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"Roger knew--knows--how," she corrected herself "Geillis Duncan’s book said you could use geation"

"But you and Roger are both only guessing!" I argued "And so was bloody Geilie Duncan! Youattacho inside a fairy’s dun and then return, it’s always two hundred years If that’s the usual pattern, then--"

"Would you risk finding out it’s not? And it’s not--Geilie Duncan went far-ther than two hundred years"

It occurred to ht all this out herself Nothing I was saying came as any surprise And that meant she had also reached her own conclusion--which did not involve taking ship back to Scotland

I rubbed a hand betweenan effort to match her calmness The h one I had tried to forget

"There’s another way," I said, fighting for cale, I le, there are standing stones on a hill, but the crack, the passage, is underneath, in a cave"

The forest air was cool, but it wasn’t the shadows that ooseflesh I rubbed ly have erased all memory of the cave of Abandawe as well--I’d tried--but it wasn’t a place easily forgotten

"You’ve been there?" She leaned forward, intent

"Yes It’s a horrible place But the Indies are a good deal closer than Scotland is, and ships sail between Charleston and Ja a little better "It wouldn’t be easy to go through the jungle--but it would give you a little longer--long enough for us to find Roger" If he could still be found, I thought, but didn’t say so That particular fear could be dealt with later

One of the chestnut leaves spiraled down onto Brianna’s lap, vivid yellow against the soft brown ho the waxy surface absently with her thumb She looked at me, blue eyes intent

"Does this place work like the other one?"

"I don’t kno any of them work! It sounded different, a bell sound instead of a buzzing noise But it was a passage, all right"

"You’ve been there," she said slowly, looking at o back? After you’d found--hiht hesitation in her voice; she couldn’t quite bring herself to refer to Jamie as "my father"

"No It was to do with Geillis Duncan She found it"

Brianna’s eyes sprang wide

"She’s here?"

"No She’s dead"

I took a deep breath, feeling the rele of an ax blow run up ht of her, of Geillis, when I was alone in the forest Soht I heard her voice behind me, and turned around swiftly, but saw noin the wind But now and then I felt her eyes on tied the subject "How did this happen, anyway?"

There wasn’t any pretence of not knohat I was talking about She gave ht look, one eyebrow raised

"You’re the doctor How ave her back the look, with interest

"Didn’t you even think of taking any precautions?"

She glowered, thick brows dran

"I wasn’t planning to have sex here!"

I clutched ers into my scalp in exasperation

"You think people plan it? Good God, how ive talks about--"

"All the time! Every year! My mother the sex encyclopedia! Do you have any idea howup in front of everybody, drawing pictures of penises?"

Her face went the color of the scarlet maples, flushed with the memory

"I must not have done it all that well," I said tartly, "since you seenized one when you saw it"

Her face jerked toward me, blood in her eye, but then relaxed when she saw that I was joking--or trying to

"Right," she said "Well, they look different in 3-D"

Taken unawares, I laughed After a le

"You knohat I ave you that prescription before I left"