of proportion. His strength seemed supernatural. That was not accurate. These creatures were not all-powerful. She tried to banish these jarring memories, of Lasher’s fingers bruising her arms, and the back of his hand striking her so hard that she lost consciousness. She could feel that moment of disconnection, and the moment of awakening, when, stunned, she’d found herself trying to crawl, for safety, under the bed. But she had to snap out of this, had to concentrate and make Yuri concentrate.
“Yuri,” she said in her most quiet and unobtrusive authoritarian manner, “describe the Little People again. Are you certain—”
“The Little People are a wild race,” said Yuri, words coming in a rush as he pivoted, hands out, as if to hold a magic glass in which he saw the images of all that he described. “They’re doomed, said Samuel. They have no women anymore. They have no future. They will die out, unless a female Taltos comes among them, unless some female of their kind is found in some other remote part of Europe or the British Isles. And this happens. Mark my words, it happens. Samuel told me. Or a witch, don’t you see? A witch? The wise women in those parts never go near the glen. The tourists and the archaeologists go and come in groups and by day.”
They had been over this, but Rowan had begun to realize that each time he told it, he added something, threw in some new and possibly important detail.
“Of course, Samuel told me all this when he thought I was going to die in that cave. When the fever broke, he was as surprised as I was. And then Ash. Ash has no duplicity in him whatsoever. You cannot imagine the candor or simplicity of this being. Man, I want to say man. Why not man, as long as you remember that he is a Taltos? No human could be so direct, unless he was an idiot. And Ash is not an idiot.”
“Then he wasn’t lying when he told you he wanted to help you,” said Rowan, watching him keenly.
“No, he wasn’t lying. And he wants to protect the Talamasca, why I can’t tell you. It all has to do with the past, and perhaps the archives, the secrets, though what is really in those archives nobody knows now. Oh, if I could only trust that the Elders were not part of it. But a witch, don’t you see, a witch of Mona’s power is simply too valuable to Ash and to Samuel. I should never, never have told them about Mona. Oh, I was a fool to tell them all about the family. But you see, this Samuel, he saved my life.”
“But did this Taltos say he had no mate?” asked Michael. “If ‘mate’ is the proper word?”
“That was plainly obvious. He came here because Samuel told him that a Taltos—Lasher, with you, Rowan!—had appeared at Donnelaith. Ash came immediately from someplace far off, I don’t know where. Ash is rich. He has bodyguards, attendants, he travels in a little motorcade, so Samuel tells me. Samuel talks too freely, really, for his own good.”
“But he didn’t mention a female Taltos?”
“No. Both of them gave me the distinct impression that they did not know of the existence of a female Taltos! Rowan, don’t you see, the Little People are dying, and the Taltos is damned near extinct. God, Ash could be the only one living, now that Lasher is gone. Imagine it! You see what Mona means to these two?”
“All right, you want my opinion?” asked Michael. He reached for the coffeepot on the tray beside him and refilled his cup, holding it like a mug, without the saucer. “We’ve done all we can about Ashlar and Samuel.” He looked at Rowan as he spoke. “There is a one-in-ten chance, perhaps, that we can locate them at Claridge’s even—”
“No, you must not approach them,” said Yuri. “You must not even let them know mat you are here. Especially not you.”
“Yeah, I understand,” said Michael, nodding, “but—”
“No, you don’t understand,” said Yuri, “or you don’t believe me. Michael, these creatures can tell a witch when they see it, male or female. They know. They do not require modern medical tests to know that you have the chromosomes which are so precious to them. They know you, by scent perhaps, and surely by sight.”
Michael gave a little shrug, as if to say he was reserving judgment, but he wouldn’t push this now.