted.

Shade turned away with another growl and padded across to where Wayfarer sat at the table stitching up a tear she’d found in one blanket. Shade didn’t wait for the girl to notice her approach.

She shoved her nose under Wayfarer’s wrist and flipped her nose up, and then the girl’s hand slipped over Shade’s head.

Wynn took a quick step in whispering, “You obstinate little pain in the—”

Wayfarer sucked air in a squeak, lurched away, and fell off the chair.

She popped up instantly on her knees and stared wide-eyed as Shade turned away with a grumble. When Wynn reached the table, Shade pressed briefly against her leg.

—My memories ... not your ... tool—

At those memory-words from Shade, Wynn glowered back.

Hopefully Shade had stuck to something nice in the type of memory. And yes, in all the time since Wynn had arrived in the Suman Empire, Wayfarer had stayed close to only Chap. The girl never once touched Shade ... until now.

Wayfarer peeked over and around the chair at the black majay-hì. Even Osha looked puzzled for a moment, though he wouldn’t know what had just happened. It was exactly as Wynn suspected and feared—as Chap and Leesil had needed to know.

Shade had direct Fay ancestry through her father, so she wasn’t completely normal for her kind. It appeared that Wayfarer—once called Leanâlhâm—experienced the conscious memories of a majay-hì with a touch.

Wynn wasn’t certain what it meant as she thought of the girl’s name given by her people’s ancestors: Sheli’câlhad, “To a Lost Way.” That might have more meaning than the others could guess at, though Wynn had only a fragment ... a piece of that puzzle.

There was one other person she’d met who appeared to do what the girl had just done. In the forests of Lhoin’na, when Wynn had gone to their guild branch in her search for the orb of Earth’s last resting place, she’d met a lone woman in their forests.

Vreuvillä—“Leaf’s Heart”—was a priestess of ancient ways, a Foirfeahkan.

That term was so old that even her people, the Lhoin’na, could not accurately translate it. She lived in the wild with the majay-hì packs of that land. Like Wayfarer, Leaf’s Heart was notably short for her people. And though the girl had green eyes and the priestess’s were the normal amber, they both had hair far too dark for either a Lhoin’na or an an’Cróan.

And apparently both could catch the memories of a majay-hì, though Leaf’s Heart was supposed to be the last of her kind.

Wynn thought again of the meaning of Wayfarer’s final name given by her people’s ancestral spirits.

...to a lost way ...

Chane sat up in his usual corner, having risen again.

Wynn looked to the window at the back of Ghassan’s ensorcelled hideaway. Dusk had come and she hadn’t even noticed. For now, she kept what she suspected to herself.

Sometimes, to pass the nights, Wayfarer, Osha, and Chane worked under Wynn’s guidance to learn a little of the most common dialect of Sumanese. Even if Magiere acquired the orb of Air, there was still the matter of hiding it—and the orb of Spirit as well. There was no telling how long they would remain in the south. She also suggested Wayfarer stick to conversing with Osha in only Numanese or, if need be, Belaskian.

Twice Chane went out at night, and Wynn assumed he needed to feed on livestock in secret. However, he never grew unduly pale as he had before when hungry. When he came back, he was not flushed as he’d normally been after feeding.

She wanted to ask about this, but something held her back.

They managed to get through the days and nights. Every once in a while, Wynn succumbed to self-indulgent petulance over having been left behind to wait in ignorance. These bouts did not last long, and then one afternoon ...

Wynn counted off another day as she, Osha, and Wayfarer began discussing what might be needed at the market. Without warning, they heard scraping outside the sanctuary door.

They all looked at one another, then at Chane, who was still dormant in the back corner. In a flash, Osha had a dagger in hand and stepped around to put everyone behind him as he faced the door. Wynn froze, but Shade didn’t begin to growl, and this brought a hint of hope.

An instant later, the door opened.

Ghassan came through, followed by Brot’an, Chap, Leesil, and Magiere. The last two carried something heavy between them, hidden inside a large canvas cover.

“You are back!” Wayfarer cried, rushing around Osha and straight to Chap.

Wynn’s full attention turned to the bulging canvas Leesil and Magiere set down. She looked up at Leesil, not able to even ask. He nodded once, and she remained frozen in place.

They had the final orb.

A flood of questions filled the cluttered room. Wynn noticed that Ghassan and Leesil answered most, and Magiere was too quiet. Wynn wondered what horrors Magiere had faced to attain this last orb. At least she looked all right, with no serious burns or injuries.

Still, Wynn couldn’t help feeling that this final task had cost Magiere something.

Leesil exclaimed that he was starving, and so Wynn hurried to put a meal together. As soon as she was across the room, crouched down, digging in their stores for bread and cheese, Leesil came in behind her. One look in his face told her that he’d sent her off alone for a reason.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

He glanced toward the corner where Chane lay dormant, and then back to her. He appeared uncomfortable, which wasn’t like him.

