frightening sense. He'd helped Rissad escape; had the younger brother now come to pay off the debt? Dora dragged her mind back over everything she could remember happening since Van Raighan had come to Federas, but there were just too many gaps. Too many opportunities for Rel to have talked to the brothers.
She clenched her fists again as another shiver ran through her. "It's possible, but..." It didn't seem like Rel, or at least the Rel she thought she knew. He wasn't a good liar. And what were they conspiring toward? Everyone assumed the younger Van Raighan had somehow been bought by predatory Wildren. Rissad's goals remained a mystery, and the only reason Rel hadn't been censured already was that no-one had been able to establish the impurity of his motives. And he'd seemed so focussed on stopping Rissad all the way here.
"Dora?" She looked up, blinking, to find Taslin studying her, concern written across the Gift-Giver's tightened brow.
"I don't-" Careful, Dora admonished herself. Answer the most recent question first, or the Wilder could lose the thread of the conversation completely. She managed a smile. "Sorry, I was thinking it through. It's possible that Rel was in league with them, but I can't see what his motive could be. We don't even know for sure that the Van Raighans were working together."
Taslin's face darkened. "That's true, I suppose. Have you any idea why they didn't just Gate Rel out of the cell?"
"Perhaps they were bargaining? His release in exchange for... something?" Dora folded her arms and glanced over her shoulder at the tunnel down to the cell. What was it Rel had said? All charges dropped, reinstated to full service immediately. Van Raighan couldn't do that, could he? If the rogue Witness so much as showed his face in Vessit, he'd be arrested instantly. But Rel had seemed so sure... "Rel seemed to think Van Raighan could do more than just get him out of the cell. Maybe even get the charges against him dropped."
"That should not be possible." Taslin narrowed her eyes, her violet irises shading to a dark, smoky amethyst in the distant torchlight. "Keshnu would never let the matter go so simply."
A trickle of chill ran down Dora's spine. "Might he have some leverage on Keshnu? Some blackmail material?"
"Blackmail?" The Gift-Giver's face flicked suddenly from angry to curious, her eyes widening, her head tilting to one side. "I've heard the term, but never learned what it means."
"Second Realm logic might well not have the concept. Your kind seem much more sensible than ours, sometimes." Dora rubbed a hand across her brow, lining up her explanation carefully. "If you know something that someone doesn't want made public, you can blackmail them - threaten to reveal it unless they do something for you. Is there anything like that among the Children of the Wild?"
Taslin's face twitched back into a frown, the jump seeming all the more unnatural - though typical of Wildren in general - for the Gift-Giver's usual fluency in human emotion. "There are... forms of Talerssi which work like that."
"Talerssi?" The word was obviously a Second-Realm term, but Dora had never heard it before.
Taslin started to answer, then her face went flat. She spun on the spot and broke into a run, and it took Dora a moment to realise that her footfalls made no sound. If she was neglecting basic details like that, it had to be important. Dora set off after her, wincing as the rock floor punished her already-battered feet.
They pelted down through the tunnels towards the main caves. Less bound by First-Realm logic, Taslin built up a lead even before the first scramble in the caves separated them. The Gift-Giver leapt six feet of near-vertical rock without breaking stride. Dora had to climb it, broken finger throbbing badly enough to leave her gasping. By the time she gained the top, Taslin was all but gliding down the sharp slope where the next cave dropped away into the one beyond.
Dora paused, panting. Every bruise she'd taken during the quake seemed to have come back doubled. There weren't a lot of caves between here and the Abyss, but it was going to be a painful trip. Was there any chance Taslin had gone somewhere else? Well, nowhere else in this direction would be any easier to get to. The chambers where Keshnu's subordinates made their quarters were past the Abyss. Never mind that the first thing that Taslin would do with any serious problem would be to report to Keshnu.
Dora let her breath return and began the clumsy business of clambering after the Gift-Giver. The Wildren were all under strict orders not to use Gateways near the Abyss, but Dora wished Taslin had thought to Gate them at least part of the way. Well, Second-Realm logic had no concept of shortcuts.
By the time she came to the top of the tunnel down to the Abyss, her head was pounding almost as hard as her heart. It took every ounce of willpower and concentration she could muster not to fiddle with her battered finger. She could feel the joint was out of place again. She was lucky the scabs at the back of her head hadn't pulled open. There was a new, painful scrape down her arm, red and angry.
