a bit of a rest between the nonstop, even frenetic pace of show days.
And when they found an absolutely perfect meadow to camp in overnight at the place where the road to Menzenschwand branched off from the one they were on, they even stopped early. The meadow was bordered on one side by another sparkling stream, which meant no one would have to carry water, and there was plenty of grass. The farmer who owned it was happy to share it with them, since he was going to get free entertainment as they practiced, and his children were nearly over the moon on seeing the Pawnee set up their teepees. Once again, Giselle got her practice in early and settled down after an equally early supper thinking she was going to get a good read in on the Bruderschaft book.
Which was, of course, when Rosa tapped on the door.
The sun was just going down, and Giselle repressed a sigh of exasperation. “What is it?” she asked, opening the door. “I hope there isn’t something else you want me to meet.”
“No . . . no, it’s that . . . there’s something not right about this place.” Rosa cast a look over her shoulder. “Not like the ruined convent. And it’s not here, specifically. But off that way.” She waved vaguely in the direction of the north. “Somewhere between here and Pieter’s bridge. Earth Elementals don’t move very fast. So . . . I was wondering . . .”
Giselle rolled her eyes, but only a little. “All right, give me a moment. I’ll get a sylph, they’re the most articulate.”
She waved Rosa inside and shut the door, then opened a bottle of lavender water and spun up a ball of magic. She’d learned since Todtnau that sylphs liked perfumes and incense almost as much as magic.
It seemed as ridiculously easy now to call a sylph as it had been when she was very little, and they just came. It was a night-sylph, this one with velvety batwings, who wafted in through the window over the bed, snatched the floating ball of magic and ate it, then hovered over the vial of lavender with a blissful expression.
“What do you need, Air Master?” she asked.
“My friend wants to know if there is anything amiss to the north—” Giselle only got as far as the direction, when the sylph’s expression of bliss turned to one of terror.
“No! No! No! We do not go there! It is death! It is death!” she shrilled.
And vanished.
Rosa and Giselle exchanged a look of alarm. Finally it was Giselle who cleared her throat and spoke first. “And I thought you were being overly nervous because nothing has happened for several weeks. . . .”
“Not nerves. Instincts,” Rosa replied, her jaw set. “Once you’ve been in the Brotherhood a while, you get them, very keen, very accurate. The only question I have is if you are game to go with me to find out what this ‘death’ is.”
Giselle bristled a little. “Of course I am. Should we get Cody or Fox?”
But Rosa shook her head. “Not just yet. We two are natives here, this has nothing to do with them. In any event, Cody doesn’t have all that much in the way of power, and I don’t know what Fox can actually do besides call on his own version of Elementals. At least I know how you’ve been trained.”
“Well, my Elementals, at least the little ones, are clearly too terrified to be of any help.” Giselle reached up to get her gunbelt and her newest acquisitions; since Bad Schoensee she had been learning to handle the revolvers that Cody Lee was so good with. She was a fair shot with them now, and was used to their weight and kick. She very much doubted that she’d be ever be as good as the Captain was unassisted, but with another month of practice she thought she might be able to do some trick-shooting with them.
Right now, though, if she and Rosa were going to go hiking through the forest in search of something dangerous, they presented a better option than a rifle, no matter how good she was with the rifle.
She buckled the belt on and settled the weight of the revolvers so they rode comfortably, and made sure she had enough cartridges. “Anything else I should take?” she asked.
Rosa considered. “Salt,” she said. “Lots of things besides ghosts are discomfited by salt.”