He shook his head for what felt like the thousandth time that afternoon. "I could figure out which direction is north, but that won't tell us which direction we need to go to get home. And, Meg . . ." He thought she must already know, but he still didn't want to say it.

"Yes, Calen?" Her voice was soft. She was still poking the dirt with her stick.

"Even if we picked the right direction to travel a" if we're outside Trelian, and we are, I'm sorry, but I know we are a" there's no way we'd make it back before the wedding. Not on foot." And if what they had overheard was still the plan (and why shouldn't it be, now that they were out of the way?), Wilem and Sen Eva were going to kill Maerlie on her wedding night.

By the time they made it back a" a.s.suming they made it back at all a" Maerlie would be dead. Meg was never going to see her sister again.

IN THE END, THEY TOSSED MEG'S stick in the air and started walking in the direction it pointed. It seemed as good a way to decide as any. They both knew it hardly mattered whether they were headed toward Trelian or not. But walking felt better than sitting. Besides, it was cool in the forest, and moving helped them stay a little warmer.

Meg picked up the stick again before they left and was using it to strike at the tall thin plants that grew in patches between some of the trees. Calen followed silently behind her. She thought he had been about to speak several times, but so far he hadn't said anything since they made their decision to start walking. She hoped he wasn't too angry with her. She was angry enough for both of them. Of all the stupid times to lose her self-control! If she had only remained silent, they could have waited until Wilem and Sen Eva left the room and then gone and told her parents what had happened. They could have saved her sister and the prince and ensured that the traitors were stopped and punished and possibly tortured for their intended crimes. She could have seen to Wilem's torture personally.

She struck out at another of the tall plants with her stick, slicing off the wispy tendrils at the top of the stalk with the force of her blow.

Wilem's false affection for her was nothing compared to his plans to murder Maerlie, but somehow Meg couldn't stop thinking about it. It was stupid, but she couldn't help it. How could it be so easy for someone to lie that way? Was she just especially gullible? But her sisters had been fooled as well. Everyone had. But no one as a" as personally as Meg herself. She flushed with shame at the thought of how she had enjoyed kissing him, how she had daydreamed about doing it again, and again. She had liked him so much. She had trusted him. And just as he'd apparently intended, she'd given him the information he needed to carry out his mother's terrible plan. He had seemed so good, so strong and honest and true and kind, and he had made her feel special and warm and all the time he was using her, laughing at her behind his sad, dark, beautiful eyes.

She wiped angrily at her own eyes, hoping Calen couldn't see that she was crying. Weak. She had been weak and stupid, and now Maerlie was going to pay the price for her failings.

"Meg?" Calen asked softly. He was right beside her. When had she stopped walking? She shook her head, refusing to turn and look at him. Couldn't he leave her alone? Couldn't he see that she wanted to be left alone? She opened her mouth to tell him that but instead she said, "He had been courting me. I don't know why I never told you. We went walking together that first night after dinner. He came often, after that, to walk with me or talk, and he told me that he cared about me. And then, last night, he kissed me. And I didn't know how to tell you; it just seemed hard to talk about him with you, and so I never did. And he was just a liar. A liar and a traitor and now he's going to kill my sister."

"You couldn't have known, Meg." His voice was still soft. She was facing away from him, so she couldn't read his face. "He's obviously well practiced at deceiving people. No one saw him for what he truly is."

"But I spent so much time with him! I thought I was getting to know him so well. And he was just lying! Lying and lying and lying." She shook her head, bewildered anew. Why hadn't she been able to tell? "How can I ever trust my own judgment again? How will I ever know if I can really trust someone?"

He was silent for a moment. Then: "You can trust me."

Meg's mind tried to question that; for the briefest second she wanted to ask herself, Can I? Can I really? But she wouldn't allow it. Calen had risked trouble and worse for her more than once; he was helping her with Jakl and keeping her secret and hadn't ever asked for one thing in return. He had just saved her life, for G.o.ds' sake! She turned to look at him and even now she could see the difference. Wilem's eyes had been beautiful, and she thought the sadness in them had been real, but they had never been as clear and true as Calen's eyes were.

