Барб Хенди - The Night Voice

Again, Osha was nowhere to be seen.

Some fussing ensued when she approached those around the campfire.

Wayfarer wouldn’t leave her alone, though she didn’t mind. She was too relieved to see the girl was unharmed. And then there was Wynn—blind—with Chane hovering at the small sage’s side.

During the time that she’d been recovering, Brot’an’s and Ghassan’s bodies had been rendered to ash. Leesil and Ore-Locks hadn’t cared much about Ghassan’s receiving proper rites, but for some strange reason, Chap had insisted. Chuillyon promised to attend to returning their remains to their respective peoples, somehow.

As Magiere now sat by the fire, Leesil began recounting everything that had happened in the mountain. He was just finishing when they heard horses’ hooves approaching. Magiere tensed, but Leesil shook his head as he stood. Four Shé’ith riders came upslope out of the dark.

The leader dismounted outside the ring of tents and stepped toward them. He was unusually tall with several wounds on his face and arms. Chuillyon rose, hurried around the campfire, and met him halfway.

“Althahk, I thank you again for your assistance. The Enemy is gone this time ... for good and always.”

The tall one studied the strangely mixed group around the fire and perhaps fixed on Magiere the longest. It took effort for her not to glance away from his severe amber eyes, but he looked away instead of to the others.

“No one is to speak of what happened here—not ever to anyone,” he commanded. “We will not risk others coming to see ... and search.”

Such arrogance might’ve once put Magiere on edge, causing her to verbally take him apart, but not now, not after what she’d done.

Chuillyon nodded politely. “We are all sworn to silence.”

Althahk looked about. “Where is Osha? Does he come with the Shé’ith?”

Wynn shifted, turning toward that voice. “I think not.”

Althahk hesitated. By the furrowing of his brow, Magiere guessed Wynn’s answer was less than satisfying. But if the sage hadn’t said so, Magiere would have—and not so politely—for she had something else in mind for Osha.

“What of the Foirfeahkan?” Althahk asked. “I have not seen her since last night.”

That seemed to distress him, and Magiere followed his gaze to Wayfarer.

The girl lowered her eyes and looked only to the fire. Stranger still, Shade rose up at Wynn’s side and growled at the tall Lhoin’na. Chuillyon was slow in answering.

“I have sent Vreuvillä and ... and her tribe ... home with their dead.”

Magiere knew that “her tribe” referred to the majay-hì.

Althahk remained silent a moment longer. “Then you will do the same for the Shé’ith at dawn.”

He turned back and mounted without another word. Those with him did the same, and all four Shé’ith wheeled and left.

Chuillyon was quiet after that. And no one noticed—or at least no one said anything—as Magiere looked about the camp and beyond it. They also wouldn’t know how far she could see in the dark, though she wasn’t watching the riders.

—He left ... again ... upon hearing ... you ... rise—

Magiere found Chap watching her.

—Are you ... well ... enough?—

She didn’t answer, merely got up, and in leaving said, “I need to walk.”

Wayfarer grasped her hand, and Leesil was on his feet instantly.

“No you don’t!” he warned. “You’re staying—”

Chap’s sudden snarl cut off everything, and even startled Ore-Locks.

“You keep out of this,” Leesil said to Chap.

Magiere grabbed her husband’s arm. “I’m all right,” she whispered. “Just stay with Wayfarer. Maybe it’s time to tell her some things, and I won’t be long.”

—Find him ... before ... it is ... worse—

At that Magiere sighed in frustration, though she nodded to Chap. On her way out, heading west, she saw something more.

Her falchion lay in its sheath next to one tent. It didn’t matter that someone tried to clean the blood and other stains. That sheath would never come fully clean.

Magiere walked on into the dark.

She’d failed to control the horde and had instead driven it into a frenzy around her. That might have kept it from going after the others outside the mountain, but she’d killed more than undead out there. She’d endangered everyone, and what more could have happened if she hadn’t been stopped?

Everything that she, Leesil, and Chap had seen in those phantasms long ago in her homeland had been true. It simply hadn’t happened the way they’d seen. It hadn’t ended the same way either because ...

Magiere slowed upon hearing someone ahead coming upslope in the dark. And that someone stopped in three steps upon spotting her. Osha backed away and quickly turned.

“Stop!” Magiere ordered.

He dropped his head. She went for him, and when he heard her, he tried to walk off again.

She grabbed the back of his cloak and jerked him to a stop. When he refused to turn and face her, she forgot pretending that she was as unhealed as the others. Throwing an arm around him, she pulled him against herself.

“You listen to me,” she began softly.

Back in the camp, Leesil fidgeted and forced himself not to pace again, but he still kept looking off to where Magiere had vanished in the dark.

—Leave ... her ... alone—

He turned about to fix Chap with a stare.

—What she does ... is necessary—

Leesil turned toward the open darkness again, though Magiere was long gone.

—The worst wounds ... are not ... of flesh— ... —Healing his ... will heal ... hers—

Maybe Chap was right, if she found Osha.

“So, we are done,” Wayfarer whispered. “And everyone goes home, at least most.”

She sat staring into the fire.

“There is a place for all,” Chuillyon said, speaking to the girl, this time with his typical soft smile. “When I return the Shé’ith, I will take you to—”

“No,” Leesil cut in, also speaking to Wayfarer. “You’re going home, to a real home.”

She looked up at him. “I do not have a home anymore.”

“Of course you do! You’re coming with us.”

Everyone around the fire fell silent. Even Wynn raised her head. Shade’s ears pricked up, and Chap hauled himself up with a dog’s grumble.

Wayfarer’s eyes were locked on Leesil.

“If I don’t convince you,” he added, “I’ll never hear the end of it from Magiere. And if you’re around, maybe you can keep that mangy mutt clean.”

Chap growled and wrinkled his jowls.

Magiere tightened her arm around Osha every time he tried to pull free. He still hadn’t said a word.

“You stopped me when no one else could!” she told him. “No one else could’ve done what you did, made that shot ... or I wouldn’t be here.”

She felt him shudder.

Magiere half pulled, half stepped around Osha. When he turned his face away, she took hold of it, though he was taller than she was. She forced him to look at her.

“You saved me,” she added, more softly this time. “Don’t you ever think of it another way.”

There’d been too much harm done because of her. He’d suffered more than most would for skills that no one else had. Certainly Brot’an, if he’d been there, could’ve taken that shot, but only Osha had done so with any thought for her life.

He’d missed her heart and still stopped her. An anmaglâhk wouldn’t have bothered. No matter what he thought he’d lost, he was better than they were.

Osha finally looked at her, his eyes glassy. Before his tears fell, and she couldn’t stop the same ...