She pointed a finger at him in warning and turned back to Dirk, who had finished cleaning himself and was now staring at her rather accusingly.
"Well, what do you expect me to say?" she demanded.
He continued to stare at her, and she could tell just by the nature of the look what he was thinking. "Oh, all right," she said. She sighed and turned back to the Gnomes. "I"m sorry. I didn"t mean to snap at you like that. I"m just frustrated by everything."
And suddenly it occurred to her that perhaps the cat wouldn"t speak to her unless they were alone. Hadn"t that been the way things had worked last night? "Poggwydd, would you and Shoopdiesel wait for me over there by the trees?" She gestured toward where she wanted them to go. "Just for a few minutes."
The G"home Gnomes trooped off obediently, and she knelt down in front of the cat rather like a humble supplicant. "Now will you speak to me? Please?"
"Since you ask so nicely," said the cat, "I will do so. But not in front of anyone else. You would do well to remember that in the future. That way we won"t have to go through this charade again."
"Believe me, I"ll remember."
"Excellent. Now then, what is it that you want to talk about?"
She took a deep, steadying breath, submerging her lingering thoughts of strangling him. "Where is it that we"re going?"
He c.o.c.ked his head. "That would be up to you. I promised to take you safely away from Elderew and your grandfather, and I did. I a.s.sumed you had a plan. If so, now is the time to implement it."
"Well, I don"t have a plan!" she snapped. "I just need to go somewhere my father can"t find me while I think this thing through! Mostly, I need to get out of the open!"
She was frustrated and angry by now, suddenly afraid that Edgewood Dirk had taken her from the frying pan into the fire. Dirk, on the other hand, seemed unconcerned.
"Princess," he said quietly. "While you are with me, no one can find you by use of magic. Because I am a fairy creature, I am able to shield those who travel with me. Your father can look for you until next winter, and he will not be able to find you while you are with me unless he comes looking for you himself."
She stared at him. "Are you sure?"
"Cats are always sure. Look at me. I seem an ordinary cat at first glance-though of a particularly lovely sort. But I am much more. I am a Prism Cat, Princess. We possess special magic and are of a unique character."
She frowned, not knowing whether he was serious or not. "I don"t think I understand. Can you explain?"
"I can, but I don"t choose to. Another time, perhaps. Now, back to the plan you don"t have. Where is it that you want to go?"
She sighed. "Somewhere I won"t be found, whether you are with me or not. How"s that?"
"Poorly conceived and expressed. You will be found quickly, if you are not with me. Which means, you must encourage me to come with you by showing some modic.u.m of intelligence in making your choice of where you might go. Otherwise, I am wasting my time on you."
"What do you mean by that?" she demanded indignantly. "Why do I have to encourage you?"
"Because, Princess, I am not here by chance and I am not bound to stay. I chose to help you in the same way I chose to help your father and your mother. But I need a reason to stay. Cats are curious creatures, you might have heard. But if we lose our curiosity about something, we tend to move on to other, more interesting things. At the moment, I am curious about you. But that could change if you don"t find ways to keep me interested."
She sat back on her heels, seething. "I have to keep you you interested in interested in me me?"
"You do. How do you plan to do that?"
"The pleasure of my company isn"t enough for you?"
"Please be serious."
"I have other friends, you know," she declared. "I have lots of other friends, and they would all be happy to help me."
"You have two G"home Gnomes, and neither has the least idea what to do about your situation. You have no one else. You don"t even have your mud puppy anymore, in case you hadn"t noticed."
She stared at him in disbelief, and then after looking around quickly began calling for Haltwhistle. But the mud puppy did not appear.
"Where is he?" she demanded, a bit frantic.
"I sent him home to the Earth Mother," said the cat. "It wasn"t difficult. You forgot to speak his name, so he would have left anyway."
He was right. She hadn"t spoken Haltwhistle"s name at all yesterday, and she knew what that meant. If she failed to speak the mud puppy"s name at least once each day, he would leave and go back to wherever he had come from. She didn"t even know where that was because she had never thought about it. She had always been careful to say his name so that she wouldn"t have to worry. But last night, absorbed in her own troubles, she had forgotten.
"Well, I can find him again," she declared bravely.
