Book One – Chapter 15

Yu slumped forwards, rested his elbows on his knees and pressed his forehead against the cool edge of the washbasin. And then he just wallowed in his own misery.

Until voices drifted to him.

“… cannot see!” A deep, guttural voice, rough like stones grinding together.

“No! They will notice from my eyes!” A young female. Strained. Exhausted. Tairan?

“Maybe when they look! Maybe not!” The first voice again. A borman, judging from the heavy accent, the deep timbre. “Maybe frostbite?”

Yu stiffened. Without meaning to, he had shut out the guild when he had shut himself in — and opened his senses for the voices beyond the storm. The words reached him clearly, as if spoken right beside him. He knew they were not. Voices from the distance had a strange quality. Hollow yet sharp. Real yet displaced. They were in his head.

More voices joined.

“They will be competent enough to distinguish her, regardless of the markings!” This was a new voice with an odd sort of echo, as if two people were saying the exact same, overlapping.

They were shouting at each other. They must be travellers, outside, likely sheltered were they were at least somewhat protected from the winds.

“They will sense her! They will smell her!” This one was harsher, rough-edged. Most likely male. Beastkin. “We will appeal and deal! Some places fear witches too much to reject them!”

Yu’s head shot up.