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Their eyes met, long enough to establish the fact and then instantly they broke contact. Jamas got to his feet and Willow took her quarrel back from Grenejon.

Just then, the rest of their group clambered to the ledge, exclaiming when they saw the dead barguas stretched out in the pine needles. And the dogs reappeared, sniffing and growling at the corpse and acting more as if they had had a part in its death. Niffy was nowhere to be seen.

Following hunting protocol, the forester raised his trumpet to his lips to signal the kill and the sound reverberated from rocky tor to the valleys below. A distant acknowledgment was heard to the north and east of them.

THREE MORE BARGUAS were run during that day; two killed-one by Grenejon and the other by Egdril. The third escaped by making a spectacular leap across a gorge. Mavron told in detail how it had almost lost its hold on the far side before it managed to scramble away into the forest. It had had several arrows in its hide, so it could well be dead of its wounds.

"Formidable predators, these barguas of yours," Egdril remarked, well pleased with the day's chases.

The weary hunters reached the lake as dusk felclass="underline" Niffy was back in Jamas' tent before him. Only for the fact that she was sitting on his bed, industriously repairing travel damage to her smoky coat, Jamas would have been hard put to prove that she'd been out of the tent all day.

"Did you know something, Niffy, that you couldn't tell me?" he asked her, starting to slough off his filthy clothes. That was when he noticed a little spot of blood on the coverlet. "Did you hurt yourself?"

She allowed him to feel her all over but pulled away, growling deep in her throat, when he touched one hind leg.

"Now, I'll have no more of that, my dear," he said firmly and found a tear on her right hind leg. "Grenejon!"

"My Prince?"

"Get me something to bathe Niffy's paw. She wasn't entirely unscathed."

"Preserve us!" Grenejon left, calling for the groom.

Although the head hostler was also called when Niffy wouldn't allow Arfo near her, no one was successful. Jamas was worried to the point of fury with his cat.

"You could get an infection! You could be crippled! And it's not an insignificant wound, Niffy. Oh, do be sensible!" Jamas pleaded when angry tones made no impression on his cat, now crouched under his camp bed.

"May I help?" asked the Lady Willow, appearing at the tent door with a small rolled case in her hand. "I tend all my own animals."

So she got down on her stomach, with the others peering under the bed at the recalcitrant Niffy.

"Please? All of you get up and let me try," Willow said. When they had complied, Niffy's ears came forward. "They've gone. Giving you some space, Niffy-cat," Willow said in a sensible voice. Niffy said a surprised "Meh!" at that and relaxed the bristles on her back and tail. "Now, do come out so I can put a little salve on that wound. Barguas wounds so often fester. You owe it to your prince, and to yourself to be treated. You don't want to miss out on tomorrow's hunting, do you?"

"I'm not letting her hunt again…" Jamas began.

Willow craned her head up, smiling. "In the first instance, she proved a most valuable ally today against an opponent ten times her size. And in the second, how could you possibly prevent her?"

During this conversation, Niffy emerged from under the bed and, before Jamas could leap to secure her, Willow restrained him and patted the bed for Niffy to jump up. She did, a trifle awkwardly for one of her inherent grace. Then the cat extended her leg for treatment.

"It isn't bad," Willow said, ignoring the men who still anxiously crowded about. "Just a tear. On a sharp stone, I shouldn't wonder, so we don't have to worry about barguas saliva. Now, just a dab of this salve, and don't you go licking it off. There now, you'll survive this, too, Niffy-cat, without forfeiting one of your lives."

Once again Niffy said "Meh!" to Willow's style of her name but, so relieved was everyone that the injury was minor, no one noticed. Not even Lady Willow.

As she rolled up her little case of unguents and salves, Jamas sprang forward to offer her his hand and raised her to her feet. If she let her hand linger longer in his grasp than was perhaps necessary, only she and Jamas would have known it.

Outside a vigorously clanged bell gave the first warning for the evening meal. Everyone hastened to their quarters to change out of hunting togs.

The hunting party was in good spirits, for they had dispatched three of the marauders and scattered two of the packs-according to the head forester.

Niffy was toasted as a heroine who modestly remained absent, though Jamas ordered that a plate should be prepared for her of the best cuts of the ibex which Egdril had killed shortly after the hunting party had split up.

Laurel sat on one side of Jamas with Salinah on the other, and he accorded them the courtesies without more than a passing glance at the Lady Willow seated with Grenejon and her cousins.

They had even better luck the following day, finding a litter of barguas cubs in one cave and accounting for two males and another nursing female. The hounds also found the arrow-riddled corpse of a fourth adult barguas.

Of course, the fangs were allotted to whichever hunter made the kill. The lesser jaw teeth were still much prized and these were shared out to the huntsmen. The toothless heads of the savage animals looked considerably less ferocious, especially with the protuberant eyes shut. The hides would end up in war shields and vests: nothing was tougher than barguas hide.

The third and fourth day did not provide as much excitement but several more caves were found and the litters dispatched. Not even as cubs were the barguas appealing.

For those keeping track of "finds" and "kills," Esphanian hunters gave the better account but, modestly, Prince Jamas reminded King Egdril that his people were hunting in hills they knew well and so had a slight advantage.

"The point you wished to make, my Prince, has been accepted," Grenejon told Jamas as they reviewed the excursion. "Are they all coming back to the castle with us?"

"Only Egdril and the girls, it seems," Jamas said. His smile broadened as he saw Grenejon's eager expression. "Just the minimum of an honor guard and the necessary servitors. The lads," and he chuckled at the very idea of calling stalwart Geroge and Mavron "lads," "will go back to Mauritia with the rest. Egdril didn't wish to strain our hospitality."

"Ha!" The exclamation burst from Grenejon's lips. "What a backhander that is! Or is Egdril enjoying a little joke?"

"I think he must be," Jamas said, his smile fading. "I can't think that he wouldn't know how much older Castle Esphania is than his principal seat in Mauritia. I've sent Arfo on ahead to apprise Frenery. He'll do what's proper."

AS INDEED FRENERY DID, though as the secretary bustled about the palace, he, too, missed Mangan, who would have organized everything in a scant hour. He was up half the night with the chatelaine, the head chef, and the equerries who had not gone on the hunting expedition.

The baroness and the Ladies Willow and Laurel were back on their pale horses for the journey to Esphania City. King Egdril was in great good humor as they set out, almost as if he had transferred all the cares of state to his sons. Apart from his honor guard, he brought only two nobles with him, plus his valet and the one maid of his wards who had been willing to accompany them on a hunting expedition.

Egdril was an amusing traveler, asking intelligent questions-if occasionally shrewdly inquisitive-as they made a more leisurely journey back.

He did indeed savor the wines at the hostelry where they partook a light luncheon. The Inn of the Seven Feathers-and, of course, the landlord had to tell that tale which made good listening for the man was a skilled storyteller-was most felicitously placed on the tongue of land that jutted out into the Thuler River, wide at this point as it meandered through the lush flat valley. Spring blossoms still hung on the fruit trees, and the air was loud with industrious bees and other pollinators. They sat at tables on the pleasant court under the spreading paulonia trees, enjoying the sunny weather.