The Tales of the Wanderer Volume One: A Book of Underrealm (The Underrealm Volumes 4) Garrett Robinson (poetry books to read TXT) 📖

would think of that. Oku trusts her. Animals have a sense for these things, and none more so than wolfhounds. For a weremage to be able to fool Oku, they would have to be so powerful that you would not have survived the long road you took to get here.”

I glared at them. “But you just said Oku’s trust of you was no proof.”

Tuhin shrugged. “Not if I am a strong enough weremage.”

“This is making my head hurt,” said Mag. “We should be getting back to Opara, lest we return after dark.”

“Then you must take the three of us to the Mystics,” said Tuhin. “They will know the same trick I have already told you, and they will tell you I am who I appear to be.”

“The Mystics?” cried Hoko in terror.

All of us turned to look at her—including Riri, who suddenly fixed the girl with a razor-sharp glare.

“Why, yes,” I said. “We need to know what happened to the weremage who had been working with you. And no one is better at gathering information than the Mystics.”

“I will tell you!” shrieked Hoko.

“Hoko!” said Riri sharply, tensing in my grip.

“The weremage went to the Telfer homelands! Tokana!” cried the girl.

I froze.

“Hoko!” snarled Riri. “Dark damn you, you traitorous sow!”

“Save your breath,” said Hoko, who sounded close to sobbing. “I have been under the Mystics’ knives before. I will not go there again for anything—not for you, and not for the Lord.”

The girl’s words rang in my ears. Tokana? My homeland? What would draw the weremage there?

“Why?” I demanded. I shoved Riri away and gripped Hoko by the shoulders. “Why Tokana?”

I had meant to shove Riri towards Mag. I failed.

She spun with my shove and charged at my back, bent almost double. I heard her just in time to step aside and turn to see what was the matter.

Riri caught Hoko in the stomach with her shoulder.

She did not stop. Both women pitched headfirst over the edge of the trench.

“No!” I cried, running to the edge. Mag leaped forwards and seized my arm, drawing me back.

Riri remained silent, but Hoko’s scream lasted an obscenely long time before being sharply cut off.

“They are gone,” said Mag quietly.

I ripped my arm out of her grip, and she let me. “Dark take me,” I said savagely.

“You were distracted,” said Mag. “And you have reason to be.”

I glared at her, but I could not do so for long. I turned away, even as Tuhin stood on the edge of the cliff, looking down to where they had fallen.

“We … we should investigate,” they said after a moment, sounding like someone coming out of a dream. “The stronghold, I mean. We should ensure no one else lurks within. And one of you must remain with me as a guard. Or mayhap we should stay together—I could heal this injury and overpower only one of you.”

“Sky above, Tuhin, you are not the weremage,” I growled.

They gave me a grim look, only faintly amused now. “You do not know that.”

“Let us all search Maunwa, then, and be quick about it,” I said gruffly. “The sooner we can return to Opara, the better.”

“Do not look too worried,” said Tuhin. “If the weremage is heading for Tokana, that means you can set your steps for home.”

They could hardly have said anything more worrying, though of course they could not have known that. I struggled to don a smile. “That is good news, at least.”

But it was not. I knew it, somehow. Just as I knew that this had become very, very personal.

I did not know exactly why the weremage had turned her steps towards Tokana. But I knew, down to my core, that my family was in terrible danger.

In raven form, Kaita watched the whole thing from the air. When we captured Hoko and Riri, she spun lower in the sky so that she could hear. Hoko told us that the weremage was headed for Tokana, and Kaita felt an enormous wave of relief.

That relief turned to grim satisfaction as Riri and Hoko pitched over the cliff.

Dark take her, the fool, thought Kaita.

Her anger at Riri faded quickly. Now she was free to journey to Tokana. She would travel by air. It would be exhausting, but she had the strength. The end of the game drew near.

Kaita could not defeat Mag herself. But even the Uncut Lady would be helpless against the trolls.

And if she were not—if even the trolls proved unequal to the challenge—Kaita had Rogan’s word. If the trolls could not finish what she had started, then Father would give her the strength she had long craved.

But that would come later, if it came at all. In the meantime, at long last, she was going home.

Albern fell silent and glanced down at Sun. The corners of his mouth curled up, though he seemed to be trying to fight the smile. Sun frowned. What was the old man smirking for? Then she realized she was fidgeting with her fingers as they walked. A flush crept into her cheeks as she stilled her hands.

“You look fit to choke on whatever unasked question plagues you,” chuckled Albern. “Spit it out.”

Still she hesitated, and when she did speak, it was slowly. “You said you would only give me certain stories. I do not want to ask for a tale you do not wish to tell.”

“I will only tell you what I wish, but you can always ask,” said Albern. “I do not promise to answer, but I might.”

That was good enough for Sun, and her words came out in a rush. “Whenever you speak of Kaita, you say she thought of Calentin—and now Tokana, I suppose—as ‘home.’ Was it the Shades’ home, or her home? Did she live there as a child? Did you know her?”

Albern shook his head. “I did not know her, because she was not a noble.”

Sun frowned. “What does that matter? I was a noble as