Book One – Chapter 17

Yu did not need to find the right people. What he needed was the right moment and the right excuse to leave. Quietly. Sensibly. Without bothering anyone. Without disturbing anyone else’s plans or loyalties or ambitions. Yu had to slip away in such a way that no one, friend or foe, would have reason to suspect anything.

For the first time, Yu lifted his head.

What about this new group? Could they offer him a way out?

He looked sideways.

The krynn was still crouched over the unconscious pair, with his hands working across their chests. He moved slowly and with clumsy precision, as if he wanted to do it much faster and needed all his focus to pace himself. It was like he barely understood what he was doing, hesitant and stiff and afraid to make everything worse. Every so often, the krynn would glance up at the borman for silent confirmation, even though the borman clearly had nthing to add to Estingr’s earlier instructions. For all his size and strength, he did nothing but hold the bodies close.

No. There was nothing to gain here. Not from them. Not with two of their companions unconscious and barely alive. Not with a witch in their midst. Not after Tirran had cut them off from the eastern Barnstream path. No, they were of no use. If anything, they were as much pinned down as Yu. What even was their plan now? What could they possibly do, burdened as they were? Where would they go, if Tirran would not let them continue to the settlements?

Yu’s eyes dropped to the floor again.

This was where he needed to go. Back to the settlements. Back down the mountain and into proper civilisation, where there were real people and gates and a chance to send a warning.

There were no wizards to stop the raiders, not after the Shaira’s last purge. There was only the Mausoleum healer. They never attacked him. Probably because he never fought for the settlements. Likewise, he never offered shelter during an attack.. He sometimes healed the wounded, if there were any, but only after the witches were long gone. And for his healing, he demanded more compensation than what some of the people could pay in one lifetime. Yu had heard that he even tricked people into giving him things without healing them in the end. And sometimes, people went into the Mausoleum, ready to pay and to get healed, but then they never came back out again.

It made Yu angry to think of the Mausoleum wizard. Even now. It always did. It made him mad.

He swallowed all of it. This was not the time for such distractions.