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No, we’re not!" Maggie said She kicked the heavy cover off and ju Cady’s arm

"Come on!"

"Where?" Jeanne said

"The castle," Maggie said "But we’ve got to sticktogether" She grabbed PJ’s arm with her otherhand

"The castle?"

Maggie pinned Jeanne with a look "It’s the onlything thatus totry to find the pass, right? They’ll find us if we stayhere The only place they won’t expect us to go is the castle"

"You," Jeanne said, "are coht be right" Jeanne grabbed Cady froie started for the door

"You stay right behind us," Maggie hissed at PJ

The landscape in front of her looked differentthan it had last night The h there was no sun, the clouds had a cool pearly glow

It was beautiful Still alien, still disquieting, butbeautiful

And in the valley beloas a castle

Maggie stopped involuntarily as she caught sightof it It rose out of the mist like an island, blackand shiny and solid With towers at the edges Anda wall around it with a saw-toothed top, just like the castles in pictures

It looks so real, Maggie thoughtstupidly

"Don’t stand there! What are you waiting for?Jeanne snapped, dragging at Cady

Maggie tore her eyes away and ht for the thickest trees below the shack

"If it’s dogs, we should try to find a streaht?" she said to Jeanne "To cut off our scent"

"I know a strea in shortbursts as they es "I lived out here a while thefirst ti for thepass But they’re not just dogs"

Maggie helped Cady scramble over the tentaclelike roots of a hemlock tree "What’s that supposedto mean?"

"It means they’re shapeshifters, like Bern andGavin So they don’t just track us by scent They also feel our life energy"

Maggie thought about Bern turning his face this way and that, saying, "Do yousense anything?"AndGavin saying, "No I can’t feel thelanced back andsaw PJ following doggedly, her face taut with concentration

It was a strange sort of chase Maggie and hergroup were trying to keepas quietaspossible,which was made easier by the dah there were fourof the at once, the only sound fro and the occasional short gasp of direction froed and stue dark trunks that stood like colu ittwilight where Maggie was trying to pick her wayaround reensmell like incense everywhere

But however still the world was around the in the distance Always behind the closer

They crossed an icy, knee-deep streaie didn’t have an to lag seriously after thatShe see instructionsas if she weresleepwalking,and only answering questions with a fuzzy ie orried aboutPJ, too They were all ith hunger and shaky with stress

But it wasn’t until they were alht up with thetrek down thewithpride for PJ and Cady And then, all at once, thebaying of the hounds ca louder fast

At the sa ahead

"What?" Maggie was panting heavily "You seethem?"

Jeanne pointed "I see the roadI’ht down it, h the underbrush I didn’t realize ere headed for it"

PJ leaned against Maggie, her slight chest heaving, her plaid baseball hat askew

"What are we going to do?" she said "Are theygoing to catch us?"

"Not" Maggie set her jaw grio back fast - 2’

At that moment, faintly but distinctly, Cady said,"The tree"

Her eyes were half shut, her head was bowed,and she still looked as if she were in a trance Butfor soht to listen to her

"Hey, waitlook at this" They were standing at the foot of a huge Douglas fir Its lowest brancheswere ular way,but a ed, branches interlocked with the giant, foro up"

`You’re crazy, "Jeanne saidagain"We can’t possibly hide here; they’re going to go right by us And besides, how does she even know there’s a tree here?"

Maggie looked at Arcadia It was a good question, but Cady wasn’t answering She seeain

"I don’t know But we can’t just stand aroundand wait for the up and screa at her,and they said to trust "Let’s try it, okay? Come on,PJ,can you climb that tree?"

Fourin a Christhtasshe lookedout between sprays of flat aroht she could see the road, which was justtheel tracks with grass growing down the middle

Just then the hunt arrived

The dogs caie could see their ribsclearly defined under their short, dusty tan coatsRight behind them were people on horses

Sylvia was at the front of the group

She earing what looked like a gown splitfor riding, in a cool shade of glacier green Trottingbeside her stirrup was Gavin, the blond slave traderwho’d chased Maggie and Cady yesterday and had run to tattle when Delos killed Bern with the blue fire

Yeah, they’re buddy-buddy all right, Maggiethought But she didn’t have ti up fast behind Sylvia were two other people who each gave her a jolt, and she didn’t knohich shock orse

One was Delos He was riding a beautiful horse,so dark brown it was alht and easy in the saddle, looking every inch the elegant young prince

The only discordant note was the heavy brace on his left arie stared at him, her heart numb

He was after the thes Andhe’d probably told Sylvia that he hadn’t really killedtwo of the slaves

Alie couldn’t look at her

Then she saw another rider below and froze inbewilderment

It was Delos’s father

He looked exactly the way he had in Delos’smemories A tall ie couldn’t see his eyes at this distance, but she knew that they were afierce and brilliant yellow

The old king But he was deadMaggie was tooagitated to be cautious

"Who is that? The redhaired ently to Jeanne

Jeanne answered almost without a sound"Hunter Redfern"