"Where are you going?" Tamis asked in genuine confusion as she approached. She pulled off the leather band that tied back her short-cropped brown hair and shook her head wearily. "Is this all of you there are?"
They welcomed the Tracker with weary smiles of relief, lowering their weapons and gathering around her. Kian and Wye reached out to touch her fingers briefly, the standard Elven Hunter greeting. She nodded to Panax, and then her gray eyes settled on Quentin.
"I've just come from Bek. He's waiting a couple of miles back."
"Bek?" Quentin repeated, a wave of relief surging through him. "Is he all right?"
There was blood on her clothing and scratches on her smooth, tired face. Her clothes were soiled and torn. She didn't look all that different from him, he realized. "He's fine. Better off than you or me, I'd say. I left him in a clearing at the edge of the ruins to watch over the seer while I came looking for you. We're all that's left of our group."
"We lost Rusten," Kian advised quietly.
She nodded. "What about the others? What about Ard Patrinell?"
The Elven Hunter shook his head. "Couldn't tell. Too much smoke and confusion. Everyone disappeared after the fighting started." He nodded at Quentin. "The Highlander saved us. If we hadn't had him and that sword, we would have been finished."
Tamis gave Quentin an ironic look. "It must run in the family. Look, you're going in the wrong direction. You're going inland instead of back toward the bay."
"We've just been running," Quentin admitted. He blinked at the Tracker in confusion. "What do you mean, 'It must run in the family'? What are you saying?"
"That young Bek saved us, as well. If it hadn't been for him, we wouldn't have gotten clear. He smashed those creepers as if they were made of paper. I've never seen anything like it."
Quentin stared at her. "Bek? Bek did that?"
She studied him carefully. "Didn't he tell you? Or did he just discover it for himself, I wonder? He didn't seem all that sure about what he was doing, I'll grant you. But to have that kind of power and not know anything about it ... Well, maybe so. Anyway, this is what happened."
She related the details of their escape, of how they had fled back through the ruins, the three Elven Hunters, Ryer Ord Star, and Bek, until the creepers had hemmed them in. The other two Elves had died quickly, but she and the seer were saved when Bek used his voice to call up magic.
"It was eerie," she admitted. Her eyes held Quentin's. "He was singing, a strange sound, but it tore the creepers apart, like a wind or a weapon cutting through them. One minute they were there, killing us, and the next they were scrap." She nodded solemnly. "Bek saved us. And you don't know a thing about what I'm saying, do you?"
Quentin was thinking, Bek has magic? How could that be? He shook his head. "Not a thing."
He found himself wondering suddenly about Bek's background. Bek was the child of a cousin, but which cousin? Or was he related at all? Coran Leah had always been closemouthed about Bek's background, but that was the way he was with private information, and Quentin had never pressed the subject. But if Bek really did have the use of magic . . .
But Bek?
All of a sudden Quentin realized why Walker had wanted Bek to come along. It wasn't because he was Quentin's cousin. It was because he possessed magic as powerful as the Sword of Leah. Bek was every bit as necessary to the expedition as he was. Maybe more so. He never questioned for a moment that Walker would know about it. What he questioned instead was how much the Druid knew that he was still keeping to himself.
"We have to get going," Tamis advised, drawing him away from his thoughts. "I don't like leaving Bek and the seer alone. Even with his magic to protect him, he's still not experienced enough to know what to look out for."
They started back through the ruins, Tamis leading the way. When queried by Panax about what sort of trouble she had encountered on the way, she said that she suspected there were creepers hiding all through the ruins, but they showed themselves only in response to certain things. Maybe it was a signal of some sort. Maybe it was only when intruders entered restricted areas. Maybe someone or something was guiding them. But she hadn't seen a single one on her way back.
The Dwarf grunted and said there wasn't much more damage they could do anyway. Walker was missing and the expedition was in shambles. It was a miracle any of them were still alive.
But Quentin didn't hear any of it. He was still thinking about Bek. His cousin was suddenly an enigma, an entirely different person than he had seemed. Quentin had no reason not to believe what Tamis was telling him. But what did it mean? If Bek had the use of magic, particularly magic that was as much a part of him as his voice, where had it come from? It must be in his bloodline and therefore a part of his heritage. So who was his real family? Not some distant Leah cousins, he knew that much. There weren't any Leahs who'd had the use of that sort of magic, not ever. No, Bek was the child of someone else. But someone the Druid knew. Someone his father knew, as well, because otherwise Bek wouldn't have been brought to Coran as a baby.