"I know I can," she said. And she did. She tried to force the truth of her words into her eyes, the way his eyes always shone with truth, so he would be able to see and believe her. "Thank you, Calen."

He didn't seem to know what to say back. He gave her a tentative, awkward smile and then made a show of looking around, studying what little of the sky they could see through the trees above. "We should probably keep walking while we have the light," he said after a moment, "but before too long we'll need to stop and think about making camp."

"Camp," she repeated, looking around at the surrounding forest. "It's hard to believe that we're really going to sleep out here in the woods and the dark, with the animals, and . . . who knows what else." No. She refused to consider what else there might be. Just animals. Little ones, probably. Squirrels and things. But then an alarming thought struck her. "Do you even know how to make a fire?" Meg had a vague idea of rubbing sticks and stones together to make a spark, but had no real sense of how one would actually go about that sort of endeavor.

He smiled at her, a real smile this time. "Fortunately, that's something I happen to be pretty good at. I'll show you when we stop." They started walking again, side by side. "Serek and I had to sleep on the road a few times when we made the trip up from Eldwinn."

"Was it just the two of you? That must have been, uh, pleasant."

He laughed at that, and she laughed, too, hearing him. "It certainly was. You know what charming company my master can be. And of course, we had Lyrimon with us, as well." He began relating stories from the trip, incidents she suspected were far from humorous at the time but that sounded quite funny now. As she listened, Meg glanced at the stick she still held in her hands, then let it fall to the ground beside her. She left it lying there as they continued on their way.

"Ready?"

"Yes," Meg said, keeping her eyes fixed on Calen's outstretched hand. He'd told her she wouldn't be able to see anything, but she wanted to try anyway. A second later the kindling burst into flame. He was right. She hadn't seen a thing.

"But you can see it?" she asked.

He nodded. "It's not exactly *seeing,' though," he said. "At least, not the same kind of seeing as when I look at a tree, or a person, or whatever. I used to have to sort of squint and look at it out of the corner of my eye, but lately it's been getting easier to see without even trying."

"Well, that's good, isn't it? Wouldn't that mean you're getting stronger in your ability?"

Calen shrugged. "I suppose so," he said. He leaned over and fed some larger pieces of wood into the fire. "The truth is, I don't know what it means, really. Serek has never talked about this aspect of magic with me. He's never even mentioned it. I guess he doesn't want me to use it as a crutch, that he wants me to learn casting without relying on seeing the colors. But it's strange that he's never once brought it up. I don't understand it."

"You've never asked him about it?"

He shook his head and sat back. "No. He's not the easiest man to ask questions of. And I guess I was worried about how he'd react." He was quiet a moment, staring into the fire. "Seems sort of stupid now, doesn't it? I should talk to him about it. He's my teacher, after all. I'll talk to him when a" when we get back."

"When we get back," she echoed quietly. They would get back. They had to. Calen had asked her earlier if the king and queen wouldn't postpone the ceremony once they realized Meg was missing, but she didn't think so. The wedding was too important to both kingdoms. Probably her parents would create some fiction to explain her absence and then quietly try to find her without raising suspicion. It would be difficult for them, she knew, but she also knew they would put the welfare of the kingdom before their personal feelings. The kingdom could do without her more than it could do without this union with Kragnir. Except, of course, that if she didn't get back in time, the union with Kragnir would be destroyed by Sen Eva and Wilem. And poor Maerlie. . . .