"Not before your father finds you." Dirk"s remonstrance was maddeningly calm. "Now tell me where it is that you are going."
"I don"t know," she said miserably.
"Somewhere you won"t be found ...," he nudged.
"Why won"t you just stay with me? Then it wouldn"t matter where I went. Why won"t you do that?"
Edgewood Dirk licked his chops and closed his eyes. "I know myself too well to make a promise I cannot keep. My nature requires that I be interested in your actions. For that to happen, you have to make interesting choices. Now think. Where could you go that would interest me?"
She shook her head helplessly.
"Put it another way. Where is the last place your father would think to look? Because sooner or later he will give up on talismans and wizards and come looking for you himself." Dirk paused. "Or perhaps he will send someone in his place, someone more effective at finding what is hidden. Perhaps he will send the Paladin looking for you."
Mistaya froze. She knew about the Paladin, of course, even though she had never seen him. Everyone knew about the Paladin. They whispered of it when they thought she couldn"t hear, and Questor Thews had talked of it quite openly. They were all proud of its service to the throne, but they were also quite afraid of it: huge and dark of purpose, all armored and armed astride its charger. There had never been anything in memory that had been able to stand against the Paladin.
The last thing she wanted was something as implacable as that searching for her.
"Think, Princess," the cat pressed. "Where will your father look last for you?"
She thought. The Deep Fell was a good choice because magic couldn"t penetrate its mists.
"The Deep Fell?"
"He will look there first."
"The Fire Springs!"
"He will look there second. He knows how the dragon feels about you."
"Not Rhyndweir? I won"t go there!"
The cat waited. Suddenly Mistaya realized what answer he was looking for. "No!" she said at once. The cat c.o.c.ked his head. "No! Absolutely not!" she repeated.
"When you wish to hide, the best place is always the one those hunting you are certain you will avoid." Dirk gave her one of those patented looks. "Isn"t it?"
"You want me to go to Libiris," she declared.
"I don"t necessarily want you to go anywhere. It isn"t up to me. The decision is yours. Please make it. I grow bored with this."
She saw the logic to Dirk"s reasoning. Her father would never think of looking for her at Libiris. He would look for her almost anywhere else before he looked for her there. But if she went, she was doing exactly what he had asked her to do in the first place. What sort of sense did that make?
"At least you would be going of your own choice and for your own reasons," Edgewood Dirk offered, as if reading her mind.
She toughened her resolve so that she could accept what she now realized she must do. "All right, I will go to Libiris with Poggwydd and Shoopdiesel." She paused. "Are you coming with us or not?"
The cat took a moment to study the countryside, emerald eyes filling with a distant look, as if gone somewhere else entirely. Then he looked back at her. "I believe I will," he answered softly, and then he began to purr.
THE PRINCESS IS MISSING.
Ben Holiday was not particularly worried on that first morning when it was discovered that Mistaya was not in her room. She did not appear for breakfast or lunch, nor was she anywhere in the castle. No one had seen her leave. That might have been cause for alarm in another household, but not in his. Mistaya was famous for her unexpected comings and goings, for choosing to set out on a personal mission or exploration without telling anyone. That she might have done so here was a reasonable a.s.sumption, particularly when it was well known that she had been spending her last few days meeting with one of those endlessly troublesome G"home Gnomes that kept cropping up at the castle.
This one, Poggwydd, had already been caught sneaking into the castle for purposes of pilfering whatever he could find-he didn"t see it that way, of course-and put out again by Bunion right before Mistaya returned from Carrington. She had taken up his cause, thinking that she might help him change his thieving ways. When he had come to the door asking to see her, she"d brought him into the castle for a visit, given him a tour of its many rooms, and spent hours visiting with him somewhere outside Sterling Silver, presumably in an effort to educate him in the error of his ways. She had even made it a point to speak with Bunion about his overly harsh treatment of the little miscreant. All this she had accomplished in the span of little more than the week that she"d been back home. didn"t see it that way, of course-and put out again by Bunion right before Mistaya returned from Carrington. She had taken up his cause, thinking that she might help him change his thieving ways. When he had come to the door asking to see her, she"d brought him into the castle for a visit, given him a tour of its many rooms, and spent hours visiting with him somewhere outside Sterling Silver, presumably in an effort to educate him in the error of his ways. She had even made it a point to speak with Bunion about his overly harsh treatment of the little miscreant. All this she had accomplished in the span of little more than the week that she"d been back home.
