“If this is Horix’s doing,” I pointed out, “that’ll just give him time to search us out and surround us. I don’t like any of this. We’ll go in, find Kumi, and take our chances with the storm.”
I turned to Labu. “How come you’re a member of the guild in the first place? Your family have Wild Augmenting powers, but there you are working with people who reject your kind.”
Labu frowned. “I am not truly a guild member. I am my father’s emissary to the guild. And as part of that, I have been learning their techniques, turning my Wild power into something more civilized and focused. It is the only way we can bring the Qihin to their former power—by becoming stronger, fiercer, more skilled in the ways of civilization.”
“And do the guild members accept you as one of them?” I asked. “Because from what I’ve seen, they don’t seem to like Wilds.” Understatement of the year, right there.
“They know that I’m one of them at heart,” Labu said. “Not some barbarian constantly on the verge of pillaging their goods. They know that I will bring an improving influence into the world.”
“And kidnapping your sister—is that also supposed to be an improving influence?”
Labu scowled even more deeply. “Not everybody agrees about how the guild should deal with the clan. I doubt Horix would have supported a declaration of war. I will have words with the Guildmaster about Cadrin once this is done.”
Labu believed the guild had taken his sister just as much as I did. He was only denying it because he wanted a tense peace that let him be a part of both sides. I suspected he’d been the reason behind the temple guards locking us inside the shrine, but I doubted he’d known exactly what Cadrin had planned to do.
It struck me as odd that Labu, who had seemed to be the most belligerent and unreasonable person we had met so far, was a moderating influence in the region in his own objectionable way. He was the one member of the clan who had been allowed into the guild. He was therefore also the one guildsman I had met with any sympathy for the clan. Unlike at the Radiant Dragon Guild, where half the initiates had been drawn from the local Wysaro clan, here, the Wild magic of the Qihin seemed to have turned the two into entirely separate bodies. Labu the Wild Augmenter straddled the two traditions, standing between clan and guild.
The more I thought about it, the more I found a similarity in our approach. As an elementalist, I combined different magical traditions in the forms of the disparate elements. I could appreciate being stepped on as an outsider to a group. What differed between us was our execution. Labu wanted his cake and to eat it, too.
We rounded a headland, and the guild island appeared in a flash of gleaming ice and marble. Labu turned the boat and sent us in a loop around the inner coast of the island, toward the dock.
All my previous pondering had left me with one important question unanswered. I knew that there was a sharp divide between clan and guild, but I didn’t know why. Sure, there seemed to be a lot of Wilds in and around the Qihin Clan, but that shouldn’t have been an insurmountable obstacle. The Radiant Dragon Guild accepted Wilds and had benefited from their power. Kegohr had been an absolute powerhouse in the fight to save the guild from the Wysaro attack. Basic prejudice alone wasn’t enough to explain why the Resplendent Tears was in conflict with the Qihin, not when the two of them relied so heavily on each other. What more was going on here?
I had more urgent concerns as we approached land.
“If the guild has kidnapped Kumi, we can’t just walk in the front door,” I said. “If they’re a part of it, they’ll see us coming and lock us out. Or worse.”
“I’ll go in first,” Labu said. “Then I’ll open one of the side doors to let you in.” He pointed to a cove away from the docks and underneath the towering walls of the guild house.
“You planning on betraying us?” I asked.
“No,” Labu said. “I want my sister returned more than any of you. And I want the Depthless Dream back in its rightful place.”
I stared at him for a moment and wondered whether I could trust him. I knew I couldn’t, but at the moment, I didn’t have a choice. If he betrayed us, then I’d just have to deal with him.
“Take the boat close to the entrance,” Labu said. “Wait there for me.”
He slid into the water and vanished from view.
I fuelled the boat with my own Vigor and sent it on a curving course until it stopped beneath the walls of the guild. Waves lapped around us with mounting urgency against the jagged rocks. The storm was about to close in.
I fought to keep the boat off the rocks and prevented our craft from colliding against them. I couldn’t see any sign of a door and began to suspect some sort of trick. Had I been right about Labu? Had this just been his way of shaking us off so that he could go into the guild on his own? Was it turning into a trap?
The prince’s finned head appeared from the water amid the rocks. “This way,” he said before he disappeared from view again.
Kegohr and Vesma met my gaze.
“Can you guys swim?” I asked.
“Well enough,” Vesma replied.
“A bit,” said Kegohr, shuddering. “But this ain’t gonna be fun.”
“We’ll help if you need it,” Vesma said.
She went over the side first. I followed suit and swore as the cold of the ocean punched into me. Vesma turned to reassure Kegohr as he made his way into the waves, mace strapped to his back. We sank beneath the surface together.
Labu floated a