No. She couldn't think about that now. Crying again wouldn't help anything. And there was still hope, after all. Maybe her parents would find her and Calen, somehow. Or maybe they'd discover Sen Eva's plot some other way. Or maybe Sen Eva and Wilem would fail during the attempt to kill Maerlie, and Prince Ryant would kill Wilem instead. And then her parents would hang Sen Eva in the courtyard. And her limp, dead, evil body would dangle there, picked at by crows and rats, until Calen and Meg returned safely home.

"What are you smiling about?" Calen asked, startling her out of her reverie.

She shook her head. "Nothing." Back to business. "Do you think Serek might be able to help them find us?"

"I don't know," Calen answered. "I've been wondering about that myself. He might have discovered we're gone by now. I contacted him, just for a moment, before Sen Eva began casting."

She turned to stare at him. "You did? Why didn't you tell me?"

He looked at her sheepishly. "I forgot."

"Calen!" G.o.ds, he could be exasperating. "So tell me now! What happened?"

"I had been trying to reach him. Magically, I mean. That's what I was doing when Wilem stopped me, but when you distracted them, I was able to get through for a second and I heard him answer me, which he always told me wasn't possible, that you can't actually really talk that way, but clearly you can, because a""

"Calen."

"Uh, yes. Sorry. Anyway, all he really said was my name, and he started to ask a question, but then everything happened and the connection was broken. I've tried reaching him again, but I can't. Maybe we're too far away now. Or maybe I'm just not strong enough."

Hope warred with disappointment within her. "Are you sure? Maybe you should try again."

"Meg, I've been trying, believe me. I can't reach him."

"Do you think he might be able to reach you?"

"That's what I've been hoping. But I can't help thinking that he would have done it by now. He knew something was wrong. I'm sure I got that much across, at least."

They both fell silent. The fire was crackling merrily, in counterpoint to their own sorrow and frustration.

"Well, look," Calen said finally. "There's nothing else we can do tonight. We might as well try to get some sleep. Maybe we'll have some new ideas by the morning."

Meg nodded. Sleep definitely sounded good. Except that she wanted her own soft bed, and some hot tea, and her sisters down the hall. She looked at the hard, cold ground and tried not to think about how unpleasant it was going to be to sleep on.

Calen seemed to guess what she was thinking. "I'm sorry, Meg. I'd conjure you a blanket if I could."

She snorted. "If you could, I'd get you to conjure me a whole bed."

"And some food, while I was at it."

"Oh, don't remind me," she said. It was hard trying to ignore the rumblings of her stomach. She was merely uncomfortable now, but soon enough it would get much worse.

Meg tried to push all such thoughts out of her mind as she looked around for the likeliest spot to lie down. Someplace close enough to the fire to be warm but not close enough to get burned in her sleep, someplace without too many rocks. . . . She looked over to see Calen already spread out on his back, his head resting against a thick tree root. He was watching her, grinning. "You're just like a dog, turning round and round before settling in," he said. "Do you do that at home, too?"

She tried to give him a frosty stare but spoiled it by smiling back. It was a bit funny, she supposed. "How did you find a good spot?" she asked him. "There are rocks everywhere!"

He shrugged. "I didn't really think about it. Just lay back where I was and tried to make the best of it." He paused, then added, "Here, wait, let me try something."

He looked around, then pointed the fingers of one hand at a nearby tree that had lots of long, thick leaves. The branches shook as though being buffeted by a gust of wind, and several bunches of leaves floated free to the ground. Calen got up, gathered them together, and then laid them out like a small sort of blanket.

"How's that?" he asked. "It's no feather mattress, but it might help a little."

"I a" thank you, Calen." His kindness kept surprising her; it was as if he'd been saving it up his whole life, waiting to have someone to be kind to. She wanted to believe that wasn't true, but from the little he'd told her about his time with Serek and his life as an orphaned inn worker before that, she was afraid it might be. "Did Serek teach you that?"

