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order to kill this same enemy Most Aged Father feared. The thought rankled
Chap, and he growled.
Leesil was no one's tool. Why had Nein'a wanted a half-blood for the plans of
her dissidents? And what did Most Aged Father really want with Leesil?
Chap steeled himself for what would come at Crijheâiche, and what he might
have to do to protect Leesil, Magiere, and Wynn from all sides.
His thoughts were broken as the white majay-hì loped toward him from the
trees. Wynn had once compared her to a water "lily."
Chap agreed.
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Lily kept her distance, glancing hesitantly at those walking with Chap along
a wide-open way through the forest. Whenever the breeze shifted Chap's way, he
caught her earthy scent.
His thoughts tumbled through memories passed between them in the night
outside the elven enclave. He wanted more of this more of her. He wanted to
run with Lily among the pack. Or without them.
Was this what passed between Magiere and Leesil? A depth of longing he had
not felt since Eillean had taken him from his siblings?
Lily yipped once in a standing pause, watching him. He did not need touch, as
the other majay-hì did, to see her memories. Images of leaves and brush and
grass and trees whipping by in the night filled his head. He caught a flash of
silver gray running beside her.
A memory of him.
Chap remained beside Wynn, but he often turned his eyes to Lily.
Past nightfall, Leesil sat staring into the campfire that Magiere stoked with
more wood. Wynn sat on the ground and struggled with a hay-bristle brush
Leanâlhâm provided. But try as the sage might, she couldn't get the last mat
out of Chap's coat. The dog's restless fidgeting didn't make it any easier.
At a light footfall, he turned to find Leanâlhâm approaching. She crouched
near him, her expression uneasy. Perhaps the encounter with the âruin'nas
still troubled the girl. It certainly troubled Leesil.
Leanâlhâm watched Wynn's efforts and Chap's scant tolerance with fascination.
The girl obviously hadn't known what the sage intended with the brush.
Osha had gone in search of food, and Sgäile stood at the clearing's far side,
speaking in low tones with Urhkar.
"Magiere, come and hold him down," Wynn called, and Chap tried to belly-crawl
out of reach. "He is a mess, but he will not let me finish."
"You hold him, and I'll do it," Magiere said.
Chap saw her coming. With a rumble, he licked his nose.
"I saw that," Magiere warned.
"You lose again," Leesil said to Chap. This resulted in another
tongue-and-nose gesture just for him.
Leanâlhâm leaned forward. "Why are you talking to the majay-hì?"
Before Leesil could think up an answer, Wynn pounced on Chap and grabbed his
neck with both arms. Magiere dropped on her knees, pinning the dog's
hindquarters as she took up the brush.
"Oh& you stink!" Wynn said, wrinkling up her face.
The sight of the two women wrestling the dog into submission, and getting as
dirty as he, was almost amusing enough for Leesil to forget the day's
troubles.
"No! Do not treat him that way!"
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Leanâlhâm's thick accent made her words hard to catch, and she jumped to her
feet indignantly before Leesil understood. She grabbed for the back of Wynn's
coat, and Leesil shoved his arm in her way.
"He is a guardian of our forest," the girl shouted. "Let him go!"
Both Magiere and Wynn froze and stared at Leanâlhâm.
Chap's ears perked as he ceased struggling. He rolled crystalline eyes and
huffed once in agreement with Leanâlhâm's outrage. It sounded a bit too
pompous to Leesil.
A way off, Sgäile and Urhkar looked on, and neither appeared pleased.
"It's all right," Leesil said, pulling Leanâlhâm down on the log. "Chaps a
bit of a pig. If we don't clean him, he gets unbearable& and he knows it."
Chap growled at him.
"Oh, be quiet!" Wynn snapped, and clamped the dog's snout in her little
fingers. "Magiere, finish it."
"And if he didn't really like it," Leesil added, "he wouldn't make it so easy
for them."
Leanâlhâm's face filled with hesitant wonder. "He& understands?"
Chap shook his snout with a grunt, nearly toppling Wynn forward into the
dirt.
Leesil sighed. They couldn't hide Chap's unusual intelligence forever, but
perhaps it was best not to answer too many questions.
"Done," Magiere said and got up. "It might have gone quicker if you'd kept
your butt still!"
Chap wrinkled a jowl at her and slunk off to the clearing's far side. He
flopped down to clean himself. Wynn picked herself up, brushing dirt from her
breeches.
Leanâlhâm was still watching Chap.
Leesil studied her face. A small loop of her light brown hair was pulled
through a wooden ring and held there over a crosswise wood peg. From there,
her hair fell down her back in a tail. Her skin was a bit lighter in tone than
his, which was strange considering he had more human blood. She turned to warm
her hands by the fire, her expression suddenly too serious.
"You all right?" he asked.
She only nodded.
"If elves don't spill the blood of their own," he asked, "why did you cry
out?"
"I have only seen the Äruin'nas a few times," she answered, "but never so
many at once& and so angry."
This was the most Leesil had heard the girl say to anyone but Sgäile or
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Gleann.
"They wanted to kill your companions," she added, "humans, but& they hated me
the same way& and you. The words they spoke& terrible things& before my uncle
came."
Leanâlhâm went silent, staring into the fire.
"People say terrible things about me all the time," Leesil answered. "Don't
let it bother you."
He heard a hiss, and looked up. For an instant, he thought Magiere's vicious
expression was aimed at the girl. She stepped slow and steady in front of him,
until she stood beside Leanâlhâm while facing away from the fire. Leesil
couldn't see her face.
Magiere's fingertips gently touched Leanâlhâm's shoulder. The girl jumped
slightly, but Magiere headed off across the clearing toward Sgäile and Urhkar.
What was she doing? Leesil was about to go after her before she stirred up
another conflict.
"You are fortunate to have the right hair and eyes," Leanâlhâm said.
"What?"
"Your hair is light," she said. "And your eyes are amber. You look more like
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