Ben knew all this because he pretty much knew everything that happened in the castle. His retainers made it a point of telling him, especially when it came to Mistaya. Willow confided in him, too, when she thought it appropriate, and she had done so here because she was proud of the way that Mistaya was handling her ignominious return. Better that she find something useful to do with her time than sit around bemoaning her fate as a suspended student. Ben agreed, and so both of them had left her alone.
By dinnertime, however, he was experiencing the first faint whisperings of the possibility that things were not all right. Mistaya was still missing, and no one had seen her anywhere since the previous night. He decided to voice his concerns to Willow.
"It is possible she is punishing you," she offered, none too helpfully.
"Punishing me?" He frowned. They were sitting together after the dinner had been taken away, talking privately. "What do you mean by that?"
"She"s angry with you. You"ve hurt her feelings, and she doesn"t like how that makes her feel. She already told me that much, Ben."
He shook his head. He hated it that the two of them had a private information-sharing arrangement, but it had always been that way, mother to daughter and back again.
"I didn"t mean to make her feel bad," he tried to explain. "I was just attempting to-"
"I know." She reached up and touched his lips to silence him. "But she doesn"t see it that way. She thinks you should have been more supportive of her situation. Not just about Libiris, but about Laphroig, too. She"s unsure of how she stands with you right now. Even when she can think about it rationally, she"s still not quite certain what"s going to happen."
"So she"s gone off somewhere in protest?"
"Just for a little while, I think. Just long enough to make you worry and maybe rethink what you"ve decided about her future."
He sighed. "That sounds like her, doesn"t it?"
Willow nodded. "She"s very headstrong, very determined." She smiled and kissed him. "Very like you."
But by the following morning, when his daughter still hadn"t reappeared, Ben decided that waiting around was no longer an option. Without saying anything to Willow, he called in Questor Thews and Abernathy for a conference. The three of them gathered clandestinely in Questor"s office and put their heads together.
"I don"t like it that there"s been no word of her from anyone," Ben admitted to the other two. "It"s been too long for me to be comfortable with the idea that she"s just off sulking somewhere. Is Bunion back yet?"
Bunion wasn"t, Questor advised. He sat up straight and prim in his high-backed chair, his colorful robes gathered about his scarecrow frame. "We could ask one of the other kobolds to have a look around, if you wish."
Ben didn"t wish. He didn"t want anyone but Bunion doing the looking because he could trust Bunion to do so without giving anything away. It was one thing to go looking for Mistaya because he was worried about her; it was another to give her the mistaken impression that he was spying on her.
"No, we"ll wait for him to come back," he said. "He should be here by tonight, shouldn"t he?"
The wizard and the scribe both agreed that he should. Three days was enough to find out whatever there was to find out about Laphroig, and Bunion would come right back after that.
"Why don"t you use the Landsview, High Lord?" Abernathy asked. He c.o.c.ked his dog ears to emphasize his approval of the idea. "You can find her that way, no matter where she is."
Which was pretty much true, Ben knew, unless she had gone down into the Deep Fell or outside Landover altogether. Neither of those options made a great deal of sense, so there was reason to think that by using the Landsview he might be able to determine where she was and rea.s.sure himself that she was all right.
Departing Questor"s office, they pa.s.sed down the castle hallways until they reached the tower that housed the Landsview. From there, they began to climb, winding their way up a spiral staircase to a landing that fronted a ma.s.sive ironbound oak door. Ben placed the palms of his hands on the graven image of a knight and a castle that had been carved into the aged wood, and the door swung silently inward. They entered the small, circular room that waited beyond. A huge section of the far wall was missing, providing them with an un.o.bstructed view of the countryside beyond. A waist-high silver railing ran along the edge of the opening. At its center stood a silver lectern, its fittings gleaming in the sunlight. Runes had been carved into the surface of the lectern, thousands upon thousands of them, all in a language that no one had been able to decipher in recorded history.
