Thunderous silence was her only answer. She sighed and stood up. "Well, I will cross that bridge when I come to it. I thank you for your help." She bowed formally to White Hair.

Will's head buzzed and his stomach threatened rebellion as he crawled into one of the hammocks these forest elves favored. Their tobacco was strong, albeit more smooth than any leaf he'd ever tried. Not that a few stolen puffs of others' pipes back in the hollow made him an expert. His mother would've tanned his hide had she ever caught him smoking.

Head throbbing with pain, he closed his eyes in hopes of stopping the hut from spinning and was just drifting off to sleep when a small noise jerked him back to consciousness. The leather flap over his door lifted aside.

"Rosana?" he murmured.

A trill of laughter was emphatically not Rosana. He sat up fast, overbalancing the flimsy hammock, which spun around and dumped him unceremoniously on the floor. The giggle became a full-blown laugh. He scowled up at what turned out to be a stunningly beautiful young woman wreathed in shadows. Her clothing appeared made entirely of leaves and foliage, and he thought he spied bits of leaves and twigs in her hair. Not another dryad!

She bowed deeply to him. "Greetings, gifted one."

"What can I do for you?" he asked as courteously as his dizziness, nausea, and bruised ego would allow for.

"Ask rather what I can do for you," she half-sang.

"Why do you call me gifted?" he asked.

"You have an old spirit. This is a gift, is it not?" she asked playfully.

He got the impression she was speaking in riddles, but he couldn't even find a riddle to solve in her odd words.

"Is this the only gift you speak of?" he asked suspiciously.

She clapped her hands together joyfully as if he was terribly clever. "Of course not! You travel with another spirit who has recently received the greatest gift of all. Her true nature has, at long last, been revealed. That is a gift to you as well, is it not?"

"What female do you refer to? Speak plainly, please."

"Why, the healer, of course."

He rolled his eyes. "Which one? The dark-haired one or the golden-haired one?"

"The dark one."

Rosana? Alarm quickened his gut and he took an aggressive step forward. "What about her nature?"

"Her connection to the land, her true origin. You know. Her nature..."

The fae creature trailed off as if she dared not say more.

"What of her origin?" he asked.

"A wonder has been created. Like a bloom in spring, it will blossom into a marvelous flower."

Where was Rosana from? Who were her people? What made this unearthly creature so nervous about Rosana that she would not or could not speak of it?

The dryad was speaking again. "... tree spirits are said to be older than time. Between them, they governed all living plants and formed the Great Circle. Each of the great spirits represented some specific aspect of nature-birth, growth, death, rebirth."

She stopped as if waiting for him to acknowledge that he followed her so far. He nodded, confused at her abrupt shift of topic, and she continued, "Between them, they maintained balance in all of nature. One of them represented the destructive aspect of nature. The others, not understanding, turned on him and ousted him from their midst. Their minions destroyed him, scattering his fragments across the lands." She spoke urgently as if trying to convey something important without speaking of it directly.

Will frowned. "What does this have to do with me?"

The strange girl stared hard at Will, her eyes drilling into him with sharp intelligence. "You tell me. Why you? I want to know."

A chill chattered through Will as something dangerous entered her gaze. Abruptly an air of threat hung about her. He had no idea what, exactly, she was asking. Hence he had no idea how to answer her.

Just then a disturbance erupted outside, breaking the tension of the moment. Someone was shouting, and an abrupt flurry of activity erupted. The young woman spun toward the door.

"Why do you speak of this Great Circle to me?" he demanded of her.

She spoke quickly, in a whisper. "The Forest of Thorns, human boy. Stay alive long enough and journey deep enough in the forest, and you may find it. Let the tree spirit guide you." And on that note, she slipped disconcertingly into the tree trunk beside her and disappeared.

The ruckus was so loud across the way at the council house that he could hear the gist of it from here. A young kindari took great gasping breaths in the middle of a fast-gathering crowd as he relayed urgent tidings.

... Imperials ... killing all travelers ... had word a kindari village was harboring a party of outlaws ... questioning everyone and taking prisoners ... headed this way within the hour- Sharp orders were barked out for the village to rouse itself and flee. Something grasped his arm of a sudden, and he whirled, his dagger in hand.

It was Sha'Li. She whispered two short sentences, but it was enough. "Boki I smell. We go now."

