“How will they find us, if finding us is what they want to do?”
“I suppose we’ll see if they have any skill in tracking,” he said. He paused, then shrugged. “I’m not particularly worried about either one of them, actually. They’re annoying, but harmless.” He paused, then looked at her seriously. “I’m sorry for what Ardan said to you.”
She only smiled faintly. “You repaid him well enough, I daresay. I’m not overly concerned with having his good opinion.”
“Nor am I,” he agreed. “Now, love, what of you? Did you pass the time pleasantly whilst I was gone?”
She blew her hair out of her eyes. “I’m not sure pleasant is the word I would use, but I at least had a hot fire at my feet over the past pair of hours.” She paused. “I put the fragments together for you.”
“Which I gave you no choice but to undo,” he said, rising to fetch a table. “I’ll help you, if you like.”
She shook her head. “You nap whilst I see to it.”
He couldn’t deny he needed even but a quarter hour’s rest, so he accepted the offer and closed his eyes. He wasn’t sure he slept, but even sitting still without having to watch his back was a welcome relief. He opened his eyes to find Sarah watching him.
Without undue disgust in her expression, it should have been noted.
He smiled. “You didn’t bolt.”
She shook her head. “Not yet.”
“You’ll tell me before you decide to, won’t you?”
“If you like.”
“I like,” he said, then he straightened and shook the sleep out of his mind. He looked over the scraps of parchment laid out on the table before him. “Find anything interesting?”
“Put it back together, then I’ll tell you.”
He looked at her sharply, but she was only watching him steadily. He nodded, then restored the page to what it had been. He turned it toward him and sighed at the sight of his father’s spell of Un-noticing. He did what he always did when faced with that sort of thing, which was to roll it up and stick it down his boot. Hopefully it would stay there this time. He looked at Sarah only to find her still watching him expectantly.
“Well?” he asked.
She slid a small piece of parchment toward him, torn on two edges and scorched on the other two.
“This didn’t fit,” she said.
He picked it up, looked at it, then felt the blood drain from his face.
“Ruith?”
He shook his head. “I am well.” He realized too late that she was halfway out of her chair to come over and presumably keep him from falling out of his. “For the most part,” he said faintly, “though should you still feel the need to aid me, you might go ahead with it.”
She sank back down into her seat. “I think you’ll manage without my holding you up. What is that a piece of?”
“I think,” he said slowly, “that it is from my father’s spell of Diminishing.”
“Then we’ve found a clue as to who took it from you,” she said with relief. “Perhaps Daniel found a way to cut through that spell—”
He shook his head. “Nay, this isn’t the half your brother had—the half we took from him, then I lost.” He paused. “It’s from the first half.”
Her mouth fell open. “The first half?”
He could only nod.
She suddenly looked as winded as he felt. “And how did it find itself on the plains of Ailean?”
“I have no idea,” he said, “but I imagine we should find out.”
“How would Daniel have come by it?”
“That, my love, is perhaps the most unsettling question we’ve had to answer yet.”
“It could have been an accident,” she said promptly. “Perhaps Daniel was being followed by someone and he—this unknown mage—feared discovery and left it behind in a fit of panic.”
“’Tis possible,” he conceded. That was, in truth, the most obvious answer.
But who could that panicky mage be and where was he now? And what if the scrap of spell hadn’t been dropped accidentally?
“I don’t like the thoughts crossing your face,” Sarah said suddenly.
“See them, can you?” he asked uneasily.
“I’m surprised to find that I can.” She sat up and rubbed her arms briskly. “You should sleep in truth. I can keep watch for a bit.”
“We could,” he said slowly, “or we could press on and see if you notice anything as we fly. I imagine we daren’t ride given what the surrounding forests are likely full of.”