Page 43 of The Seeker
“Eccentric is one way of putting it.” Meera tapped her finger on her wineglass. “She’s wounded. It’s nothing a healer can fix. Not by normal means. Alosia, the haven’s healer, has tried. I’ve tried. Most of the time she is calm but erratic. She’ll work in the fields for a few days but then she might try to cut someone with a cane knife. She’ll say it was a joke later, but we all have our stories.”
“She’s dangerous.”
“Yes.” Meera shrugged. “She’s not the only Irina with scars.”
Rhys knew how true that was. “But you’re certain she’s met the Wolf?”
“From the bits and pieces I could pick from her memory, I’m certain of it.”
He thought about everything Meera had told him, about the wounded singer running from the violence of the Rending. About the mysterious “fox woman” who found her and saved her in the swamps. About the disparate signs and clues Meera had already accumulated.
“So the Wolf saved Sabine and someone—we have to assume it was her—delivered Sabine to a haven after the danger had passed.”
“Yes, to the haven that used to exist around Lafayette. It’s gone now.”
He waved a hand. “Immaterial. Other than that, no one has seen the Wolf for hundreds of years. Why?”
“She’s powerful. A legend. If she’s remained hidden for all this time, it must be her own choice.”
Rhys wasn’t terribly sympathetic to singers with vast amounts of knowledge they didn’t want to share. In their world, knowledge wasn’t to be hoarded. It was how they managed to survive.
“We need to find the Wolf,” he said. “Tell me more about Sabine’s mate, Roch.”
“Not her mate. But he loves her completely.”
“Who is he?”
“He’s younger than Sabine—he was born in the Lafayette haven. Very smart. Very quiet. His parents were part of the Acadian-related Irin who came from the north a long time ago. Old Ones, some others call them. They lived in the bayous until the Rending.”
“So Roch knows this area well.” Rhys pointed to the map.
“He knows more than you,” she said with a laugh.
“I know plenty.” Rhys fought back a smile. “I just don’t know much about swamp navigation.”
“Clearly.”
“And I may not know much about the Wolf. Yet.” He reached for the wine bottle and refilled their glasses. “But I do know about finding people.”
“This singer isn’t going to show up on a database.”
Rhys sighed. “Databases are only one of my tools. I was trained by my father, who was and remains the most tenacious librarian I know.”
“A tenacious librarian?”
“Themosttenacious.” Rhys smiled. “And if there is anything a librarian prides himself on, it is finding information even if we have to hunt.”
Meera smiled at him. “You like the hunt.”
He licked a bead of wine from the edge of his glass. “The hunt is the fun part.”
Meera shook her head. “Well, now that you have an idea of what we’re looking for, I truly hope you can help. Sabine is impossible, but perhaps there is an avenue—”
“Would Roch help us?”
“Roch?” She looked up. “Why?”
“You said the Wolf helped Sabine once. She’s old. Very powerful. Maybe she can help her again.”