Soldiers and Boki were hunting them? He groaned under his breath. She jerked her head to indicate that he should follow her. She waited impatiently for him to duck inside the cave to fetch his pack. He glided into the shadows with her, doing his best to match her soundless passage. She really was quite stealthy.

Will made out a thick cluster of bushes ahead. Something was wrong with them, though-a dark clump in the middle of them that was not of the bushes. "Who goes?" he breathed.

"Me," a familiar, frightened voice whispered back.

Rosana.

He joined her beneath the bush, and she immediately huddled close. His heart warmed. Too bad his stomach was not following suit. It felt terrible. His head ached and he felt slightly feverish, too. He made a solemn mental vow never to smoke kindari leaf again.

Sha'Li took off once more, presumably to fetch the other members of their party. While they waited, Will wrapped his arm around Rosana's shoulders and pulled her closer, whether to comfort her or himself he couldn't tell. Kindari were streaming out of the village, disappearing into the forest as quickly as he spotted them.

A twig snapped off to their right. He whirled, battle ready, brandishing his dagger and spear.

"This way," a new shadow ordered curtly.

Cicero. And the rest of their party was with him, including Sha'Li. The kindari moved off swiftly through the trees, running along some path only he could see. The footing was smooth, their way uncluttered by deadfall. How long they raced silently through the woods Will could not say. But he was out of breath by the time the elf finally stopped. The others were panting, too.

"Are we safe?" Will murmured.

Cicero shrugged. "As safe as can be, considering that both the Boki and the Empire seem to want badly to kill us."

Raina murmured, "Do we dare continue into Talyn? It is our known destination. Won't the governor and his men go there first looking for us? Perhaps we should skip any settlements and head directly for the Forest of Thorns."

Will threw her a startled look. He'd expected that she and her elf would depart from the party on other travels at some point. What was her business in the dangerous forest?

Kendrick and Eben protested immediately, and Kendrick's voice won out. "We must go to Talyn to look for Eben's sister. The Patriarch is there and can remove Eben's slave mark, too. Besides, Anton will figure the last place we'd go is where we said we would. You heard the scout's report. The governor is calling us a band of outlaws."

Kendrick made sense.

Rosana added, "Maybe the Patriarch can help Will, too."

Will turned to her, suspicion exploding in his breast beneath the wood disk. Help him with what? Removing the disk? Or declaring him mentally unstable? "What orders did the High Matriarch give you?" he demanded.

She blinked, looking startled. "I beg your pardon?"

"What were your exact instructions regarding me?"

"No instructions. We were to sneak out of Heart together. No one was to know that we left."

"And you do not think we escaped a little too easily? Why would the Heart let you come with me? To watch me? Why do they care where I go or what I do?"

"I do not know." She added when he scowled, "Honest. I know nothing beyond what I've told you."

One side of his brain shouted at him to trust her and not attack her like this. But the other half of his brain smelled subterfuge in her words. If she was not lying, then whoever had let them slip out of the Dupree Heart so easily and with full packs of supplies had an agenda of their own. What did the Heart want with him? Suspicion roared through him. The Heart was the Empire's pet dog.

A quick vote among the party members yielded a consensus for Talyn. Will abstained while his thoughts whirled angrily.

Cicero announced quietly, "To Talyn it is, then."

CHAPTER.

21.

Will was impressed by the kindari's secret network of trails through the countryside. Mostly the region was parceled into farms and small steadings. Every now and then a patch of woods like the one the kindari village had been in broke up the fields and pastures. They circled wide around a few villages that reminded Will painfully of Hickory Hollow from a distance.

It rained on and off throughout the day, making their travel damp and cold. Near sunset, though, the clouds cleared somewhat and the temperature dropped sharply. Based on the sun's position, he was able to tell that Cicero led them in a generally northerly direction. But beyond that, Will was lost.

Not that he could summon the energy to care. His fever had worsened and his stomach hovered on the verge of revolt. Raina even gave him a big dose of healing magic, but it made him feel no better at all.

They headed for a wooded patch that would give them cover for the night. The scrawny trees were dank, stinking of rot, the ground spongy underfoot and the branches slick with slime. The trees were not properly thinned and trimmed to provide knot-free boards for fine furniture, and a general feeling of neglect hung about this place. It was entirely unlike the neatly tended forest about Hickory Hollow. Given their all-night march, the group had agreed to stop before full dark today to hunt for a decent meal and get a good night's rest.