"No," he said. He sounded thoughtful. "I just a" it just seemed like something that might work. Sometimes things just need a little push to go in a certain direction. Those leaves were going to fall eventually; I just encouraged them to let go a little sooner." He shook his head. "It's funny a" I keep thinking I need to learn some specific spell for everything, but I know that's not really true. I just never think to try things on my own that I haven't at least read about. But magic isn't like that; you can play with it, try things out . . . I keep having to be reminded."

"Well," Meg said. "I'm happy to give you an excuse to experiment. If you want to try out any other magic spells that might make my stay here in the mystery forest more pleasant, please let me know."

She lay down gingerly on her bed of greenery and found that it wasn't nearly as bad as she'd feared. Maybe the leaves really were making a difference. She must have been more tired than she'd realized, because she felt herself starting to drift off as soon as she closed her eyes. I can't even feel the rocks at all, she thought sleepily.

"Meg?" Calen asked softly.

"Mmm?"

"Can you still feel Jakl?

Her eyes snapped open as she suddenly came back to full wakefulness. "No," she said in amazement. Then a""Wait, yes. But just barely." She sat up and turned to face Calen. "How could I not have noticed? I haven't thought of him once, since a" well, since this morning."

Calen shifted up onto one elbow. "You've had a great deal on your mind since then," he pointed out. "But you can still feel him?"

She nodded slowly. "It's subdued. I can feel him as a presence, but I can't feel what he's feeling. Usually at night I'm very aware of him. I think he's been trying to share dreams with me or something. But now he's barely there at all." She felt the beginnings of panic stirring in her gut. "Oh, Calen, what if he tries to look for me? What if he comes out, and they find him?"

"I don't think that will happen. We haven't been gone that long. And it seems like you've made him understand that he needs to stay hidden. He can probably tell that you're farther away than usual, but that alone might not be enough to drive him out into the open." He paused, thoughtful. "Although, if he picked up on any of your emotions this morning, maybe he would suspect that something was wrong."

Meg glared at him. "Just when you're starting to make me feel better, you have to go and ruin it."

"Sorry."

She waved away his apology. "No, you're right. But it's impossible to know." A thought struck her then. It almost made her laugh, although it really wasn't funny. "But I think he must still be safe. At least so far."

"How do you know?" Calen asked.

She smirked. "Because I'm not dead."

He just stared at her, not seeing it.

"Look, if he had come out and someone had seen him, he'd have been killed. The guards would have torn him apart. They're not taking any chances these days. And if Jakl had been killed, I'd be either dead or insane, right?"

Calen swallowed and managed, "I a" I suppose so."

"So for now, at least, we can a.s.sume he's still safely hidden away." She didn't add what they both knew a" that that could change at any moment, and they wouldn't know until it was too late.

Well, there was nothing she could do. She tried to send calming feelings through her link, to let Jakl know she was all right, but she knew he wouldn't be able to sense anything from her at this distance. Now that she was aware of how faint her sense of him had grown, she missed him. It was strange to realize how much she'd come to accept his constant presence at the edges of her consciousness.

She lay back down again and tried to rest. The sleepiness that had swept over her so quickly before now eluded her completely. She lay listening to the sound of the fire and Calen's soft, slow breathing for a long time before the welcome oblivion of sleep finally claimed her as well.

CALEN AWAKENED FEELING STRANGELY STIFF and cold. Had he kicked off his blankets in the night? He opened his eyes and blinked stupidly at the trees for several seconds. Then he sat up and saw Meg lying on her scattered bed of leaves, and all the unpleasant events of the day before came crashing back upon him.

He must have made some noise when he sat up; Meg was starting to stir now, too. He watched her go through the same process of sleepy confusion and sudden, shocking remembrance.

"So it wasn't just a bad dream," she said quietly.

"No," he answered. "I'm sorry."

She nodded wearily and then stretched, apparently feeling the same stiffness in her own limbs. Sleeping outside will do that to a person. At least his body had a faint memory of dealing with this during his travels with Serek. Poor Meg had probably never slept anywhere other than a soft, warm bed.