“Do you ... remember ... how when we first came to stay here, you’d sit with Magiere so the two of you could talk.”

Of course she did, and she nodded.

“Tonight,” he said, “once we’ve eaten and settled, could you ... could you do it again?”

Wynn hesitated. “What is this about?”

Leesil’s discomfort visibly grew. “Something happened out there, and I’m worried she needs to talk to someone ... and for once that someone isn’t me.” He paused. “Will you do it?”

“Of course. I’d do anything for Magiere.”

He nodded with a slow exhale and rose up to head back to his wife.

Later that evening, not long past dusk and after another orb had been settled in the bedchamber, everyone was occupied in some fashion. Wynn piled cushions against the front wall and drew Magiere aside to sit next to her.

“I’ve been hoping all evening to hear what happened ... from you,” Wynn whispered. “Can you tell me?”

Across the room, Chane sat sharpening the shorter of his two blades. Shade lay on the floor beside him.

Magiere watched them both for a moment and then looked to Wynn and nodded.

The next morning, Magiere took Wayfarer on the short walk to the market. She wore a light cloak with the hood up and forward, and she made certain Wayfarer did the same. As Ghassan had promised, there were no imperial or city guards searching the streets. To Magiere, it seemed that she and Leesil were no longer hunted.

It felt strangely normal to walk in the city and head out only to buy food. After talking late into the night with Wynn, she had begun to feel more like herself or at least less like a traitor to herself. Wynn never saw the world in black and white, right and wrong, but in variations of gray to be constantly reexamined. Magiere had never fully understood that before.

The crowded market lay up ahead.

“What is our next step?” Wayfarer suddenly asked.

Magiere took a deep breath filled with the scents of fresh bread, roasted meats, people in the streets, and other simple things in the air.

“Restock the cheese ... again,” she answered. “Chap finished it off last night.”

Wayfarer stopped walking. “I meant with the orbs. Now that they have all been recovered ... now what?”

Magiere stopped as well. This was the last question she’d have expected from Wayfarer.

“We need to find places to hide them,” she answered carefully, “where they will never be found by anyone again, especially the Enemy’s ... servants.”

“Wynn told me ...” the girl began, “told the rest of us that the wraith went to great lengths to gain the orb of Spirit. He even abandoned the orb of Earth upon finding it, as he did not want it. Once he had the orb he sought, he used it to alter the body of a young duke.”

One of Magiere’s hands clenched nervously to hear Wayfarer speak of such things.

“So,” the girl continued, “it would be wise to move the orb of Spirit someplace where no undead can enter.”

“Well ... yes,” Magiere finally agreed.

“No undead can enter the lands of the an’Cróan,” Wayfarer added, looking up into Magiere’s eyes. “The same should follow true for the lands of the Lhoin’na. What if Osha—and I—took the orb of Spirit to them? It would be safe and beyond the reach of any undead.”

Magiere couldn’t help the fear, which always came in anger. “You and Osha, take an orb to—”

“He is more than he appears,” Wayfarer interrupted. “And once the orb is in that land, we would be safe there as well until ... whatever is next.”

Magiere stared down at her, unable to say anything.

Aside from such a dangerous notion, she knew something had gone wrong between Wayfarer and Osha, and Osha and Wynn, and even that linked to Wayfarer’s sudden eagerness to get involved.

Magiere grabbed Wayfarer’s hand, pulling her along. “We’ll talk about this later.”

That night, once again Leesil lay on a pile of cushions on the main room’s floor, holding Magiere against his chest. Ghassan and Brot’an had taken the bedchamber to get some rest. Chap lay curled up near one of the bookshelves on another of the large cushions.

Wynn and Chane had taken Shade out to do her nightly “business.” Osha and Wayfarer were engaged in some kind of board game with draughts that Osha had bought at the market.

In a sense, Leesil had Magiere to himself for a short while. Part of him almost couldn’t believe the final orb had been found. The exhausting, bloody, seemingly endless searches were at an end. Tilting his head down, he pressed his face into the top of Magiere’s hair.

“What are you thinking?”

“We may have a hiding place for the orb of Spirit,” she whispered.

He tensed, for that wasn’t the kind of answer he’d wanted. “Where?”

“Somewhere safe, though we need the same for the orb of Air. We shouldn’t hide two in the same spot. I know Chap did that, but only he knows where they are, and we shouldn’t try it again.”

None of this was what Leesil wanted to talk about. “Any ideas?”

“Not yet.” Magiere rolled onto her back, looking up at him. “I’ll think of someplace ... or Chap will ... or Wynn.” She touched his cheek. “And once it’s done, we’ll go home. Promise.”

He almost couldn’t believe they were this close to being done. He brushed the side of her face with his fingers as he whispered, “Home ... finally.”