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cleared the close trees, he saw the elder.
The black-gray majay-hì stood on a massive cracked boulder jutting from a
hillside of sparse-leafed elms. The pack remained below, and he appeared to be
waiting and watching for something. The elder glanced upslope over his
shoulder, and Chap stepped back from the boulder's base to see.
Branches of a hillside elm appeared to move as if drifting through the trees.
Two eyes high above the ground sparked in the half-moon's light and came
downslope into clear sight.
Head high, the silver-gray deer descended, coming up beside the grizzle-jawed
old majay-hì. Its tineless curved antlers rose to a height no man or elf could
reach. The shimmer of its long-haired coat turned to pure white along its
throat and belly. Its eyes were like those of the majay-hì, clear blue and
crystalline.
The deer slowly lowered its head with a turn of its massive neck.
Lily nudged Chap, pushing him forward.
Chap did not understand. Was he to go to this creature?
She shoved him again and then darted around the boulder's side. She stood
waiting, and Chap loped after her. Before he caught up, Lily headed upslope,
and he followed. At the height where stone met the earth slope, she stood
aside and lifted her muzzle toward the silver deer.
Chap hesitated. What did this have to do with finding Nein'a?
Lily pressed against him. Along with a memory echo of the tall elven woman he
had first shown her, Lily showed him something more a memory of the pack elder
touching heads with one of these crystal-eyed deer.
Chap froze as the deer swung its head toward him.
He could not have imagined this creature might communicate in the same way as
the pack. A tingling presence washed over him as he peered into the deer's
eyes.
It felt so vague& like one of his kin off at a distance. And yet not quite
like them.
The majay-hl were descended from the first born-Fay, born into flesh within
wolves. Over many generations, the majay-hl had become the "touched" guardians
of these lands.
But there were others, it seemed, as Chap had almost forgotten.
Within this deer, the trace of its ancestry was stronger than in the
majay-hl, the lingering of born-Fay who had taken flesh in the form of deer
and elk.
Chap crept forward to stand below the tall creature this touched child of his
own kin. It stretched out one foreleg and bent the other, until its head came
low enough to reach his. Chap pressed his forehead to the deer's, smelling its
heavy musk and breath marked by a meal of wild grass and sunflowers. He
recalled the memories of Nein'a that he had shared with Lily.
The deer shoved Chap away, nearly knocking him off his feet. It stood silent
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and waiting.
What had he done wrong?
Lily slid her head in next to his, muzzle against muzzle. Images and
sounds filled his mind.
A majay-hl howling in the dark. An elven boy calling to another. Singing
birds, jabberingfra'cise , and the indignant screech of thetâshgâlh he had
trailed out of the mountain tunnels.
Chap grasped the common thread. The deer wanted a sound. He approached as it
lowered its head once more.
With the image of Nein'a in the clearing, Chap called forth a memory of her
voice& and that of any who had ever spoken her name.
Nein'a& Cuirinnena& Mother&
Wynn scurried around a domicile tree closest to the forest's edge. She still
did not know why there was no one on guard outside, and she could not find
Chap anywhere. But as she turned to go back before being discovered, she
heard footsteps.
She ducked low into hiding behind a tree, hoping whoever it was would just
pass onward. As she leaned carefully out, she never made it far enough to see.
Wynn's vision spun blackly on a wave of nausea.
Her legs buckled, and she slumped down against the tree's base, clinging to
its bulging roots as she covered her mouth and tried not to gag.
Bisselber-ries and smoked fish rose in her throat from the evening meal, and
the combined taste turned sour.
The loud buzz of an insect or crackling rustle of a leaf in the wind filled
her head.
There were no insects and not even a breeze around her in the dark.
Wynn had not heard these in her mind for more than a moon. The last time was
at the border of the Warlands.
Somewhere out in the forest, Chap now called to the Fay.
It had all started with a ritual in Droevinka, when she tried to make herself
see the Spirit element that permeated all things. She had been trying to track
an undead for Magiere, and then could not end the magic coursing through her
flesh. Chap had to cleanse the mantic sight from her. But on the border at
Soladran, it began to return in unexpected ways. She heard the buzz of
leaf-winged insects whenever Chap communed with his kin.
Wynn swallowed her food back down, trying to quiet her gagging breaths. She
braced for the onslaught of Chap's kin answering back in a chorus of
leaf-wings that would make her head ache and the world whirl before her eyes.
It never came. Only one leaf-wing buzzed in her mind. The sound began to
shape into&
Nein'a& Cuirin'nên'a& Mother&
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A chill ran over Wynn's skin.
Words? They came in the Elvish dialect of this land. Beneath those were the
same echoed in Belaskian and in her own tongue of Numanese. One voice spoke in
many tongues at the same time, all words with the same meaning. Again, no
chorus answered back.
Who did Chap call out to? Had he found Leesil's mother so close by? He would
never try to commune with her it would not work. To Chap's own knowledge, Wynn
was the only one who had ever eavesdropped on him while communing with his
kin. And she had never heard words before.
The buzz faded from her mind, leaving only a lingering ache.
But she had clearly heard those words.
There was no time to ponder another disturbing change in her unwanted gift.
Chap was out in the forest, seeking Nein'a, and Wynn could not let him go on
his own. How did he think he would speak with Nein'a, even if he found her
prison?
Wynn braced on the tree's trunk and worked her way to her feet. She looked
out into the wild and panic set in.
She could not navigate the forest without someone to lead her. It did not
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