Firekeeper shivered at the latter possibility. It nested too closely to her own private fears.

"They might not know it me," she offered, knowing she was sliding out onto thin ice. "I come to them by night, go by night."

"And leave behind the prints of a small person-a small barefoot person-and an enormous wolf."

Derian laughed and Firekeeper wilted.

"Remember," the young man continued more kindly, "that there will likely be snow upon the ground and if not snow, then mud. It is not so late in the winter that the ground will have acquired rocky hardness."

"But what we do when we catch up to them?" the wolf-woman asked. "Will we not take away what they have? I have sworn to take those three things."

Derian looked more uncertain.

"I don't know yet," he admitted. "I suppose that we could take our chances and go after them disguised as bandits. Elation did say that there were only three, right?""Three," Firekeeper agreed. "Baron Endbrook, Lady Melina, and a man who drove the horses."

"No sign of Citrine."

"Not that the crow saw, but the crow did say that she was there and that they kept her much in the wagon. She could have still been there."

"More likely," Derian said unhappily, "Citrine is with those mysterious friends at the seash.o.r.e. I wish I felt confident that she was so safely placed."

"You fear," Firekeeper said. "Why?"

"Remember what I told you a long time ago," Derian said, "when you were going to challenge Earl Kestrel's right to order you about?"

"No."

Derian sighed. "You said he couldn't hurt you, not if he wanted to use you."

"Yes."

"Then I pointed out that he could hurt Blind Seer."

Firekeeper nodded reluctantly. "I forget because I no like that thinking."

"Well, I like the thoughts I have just as little," Derian admitted. "It seems to me that Baron Endbrook would want some a.s.surance that Lady Melina would behave as he wished-after all, those artifacts are the most valuable things his queen has."

Firekeeper nodded.

"And taking Lady Melina's daughter..." Derian paused. "Let's put it this way. I'm worried that the 'friends' Citrine is staying with are his friends, not Lady Melina's."

"And if anything happens to artifacts," Firekeeper said, her brow furrowing as she worked through this very unwolfish logic, "then something happen to Citrine!"

"Precisely," Derian agreed unhappily. "So whatever we do, we can be sure that Lady Melina will be the baron's firm ally. We can't hope to turn her against him."

"I not hunt with her!" Firekeeper protested sharply.

"Not even to get the artifacts?" Derian's expression was wry. "I wonder if your Royal Beasts would approve of your selectivity."

Firekeeper, rather uncomfortably, found herself wondering the same.

Elise was surprised, even a little dismayed, when Sir Jared sought her company during the leisure hours after the evening meal. To this point he had been politely formal, respecting her unspoken desire to keep some distance between them, but the note he sent her via Ninette permitted no polite excuse.

"Lady Elise," read his square but tidy hand, "Some news regarding one of our common interests came by a late post. I would share it with you. Could I call upon you in your suite or, if that is not convenient, could you call on me?"Initially, Elise thought that Sir Jared must have received some medical text or an answer to one of the long letters he had sent to Hazel Healer. Talk on such subjects had been the extent of their conversations of late. Then, with a sense of shame so sudden that it brought color to her cheeks, Elise recalled the entire issue of Lady Melina's intriguing with Baron Endbrook.

I am behaving like a girl with her first crush, she scolded herself', forgetting good sense and thinking myself wise. Surely Sir Jared must have news regarding Lady Melina. Why else would he request a private visit?

Hastily, she scribbled a note back asking for the knight to call on her an hour hence in her suite. Ninette would be present to chaperon and if indeed Sir Jared wished to confer regarding such sensitive matters there must be no risk of being overheard.

Elise wondered why Derian or Firekeeper had not been the ones to bring her the news. On reflection, she realized that Derian's calling on her would excite as much-or even more among some of the guests-comment than if Sir Jared did so.

A visit from Firekeeper would not be a matter for gossip, but the wolf-woman was still not skilled in relating complicated matters. Her vocabulary, though growing, remained hardly more sophisticated than that of a five-year-old and she resisted learning new terms where she thought an already known one would serve.

And we cannot discuss political intrigue in terms of good and bad, right and wrong, Elise thought, no matter how much we would like matters to be so simple.

She had composed herself by the time Sir Jared arrived and welcomed him with courtesy, but kept the special warmth she felt whenever she saw him locked tightly within her breast.

Sir Jared bowed deeply before taking the seat she offered him. He bore with him a fat leather-bound tome and a slim case she recognized as the one in which he kept pressed samples of herbs that had interested him. For a moment, she thought she might have incorrectly guessed the reason for his visit, but his first words, prompted, it seemed, by her questioning glance at the book, set her right.

