Cody eyed her swaying hips with approval. Then he seemed to come to himself and started off after her. Giselle rolled her eyes and followed, the others trailing after her.
The girl brought them to a private room, just off the main one; the door to this room was standing wide open. Like the main room, the walls were decorated with paintings of scrollwork and hunters and their game. It was just big enough to hold a table and benches, and Rosamund was waiting there for them, seated at the end of the table, with food and drink in front of her.
So were four more beer steins, two pitchers of beer, four place settings, and big platters of steaming sausages, potatoes, bread, butter, cheese, and kraut. The aromas made Giselle’s mouth water; they’d had to leave without eating, and she had been hoping that since they were meeting at the inn, she might be able to get a sausage or two.
“I supposed you might have to hurry off without getting any dinner, so I took the liberty of ordering you some,” Rosamund said. She gestured at the food and drink. “Close the door behind you, sit, and eat. We have plenty of time for talk.”
Captain Cody did not hesitate for a moment, and as Kellermann closed the door he moved right along the table. He sat down at Rosamund’s right hand as Giselle sat at her left, took a fork, and stabbed some bratwurst, transferring them to his plate. The other two sat down, and Giselle got sausage, potatoes, kraut and rye bread, unspeakably happy to be partaking of a meal that was homey and familiar.
“So,” Rosamund said, and suddenly switched to English. “First of all, let’s conduct our discussion in your language. Just in case someone is listening. It would be very unlikely for anyone else in this inn to know it.”
“That is a wise precaution,” Giselle replied in the same tongue. She did not ask how Rosamund knew English; that was fairly self-explanatory. Unlike Leading Fox, Rosamund would have had no qualms whatsoever about getting one of her Elementals to extract a new tongue from Giselle, Fox, or even Captain Cody.
After all, she was a Hunt Master. . . .
“And while you are eating, you can tell me about yourselves,” she continued. And her eyes glinted. “Everything, if you please.”
But Captain Cody only laughed. “Sure thing, sheriff,” he said genially. He looked around the table, cut off a big bite of sausage and ate it, then took a pull from his beer. “Reckon I’ll go first.”
“No, I will, I have less to tell,” said Kellermann. “You all eat, please.”
Well, that completely suited Giselle, who contentedly dug into the sausage and kraut and spicy mustard to her heart’s content.
“I am liking this food and drink,” Fox said to her quietly in Pawnee. “This beer seems stronger. Should I be wary of the drink?”
“Somewhat,” Giselle cautioned, remembering from Karl May books that Indians had problems with alcohol. Evidently that part was true. “It is not as strong as . . .” She searched for the word. “. . . the water that tastes bitter and burns. But enough will act upon a man like loco weed upon a horse.”
“I shall take care, then.” He nodded, and had more sausage. “But this is most excellent, as are the sour strings. They are like the white man’s pickles. Very good.”
“Sauerkraut,” she said, and turned her attention to Rosamund.
The Hunt Master did not betray anything as she listened to the others give their stories and summarize their abilities. Well . . . all but Fox, who went last.
The Indian sighed with content, and put down his knife and fork before taking up the narrative. “I am a Medicine Chief. I believe that is the same as your Elemental Master. However, my spirit creatures are not the same as yours. Mine are nahurac of the Air, but they are Spirit Animals like unto the natural ones.” He paused a moment. “I have had power of all of the nahurac, but the ones that speak most to me, and grant me the greatest power, are those of the Air, the birds and the insects.”
“Huh,” Rosamund said, surprised. “I don’t believe I have ever seen that. Well, go on.”
“Some I can still summon in this land of yours. Some I cannot. Some I have not tried. Otherwise, I seem to be able to control the forces of the Air itself, as if I was at home.” He