Mercedes Lackey - Elvenblood

"More exciting than the one Valyn and I had, too," Mero admitted. "We never actually saw our pursuers, you know, we just knew they were there."

"1 would have been just as pleased to have made a quiet escape, personally," Lorryn told them both, shrugging. "Although if we manage to come through this all right, I will admit to being glad things worked out this way. I wish I knew what happened to my sister's maid, though," he added with a frown.

"She doesn't sound like anyone we know," Shana said, after a sidelong glance at Mero. "On the other hand, there are ways that some of us can disguise ourselves that don't qualify as 'illusions,' so she could have been. If she was—trust me, she'll be all right. Not even falling into a river would harm one of our people with that sort of power."

Well, that was something of a relief! "You just took one burden of guilt off my back," he replied gratefully. "Now—I'll discharge myself of another." He raised his voice a little. "Rena!

Rena pushed aside the partition to her segment of the tent on the cue she'd been waiting for, and came into the light. She looked worried, hesitant, and very vulnerable.

She also looked unmistakably elven.

Shana only raised one eyebrow, though Mero sucked in a breath of surprise. "I wondered what you were hiding about her," the wizard told him, with a hint of smile. "It's nice to see that Valyn wasn't the only decent person of his blood around."

She stood up, and extended her hand to Rena with no sign of hesitation. "It is very good to meet you without illusions," she said, as Rena took the hand gingerly. "And any sheltered maiden who could partner her brother through the wilderness as cleverly as you did is something more than she appears to be. I'd like to hear your ideas."

"So would I," Mero said, and indicated a cushion between himself and Lorryn. "Would you join us?"

"Yes, thank you," Rena replied, smiling and relaxing visibly. "I hope I can help, at least a little."

"You can help a lot," Lorryn said forcefully as she took the indicated seat with a sidelong glance at Mero. Shana sat down again, and he turned instinctively toward her. "The one thing that neither of you know, and neither do I, is the kind of magic that only the females are taught. It's very subtle; it works on the level of the very small. For instance, where you or I would—say—collapse this tent by crushing it outright, Rena would do something entirely different."

"I'd weaken all the supporting poles and ropes," she offered diffidently. "As soon as the breeze came up the way it does every evening, it would collapse."

"Now, if the object was to trap people inside for a crucial few moments, obviously her way would be better," Lorryn continued.

"Well, only if you wanted to trap them at that particular time, but I see your point," Shana replied, then suddenly turned toward Rena and stared at her.

"What's the matter?" Lorryn asked quickly.

But Shana only shook her head. "Nothing really," she replied. "I just—something about your sister seemed familiar for a moment, that's all."

Lorryn had the feeling that there was a lot more to it than that, given the measuring glances Shana kept casting on Rena, but since she didn't seem hostile, only thoughtful, he finally decided that it was probably, some mysterious female thing that no male would ever understand, and dismissed it from his concern.

"Anyway, if what Diric wants is some way for us all to disappear that makes it appear as if we could have done so at any time, Rena may be able to leave some signs that will confuse them no end," he pointed out. "For that matter, she could make changes in the food that will put Jamal's warriors to sleep, she could collapse the tent after we've gone—"

"Don't make too many promises, Lorryn," Rena interrupted, blushing. "I'll do what I can, but I'm not a great wizard like La—the Elvenbane is," she said, clearly unable to force herself to call Shana by anything other than her title.

But Shana only laughed. "Believe me, 7 am not the great wizard that the Elvenbane is," she replied warmly, with a friendly smile that brought another blush to Rena's cheeks and an answering smile to Lorryn's lips. "If I were, do you think we'd have been caught in the first place? No, the best thing we can do is to assess all of our abilities and use them to advantage. There is a real value in being able to work subtle magics; taming the alicorn s the way you did, for instance. Or—say—stopping a heart."

Shana cast that last out carelessly, or so it seemed, but Lorryn caught a gleam in her eyes as she waited for Rena's response. And to his surprise, his sister went just a little pale.

But her reply was steady enough. "I—that had occurred to me," she said softly. "I did try it, once, with a bird that was already dying. Never again, though."

She had? That surprised him more than almost anything else today!

"It's not a power to use lightly" was all Shana said, but she said it so soberly that he knew, deep within his heart, that the burden of all of the dead of the second Wizard War lay heavily on her soul, and always would. "But sometimes—" Her eyes looked far away, into some bleak place where he could not go. "Sometimes, you aren't given a choice. If, by using a power like that, you could save an innocent life—"

Then she shook herself, and returned to the present. "Any way, the last thing I'm going to ask you to do is use something like that on—say—Jamal. He hasn't actually hurt anyone yet. He might not. He might be so frightened and alarmed by discovering we're going that he might turn his people right back around and go home. He might get a late-night visitation from his god telling him mat he's been a naughty boy. Anything could happen."

Rena nodded, but her relief at Shana's words was written clearly in her expression.

Mero reached out and patted her hand, comfortingly. She smiled shyly at him, calling up a reassuring smile in return. He did not remove his hand from hers.

Oh, really? Was Lorryn's startled thought. And for just an instant, all the instincts of the protective brother rose up in him—

But they subsided just as quickly. Why not, after all? When had she ever met any fullblood who'd treated her with a fraction of the courtesy that Mero had, even in the few moments since they'd met? He could simply be offering kindness to her—

Oh yes. And my Ancestors on both sides will rise up out of their graves and declare peace between the races.

—and what if something more did develop between them? Was it any of his business? The little he knew of Mero personally, he liked. Certainly no one could live around Shana for long and continue to harbor the usual elven prejudices about females.

But what was Shana going to do about this? Had she even noticed?

A quick glance in her direction told him that she had noticed. Her eyes were on the linked hands—and she was smiling, ever so slightly.

Well, well, well. If Shana didn't mind, if she approved, who was he to interfere?

And nothing at all may come of this anyway, he reminded himself, and turned his mind and attention back to the topic at hand. After all, nothing could come of this until they were all free and away from this place.

* * *

Myre was altogether pleased with the way things were going. At the Citadel, old Caellach Gwain was slowly undermining the authority of those that Shana had left in charge—and with every day that passed that did not bring Shana's return, even those loyal to her lost some of their confidence. Careful never to go where one of the dragons might spot her, she moved among them in the guise of a former human slave, dropping little hints, fragments of doubt. Perhaps Shana had deserted them. Perhaps she had been captured by the elven lords. Perhaps she had fallen victim to some horrid monster of the wilderness, something no one had ever encountered before.