"I brought these so we might have an excuse for our visit," he said, "and I even dropped a pa.s.sing comment to my cousin that some of his guests seemed less than pleased by our dull discussions of such serious matters as medicine and herb lore."

"So?" Elise asked, puzzled.

"So that if anyone questions our private converse Norvin will be sure to reply that we are doubtless discussing matters that we feared would seem dull to the rest of the party."

Elise smiled. "You seem a natural-born conspirator."

In return, Sir Jared made a slightly mocking half-bow.

"Rather, Lady Elise, say it is a.s.sociating with Firekeeper and her friends that has given me practice in these matters."

"Firekeeper!" Elise leaned forward. "Has she news?"

"News indeed," Sir Jared said. "The falcon Elation has returned and, if we are to believe that Firekeeper can honestly translate the bird's report...""We do," Elise said dismissively.

"Then Elation's report is thus."

Momentarily, the physician squeezed his eyes shut as if at an effort of accurate remembrance. Then he continued: "Elation says that a raven-or a crow-I get a bit muddled as to which bird is which... In any case, Elation says that one of these Royal birds reports that Lady Melina and Baron Endbrook-traveling in company with a third person, a man-were heading north. The crow-I recall now, it was a crow-was fatigued from following them unceasingly from Port Haven and as soon as it found another bird of Royal-kind-that's where the raven comes in-it turned over the duty of following the pair to the raven.

Elation found the crow while it was resting from its labors."

"Astonishing," Elise mused, "to find one crow-even for a falcon as gifted as Elation."

"My understanding," Sir Jared said, and the young woman could see that he was far more uncomfortable than she in accepting the reportage of birds, "is that Elation finally grasped the logic behind maps..."

"A thing Firekeeper has yet to do," Elise murmured, "at least with any a.s.surance."

The knight gave a wry grin of agreement.

"Once Elation understood what the maps portrayed," he went on, "she realized that certain roads would be more likely conduits for Lady Melina and Baron Endbrook if they were indeed heading north. She then set herself to backtrack along those roads toward Port Haven. It was while doing this she found the crow."

"Amazing!" Elise exclaimed despite herself.

Sir Jared shrugged. "I suppose it makes sense. We draw our maps as if we are seeing the world as a flat thing, viewed from above. How else does a flying bird see the world?"

"Still," Elise said, "what a wonder! I suppose that Elation did not locate Baron Endbrook and Lady Melina?"

"No." Sir Jared shook his head. "Though my feeling is that she intends to set out after them come morning. She came here first to give Firekeeper this confirmation of her theories. The crow was too weary to make the flight here with any speed."

"Birds," Elise offered, only certain of her own uncertain knowledge of the race, "must eat a great deal to sustain the fire in their little bodies."

Sir Jared nodded. "Such has been my observation as well. Now, have you any thoughts about the wisest course of action to take? Firekeeper, I hardly need to tell you, was ready to charge out after Lady Melina and Baron Endbrook as soon as Elation brought the news. Derian has managed to convince her to wait, but I doubt even he can hold her long."

Elise toyed with a trailing thread of the embroidery she had been working while waiting for the knight to call. Distantly, she was aware of Ninette stirring unhappily over where she was brewing tea for their refreshment.

From the very moment that Elise had confided in her maid her own suspicions regarding Lady Melina, Ninette had been nervous and unhappy-a nervousness that had eased slightly when the journey to theNorth Woods and then the early days of their sojourn had pa.s.sed uninterrupted. Although Lady Melina's sorceries had not touched Ninette as intimately as they had Elise, she feared them more and Elise could not dismiss her good sense.

"Short of locking Firekeeper in a room," Elise said, "I do not see how we can keep her from pursuit.

Therefore, what we must do is find how to make that pursuit at least somewhat acceptable."

"You are of one mind with Derian and myself," Jared replied. "We have determined that we will accompany her. Moreover, I will ask my cousin's help in this matter."

"Earl Kestrel?"

"None other. As Lady Blysse, Firekeeper is his adopted daughter. Were she to depart without his knowledge he would be forced to look for her."

Sir Jared looked rueful. "Indeed, I am not certain that only duty would force him to do so. Beneath his gruff exterior, he is fond of the girl-as is his mother, the d.u.c.h.ess."

"Very well," Elise said, "then the earl must be spoken with-but how much will you tell him?"

"That is one of the things about which I wished to consult with you, Lady Elise," said Jared uncomfortably. "You see, if we tell any truth at all of why Firekeeper is determined to leave the North Woods at such an unseasonable time for travel, we may be forced to tell something of your involvement in the matter."

"Why?"

