"Neither have I," I said. "Are they all right?"

"Yeah, and they weren't tied up or anything. They seem to be fine."

"Well, that's good to know," I said with considerable relief. "So what did the man do with the message? Did he read it?"

"Well," Gerald began doubtfully, "he looked at it, so I guess he did. I don't understand human speech, but he seemed to think it was funny, because he laughed."

"Not a good sign," I muttered.

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warrior 227.

"Is there a problem?" Leo asked with an amused expression.

"Oh, not with you-or me, for that matter!" I assured him. "No, Gerald said the man read the message we sent and then laughed."

"That is not a good sign," Leo agreed.

"What was that?" Gerald asked. I repeated what we'd said, and he didn't think it sounded good, either.

"I would have watched him longer," he said, "but then Craynolt flew by and picked me up."

"Was the man alone when he read the message?"

"No, he was at dinner with a whole lot of other people," he replied. "They all seemed sort of upset when we came flying in."

"I don't suppose that's something you see every day," I agreed.

"Well, yeah," Gerald said. "Anyway, I decided this guy was the right one because he was sitting at the end of the table, and he looked sort of important-had on more jewels, at least. Do you think he was the one?"

"Probably," I replied . "And we did address the message to the lord of the manor, so if it wasn't, it should reach him, anyway." I blew out a pent-up breath and shook my head. "I sure hope that wasn't a mistake."

"Me, too," Gerald said. "So, what happens next?"

"Well, if they agree to talk with us, there should be a white flag hanging above the main gate to the keep when we get there. If not, I'm not sure what we'll do."

And I wasn't sure, but, somehow, I had an idea we'd probably wind up getting into a battle with that rather larger army Rafe had mentioned. I certainly hoped not, because if we did, we'd probably have to arm the *227 *42*.

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Cheryl Brooks animals to increase our numbers, and I didn't think we could find a sword small enough for Gerald-not one that would be very useful, anyway. His teeth were pretty effective, though I didn't think he could win many wars with them. Now, if we had a whole army of toothy squirrels, that might have been worth something-but only one? Probably not.

The other option was to turn tail and head for home if the white flag wasn't flying-though, knowing Rafe, that was about as likely as that army of squirrels coming to our aid. Leo seemed to think that getting inside the keep and kidnapping the boys ourselves was possible, but our enemies had to know we would probably try something like that and be ready for us-and unlike them, we weren't nearly as willing to kill. Rafe might have been feeling murderous, but Leo and I were simply there to find the boys. "Well, I guess I'd better go tell Rafe," I said grumpily. "He's bound to be anxious to hear the news." I thanked Gerald for his efforts-he seemed to think he'd done nothing terribly remarkable, though he did admit to having been anxious when the people at the dinner table got over their fright and began brandishing knives, but I could tell he'd enjoyed the adventure.

"Not bored anymore, are you, Gerald?"

"Nope!" he agreed. "Best time I've ever had!"

Wish I could've said the same. Sure, there were parts of the journey that had been fantastic, but there were plenty of others I could have done very well without.

Leaving a nice, warm tent and an even nicer and warmer Leo, I pulled on my boots and trudged over to where Rafe slept. Fortunately, it hadn't iced up as much *228 *43*.

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during the night as we feared, and though the weather now seemed set on this becoming a true spring thaw, I could still see my breath and slipped into my cloak as I went. The sky was a bright, luminous blue without a cloud to be seen, and the songbirds also seemed to think spring was in the air, for they were perched in the trees, singing their little lungs out. Craynolt was lurking near the fire, apparently looking for scraps.

"Hey, Craynolt!" I said cheerfully. "Sounds like you did a great job last night! Thanks for all your help!"

Craynolt bowed briefly. "The heart of the wind may be small, but it grows larger with praise," he said, and then went on with his foraging.

"We'll have breakfast in a little bit," I said, feeling the need to bite my tongue trying not to prompt him to say "you're welcome." "It won't take long to get the fire going."

"Simple needs take little time," he said, seemingly unconcerned.

"And by that, I suppose you mean you don't need food that's been cooked," I concluded.

"Truth is like the cool wind which blows on a sultry day."

"Craynolt, I don't want to seem picky or anything, but would it kill you to just say yes?"

"The old ways are familiar, the new ways are not."

I was still grumbling as I trudged over to Rafe, and I'll swear Craynolt was chuckling to himself. At least, I think it was laughter; I heard something from him, anyway, and it made me think he was being deliberately obscure, just to annoy me.

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Cheryl Brooks "Hey, Rafe," I called out, shaking his tent. "The guys are back."

Max burst from inside the tent, wriggling with all the exuberance of a young pup. I gave him a big hug and tried to be patient while he licked me in the face. A moment later, squinting his eyes against the sun, Rafe stuck his head out from under the tent flap.

"And?"

"They delivered the message," I reported.

"Unfortunately, the man who read it laughed, but Gerald thinks the boys were there with him at dinner. He said they looked okay. Of course, he's never seen them before, so he couldn't be sure it was them, but-"

"That will do," Rafe said shortly, cutting me off.

"We must get moving. I'd like to get there as soon as possible."

I made some comment about the nice weather, to which Rafe responded with a grunt and crawled out of his tent. "Get the fire going," he said, sounding even more brusque. "I'll tend to the horses."

"Sure, Rafe," I said, trying not to let my irritation show. The nerve of the man! I mean, I'd gotten an otterell and a squirrel to fly into a well-guarded fortress and deliver a message for him; I thought the very least he could have done was to be civil. He'd been okay the day before, and I wondered why he seemed so angry now that we were so close. Nerves, I decided, and went off to work on breakfast. Leo had already stacked up more wood, so I shot a bolt of fire into it and had it blazing almost instantly.

"Did he anger you?" Leo asked, smiling warily.

