And close at hand if we have to make a quick getaway.Cathy silently blessed Aodhan’s sharp wits. Sir Ferghal might be bound by fae law to let her depart with Kevin once she’d broken the glamours on her son, but Maeve had already proved that high sidhe excelled at finding loopholes. Somehow she couldn’t see Ferghal waving them all off with good grace.
Ferghal eyed Aodhan and Noodle, his lip curling with distinct distaste. “My grooms are highly skilled, Lady Rose. I am sure they can care for all your… pets.”
“My companion is a highly skilled mage,” Cathy said sharply. “Not to mention my most trusted advisor. Where I go, he goes.”
She’d been worried that the knight would argue further, but he simply shrugged, turning toward the front door. Cathy fell into step with him, Aodhan a silent, reassuring shadow at her heels.
“I shall have the maids make up a suite for you.” Ferghal flicked a hand at a couple of the servants as he spoke, sending them scuttling off. “Would you care to freshen up, or shall we dine first? My cooks make a most excellent haunch of hippogriff. Afterward, I shall show you around my halls. I have a great many battle trophies that I am sure you will find fascinating.”
The prospect of yet more delay had Cathy clamping her lips tight on a scream. She did her best to smile politely at the high sidhe, her fingernails digging into her palms.
“Perhaps we might visit the changeling child first,” she said through gritted teeth. “Having come all this way, I am impatient to see him.”
Ferghal looked slightly put out by this adjustment to his proposed itinerary, but he clapped his hands. “Nursemaid! Bring the child at once. My guest wishes to inspect him before dinner.”
“Of course, my lord.” A willowy woman with leaves instead of hair stepped forward, bobbing a nervous curtsey. “Though, um, there may be some slight delay.”
“A delay?” Ferghal frowned. “Yes, I suppose he will be covered in dirt and muck after his afternoon jousting lesson. Very well. Have him brought to us after he is bathed.”
“Um.” The woman’s green fingers twisted in her apron. “That is… not precisely the problem, my lord. You see, the child is currently,” she swallowed, with an audible gulp, “… missing.”
“Missing?” Cathy blurted out, her heart plummeting right to the bottom of her stomach. “Taken?”
“No raider could breach my wards,” Ferghal said, frowning. “They were worked centuries ago, by my illustrious ancestors. And I myself have placed extensive glamours on the child. He cannot have left the grounds without my knowledge.”
“Oh, he is most certainly still here, my lord!” the nursemaid put in. She was practically tying her apron in knots now. “Er… somewhere.”
“Then find him!” Ferghal swept the assembled servants with a furious glare. “At once, before I lose my patience and have you all flogged!”
“Pardon the interruption,” Aodhan said, stepping smoothly between the high sidhe and the cowering servants. He held up a wriggling Noodle. “But my lady is most skilled at enchanting creatures of all kinds. Perhaps, Lady Rose, you could use your magic…?”
“Of course,” Cathy said, catching onto the ruse at once. “With your permission, I shall set my dog on the boy’s trail, sir knight. He will soon sniff him out.”
Ferghal’s eyebrows rose, but he made a ‘go ahead’ motion with one hand. Adopting an expression that she hoped looked more like mystic concentration than constipation, Cathy made a few meaningless gestures over the puppy’s head.
Noodle, understandably, stared at her in obvious confusion. Cathy bent down, putting her mouth next to the black dog’s quizzical ear.
“Find him, Noodle,” she breathed, hoping that even Ferghal’s fae hearing wouldn’t be able to catch the words. “Find Kevin.”
The black dog yelped eagerly. Phasing out, the puppy dropped through Aodhan’s hands before the mage could release him, and dashed away through a wall. A second later, he stuck his head back through, barked once more, then darted off again.
“I believe my hound has the scent,” Cathy observed, trying to maintain an aloof expression despite her pounding heart. “Shall we?”
Following a selectively intangible dog turned out to be somewhat challenging. Noodle didn’t seem to understand the concept of doors. For his part, the puppy was clearly exasperated with their inexplicable refusal to simply follow him in a straight line. After a few attempts to herd them through a wall, he apparently gave them up as a lost cause and raced off. Cathy was reduced to trying to follow the sound of his insistent barking, which was not an easy task in the labyrinthine house.
“Not that I would ever dream of casting any criticism on your most excellent spell, Lady Rose,” Sir Ferghal said testily, after their fourth inadvertent visit to the same revolting lime green drawing room. “But I cannot help noting that this seems rather inefficient.”
“Magic can be an imprecise business, alas,” Cathy said, straining her ears to try to locate Noodle’s yapping. “I am sure we are nearly there. Maybe this way?”
A little way off, Aodhan cleared his throat. A slight tingle ran up her arm, as though he’d touched his fingertips to the magical bond etched on her skin. Cathy realized he had his wand out, concealed under one sleeve.
“On second thought, this way,” she said, heading for the other door, and felt Aodhan’s silent confirmation like a hand on her wrist. “We cannot be far now.”
“But there is nothing in this direction but the library,” Ferghal protested, and out of the corner of her eye Cathy noticed Aodhan’s head jerk up. “Out of all the rooms in my house, surely no child would choose to hide himself away with no amusement but books.”
Cathy barely managed to hold back a snort. Ferghal really didn’t know her son.
“Be as that may, I am certain he is close, sir knight,” she said. “Perhaps you could show me the way to this library of yours?”