Wyndham kept her mental eye roving as she made her way across the hexagon. They would discover her absence soon. They would move to get her back. She had to be ready to defend herself when they came after her.

She wished she had the gun.

Once she saw movement on the tracking stone, she would know they were after her. It was a tripwire. Until that happened, she had to keep moving toward Shanahan. She could tell him how to get the gate stone and he could use that to go home.

She didn't know what he would decide to do, but she didn't rate his chances against the Weapons being good. The horse was a spirit that gave more endurance and strength. That wouldn't last against Morehull's Blade, or Blackhill's Firebird.

She knew she had to caution him against taking in any more spirits. No one knew what would happen. He might kill himself just trying to defend himself.

When she became the Eye, she had been cautioned against taking more of the spirits for that reason. The end result described to her had been all the spirits bursting forth and seeking new wielders.

Only the holder of the sigils, Grandview in this case, could use any of the spirits at any time.

No one knew what would happen if Grandview fell in battle and the sigils went to his killer. The Weapons might have a new king if that happened.

Wyndham didn't care. She was only interested in getting away from the lot of them. She was tired of finding things to help Grandview push beyond his own hexagon. She wanted the new life she had built for herself.

Let the Masks, and the Rings, and the Shapers, and the Wuchi, deal with Grandview. They were more capable of facing him on his own terms than she was.

Shanahan was entering the Mask City. He should be all right as long as he didn't attract attention. He had made good time across the hexagon. She smiled. The horse must have carried him most of the way, but the rest was his will.

Her own efforts was not going as good. She was still too close to the tower. She had to get off the hex and on someone else's territory before they caught up with her. She might be able to invoke some kind of protection from the Masks if she could reach their side of the connecting bridge.

Trading her talent for that shielding was not good in her opinion, but it was better than working for Grandview.

Dealing with the king of spirits had become a chore as he shuttled her around the hexagon with locating precise spots to prevent the Underground bursting out in the open. Most of the creatures down there hadn't bothered the surface in their hex in decades.

She had turned her attention to finding out why. It gave her a map of the caverns under the tower. An artifact was buried down there, and Grandview was thinking about going down and taking it. If he succeeded, he might be causing a war with the unhumans that would hurt their people.

And if it spilled over on the other hexagons, those factions would not be happy that Grandview had acted out of greed, and an attempt to spread out from his base of operations.

It was enough to convince Wyndham to try to move on. Her talent had shown her how to do that too.

She should have known the Shaper would sell her out to her old comrades.

On the other hand, she was not prepared to stand up to a group of Weapons even if she was armed. If Morehull had shown up with his Blade and threatened major injury, she could see giving up someone you bargained with for less gain than you wanted.

She would like to pay him a visit for selling her out and giving them the Gate Stone.

The night came on. Shanahan seemed to be settling in. Tomorrow, he would be crossing the bridge. Her ability gave her a rough estimate of his speed, and she felt that was a good call on where he would be if he kept running straight for the tower.

She wasn't even close to the bridge. She had made good time, using her ability to pick good paths to use, but her speed was not near anything he seemed to have.

She turned her eye back on the tower. She noted Whitehouse was not there. She turned her attention to the Shaper stone. It blinked, causing her ability to reorient on it.

The wire had been pulled. What did she do now?

She decided to keep moving. She was hungry, sore, and tired. Is she stopped while they had that stone, they would catch her. She had to make the bridge if she wanted to get some kind of breathing space.

She doubted they would do anything if she got close to the Masks that she could raise a fuss about it.

She couldn't rely on that. Whitehouse could cross the hexagon before the Masks did more than hear her request. It might cause something, but Grandview would smooth it over as long as he got the result he wanted.

She needed to be ready to try to kill him with her pocket knife. He had the highest mobility of the spirits. If she took him out of the picture, the others would have to call for their flying members to look for her.

If she was able to get the stone from him, they wouldn't be able to find her before she reached Mister Shanahan.

Then they would be able to plan how to get the Gate Stone from the Shaper without having to deal with anyone trying to stop them.

She found a path that led back along the sun's path. She didn't see anything blocking the way as she jogged along. If she could keep ahead of the others, she might be able to ask Shanahan to defend her until she got her feet under her.

Then they could take care of things.

Her ability had picked Shanahan out as someone who would help her. She had doubted it. She smiled at that. She should have known better. He had just hidden his potential under the cover of a drunk.

His gaze had cleared a lot of problems without having to do anything. One look in his eyes showed someone they were dealing with a man with little sense of humor, and no patience. That had helped a lot.

When he had to do something, he acted without warning, breaking his victim down before things could get worse than what they already were. That had helped too.

She touched him with her talent. He had stopped for the night in the Mask City. She could feel him in place.

If she missed him, he would run to the tower to search for her. He wouldn't know she had escaped and was trying to get to get to him. If he was taken, Grandview might offer to employ him under guard.

Wyndham doubted he would take the offer. He had already decided the spirits were his enemy. She had seen he rarely changed his mind about things he regarded as tactical to his day to day life.

Trying to kill Grandview would be more of his style, or trying to take him hostage. That wouldn't end well unless it was something Shanahan could turn into a push off so he could make an escape.

Grandview couldn't be harmed by physical means, so just stabbing him wouldn't do any good. Some other means would have to be used.

If she was helping, maybe her talent would come up a tactic they could use. Stopping Grandview dead might be enough to get the others off their backs.

Wyndham checked on the stone. It was closer. Maybe it didn't zero in like her own talent did. She saw that Whitehouse was using it. What would he do?

If he came at her on his own, there was a chance she could take him by surprise and stab him. If he brought the others, he would have to tell them where to go to stop her.

What was her best move to avoid them until she reached the bridge?

She wanted to stop running and confront Whitehouse directly and have things out with him. That didn't seem the best thing to do according to her talent. It still pointed her toward Shanahan.

She didn't have a lot of experience hurting people. Her talent seemed to be taking that into account. She decided that it had kept her out of trouble so far. She should keep trusting it until something happened to change things.

If it pointed her to an opening, she would take it and keep running.

It told her to duck into a set of bushes. She pushed into the cover and knelt. She tried to calm her breathing so it wouldn't be so loud.

Whitehouse appeared out of the dark. He held a glowing stone in one hand. He looked around. Wyndham stopped breathing.

“I know you're here, Seera,” said Whitehouse. “Come out. If I have to get Morehull and Don, you're going to have a rougher time of it.”

Wyndham closed her eyes. He couldn't see her. The thing only said if he was close, or far. He needed something with finer tuning to really track her down. All she had to do was keep hidden and that would buy her some more time.

“All right,” said Whitehouse. “Have it your way. I'll be right back.”