With a grim laugh, I replied, "Does it show?"

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"I believe it does," he said, coming closer to take me in his arms. "This will be over soon, Tisana, and then you will not have to talk with him again for a very long time."

Cocking a wary eye at him, I asked, "Another vision?"

"No," he replied, pressing his warm lips to my cheek.

"A promise."

One I sincerely hoped he could keep, though I wondered how he planned to do it.

"Gonna run him off whenever he comes around?"

"Possibly. Or I may tell him that it would be most unwise to anger my witch."

"Your witch?" I repeated. "I like the sound of that, but the funny thing is that I've heard Rafe refer to me as his witch before. It sort of made me mad."

"I will make certain he understands the difference in the future."

I smiled at him in gratitude, but went on to grumble, "If there is a future! We're getting in over our heads, here, Leo! I hope he realizes that. These people we're dealing with are downright ruthless!"

"I believe Rafe to be ruthless, as well."

"Yeah, but what good will it do us if he gets us all killed?"

Unfortunately, Leo didn't have an answer for that.

*231 *43*.

Chapter 11.

We moved along with surprising speed that morning. The horses seemed to be feeling much more energetic, both from the rest and the improved weather.

Max trotted happily alongside Morgana, and Gerald rode in the front of my cloak with his nose peeking out, while Craynolt either flew above us or perched on the cantle of my saddle. Leo and I exchanged sultry glances from time to time, but Rafe's face was a mask of grim determination. It was perfectly obvious that he was going to do this if it killed him-and everyone else, too.

My mind drifted toward thinking what a lovely journey this would have been a month or so from now, with Leo and I traveling alone together in the warm, spring sunshine while flowers bloomed along the wayside. We would lunch together by an idyllic stream, and then make love. Leo could sit in the cool grass at the base of a tree, leaning back against the trunk while I sat in his lap with his fabulous cock, warm and strong inside me, moving by itself, working his magic upon me.

And it was magic-more potent than any magic potion I could have concocted, or any power which I might have possessed. His quiet, gentle strength made me feel safe, too, and his love was more powerful than anything I'd yet encountered. To me, he was life itself.

I realized I'd only been existing before Leo came into my world-yes, I had my studies and my work, but now, *232 *43*.

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with the miracle of a new life growing within my womb, for the first time in my life, I felt truly alive.

And I had every intention of remaining that way.

Having gotten a taste of what life with Leo could be like-and could continue to be like-was enough to make me rack my brains in an effort to find a peaceful solution to the problem facing us. I felt I would have done much better if I'd had all the information at my disposal-Rafe still knew something that I didn't-and it made me angry that he was keeping it to himself.

There had been a time when the outcome might not have mattered as much, but I had so much more to lose now.

Darley had not considered the lord of his village to be a bad man, and horses were uncannily good at spotting evil. Looking at it that way, this whole scenario seemed to be one more of desperation than malice-he had wanted those boys badly enough to take them, to kill for them, and to risk their own lives to bring them to his stronghold.

His laughter at our proposal could have meant many things, but the fact that he now had the boys safely behind his own walls might have accounted for that. A sort of, "I have them now, let them try to take them if they will" attitude, which I could readily understand. It was the way I would have felt had Rafe suddenly gone back on his promise that Leo was now mine. Yes, I believe I truly would have killed Rafe rather than let him take Leo from me, and, yes, I would have laughed at the suggestion that he might try it. I would have blasted him off the face of the planet before I'd let that happen. No, this was not a *233 *43*.

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Cheryl Brooks bad man we faced; this was simply a man who had a very good reason to want to keep those boys.

But what was the reason? And how, given the distance between Rafe's village and the one we now approached, could anyone form an attachment to children unknown to them? It was inexplicable, under the circumstances.

If this man only needed children to succeed him and could have none of his own, he might marry a widow with children-I tried not to dwell on the probability that there were three new widows in his domain now that we had killed three of his men, and they might have had many fine sons for all we knew. What was it that made him want to take Rafe's sons?

I wished I could have been able to discuss this with Leo without Rafe knowing what was said. It was unfortunate that my mind couldn't reach his the way I could reach, say, Sinjar's. Still, Sinjar was not without wisdom, though as Darley had said, the motivations behind human behavior were often a mystery, and family ties between horses were systematically ignored in favor of our own convenience. Given that fact, it was distinctly possible that Sinjar might have thought it served Rafe right to have his children taken from him.

We did that with most animals-the domesticated ones, anyway. We killed young calves for food, sold young horses to the highest bidder, took eggs from the hens-all with a callous disregard of how the animals themselves might feel about it. Other people might consider their feelings to be insignificant and console themselves with the belief that the animals didn't care about such things, but I knew differently. Even Gerald had said he wouldn't let one of his women near Leo.

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I had to laugh thinking that, for the mental picture of scads of lovesick female squirrels hanging all over Leo was too funny for me to keep a straight face for long.

"By the gods, Tisana!" Rafe said angrily. "What can you find to laugh about at such a time?"

"Something Gerald once said," I replied. "And you don't need to be jumping down my throat just because I find something amusing, Rafe. Lighten up a little."

"I will not lighten up," he growled. "And you should be able to understand why."

"Yes, I do understand," I said wearily.

"And are we going the right way?" he went on, as though I hadn't spoken. "Is that damned mare of yours still following the scent?"

"No," I replied. "We're actually following Darley's directions now. He knows the way from here. Craynolt does, too, and if we stray from the trail, I'm sure he'll put us back on the right track." I probably wouldn't have been able to understand anything Craynolt said, but I wasn't going to tell Rafe that, since he seemed to be getting more testy by the minute.

By midafternoon, the trees began to thin out, and Darley informed me that we were getting close to his village. Rafe's response to that information was to draw his sword.