Night Season

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

A hand stroked the hair back from Kai's face. A warm hand, warm as the body propping her up… Nathan. She lay on the ground, her back against his front, her legs curled to one side. She heard one of the horses stamp, a tail swish.

The last time she checked in with her body, she'd been standing up.

"Are you all right?" he asked, voice low and worried.

Kai nodded. "That was… intense."

She didn't move or speak for a few moments. Nathan didn't, either. He must have had questions, plenty of them, but he was more patient than she was. Once assured she was back and okay, he relaxed, content to wait until she felt ready to talk.

"That's the longest I ever stayed in fugue," she said finally. "Not counting when I was little and got trapped there. This wasn't the same. I knew I could get out."

"What happened?" he asked softly. "Your warning worked. I could see that much."

She and Nathan had been ready to turn in. She was getting used to sleeping rough, though she had wistful thoughts of mattresses most nights. Their sleeping bags were excellent quality, but the ground did not remind her much of a bed. Something had alerted him, some sound or stray scent—he hadn't been sure what it was. He'd gone to the river's edge, staring out at the barge.

They'd gotten slightly ahead of it before stopping, knowing the barge would pull well ahead while they slept. Couldn't be helped, and they hoped to make up the time tomorrow. The river bent around some low, rocky hills up ahead; they'd be able to go straight and meet it around the bend. So the barge had still been upriver of them, but not by much.

He'd seen or sensed the assassins. So had Kai—but her seeing wasn't like his. Or anyone else's. She'd seen the shapes and colors of their thoughts. She was, she reflected, becoming too familiar with the way the intent to kill shaped thoughts.

She'd told Nathan she was going to warn the people on the barge, and she'd fugued.

And now she didn't want to tell him what she'd done. He hadn't freaked over her other abilities, but this… "I guess I'm freaked by myself. I did something I could have sworn wasn't possible."

He waited. Nathan wasn't one to use words unnecessarily.

"Those—what did you call them? Obab? They went for the woman. You were right about the sorcerer. He's a lupus. I guess you saw that?" She hadn't exactly seen it happen. Unlike Nathan, she didn't have super-duper night vision, and the glow from a single mage light at a distance wasn't enough for her to make out much. But she'd seen his thoughts change.

"They killed him," she said flatly. "Or as good as. I've seen animals die. I saw the dondredii die a few days ago. I know what it looks like—the way the thought bodies start to fade, to break up… I hated it! I couldn't just let him die, could I?"

Nathan was startled. "You had a choice?"

"He's lupus, so I thought… it seemed that if I could hold his thoughts together, keep him there a little longer, his magic would finish healing him." Now she twisted to look at him. "I didn't do it by myself."

"You asked me for power. I gave it to you."

That's what she'd thought—though she hadn't asked out loud. Her own well had emptied too quickly, before the lupus's body had finished purging itself of the poison.

She'd been deeply in fugue. She'd touched Nathan's thoughts with one of hers—just a touch, nothing that would stay topped in his thoughts and confuse or influence him. She'd asked, yes. And power had flooded into her.

Kai chewed on her lip. "You didn't know what I was doing. Shit, I didn't know what I was doing. I could have hurt you, taken too much—"

"I will always give you power if you ask. You wouldn't ask for evil reasons. For unwise ones, perhaps, but not evil."

"It was a lot of power."

Nathan smiled, the glint in his eyes pure amusement. Sometimes his sense of humor escaped her. "I have a lot of power, Kai. Better that you asked me than Dell. Her magic is strong, but shaped for her own use. And she doesn't replenish it as readily as I do mine."

It hadn't even occurred to her that she could draw from Dell, "I have so much to learn!"

"You are learning." He paused. "I'm glad the sorcerer lives. I think they may need him."

"You still think…"

"Oh, yes." He was certain as only one of his kind could be. "They are the ones my queen spoke of. They will find the medallion. Then, if necessary, we will take it from them."