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I think," Jeanne said, "that he’s here to get Delosto close the Dark Kingdom out Shut up the castleand come join him Outside And, incidentally, ofcourse, kill all the slaves"

Maggie stared ’Kill them all?’

"Well, it makes sense Nobody would needthe now," Maggiesaid slowly

Jeanne gave her a quick, startled glance "You’rereally not as stupid as you seeie shifted on her branch Aet away fro her Now she suddenly wanted to stay here forever, hidingShe had a very bad feeling

"So why," she said, forht now?"

"What do youthink? Really, Maggie, what do you know about all this?"

Four Wild Powers,Maggie thought, hearing Delos’s old teacher’s voice in her mind Who willbeneeded at the millennium, to save the world-or todestroy it

"I know that so at the millennium, and that Delos is a Wild Power, and thatthe Wild Powers are supposed to do so-"

"Save the world," Jeanne said in a clipped voice"Except that that’s not what the Night People wantThey figure there’s going to be soe catastrophe that’ll wipe out most of the humansand then they can take over And that’s why Hunter Redfern’shere He wants the Wild Powers on his side insteadof on the humans’ He wants the it And it lookslike he’s just about convinced Delos"

Maggie let out a shaky breath and leaned herhead against a branch It was just like what Deloshad told her-except that Jeanne was an uninterested party She still wanted not to believe it, but she had a terrible sinking feeling In fact, she had a strange feeling of weight,as if so to settle on her shoulders

"The millennium really means the end of theworld," she said

"Yeah Our world, anyway"

Maggie glanced atPJ, inging her thin legs over the edge of a branch "You stillokay?"

PJ nodded She looked frightened, but not unbearably so She kept her eyes on Maggie’s face trustingly

"And do youstill want to go to the castle?"Jeanne said, watching Maggie just as closely"Hunter Redfern is a very bad guy to mess withAnd I hate to tell you, but your friend Prince Delosis out for our blood just like the rest of theie said briefly Her head went down and she gave Jeanne a brooding look under her eyelashes `But I have to, anyway I’ve got even ie held up a finger "One, I’ve got to gethelp for Cady" She glanced at thetrancelike to the fir’s trunk, then held upanother finger "Two, I have to find out what happened to et those slaves free before Hunter Redfern has them all killed"

"You have to what?"Jeanne said in a muffled shriek She alht you’d react that way Don’tworry about it You don’t have to get involved"

"I rong before You areas du crazy"

Yeah, I know, Maggie thought grimly It’s probably justas well I didn’t mention the fourth reason

Which was that she had to keep Delos fro the end of the world That wasthe responsibility that had settled on her, and she had no idea why it was hers except that she’d been inside his mind She knew him She couldn’t justwalk away

If anybody could talk to him about it and convince him not to do it, she could She had absolutely no doubt about that So it was her job to try

And if he was really as evil as Jeanne seemed tothink-if it was true that he’d killed Miles well, then she had a different job

She had to do whatever was necessary to stophim Distant and impossible as it seemed, shewould have to kill him if that hat it took

"Coirls "Cady, do you think you can climb do? And, Jeanne,do you knoay into the castle?"

The lad to find Jeanne kneayinto the castle That was before she discovered that it involved swi up what Jeanne called a garderobe butas all too obviously the shaft of an oldlatrine

"Just killwet and daubed with un thinkable sliquite this dirty

The next ot about it in her worryabout Cady Cady hadshe was told asif she werein a trance But now she was getting shaky Maggiewondered seriously whether this sort of activity was helpful to somebody who’d been poisoned

When they werefinally at the top of the shaft,Maggie looked around and saw a small room thatsee wasfeel to it

"Don’t ie, as helping support Cady

"We need to go down a passage and throughthe kitchen, okay? It’s all right if slaves see us, butwe have to watch out for the wo to take you"Jeanne clamped a hand on PJ’s shoulder and steered her into a corridor

More stone More echoes Maggie tried to ithout her shoes squishing or s She wasdirandand cold and so huge that she felt like an insect e

After what seeed in a sie could hear activity behind the screens andas Jeanne led the onthe other side They were spreading white tablecloths over long wooden tables in a rooie’s entire house

Another doorway Another passage And finallythe kitchen, which was full of bustling people Theywere stirring huge iron cauldrons and turning meaton spits The sie and ry that her knees wobbled and she had to s hard

But even ht of dozens of people

"Slaves," Jeanne said shortly "They won’t tell onus Grab a sack to wrap around you and come onAnd, PJ,take off that ridiculous hat"

Slaves, Maggie thought, staring They were alldressed identically, in loose-fitting pants and topsthat were like short tunics Jeanne earing thesah like clothes froie hadn’t really focused on it before What struck her noas that everybodylooked so un-ironed There were no sharp creases And no real color All the clothes were an indetere-brown, and all thefaces seemed just as dull and faded They were like drones

What would it be like to live that way? she wondered as she threw a rough sack around her shoulders to hide the dark blue of her jacket Without any choice in what you do, and any hope for thefuture?

It would be terrible, she decided And it htjust drive you crazy

I wonder if any of them ever snap?

But she couldn’t look around anyh a doorway into the open airThere was a kind of garden here just outside the kitchen, with scraggly fnut trees and what lookedlike herbs Then there was a courtyard andfinallya row of huts nestled against the high black wall that surrounded the castle

"This is the really dangerous part," Jeanne whispered harshly "It’s the back, but if one of them looks out and sees us, we’re in trouble Keep yourhead down-and walk like this Like a slave" Sheled therun toward a hut

This place is like a city, Maggie thought A cityinside a wall, with the castle in the middle

They reached the shack Jeanne pulled the door open and bustled theed

"I think we actually ie was looking around The tiny room was dim, but she could see crude furniture and piles ofwhat looked like laundry "This is it? We’re safe?"

"Nowhere is safe," Jeanne said sharply "But wecan get soo get the healing woie opened her ie turned to Cady andPJ They were both shivering She h one of the piles of laundry

"Get your wet things off," Maggie said Shepulled off her own hightops and shrugged out ofher sodden jacket Then she knelt to get Cady’sshoes off The blind girl was lying ie’s touchMaggie orried about her

Behind her, the door opened and Jeanne caaunt and handsome woman, with dark hair pulled untidily back and anapron over her tunic and pants The other was ayoung girl who looked frightened

"This is Laundress" The way Jeanne said it, itwas clearly a proper nairl’s her helper"

Relief washed through Maggie "This is Cady,"she said And then, since nobody moved and Cady couldn’t speak for herself, she went on, "She’s fromOutside, and she was poisoned by the slave traders I’o that was-at least a couple of days She’s been running a high fever and-"

"What is this?" The gaunt wo but welco this-thing-in here?"

Maggie froze where she was by Cady’s feet"What are you talkingabout? She’s sick-"

"She’s one of the darkly at Jeanne "And don’t tell me you didn’t notice It’s perfectly plain!"

"What’sperfectly plain?" Maggie’s fists were clenched "Jeanne, what’s she talking about?"

The woirl is a witch"