With the aid of the wall and her less-injured hand, Dora made it down the tunnel without stumbling. Taslin stood with Keshnu by the towering concrete sheet of the door to the old research facility. The air bent around them with the flashes of Second-Realm communication, blurring their faces as if Dora peered at them through thick, poorly-blown glass.
She could feel the anxiety spilling out of both Wildren. Whatever Talerssi was, they were deeply worried about it. Dora locked her jaw closed, resisting the urge to interrupt and ask for an explanation. Even with the help of the Second Gift, she doubted she could understand enough to be any use, and she might only slow them down by distracting them.
Peering closer, Dora tried her best to follow the exchange, at least to work out precisely how they were each feeling. With the Realmlessness gaping somewhere deep beneath her feet, she didn't want to resort to breaking out of her First-Realm logic unless absolutely necessary. It limited her to little better than guesswork, but just thinking of the Realmlessness made her feet squirm despite their aches.
Taslin was a jumble of fright and rising alarm. Whatever possibility she'd thought of back in the tunnel, she clearly saw it as dangerous. By contrast, Keshnu seemed more angry. Each time the tide of communication turned to run from him to Taslin, it came tangled with eddies of uncontrolled fringe emotion, sure sign the senior Gift-Giver was off-balance. They didn't seem to be moving any closer to a conclusion or a plan.
"I come as bearer of Talerssi for Ashtenzim of the Separatists!" The voice echoed back from the Abyss so strongly that for a moment Dora couldn't tell where the speaker was. His accent was southern, all low tones and careful spaces. Dora spun around until her eyes fixed on the scrawny man now standing by the wall behind her. Black hair spilled in untidy curls down his cheeks, and his face pinched narrow toward his nose. He put her in mind of a rat, but maybe only because she knew he had to be Van Raighan.
Next to him, of all people in the Realm, stood Pevan, Rel's sister. She looked almost exactly as she had the last time Dora had seen her, but for her mousy hair being wind-ruffled and out of place. She shared Rel's features enough that the look of determination on her face was painful to watch, too reminiscent of her brother's stubborn rejection. She was wearing trousers again, too, though given that she was here and keeping company with the most wanted man in the First Realm, that was probably a lesser sin.
While Dora gaped, trying to grapple with too much surprise, Keshnu's voice swooped gently past her face, refined and surprisingly calm. "You cannot. Your logic lacks the capability."
"I claim Talerssi for the falsehood." Van Raighan... it wasn't a smile, exactly, but Dora could see the flare of his aura, and the sense of grim satisfaction that reclined in the lines of his frown. "I nominate Lienia of the Separatists as my colligator."
"I come as bearer of Talerssi for Lienia of the Separatists." Pevan snapped the words the instant the thief finished, the rhythm of her speech even faster and harder than normal.
Keshnu sent a vicious curse rippling through Realmspace, and Dora staggered as it slammed into the back of her knees. She forced back the surge of bile and focussed on Peva
n. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Who were the Separatists? The names sounded more Wildren than human.
Pevan flinched, at least, but before she could answer, Van Raighan put a hand on her arm. She glanced at the thief - they were the same height, or near as made no odds - and swallowed. Then she looked back up at Keshnu. Reflexively, Dora followed her gaze, turning to find the Gift-Giver only a few feet behind her, his face set in the thickest scowl she'd ever seen on him.
Pevan swallowed again, and, voice far less sure, said, "As bearer of Lienia's Talerssi, I stake Lienia's claim. Let Ashtenzim's claim be heard."
Keshnu's eyes, shining silver in the darkness, never wavered, but Dora saw the ripple of his appeal to Taslin. Would Pevan? Taslin's reply, in the frustrated negative, sent a shudder through Dora. Keshnu said, "Make your claim."
Van Raighan folded his arms, slowly and awkwardly, as if he was thinking about each part of the motion. It made him look like an inexperienced Wilder, and Dora got the impression it was deliberate. When he spoke, his voice came out clipped and precise, slower even than what had seemed his natural accent. "The Clearseer, Relvin Atcar, is to be released from your authority."
"State your grounds." Somehow, despite the Gift-Giver letting his