The Gremlin stamped up to the tree. "At what do you laugh, white-face? Do you dare?"
It must have been the wind in the branches. The tree couldn't really have been laughing.
"I submit," I said, "that the queen knows where we are and has placed a spell on this forest to keep us going around in circles."
"But she thinks that we are dead!" Angelique protested.
"She must have developed suspicions and looked in her crystal ball."
"Not likely," the Gremlin said, coming back, "for no crystal can see into the palace of the Spider King, unless he wills it, I would as lief believe the forest was enchanted in antiquity, and all who dwell nearby do know to avoid it."
"Could be." But I glanced aside, distracted. "Frisson, what are you doing?"
"Only toying with a stick." Frisson snapped up straight, hands going behind his back. My scalp prickled. "Why do I get the willies when you start playing around? What's the game, Frisson?"
"Oh ... naught but this." Frisson took the stick out from behind his back - three sticks, actually. One was a section of a tree trunk, like a flat table; the other was a peg, going through a hole in the center of the long one.
"What does it do?" I asked suspiciously.
"I recited a verse in praise of the Pole Star," Frisson explained.
"It will always point to the north, now. Just an idle amusement, of no worth-"
"No worth, he says! He just invented the compass, that's all!" I went around behind the poet. "Lead on, Frisson! As long as that stick is pointing toward us, we're going south!" Frisson looked up, pleased, then started off into the forest again.
The Gremlin followed at the end of the line, grumbling. Another hour later, I called a halt again. "Okay. No luck. We've right line according to Frisson's compass, but here's that gone in astra blasted birch tree again. I've got half a mind to blast it for real."
A long moan sounded.
I glared at the tree. "That got you, didn't it? Gonna let us go, now? " The moan came again, drawn out and quavering.
"Saul," Angelique said, "it came from our left, and the tree is to our right." I looked up, frowning, peering off into the underbrush. Sure enough, the moan came again - but it was coming closer. "Everybody step back!"
The moan came loud and clear, and a gnarled, bent old woman tottered into the clearing, hurrying as fast as she could, glancing over her shoulder in terror.
That bothered me-badly. "What's chasing you?"
"My death!" she cried. "Away, fool! or would you catch the pox that does infest me? Then Death will dog your footsteps, too!" Everybody edged back, including me - but the rational part of me took over. "You can't run away from Death, lady - you have to stop and fight him."
"Do you think my master would give me power to fight Death?" she screeched. "Fool, thrice a fool! When Death has taken me, the Devil shall have me! Begone!" And she tottered straight toward me.
Reflex took over. I stepped aside, saying, "If you repent, maybe I can heal you."
She stopped dead - as it were - in front of me, and those old green eyes pierced me to the marrow. "If you can heal me, do so now!"
"You've sold your soul," I pointed out. "I'm not a priest or an exorcist, just a magician." One of us was, anyway. "My magic can't work on you as long as you're in Satan's grasp."
"Then I repent!" The panic suddenly broke through, and the woman sank to her knees, hands uplifted in prayer. "Lord of Heav ... of Hea ... Lord above, save me! I know I am unworthy, for all the evil I have done - but let this foolish magician save my raddled hide, and I shall never work evil again!"
Something rattled in the shadows. I glanced at them apprehensively and held out a hand toward Frisson. "Pox."
"I have searched it." Frisson pushed a piece of parchment into my hand.
I held it up and read it.
That inspired me; I added a couplet Frisson couldn't have known about:
Whatever was rattling in the shadows stopped.
The ex-witch looked up, amazement lighting her face - and even as we watched, the hideous marks of the disease were fading. " 'Tis true! I can feel the sickness leave me, feel the fever abate, my strength reviving!"
"It might not last," I said, "if you don't get to confession. You're out of Satan's power, but not very far out."
"Aye! I must seek out a priest without delay!" She scrambled to her feet and headed off into the forest, her thank-you floating behind her. "I cannot bless, for I am too sodden with evil-but I thank you, kind strangers!" A sudden inspiration hit, and I leapt after her. "Which way to the nearest priest?"
"South! He lives in a village in the plain beyond these woods!"
"Follow that witch!" I shouted to my friends, and we all pelted off through the forest.
The sun was nearing the horizon as we came out of the forest and saw the plain, rolling away under a huge expanse of sky. Even from the edge of the forest, we could see the roofs of three little villages. Between, the flatland was a jigsaw puzzle of small fields, divided by hedges.
The nearest town was maybe half a mile away. Sunlight glistened off whitewashed adobe houses. "The priest lives yon!" The old witch pointed toward the smallest hovel in town. "oh, how deeply I rejoice that I put off and put off the bearding of him, and the slaying of him for the queen!"
So she had been an official. A nasty thought occurred to me.
"You didn't maybe put a spell on that forest so that anybody trying to get through it would get lost, did you?"
"Aye. It protected me from those who sought to hurt me - they could not find my cottage. Farewell, kind strangers! When I am shriven, I shall bless you! I shall sing your praises throughout the land!"
I felt the old familiar chill again. "I'd really rather you didn't. I'm working on a low profile here, you see, and -"
"Ever shall I trumpet your virtues!" she cried. "So wise and merciful a wizard is deserving of glory! And when I'm shriven, I shall bless you with my every breath!" She went tottering off to find a priest, and absolution. I turned to the Gremlin. "Narrow thing, that. You wouldn't have had anything to do with her catching the pox, would you?" The monster grinned, showing a lot of snaggled teeth. "I did not happen by here so many years ago as that, Wizard."
"Just wondering. By the way, which way to the nymph's house now?"
"Yon." The Gremlin pointed due south.
"Yon it is." I sighed. "But only until sunset. We're still in hostile territory, and we'll need some time to pitch camp."
"Shall we never leave Suettay's country?" Angelique sighed. "It was so great a blessing to be free of her, in the palace of the Spider King!
"I'm afraid she knows we're still alive," I said with chagrin. "I shouldn't have cured that last witch."
"Nay, you should have," she said quickly, but her eyes were huge with trepidation in the shadows.
"Mayhap you need not come, milady," Gilbert told her. "Per chance the Spider King would let you remain in his palace. The poet will stay with you - will you not?"
"Aye, if you bid me." Frisson sighed. "Yet I had hoped to witness the end of this sage that unwinds before me."
"You shall," Angelique said quickly. "I shall not be left behind."
I wondered if it was courage, or reluctance to be left alone with Frisson's unharnessed verses. "Okay, then, we're all agreed," I said.