Schwarzwald, neither will the Brotherhood care where he goes, or what he does. He will become some other Hunt Master’s responsibility.”
Giselle sat for a moment on the wagon tongue. “I have no intention of leaving with it,” she offered. “The show, I mean. I am only trying to make enough money to take care of the supplies I need to go live in the abbey.”
“Well, both the Graf and Hunt Master Gunther wish me to remain with the show for now, to help with your training and make sure nothing gets stirred up that cannot be put down again,” Rosamund told her, which relieved her. “If there is a dreadful emergency that requires my services, I might leave for a time, but I will return.” She patted the side of the vardo. “I think, however, I shall keep this. Small enough compensation for saving the Captain from those rapacious Vili, don’t you think?”
Giselle laughed. “I think he would be a very stupid man not to give it to you with a smile when you ask for it. And if there is one thing I know about Captain Cody Lee, he might be, on occasion, a little reckless, and he might have a somewhat inflated notion of his own importance, but he is definitely not stupid.”
“And that is good to hear. So, good night to you, my friend. I have an hour or two of magic ahead of me, and morning comes far too early with this show!” Rosamund laughed, and swung herself up into her wagon. After a moment sitting there chuckling, Giselle did the same.
Because Rosamund was right, again. Morning came far, far too early with the show.
11
THIS . . . is perfect.
The show had moved to Bad Schoensee, where they had set up in a beautiful Alpine meadow. It was a very welcome change from the gloomy, depressing, deep forest they had been moving through, and everyone in the company felt the better for the change. The moment they had come into the wide, open valley, it had felt as if a great weight had come off of Giselle’s shoulders, and she had stopped feeling as if things were watching her. The animals were basking in the sun, especially the buffalo, who had seemed particularly oppressed by the forest gloom.
And now Giselle knew what Rosamund had meant when she had said “You’ll know it when you see it,” in regards to where she was going to undertake her next phase of training in her Air Mastery. She had known where they would be going as soon as she had set her eyes on the mountains above Bad Schoensee. And now she was currently standing on the top of one of those mountains, surrounded by no vegetation taller than her knees, with nothing between her and the sky but a few clouds. Below her was Bad Schoensee, a tidy little village of white-walled, red-roofed houses, Gasthauses, and a lovely Kirche. And she, Rosa and Fox were fundamentally alone up here, which made it perfect for working magic in the daylight. Right now the only person any nearer to her than Rosamund and Leading Fox was a shepherd halfway down the mountain with his flock of goats.
They planned to be here in Bad Schoensee for two weeks. It was a spa town on the Schoensee, and as such, they could expect to fill the tent every day for that long thanks to the changeover of visitors. So Captain Cody had decided that the company should have the Sunday in the middle off.
That gave Rosa and Giselle a full day and the perfect setting for Rosa’s plan. Giselle had known from the moment she arrived here and looked up at these mountains that a spot up here would be ideal for any sort of Air Magic, especially summoning. Her only concern had been that between the shows and everything else they simply might not have the time. Thanks to this Sunday off, they had the time.
It had not been a particularly difficult climb up here. In fact, Giselle could see most of the path that had brought them. And here was Rosamund’s cunning; the path was too difficult for a casual hiker, or one of the ladies who might be here at the spa for the sake of her health, but it was nowhere near challenging enough for the athletic. The mountain had a pleasant view of the valley, but there were much better views from other peaks. There were goats