Between them all, they had a respectable camp laid, a fire burning, and a stew heating over the blaze in no time. Cicero and Kendrick disappeared into the trees to set warning trip wires around their camp, collect firewood, and generally scout out the area. Eben took care of the last details of making camp.

Will, as accustomed as he was to hard outdoor work, was worn out. He felt ill and weak, and the stew did not smell the least bit appetizing. He felt better, though, when he spied even the indomitable Sha'Li drooping in fatigue. He was merely overtired. At least their exhaustion prevented them all from snapping at one another. Everyone would perk up when they got some hot food in them.

Not long after the entire party had returned to camp, Will's preternaturally sharp ears picked up a sound nearby. Or maybe he sensed a foreign presence first. But either way, he snatched up his staff and was on his feet in time to see a dryad step lightly out of trees and into the clearing. Will rolled his eyes. Not this again.

The males of the party groaned while Sha'Li grinned, Rosana looked ready to hurt someone, and Raina sat back to observe the show. They were all too tired to fend off the machinations of another dryad tonight.

He said patiently, "My lady, if you wish to stay in camp, I need you to give me your word that you will leave my male friends alone and make no attempt to charm or enslave them."

The familiar laughter trilled, but the creature nodded her promise to behave.

Will looked up sharply as more rustling became audible in the shadows beyond the fire. "Who goes there?" he demanded sharply. "Show yourself!"

Three ursari stepped out of the trees wearing expressions of chagrin. "The human has sharp hearing," one of them commented wryly.

Cicero spoke low to the trio and reported, "They insist the dryad has not charmed them. Rather she asked for their protection that she might reach you safely, Will."

"Me?"

The dryad interrupted, "The wind has whispered to me of a strange young man who shrugs off our magic like it is nothing. I came to investigate."

Will turned to the warriors skeptically. "She asked you to protect them?"

"Aye. In the name of the Lady."

Cicero sucked in a sharp breath. Will turned to him questioningly, and Cicero explained, "Invoking the Lady among my kind is serious business. We do not take it lightly, and neither do her kind." He nodded in the direction of the dryad without making eye contact with her.

Silence fell in the clearing.

"Have you eaten?" Will asked the faerie. He doubted the dryad would take him up on a bowl of common stew, but his mother had been a stickler for courtesy. You always offered to share your meal with a guest.

"Thanks be unto you, Will Cobb. But I do not hunger." She added, "At least not for what you seem willing to offer."

He hadn't introduced himself, yet she knew his name. He sighed. The dryads were definitely gossiping about him among themselves. He studied her more closely. Her skin was noticeably more golden in tone than any dryad's he'd seen so far. It shimmered as if gold dust were sprinkled across it. She seemed more ... mature ... than the others. Self-possessed. If there was some sort of hierarchy among dryads, he'd lay odds this one was a noble of some kind.

Her gaze, which had roamed around the clearing, swung back to him. He looked away hastily, considering whether or not he dared look this one in the eyes. What the heck. He already had her promise to leave the other males alone.

"Watch my back," he murmured at Eben.

The jann's eyebrow arched faintly, but he nodded slightly.

Will looked back at the golden dryad. Her gaze was amber, warm and joyous. She exhibited none of the intense concentration the other dryads had used on him, merely a certain wry humor. Her very lack of an attempt to ensorcel him was more appealing by far than the best efforts of any of the others.

Something surged up within Will so quickly he had no time to stop or hide it. He knew this dryad. She was a noble of the Green Court and chief among the dryads of this part of the wood. "Elysia?" he asked incredulously.

The dryad jolted. Alarm flitted across her face, chased by curiosity. And then anger took her over. She surged around-or maybe through-the fire in a trice, her hand unexpectedly strong and fierce on his throat. "How do you know my name, boy?" she snarled.

The party would have jumped to its collective feet, but the ursari warriors abruptly loomed over them all threateningly, weapons drawn, making it clear that any interference on their part would get them hurt or worse.

Elysia's inhuman fury was fully roused, and he needed no special powers to sense death in her molten gaze. Will blinked at her, startled. "I haven't the slightest idea. Your name just ... came to me."

"How, human? Who are you?"

"I am Will Cobb. Of Hickory Hollow in the Wylde Wood. In the west," he added lamely.