I took a deep breath.  “I’m not sure," I answered Marda honestly.  "Masad said he would come back if he could after killing the majai.  If he’s killed them, he might be returning.”

            “Then you hope for him to return.”

            I looked her in the eye, unable to keep the uncertainty from my gaze.  “Do you think I’m crazy?  I know I might regret it, but I do want to see him again.”

            “Do you love him?”

            “No!  At least…no.  I don’t know him well enough to love him.  Besides, I have no reason to think he’s particularly interested in me, if what you say about him helping people is true.”

            Marda scoffed.  “No reason?  Goat’s ass!  I also told you that he has killed Seti targets from here to Atleah and down into Dervis.  If he didn’t find something of interest in you, you would be dead.”

            I shot her a doubtful glance but said nothing.  If he was a reluctant agent in rebellion, he would likely welcome any chance to outwit his captors.

            “What will you tell the Duri about the renaming that won’t happen?”

            My lip curled in involuntary disgust.  “I haven’t gotten that far yet,” I confessed. 

            Marda chuckled.  “Telling them the truth might not be the best plan at this point.”

            My eyes shot open in horror.  “Of course I won’t tell the truth!”  Thinking for a moment, “I could just tell them that I’ve decided I’d rather die than rename.”

            “Or you could run away now.”

            Her suggestion caught me completely off guard.  Run away?  “That’s crazy.  I don’t have any money, I’d get lost, and I don’t know anyone outside of Rhir.”

            “Oh, but you do,” Marda protested.  “It seems to me that you’re already gambling on Masad.  You’re gambling that he truly is helping you, and you’re gambling he’ll return to you.  If you’re gambling on him to this extent, why not raise the stakes?  He’ll know exactly where you are as long as you’re wearing the medallion.  Why not gamble that he’ll find you if you run?”

            I hadn’t thought of this.  Might Marda’s idea work?  No, it left too much to chance.  “I don’t trust him to that degree,” I answered her.

            “You trust him with your life, but you will not trust him to find you?”

            I shrugged.  “I’m not willing to risk everything on one bet.  People who do that lose everything sooner or later.  I might have to take that risk someday, but I’ll wait until I have no other choice.”

            Marda’s lips turned up in a hard smile.  “It would be foolish to run from the Duri anyway.  With their eyes and ears in this forest, they would find you quickly.”

            Had she been testing me?  “What do you think I should do, then?”  I didn’t want to distance myself from the Duri, but they wouldn’t be pleased at a second cancellation of the renaming.

            “As I told you yesterday, I can go with you to speak with them, if you wish.  I don’t understand completely, but the series of events surrounding you and your meeting Masad is too bizarre to be mere chance.”

            Was she going to say that some powerful maj had orchestrated all of this?  Surely not.  I looked at her apprehensively. 

            “Sometimes providence steps in,” she finished.

            I relaxed.  Fate was something I could accept.  Majai pulling the strings on my life?  Not so much.

            Marda held up a cautioning finger.  “I have questions.  If I’m going to help you, I want to understand as much as possible.  Do you know anything of the Seti who were chasing you initially?  Before you met Masad?”

            “No.  I never even saw them.  Trenwyn and I heard their hounds closing in behind us and that was when he called the elk.”

            “Hounds?”  Marda glared past me at the wall of shelves.  “Suahl.  It has to be.  But why would he be chasing…” She turned her probing gaze on me.  “Why would Suahl take time to follow you?  What did the maj who put the sign on you look like?”

            “Um, he was short and had blue eyes and light brown hair grown out past the tops of his ears.”

            Marda frowned.  “I don’t recognize that description.  That is not Suahl.  I don’t know which one that is—or was, I should say.  You’re sure there were hounds?”

            I nodded emphatically.  “That was the only reason I believed Trenwyn that there was anyone after us at all.”  Who was this Suahl?  Was Suahl a man or woman?

            “Then it must to be Suahl.  There were multiple hounds, not just one dog?”

            “Yes.”  At least, I was fairly certain I’d heard multiple animals.  Another thought occurred to me.  “Why could Trenwyn not control the hounds?” 

            “Suahl’s dogs are not natural.”  Something in her tone set me on edge.  “They’re night hounds, more akin to monsters or demons than dogs.  Of course, I only know what I’ve heard and read.”

            This sounded ridiculous, but three days ago majai and medallions with special powers would have sounded just as ridiculous and Marda didn’t seem one to exaggerate or pass on mere rumors.  “And who is this Suahl?”

            Marda laughed brusquely, but there was no mirth in the sound.  “Suahl is the northern Seti lord.  He controls this region and their envoys to the north and to the west.  What I can’t understand is why he’d be tracking you.  It wouldexplain why Trenwyn was eager enough to get away to risk your fading by calling an elk.”

            Suahl sounded like a sinister character indeed.  “I had the Seti death sign on me.  Doesn’t that explain why he was tracking me?”

