"I'll ask him if he knows how far away my mother is."

Before Wynn could grab him, Leesil quick-stepped up beside Osha.

"A-hair-a too bith-a ka-naw, too brah?"

Osha’smouth gaped.

All four elves came to a sudden halt. Any tentative curiosity in Osha’s long face turned to horror. He glared at Leesil, and a stiletto appeared in his hand.

Magiere dropped a hand to her falchion's hilt. Before she could do anything stupid, Wynn scurried in between Osha and Leesil. She turned on Leesil angrily but never got out a word before En’nish thrust her heel into his tailbone.

Leesil sprawled forward as En’nish drew her long stilettos. Wynn floundered out of Leesil's way, stumbling back into Osha, who caught her under the arms. She flinched at the sight of his blade appearing in front of her.

Leesil tried to roll, but the chest on his back hindered him. Even Urhkar was caught off guard as En’nish rushed in. Leesil pulled his own stiletto as he spun around on his knees.

"Bartva'na!" Sgaile barked at En’nish and grabbed the back of Magiere's pack. "Stop this now! He does not know our tongue."

En’nish slapped away Urhkar's attempted grasp and slashed at Leesil's face. He ducked and spun on one knee, swinging a stiletto on his pivot. En’nish bent rearward at her midsection like a willow branch, and the blade tip cleared her stomach. She tried again to close on Leesil.

Chap rushed in and snatched her cloak from behind. He bolted around her side, twisting her in its cloth. In the same instant, Wynn lunged from Osha’s support. En’nish, intent with fury and shocked at a majay-hi hobbling her, did not see the sage coming.

Wynn swung, and her palm cracked loudly against En’nish’s cheek.

"This is your oath at its best?" she shouted in Elvish, and then gripped her throbbing hand. It was a challenge to En’nish, and even to her comrades, for this violent breach of guardianship.

En’nish turned upon the sage. When she raised one of her blades, Urhkar angrily grabbed her wrist. She held her place without resisting him.

Wynn shook with sudden fear as she turned and found Sgaile on guard beyond the tip of Magiere's falchion.

"Is this what the oath of guardianship is worth among your people?" Wynn asked.

"No!" he answered flatly, and his hard gaze turned on En’nish. "You have our deep regret for this shame… it will not occur again."

Osha still looked offended, but his expression melted into shame as Wynn glared at him.

"Leesil does not know what he said," she explained. "It was a mistake, not an insult."

Osha nodded and sheathed his blade as Leesil did the same.

"Please… put up your weapon," Sgaile said. With an open hand he cautiously tilted Magiere's falchion aside and then closed on En’nish. "Ajhdjhva ag'us dicheva!"

En’nish spun away and stalked past all of them into the lead. Osha followed her with his eyes lowered as he passed Sgaile. Leesil stood baffled.

"What just happened?" Magiere asked.

Wynn ignored her, turning all her fear-fed anger on Leesil. "What did I tell you?"

"All I asked was how far to-"

"No, you did not!" Wynn clenched her fists. "You said his mother is 'nowhere', and that he knew it… and you said it wrong, even at that. You called his mother an outcast!"

Magiere let out a deep sigh.

"Wait…" Leesil started. "I didn't mean-"

"Shut your mouth!" Wynn shouted. "And never again speak Elvish to an elf!"

Leesil blinked. He looked down at Chap for help, but the dog just licked his nose with a huff.

"That would be best," Sgaile added quietly.

"Don't blame him," Magiere warned. "However he bungled his words, it had nothing to do with En’nish."

"Yes… and no," Sgaile replied. " En’nish is the daughter of Osha’s mother's sister by bonding… similar to what you call marriage."

"So she takes it on herself to step in?" Magiere asked."Because she's his cousin by marriage?"

"No, not precisely," Wynn added. "Relations are a serious matter among elves-and more complex than Sgaile can state in your language."

Magiere shifted toward Sgaile. "That had nothing to do with kin."

"She is… was… the boijt'ana of Groyt'ashia," Sgaile said pointedly. "The closest term you would know is a 'betrothed'."

The name was unfamiliar to Wynn. She was about to ask when Sgaile turned sharply away to follow Osha.

Brief puzzlement passed quickly from Magiere's face and her gaze dropped as her dark eyes slowly closed. Wynn heard the creak of leather as Magiere squeezed the falchion's hilt.

"Who is Groyt'ashia?" Wynn asked.

When no answer came, she looked down at Chap, but the dog's eyes remained on Leesil. Without acknowledgment, Chap quickly trotted after Sgaile.

Magiere wouldn't look up. She sheathed her falchion and strode after the others.

Leesil just stood there in cold silence.

"What did you do?" Wynn asked, not certain she wanted to know.

Groyt…Groyt'ashia.

Magiere had heard the name once before. It echoed in her head with Brot'an's voice as he had shouted it in Darmouth's crypt. She'd turned to see Brot'an's young accomplice and Leesil trying to kill each other. It ended with Leesil soaked in blood-again-as it spilled from Groyt's split throat.

It hadn't been Leesil's fault. Not that death. But Magiere couldn't stop from wondering. How many women-or men-in Leesil's life path waited for someone who would never return?

It wasn't his fault. Not for what Darmouth had made Leesil do to survive… do for his parents' lives, and all because of what Nein'a made him. Magiere closed on Sgaile from behind.

"It was self-defense," she said quietly, so the others couldn't hear.

"I am aware of the events involved," he answered without stopping.

"You knew… and you let En’nish come with you?"

"It was not my choice to make."

"No more dodging!" Magiere snapped, too loudly, and grabbed Sgaile's shoulder.

He spun about, jerking free before she could get a true grip. "You know nothing ofan'Croan ways," he warned, "with your simple-minded human…"

He stopped himself as his eyes wandered across her face and hair.

Magiere didn't understand the term he'd used, but she grew unsettled under his scrutiny.

She wondered if he noticed her appearance, maybe how it differed from other humans'. Or had Brot'an spoken to his kind of what he'd seen of her during their fight in the crypt? How much did Sgaile know?

"Then tell me a little," she said. "Make it simple for a… human, if you wish."

"You were offered guardianship because of Leshil," Sgaile said, once more composed and formally polite. "That will be honored at all cost. How the events in Venjetz are seen in the end will depend on what status Leshil truly has with our people… and perhaps our caste. It is not my place to speak. You will wait until he has spoken with Most Aged Father."

With visible restraint, Sgaile turned and stepped onward.

Magiere bit back another demand. Regardless of Sgaile's personal feelings, it seemed he would stand by his words and strange customs, obeying his superiors and doing what had been asked of him.

"And what are the sean'Croan?" she asked instead.

Sgaile slowed. "It is the proper name of our people, versus your human labels. Your short companion would say…Those of the Blood."

Magiere's stomach turned. Everything concerning Leesil came back to blood.

Chap walked behind Magiere as she argued with Sgaile. He reached for any memory surfacing in the man's thoughts.

Flashes of human faces surfaced in Sgaile's mind. He was well traveled, from what Chap caught. It was as if the elf searched for a comparison to Magiere's pale skin and red-stained black hair. Nothing came close, and

Sgaile remained perplexed. He did not know what Magiere was and saw her only as some oddly pale human.