and joyous cry, judging by the light and the lively music in the direction of where the field would be. So she eased herself over the sill, made sure she had left nothing of herself or her property behind with a last glance around the room, and closed the window behind her.
Then she bent over and ran for the inn’s stable, where her horse and all her belongings were. Ordinarily that would be a bad place to leave property, but Giselle’s wicked little mare was trained to let no one into her stall but Giselle herself. She was as good or better than a guard dog.
Where did I leave my hat? She wondered irrelevantly, as she moved from one shadow to another, listening for the sounds of footsteps under the faraway music of the Maifest. It hadn’t been with her in the captain’s office. I must have left it at the beer stall. . . . If this had been a situation where she was likely to be tracked by another magician, that would have been a catastrophe, but there hadn’t been the least sign of another Elemental Master, not even an Elemental Magician, in the entire town. The hat could safely be left behind. She certainly wasn’t going to go back after it now.
She was out of breath when she reached the stables and paused just outside. Her sylphs gathered around her, no longer mischievous. “Is there anyone in there but horses?” she murmured, pressed up against the wall, trying to squeeze every bit of herself into a particularly dark shadow.
“No, Master,” said one. “We made the drunk have bad dreams and he went somewhere else to sleep.”
She looked up at them, hovering above her head. “Well done. I’m going to get my horse and get out of here. Keep watch while I do, and scout ahead of me on the road.” She intended to lead the horse to the edge of town by the quietest ways before mounting him. A man leading his horse calmly would not attract any attention, but someone galloping as if the devil was after him certainly would. And the latter would be remembered, which was not something she wanted.
Lebkuchen—her mare—greeted her with a whicker, but tossed her head with displeasure when it became apparent that Giselle intended to saddle her and ride in the darkness. No horse liked being ridden in the dark; it was too easy for them to make a misstep and break a leg. But Giselle didn’t have any choice.
Everything was still there, and it was not long before Giselle was leading the mare, laden down with packs and her hunting rifle and supplies, down a street she knew let out directly onto the road northward. She had chosen the direction deliberately, to lead away from the abbey and her tower, despite every instinct she had screaming at her to head straight for that shelter. Instinct might tell her to run for her den, but reason told her that was the last place she should go. Just in case . . . in case someone had recognized a landmark or a village in some story “Gunther” had told, and thought to look in that direction. There were such things as telegraphs in the world, and every police station had one. Word of a fugitive could travel far faster than she could, and she might find herself riding into an ambush.
Every nerve was screaming with stress by the time she got across the bridge and onto the highway, where she could mount. Lebkuchen seemed to have picked up on her nerves. Despite her profound distaste for traveling at night, she transitioned almost directly into a trot, her hooves thudding briskly into the dust of the highway.
Finally on the move, Giselle hunched over in the saddle, her insides knotted with fear and guilt, her mind awash with so many emotions she couldn’t keep track of them. What have I done? was uppermost, most of the time. Odious as that captain was, and sadistic, she had never meant to kill him—she hadn’t really meant to harm him. All she had wanted to do was incapacitate him long enough for her to escape. In her mind, she’d planned on making him unconscious until she got out of the irons, then she would lock the door, tie him up, gag him, and leave him in his bed. Probably the humiliation of being left that way by a girl would have kept him quiet. She tried