Poor Jes, I thought, with the same soft echo of sadness that always smote me whenever I thought of my brother. He had loathed and feared my Talents, and he had been instrumental in the events that had led to my being charged Misfit and sent to Obernewtyn. Yet we had parted with love. It had been a terrible irony to learn that, after my departure, Jes had discovered that he too possessed Misfit Talents. It was those Talents and his discovery of them that had brought him to his untimely end.

My thoughts drifted back to the spirit-force. It would be interesting to experiment and see if it could be used to enhance or strengthen my other Talents. But I had to remember that using the spirit-force would deplete me. If I had needed my Talents that day, I would have been hard-pressed to muster them. Even the attempt to farseek Gahltha had made my head ache. At least I must not do anything to weaken myself before Rheagor came.

There was no question in my mind that the pack leader would come to the valley of the Skylake, and Maruman seemed convinced that the wolf would accede to my request, though I did not know why I needed wolves on my quest. I had to assume it had something to do with finding Cassandra’s key, since Atthis had told Maruman I would learn what I needed when the wolves came to the valley of the Skylake to meet me. Maybe Rheagor would see the way to the key when he was seliga. But there must be more to it than simply learning the whereabouts of Cassandra’s key, else the wolf could simply tell me where it was, and Atthis had told Maruman the wolves had to go with me, lest my quest fail.

I thought of the tale I had been told of Gobor and Descantra being captured by Ariel and then of their escape. Had they escaped, or was it possible that they were among the wolves freed by Sharna’s mother? It would be an incredible coincidence that I should have come to their pack for help, especially when Sharna had been slain by the half-mad wolves that had resulted from Ariel’s breeding experiments and cruel training methods, or maybe no coincidence at all.

Knowing what Ariel did to the poor beasts that had been at his mercy, I could not blame Descantra or Gobor for their hatred of humans like him. But Gobor was truly mad. I wondered if his pack leader understood that. It was possible he did, for beasts saw madness differently from humans. Once Sharna had told me they saw it not as a flaw but as a unique and different way of seeing the world, which had its own value. Certainly Maruman’s mad, fey phases had garnered important information, and often as not he spoke truths and omens when his madness was upon him.