            Marda gave me a reproachful glance.  “Suahl would not personally try to kill you unless there was something very unusual about you.  He would send those like the Night Riders.  Those like Masad.  Indeed, I am very surprised that Masad did not receive orders to kill you from his superiors if they know about you.  If he received them, he would have to obey.” 

            “But only if he received them from a majority, correct?”

            “I beg your pardon?”

            “If five majai know his name, then he would have to receive the order from at least three of them before it would be irresistible.  Right?”

            “Careful, Ethereal,” Marda warned.  “This is technically correct, but it’s not so simple.  Even if there were five and he only received the order from one, it would be very, very difficult to disobey without alerting the maj to resistance.  If alerted, the maj would likely call upon the others to confirm the order.  It is resisting in this way that gets many agents terminated.  And even if he could resist, resistance is painful.”

            “Physically?”  How was that possible?

            “You had a sign removed, did you not?”

            “Yes.” 

            “It is like that pain.  You could not feel or see the sign, yet it hurt to remove it.  That’s how it is disobeying orders once they have your true name.  The severity of pain depends on the person and the commanding maj.”

            I swallowed, remembering the pain of the sign removal.  Painful was a severe understatement.  “Maybe they don’t know he’s in the area.”

            Marda shrugged.  “Unlikely, but perhaps.  That still doesn’t explain why Suahl would drop whatever he was doing to chase you.  Your sign must have been unusually potent, which either means a very powerful maj gave it to you—not likely, as I’ve never heard of any Seti by the description you provided—or that you are a significant threat.  That is the only other way for a sign to become strong enough to draw Suahl after you.”

            “Hmm.”  I frowned.  While this appealed to my vanity—I liked thinking I was a significant threat—it was hardly helpful.  The more people that wanted to kill me and the higher their motivation to do so, the more complicated my life would become and I was barely keeping my head above water as it was. 

            “I will have to think about this and do some research,” Marda concluded.  “In the meantime, shall we take a walk up to see the Duri?”

            I cringed.  I didn’t want to but I supposed it was better to get it over with.

            Marda rose and collected our cups, taking them upstairs, and then returned a moment later, a basket in hand.  “Fresh bread,” she said, seeing my questioning gaze.  “It’s best to bring a goodwill offering if you are going to be a difficult guest.”

            Marda led the way out of the village by the same small opening I’d passed through for the sign removal.  Up the same path and then past where Trenwyn and I had stopped the time before.  The path grew steeper until we were climbing up the back side of the cliffs behind Rhir. Marda kept the same pace, not even breaking a sweat.  She was in good shape.

Coming around a bend in the path, I saw a great hall, all of great wooden beams, on top of the cliffs themselves.  That must be the steadhall.  I also saw several small animals hopping around on the rocks above.  Goats.  They were probably the only livestock the majai could keep on the barren cliffs.  

A dog barked and I realized we had just been announced.  A second later, a familiar wolf form appeared as a silhouette against the blue sky for a moment before bounding down to meet us with a yip.  Lucian reached us, sniffed my leg briefly, then attempted to stick his nose into Marda’s basket of bread. 

“That’s very rude,” she told the wolf sternly.  Lucian glanced up at her guiltily, then backed off a pace, content to play honor guard as we finished our hike, though his golden eyes never left the basket in Marda’s hand.  From the top of the cliffs, I could look down to my right and see the village spread out below, as well as the surrounding forest for miles.  I also made out two roads, one coming from the south and east and leading to the main gate, and another road leaving from the northwest gate near the stables.  This must be the courier route. 

When we topped the ridge, three men were descending from the large broad steps of the steadhall.  Two I recognized as Daryn and Trenwyn.  The other I recognized as well, but couldn’t remember the man’s name.  For once, all the majai were without cloaks and simply wore breeches and tunics like the villager men.  

Trenwyn did not look pleased to see us, and Daryn’s face wore a frown as well. 

“Good morning, gentlemen,” Marda greeted them cheerfully. 

 “You are quite unexpected, my ladies,” Daryn greeted us, not uncivilly but without warmth.

“Unexpected, but welcome, I trust,” Marda replied, her thin smile matching Daryn’s for coolness.  Maybe the Duri leader had met his match in her, for he seemed to back down.  “We have things to discuss together and I brought you all some fresh bread to go with your meals today as well.”

The third maj, the one whose name I’d forgotten, stepped forward, the only one who seemed genuinely pleased, and accepted the basket from Marda.

“Thank you, my lady,” he said, giving her a small but pleased smile.

“Mochlas, would you take the bread to the kitchens?” Daryn requested, “Trenwyn and I will meet with the ladies in the hall.”

The other maj nodded and disappeared and Daryn turned, leading the rest of us back up the steps and in through the large double doors of the steadhall on which animals of all kinds were carved into the wood.