“My lady,” said Patrice, bowing, “we heard you coming, and-Oh, my, have you been weeping? — Ow!” He leaned down and rubbed his leg where Didier had kicked him.
“Yes, Patrice,” said Liaze, “I wept some, but I did not wail as loudly as did the crone.”
“Crone?” said Didier, jerking about to stare at the grove while reaching for the hilt of his sword.
“Did you not hear her?” asked Liaze.
Both Didier and Patrice shook their heads, and Patrice said, “All was silent, my lady.”
Liaze looked down at the trump hanging at her side, and she wondered if it, too, would not have been heard had she sounded it while Lady Skuld was present in the glade.
“About this crone…” said Didier.
“It was Lady Skuld in disguise,” said Liaze, now starting for the manor.
“Lady Wyrd?” blurted Patrice alongside. “Oh, but I am glad I didn’t see her, for I would rather not know my fate.”
“Patrice, you fool,” said Didier, “she only comes at great need and not for just any piddling thing.”
“Wull, how do you know I am not in great need?”
“It takes more than personal tragedy,” said Didier. “Something greater has to hang in the balance.”
At these words, Liaze stopped in her tracks. Didier and Patrice stuttered on a number of steps before stopping as well. Then they turned and started back, just as the princess strode onward. Reversing course again, they marched at her side.
Liaze said, “Exactly right, Didier. She would not have come unless something greater hung in the balance. Losing Luc, though an extreme blow to me, is but a personal tragedy. There is more to this than we know. Something critical in the scheme of things.”
She picked up the pace and headed toward the forecourt lawn where a large group of men were gathered. “Come, I have to confer with my armsmaster and steward.”
As the princess drew nigh she could hear Remy call out, “All right, men, pair up. And remember, the slightest thing, no matter how insignificant it might seem, if it has even a remote chance of pointing toward the witch or the Goblin or ought else, send for Claude, for he is our best tracker. He will look at what you espied, and say whether or no it was of unnatural origin.”
The men nodded and selected partners, and stepped to Zacharie to get their sector assignments.
“Didier, Patrice, join them,” said Liaze.
“But, Princess, Zacharie told us to-”
“Never mind that. There are no Goblins in the manor, and whatever houseguard remains within will be more than enough to protect me.”
“As you wish, Princess,” said Patrice, bowing. Didier bowed too, and then they went to Zacharie.
Liaze paused a moment at Remy’s side. “I need to speak with you and Zacharie. When you are free, come find me.”
“Where, Princess?”
“I’ll be in the kitchen with Cook for some moments, breaking my fast, after which I’ll be in the armory.”
As Liaze entered the manse, Zoe leapt up from a bench in the reception hall. “Oh, Princess, I couldn’t find you, and none knew where you went, though some of the staff said you had gone to the willow grove.”
“You needn’t have worried,” said Liaze, “for I was protected by Didier and Patrice.”
“That’s what Zacharie said, and Remy had men standing by, just in case.”
Liaze sighed. “Zoe, I would have you find Eugene and tell him to come to me in the armory.”
As Remy and Zacharie entered the armory, the princess was selecting arrows and placing them in two quivers: one to carry across her back, the other to hang from a saddle.
“My lady,” said Zacharie. Then he looked at what she was doing and lifted an eyebrow in query, but she did not respond.
Eugene strode in, the stable master puffing a bit, as if he had run most of the way. “Princess, you wished to see me?”
“Oui, Eugene.” Her gaze swept across the three men. “I will be going on a long journey, and, Eugene, I would have you make ready supplies for me and Pied Agile and Deadly Nightshade-grain for them, food for me, cooking and camping gear, and the like. I suspect I’ll need three or four packhorses to bear it all.”
“Mares or geldings,” said Eugene, “else the chevalier’s horse is likely to run any pack animals off.”
“My lady,” said Zacharie, “where is it you plan to go? To a seer?”
“Non, Zacharie. I am going after Luc.”
“Oh, Princess,” protested Zacharie, but Remy interrupted and said, “When we find something to show the way, there’ll be no need for you to ride after Luc, for my warband and I will-”
“Non, Remy, Zacharie,” said Liaze. “I must go alone.”
“Alone?” burst out Remy and Zacharie and Eugene together, and all began raising objections, each trying to be heard above the others.
Liaze pushed out a hand for silence, and when it fell, she said, “Lady Skuld was at the willow pool at dawn, and this is what she said. …”
“… And lastly, she told me a bird would point the way.”
As she fell silent, Remy ran a hand through his red hair. “I know not what Skuld meant when she said you must ride with fear and dread and death and torn souls, except, perhaps, she might be telling you to go with caution; nor do I know why fear would kill any who accompany you, for we are stalwart and true, and have faced Goblins and Trolls without blenching; nor do I know who this ‘howling one’ might be, other than some Wolf or Dog; I do understand about treading softly, for that’s only prudence, but I know not where a black mountain lies; and as to a bird pointing the way, what bird? Princess, each of those things either I know or know not, yet of this I am certain: for you to go alone is folly, and my warband and I should ride with-”
“Do you argue with Lady Wyrd?” asked Liaze, looking first at Remy, then Zacharie, and finally Eugene.
Eugene looked away, and Zacharie sighed, and Remy, tears of frustration in his eyes, shook his head. And Zacharie said, “When do you plan on leaving?”
Liaze turned up her hands. “Soon, Zacharie, soon. Tomorrow or the next at the very latest, for the dark of the moon two moons from now rides a course that cannot be stayed.”
Remy frowned and said, “My lady, I now ask you a question you once asked me: since we know not whence the witch did fly, which way would you go?”
“I don’t know, Armsmaster. I don’t know. I simply must trust to Fate.”
In that moment a footman entered-a young lad, Cook’s son. He bowed and said, “My lady, the funeral pyres are set.”
For a moment Liaze frowned in puzzlement, but then her visage cleared. Ah, me, I had forgotten-Adrien and Paul-the two who were crushed by the witch’s terrible shadow.
“Thank you, Gaston,” she said. “We will be there shortly.”
As the lad bowed and left, Liaze turned to Zacharie. “After the funeral, have the entire staff-searchers included-gather in the welcoming hall. We shall see if any know of a black mountain, or the one who howls, or of ought else in Lady Skuld’s rede.”
Even as the pyres were burning and many wept in grief, Jean, the falconer, stepped to Liaze’s side and said, “My lady, one of the peregrines comes… from the Summerwood by the course of his flight.”
Liaze looked up in the direction Jean pointed, and the grey-and-white raptor came winging in swift and true.
Liaze sighed. I had completely forgotten we flew them yestermorn, bearing news of my betrothal to
Luc. She turned to Jean and said, “Bring the message to the welcoming hall.”
Jean nodded and set out for the falcon mews.
There was an uproar in the welcoming hall, shouts of protest and cries of alarm.
You can’t go away alone, Princess!
Take the warband!
Oh, my lady, please stay.
’Tis much too perilous, Princess Liaze…
Liaze let the clamor run its course, and then she raised her hands for silence. When it came, she quietly said, “It is the only way, for I would not go against Lady Skuld’s words.” She looked at Didier standing nearby and added, “As I was reminded, there is much more at stake than a personal tragedy, else Lady Wyrd would not have come. I must go.”