Lupi 04 - Night Season

propping her up. “We really do need some liniment, or you won’t be able to move tomorrow.” He asked the groom about getting some—which she knew because her charm whispered the translation.
    Cynna’s eyebrows went up. Obviously Cullen now spoke Common Tongue. Somehow she’d assumed the transfer hadn’t taken place…but either the elf-woman had given him the spell before she glammed him, or even under a faerie glamour Cullen’s priorities were clear: spell first, then sex.
    â€œWhat was that word Harry used? Ashwa ,” she said as they left the stable, Cullen carrying a bottle of horse liniment. “Do you know it?”
    He shook his head. “It wasn’t included in the package I got from Theera, and I didn’t hear any references to ashwa when I wandered the market in the City. He wasn’t supposed to mention it, was he?”
    Steve came up behind them. “Mention what? Hey, is that liniment?”
    â€œIt is,” Cullen said, “and we’ll share. Have you heard the term ashwa ?”
    â€œNope.” He put his hand on his hips and stretched, curling his back. “Man, I ache.”
    â€œI know what it means.” That was Gan, who’d had no trouble at all with her little pony. “I can’t tell, though.”
    â€œNot even for an extra chocolate?” Cynna had been giving Gan one Hershey’s Kiss after supper every day that she behaved. Surprisingly, the former demon behaved quite well—for a former demon. She was by turns surly, selfish, mischievous, and rude, yet she didn’t create havoc for havoc’s sake.
    When you got down to it, Cynna thought, Gan just wasn’t mean. Not the way some people were. Real meanness was an inverted empathy—knowing what would hurt others and doing it. Gan mostly lacked empathy, but it was an innocent lack, one that might be slowly filled in.
    Gan’s face screwed up as she considered the nature of temptation. Finally she shook her head. “Not even for two more chocolates. They might find out. Ask your Daniel Weaver. He’s not supposed to tell, either, but he might because of being your family. Don’t give him any of my chocolate,” she added hastily.
    They’d reached the long wooden porch in front of the inn. Cynna paused, checking. “Yep.”
    â€œYep, what?” Cullen asked.
    â€œThe trail. It’s muddled for some reason, but the medallion was here.”
    â€œHere in the village? Or the inn itself?”
    â€œThe inn.” She closed her eyes, concentrating. “Three weeks ago, maybe less. We’re catching up.” She opened her eyes. “And we might be able to get a description of whoever has it. They probably don’t get a huge number of travelers staying here. Bet they’ll remember who was here three weeks ago.”
    As it turned out, they remembered very well.

TWENTY-SEVEN
    T ASH straightened, shaking her head. “I can do nothing for him. No healer could—there’s not enough mind left to heal. The only mercy I can offer is death.”
    Cynna’s breath caught. “You won’t, though. You won’t just…”
    Tash looked at Bilbo, who shook his head. “Is not deciding yet.”
    Tash, Bilbo, Cynna, and Cullen were in a crowded storeroom at the back of the inn. It stank of piss. A man—a human man—slumped on a huddle of blankets on a narrow cot, playing with his fingers. He didn’t seem aware of his visitors. Every so often he whimpered. Once he giggled.
    He had been good-looking in a brawny, rough-hewn way, Cynna thought. Now he was a bearded imbecile in a diaper.
    â€œWe can’t keep him here,” the innkeeper said through Cynna’s charm. He kept wiping his hand on his apron—wanting to wipe his hands of the whole business, no doubt. “We’ve been waiting for an Ekiba to ride through so we could send out word, find his people. It’s not our fault, what happened to him.” He shook his head. “Not that I understand what happened. I can’t believe what you say about Bell, though I guess…well, he did leave, but he always was something of a drifter.”
    According to the innkeeper and his wife, this man had arrived three weeks ago and paid for one night. When he didn’t leave the next day, they checked on him and found him like this. Earlier they’d seen him talking to a kid, maybe seventeen, named Bell