This was the Landsview, Sterling Silver"s eye on the world.
While Questor and Abernathy watched, Ben stepped up onto the platform and took hold of the railing in preparation for setting out. He reached down into the leather pouch that hung from one side of the lectern and pulled out a rolled-up piece of parchment. Opening it, he fastened it with clips to the lectern, revealing an ancient map of the kingdom, its rumpled surface thick with names. Various colors of ink denoted forests, mountains, rivers, lakes, plains, deserts, territories, towns, and the like. Everything that could be named was meticulously marked.
Ben stared down at the map a moment, remembering the first time he had used the Landsview. How strange it had been, not knowing what to expect, and then how frightening when the world dropped away so suddenly, as if jerked from beneath his feet. He hesitated despite himself, even knowing that there was no reason for alarm.
Then he focused his concentration on the map, choosing the Greensward to begin his search, calling up the now familiar magic to aid him.
At once the tower and castle and all that surrounded it disappeared and he was whisked out into the blue of the sky. All that remained was the lectern and its railing, and his hands held tight to the latter, even knowing that he had not left the room in which the railing was mounted; the magic only made it seem as if he had, as if he really were flying. He watched the land sweep away beneath him as the Greensward appeared in the distance and the countryside took shape.
The last time he had used the Landsview, it was Mistaya who was missing then, too. Five years earlier, she had been stolen away by the Witch of the Deep Fell, who had hidden her from Ben and Willow with magic. It was Nightshade"s intention to subvert her, to turn her away from her parents so she could partic.i.p.ate actively in their destruction. Because the Landsview could not penetrate the magic of the Deep Fell, Ben had been unable to find his daughter and had almost lost her forever. But Nightshade was gone and the threat she had once posed was finished, so even though he still could not penetrate the hollows without entering personally, he did not think that this was where his daughter would go.
Still, after almost two hours of scouring his Kingdom-every hidden valley, darkened forest, and mountainous retreat, every town and village, every last possible place in which she might find refuge-he began to wonder. What if he was wrong about Nightshade? Or even about Mistaya"s reluctance ever to return to the Deep Fell? Maybe she thought hiding out there was a good idea because she knew he couldn"t find her unless he went there himself.
Except that the Deep Fell was a dangerous place, and Mistaya was no fool. She might be angry enough with him to go off on her own for a few days just to spite him, as Willow had suggested, but she wouldn"t put herself at risk needlessly.
When he returned to the tower and stepped down off the Landsview, he knew nothing more about Mistaya"s whereabouts than when he had set out to find her. "Nothing," he reported to Questor and Abernathy, giving a shrug. He hesitated. "Though I suppose she might be hiding in the Deep Fell."
Both wizard and scribe bristled instantly at the suggestion, insisting that this was not possible, that Mistaya would never go back there after what had happened before. Which, in turn, made Ben feel foolish for making the suggestion, although it also made him feel somewhat better to hear that his friends agreed with his own a.s.sessment.
"We have to do something else," he told them as the three tromped back down out of the tower to the lower regions of the castle.
"Maybe Bunion will have a suggestion," Questor ventured finally. "No one knows Landover"s secrets better than he does. If there"s a hiding place we haven"t thought of, he"ll remember it."
"Maybe we ought to leave well enough alone," Abernathy growled suddenly. The other two turned to look at him. "Well, I mean that if she doesn"t wish to be found, perhaps we ought to respect that. She might have discovered a way to use her magic to hide from us. I don"t know that we ought to be so quick to try to undo that."
"What are you talking about?" Questor demanded. "Of course we want to undo it! She"s got all of us worried to death!"
"Well, maybe not to death," Ben tried to amend.
"Whatever the extent of our worry, it shouldn"t be allowed to continue," Questor declared. His bushy eyebrows knotted fiercely. "She ought to know better than to do something like this! She"s a big girl, not a child. We have a right to do whatever we can to find out where she is!"
Abernathy shook his head, ears flopping loosely. "Spoken like a man who jumps without looking."
"Well, I don"t see you doing anything to help matters!" Questor snapped in reply. "Should we all just stand around and hope for the best? Is that your your answer to the problem?" answer to the problem?"