She saw nothing except black stone.
“What do you see?” he whispered, as if the words took effort.
“Nothing.”
He shook his head suddenly and his pupils expanded. He seemed to be searching. “I, too, see nothing,” he murmured. “Campfires, tents, their ships, and a kind of darkness that shades the center of their camp.” He shut his eyes, then lifted his hands off the stone and, rather like a dog letting itself off guard, shook himself slightly all over. He looked at Liath. “This enchanter shields himself against my sight. That bodes ill, I fear. My powers are not strong, but as an Eagle I am adept at certain things. Seeing is one of them. You saw nothing as well?”
“I saw nothing.” But her nothing was not, she realized, the same nothing as he had seen. She had truly seen nothing. Da had been right all along; she was deaf to magic.
But then how had she managed to cause the torch to catch flame?
Wolfhere frowned. “I have never heard Eika were accomplished magi, or that they had any skill at the forbidden arts, or even knowledge of them. They are savages, after all. But I no longer doubt Prince Sanglant. There is a presence among them who controls great power. That must explain—” He ran a hand over the slab of obsidian. “Strange.”
“Explain what?”
But now an edge came to his voice. “Sit still,” he ordered. He traced a ring on the stone and then rested his hands, one palm up, the other palm down, a shoulder’s width apart. He stared at the black surface, intent, concentrating. She saw nothing, but she felt a breath like wings brushing her cheek.
“An eagle!” he breathed sharply, starting back. “An eagle in flight, plummeting to earth.” He jumped up. “Come, Liath. We must go back. I don’t know what this portends.” Hastily, he collected his weapons from the floor, and they hurried back to the stairs that led out of the crypt. When Liath stuck the torch back in a sconce, it snuffed out as soon as it left her hand, plunging them in darkness. Wolfhere grunted, sounding surprised, but he said nothing. They climbed the stairs by feel and hastened out of the cathedral.
It was dark and still overcast, but after the blackness of the crypt, the night did not seem heavy. The Eika drums sounded louder now; they usually reached their peak at midnight.