They each excused themselves to take care of personal necessities and then sat by the cold remnants of their fire and pointedly did not speak of breakfast.

Meg was frowning at the ground. Calen couldn't tell if she was deep in thought or just grumpy. Her fine dress was dirty and rumpled, and her hair had come loose from its pinnings. She looked like a strange hybrid of her real and fabricated personalities a" or perhaps like Mellie the dirty errand girl playing dress-up in some wellborn lady's castoffs. He was sure he looked no better himself, save that his clothes had not been all that fine to begin with.

"So," he ventured finally, "should we just keep going?"

She nodded. "But first we need to find some water. Food would be nice, but dehydration is the greater danger at the moment." She gave him a half-smile. "Plus we could both do with a bit of a wash. I don't suppose you know how we can go about finding some water, do you?"

"Actually, I do." He couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it himself. What kind of mage was he going to be if he needed other people to suggest his spells to him? Meg was looking at him with a mixture of surprise and admiration on her face. It was a nice change from the usual ways she looked at him.

Calen stood, closing his eyes. Serek had taught him a number of wilderness survival spells. Finding north was one; locating water was another. He had memorized them some time ago, but, not expecting to need them anytime soon, had then filed them away in the back of his brain until Meg reminded him. She was dealing with enough right now; he had to start doing some of the thinking here instead of leaving it all to her. He cleared his mind and reached out with his senses, sending tendrils of invisible white energy out through the forest around them. Almost immediately he picked up a feeling of water up ahead. A small stream, but they didn't need a giant river for washing and bathing. He marked the spot carefully in his mind and then, suddenly curious, he shifted his focus slightly and looked for salt water instead. Trelian was nowhere near the ocean; Serek had had him try sensing the coast from his study, but Calen had not even been able to tell which direction it was. But now he could sense a large amount of salt water somewhere off to the east. More than a few miles away, but not far. Not far at all.

When he opened his eyes, Meg was watching him intently. Still trying to see the magical energy he was working, he guessed. He pointed toward the location of the stream. "There's some water up ahead, not too far from here," he said.

"Excellent. Let's go." She started walking.

"Wait," he told her. He knelt to examine the stone circle he'd arranged the night before, making sure the last embers of the fire were out. He scooped dirt over the site, just to be sure. Meg watched impatiently, and then guiltily as she realized what he was doing.

"Sorry," she said when he stepped up next to her. "I didn't even think about that."

He shrugged. "It's all right. You've never had a campfire before." They started toward the stream. "What's worse is that I didn't think to check for water. You'd think Serek hadn't taught me anything!"

Meg smiled at him. "Guess it's a good thing we're here together, then," she said. "You take care of the fires and I'll make sure you put your magic to good use. Speaking of which, you're sure you don't have a spell for bringing us home, or sending a message to my father, or anything like that?"

"Meg, I told you . . ."

"Well, just checking. You did forget the water spell, after all."

Calen couldn't really argue with that. He rolled his eyes and said, "Yes, Your Highness. I'm afraid I am quite certain that none of Serek's teaching has prepared me for this particular need. I will continue to dedicate my thoughts to the subject, however, and promise to notify you of any brilliant ideas."

She gave him her best haughty royal stare. "See that you do." Then she tossed her princessness aside and was back to being just Meg. She peered at the surrounding trees as they walked. "See any trees that look familiar yet?"

"Sorry."

She nodded and they continued on their way. Calen had meant his earlier comment to be sarcastic, but all the same, he did turn his mind to sorting through his magical a.r.s.enal. Maybe there was something he already knew how to do that could be used to help them in some way. He thought back over the past two weeks of lessons. Now that Serek had really begun focusing on his education, he was aware of just how little teaching had been going on before. He felt he must have taken in a year's worth of training for every day, and there was no doubt that the magic was coming far more easily to him than it had before. He thought his spark must be trying to make up for all the lost time.