The sharp question came not from Elise but from Ninette. The maid had paused in the very act of pouring tea, her posture so defensive that Elise feared she might hurl the pot at Jared.

"Ninette!"

Sir Jared held up a hand. "She asks a good question and I will give my best answer."

Looking directly at Ninette, he replied, "Because, good lady, I know my cousin well. He has a mind like a knife, and can cut through any fog of deceit if he sets his mind to it. His mother is, if anything, less easy to fool. Some light tale-we had thought to tell him Blind Seer had run off-will not divert him if he senses that truth is to be had."

"What is wrong with the tale about Blind Seer?" Ninette asked. "It seems a good one to me."

"To me as well," Sir Jared said, "and we have not discarded it entirely. The difficulty is that our route may take us into populated areas of this grant, areas where a report would easily get back to the earl that his daughter and her escort had been seen. Indeed, we may need to encourage their notice by asking questions.

"Earl Kestrel is no fool. If the wolf would run, why wouldn't it run into more wild areas? The only reason an untamed wolf-and Blind Seer is untamed for all that Firekeeper's word leashes him-would frequent human-populated areas is if it had become mad, and a mad wolf is a danger to people and to beasts."

"Mad," Ninette said thoughtfully, "or so accustomed to people that it no longer feared them. Either way, it would be a danger to those the earl has sworn to protect."

"And so," Jared said, nodding, "Earl Kestrel himself-or some of his trusted hunters-must set out inpursuit. The complications that could result are enough to horrify, even on mere contemplation."

"I think we see," Elise replied, "why this deception has its hazards."

"Derian and I had thought," Sir Jared said, "to offer the earl some version of the truth. How much and what we will say, we are as of yet uncertain. However, in telling that truth we may implicate you-though we would try not to do so. The difficulty is, as I have said, that I know how good the earl is at slicing through falsehood when he sets his mind to the task."

Something in Jared's expression made Elise suspect a youthful indiscretion uncovered and she bit back an urge to tease him. Such would be unseemly if she truly meant to discourage his affections.

"A version of the truth," she said aloud. "Very good. What version do you propose?"

Ninette brought over the tea tray, then settled into her own chair off to one side. She might efface herself, but Elise knew that neither she nor Jared would forget her presence-nor would Ninette expect them to do so.

"Well," Jared replied, "I was at the same ball where you first noticed the exchange of notes. Indeed, I was dancing in the same set."

Elise felt the slight burnings of a blush, remembering how it had been her awareness of Jared's presence-indeed her seeking his place in the set-that had caused her chance gaze to catch the first exchange.

"True," she said hastily. "So you will pretend that you were the one to see Baron Endbrook pa.s.s the note to Lady Melina. That should work. I doubt that even Earl Kestrel noted the precise order of every dance."

"Then," Jared said, "I shall simply continue as you did. My excuse for keeping watch over Lady Melina shall be that given her brother's recent treachery and her own overt mourning it seemed unlikely to me that she would encourage flirtation."

"Good," Elise said. "Very good. In this way, you need not mention our prior reasons for distrusting the lady."

"Precisely. From that point, I can say I consulted Derian-even as you did. Derian's information can be related without deception. We can leave what we learned from Citrine out of the picture..."

He trailed off then and Elise noted a look of extreme unhappiness cross his face.

"What is wrong?"

"I had dreaded telling you this, but Citrine may have disappeared."

In a few pithy sentences, he reported, beginning with what Firekeeper had learned from the crow: how Citrine had been with her mother, then had not been. He added Derian's suspicions-which he admitted to sharing-that Citrine was being held hostage against her mother's good behavior. When he finished, Elise's head was pounding with angry astonishment.

"If this is true," she said, keeping her voice steady with a great effort, "then Lady Melina is truly depraved!"

Then she frowned. "But will we be any better? I mean if we go after Lady Melina and succeed inretrieving those hateful artifacts we may put Citrine in danger."

"I think Firekeeper is worried about that, too," Jared admitted, "but she's given her word to retrieve those artifacts no matter what. My fear is that if something happens to Citrine, Firekeeper will make certain Lady Melina pays."

Elise shuddered. "Let's not talk about that right now. We need to settle the question of what to tell Earl Kestrel."

Jared nodded. He looked vaguely relieved that this particular bit of bad news was out and, at least for now, so well accepted.

Elise continued. "I think your manner of presenting the issue is perfectly sound. If Earl Kestrel somehow sees through it and my involvement arises, well, so be it. I can't stay out of it in any case."

"What do you mean, my lady?"

Sir Jared's question seemed to antic.i.p.ate a similar one from Ninette, for Elise heard a stifled yelp from where her maid sat.