Барб Хенди - First and Last Sorcerer

He required only Léshil, though to keep the half-blood compliant might require Magiere as well. Then there was Chap, the only one present who knew the resting place of two other orbs. Guiding and controlling Léshil was the way to coerce the majay-hì. And for the fourth orb hidden with the dwarves in their underworld, Brot’ân’duivé needed to reinforce Wynn’s trust.

“Leesil, lower your voice!” Wynn finally broke in. “There’s no point arguing over who has what and where. Not until we know why all of you were imprisoned.”

Ghassan listened as Leesil, whose name the two elves pronounced strangely, grudgingly recounted being captured. The half-breed and the other prisoners had been dragged to the domed audience chamber before Prince Ounyal’am.

They had been more fortunate than they knew, for Ghassan had been present as well.

In that chamber, they had been accused of mass murder. He now reasoned that the assassins who had done the actual killing, disguised as two shé’ith, had been present as the prisoners’ accusers. Most of these details, including some that no one else knew, were of little use at present to Ghassan.

“A few sages were there and one of them panicked at seeing us,” Leesil added. “There was also an aging man, dressed in the same colors as the guards, who told the prince to have us locked up.”

“That would be Counselor a’Yamin,” Ghassan added bitterly. “The sage in gray was High Premin Aweli-Jama.”

Wynn’s attention shifted to him. “Your high premin was there?”

Ghassan nodded curtly. “But not my high premin anymore.”

“No trial and not much talk after that,” Leesil finished. “We were dragged away and locked up until tonight.”

Wynn hesitated and then, “Why is Magiere ... worse off than the rest of you?”

Ghassan wanted to hear this as well, but the half-breed fell silent and hung his head. The condition of the “dhampir” was a grave concern. The only reason for this night’s risks was to gain control over someone who could track an undead.

Wynn blinked rapidly and looked away ... and downward. Ghassan traced her gaze to the huge gray dog who had followed her out of the bedchamber. When Wynn cringed, clenched her jaw, and then shuddered, Ghassan eyed the one called Chap.

He knew that Wynn had some hidden way to communicate with Shade. At a guess, and by the way Wynn locked gazes with the gray one, the same held true between them. So what had Chap passed to Wynn just then?

“Only by her screams,” Leesil whispered as if in answer to a different question than the one Wynn had asked. “That was all I had to know she was still alive ... for so many days and nights.”

Ghassan grew anxious still watching the gray majay-hì. It took little effort to quickly raise glyphs, signs, and sigils in his mind’s eye. Try as he might, he could not catch a single thought in the dog’s mind. When he turned that incantation upon Wynn, she had no true memories to glimpse concerning what Chap might have related. And the last one Ghassan focused upon ...

Leesil’s mind was overwhelmed with one vivid moment.

A figure in a gray robe that scintillated softly with signs, symbols, and sigils filled Ghassan’s awareness. That someone had found the dhampir to seek information from her—and her alone. By what had been said or implied, prolonged interrogation in only thought had another purpose beyond gaining that information.

She and her torment could be used as a way to force something out of one of the others.

Before Ghassan could attempt to read more, Wynn stepped into the table’s edge and fixed on him.

“What are you up to?” she asked.

For that instant, she startled him.

“Who helped you get them out?” she went on. “You start answering or—”

“Or what?” he shot back, for his patience had thinned.

When she stalled, he quickly raised another set of symbols and shapes in his mind’s eye. As he fixed those onto her surface thoughts, Chane stepped in behind her and dropped a hand on her shoulder.

Wynn’s mental presence vanished from Ghassan’s awareness, and every sigil and sign he had raised vanished amid his shock.

Chane’s other hand settled on the hilt of one sheathed sword. Wynn did not even glance away, as if this were all something familiar to her.

“What in seven hells is going on?” Leesil demanded.

When he tried to step in, Osha raised an arm to block him and nodded to Wynn. The black majay-hì struggled up, shifted away from the table, and stood near Chane, watching.

“Chap?” Leesil asked. “Wynn?”

Ghassan watched her, and she kept her eyes on him as she waved off the half-blood.

“Answer me!” she demanded. “What do you know about the one who tortured Magiere? Chap says it was somehow done without touching her.”

The last part was the most telling. None of them greatly concerned him, though he needed to regain control and steer their focus. Only the elder elf concerned him. That one faced him across the table, apparently relaxed but unblinking with his hands in his lap and hidden from sight.

“Ghassan?” Wynn asked.

Perhaps he should have told her sooner. She might have been useful here and now, but nothing could be done about it. Keeping an academic tone, he looked her straight in the eyes.

“Do you recall me telling you that my sect had been guarding a prisoner?”

“Yes.”

How should he do this—slowly in hints or quickly for shock? “This prisoner has no corporeal body but vast arcane knowledge. It ... He survives by entering and taking control of the living. The closest word for it in your language might be a ... ‘specter.’”

No one reacted or said anything at first.

“How long have you known this?” Chane asked.

Again, the answer required more information than Ghassan wished to share. Perhaps the overprotective vampire would be a better foil than Wynn, but Ghassan continued to address her directly.

“My sect held him imprisoned for many, many years. Khalidah once served what you call the Ancient Enemy as the leader of a trio known in records as the Sâ’yminfiäl ... the Masters of Frenzy. Others such as the dwarves of ancient times called them the Eaters of Silence.”

All of Wynn’s ire faded from her oval face as her mouth fell open. Obviously part of what he related was familiar to her; he knew this and used it. She had uncovered much in her blundering and stubbornness, including those infamous texts she brought back from across the world, which had been seized by her own guild branch.

“Your sect had this thing imprisoned?” she finally got out. “Now it’s loose ... and you didn’t tell us? It will be hunting you , anyone with you, and—”

“You were never in danger while with me,” Ghassan interrupted. “And Khalidah now has more desirable prey.” His impatience and frustration took hold. “The arrival of your foolish friends, and their own ignorance, drew the specter to where it most wanted to be: the imperial grounds. Any safeguards that I and mine placed there may no longer be enough!”

The gray majay-hì rumbled and looked up, and Leesil immediately lowered his eyes to meet its gaze. Chap’s head then swiveled toward Wynn, and she looked to him as well.

Ghassan was at a loss for what any of this meant as Wynn turned back to him.

“How?” she asked. “Chap wants to know how you could have protected us.”

Ghassan blinked at this phrasing as well as her point of focus. Behind her, the undead’s gaze shifted between the others, one by one. Worse still, the elder elf had neither spoken nor moved, and Ghassan could not help a quick glance at Brot’an.