"The first thing," Jeanne said, "is to tell us whathappened to Bern."
"Oh."Maggie blinked, but she could see whyJeanne would want to know. "Well, he's definitely dead." She sketched in what had happened aftershe and Cady had started running through thewoods. How Gavin and Bern had chased them andhad finally driven them into a corner on the boulder pile.How Bern hadclimbedup andchanged...
"He was a shapeshifter, you know," she said.
Jeanne nodded, unsurprised. "Bern means bear.They usually have names that mean what they are.But you're saying you tried to fight thatguy off with a stick? You're dumber than I thought." Still,her green eyes were gleaming with something likewry admiration, and P.J. was listening with awe.
"And then-there was this lightning," Maggiesaid. "And it killed Bern and Gavin ran away." Sherealized, even asshe said it, that she didn't wantto tell everything that had happened with Delos.She didn't think Jeanne would understand. So she left out the way their minds had linked when theytouched, and the way she'd seen his memories-and the fact that she'd dreamed about him beforeever coming to this valley.
"Then I filled the water bag and we heard Sylviacoming and he went out to make sure she didn'tfind me or Cady," she finished. She realized thatthey were all staring at her. Cady's facewasthoughtful and serene as always, P.J. was scaredbut interested in the story-but Jeanne was rivetedwith disbelief and horror.
"You're saying Prince Delossaved your life? Withthe blue fire? You're saying he didn't turn you overto the hunting party?" She said it as if she were talking about Dracula.
"It's the truth." Good thing I didn't tell her aboutthe kiss, Maggie thought.
"It's impossible. Delos hates everybody. He's themost dangerous of all of them."
"Yeah, that's what he kept telling me." Maggieshook her head. The way Jeanne was looking at hermade her uncomfortable,as if she were defendingsomeone unredeemably evil. "He also said at one point that he killed my brother," she said slowly."But I didn't know whether to believeit...."
"Believe it." Jeanne's nostrils were flared and herlip curledasif she were looking at something disgusting.
"He's the head of this whole place and everything that goes on here. There's nothing hewouldn't do. I can't believe he let you go." She considered for a moment, then said grimly, "Unless he's got something special in mind. Letting you go and then hunting you down later. It's the kind ofthing he'd enjoy."
Maggie had a strange feeling of void in her stomach that had nothing to do with hunger. She triedto speak calmly. "I don't think so. I think-he justdidn't care if I got away."
"You're fooling yourself. You don't understandabout these people because you haven't been here. None of youhave been here." Jeanne looked at P.J.,who was watching with wide blue 'eyes, and atCady, who was listening silently, her head slightlybowed. "The Night People are monsters.And theones here in the Dark Kingdom are the worst of all. Some of them have been alive for hundreds of years-some of them were here when Delos'sgrandfather founded the place. They've been holedup in this valley all that time ... and allthey do ishunt.It's their only sport. It's all they care about. It's all they do."
Maggie's skin was prickling. Part of her didn'twant to pursue this subject any further. But she had to know.
"Last night I noticed something weird," she said."I was standing outside and listening, but I couldn'thear any animal sounds anywhere. None at all."
"They've wiped them out. Alltheanimalsin the wild are gone."
P.J.'s thin little hand clutched at Maggie's armnervously. 'But then what do they hunt?"
"Animals they breed and release. I've been a slavehere for three years, and at first I only saw them breeding local animaLs-cougars and black bears
wolverines and stuff. But in the last couple ofyears they've started bringing in exotics. Leopardstigers and things."
Maggie let out her breath and patted P.J.'s hand.`But not humans."
"Don't make me laugh. Of course humans-butonly when they can get an excuse. The laws say the vampires can't hunt slaves to death because they'retoo precious-pretty soon the food supply wouldbe gone. But if slaves get loose, they at least get to hunt them down and bring them back to the castle. And if a slave has to be executed, they do a death hunt."
"I see." The void in Maggie's stomach had become a yawning chasm. "But-2'
"If he let you go, it was so he could come backand hunt you," Jeanne said flatly. "I'm telling you,he's bad. It was three years ago that the old kingdied and Delos took over, okay? And it was threeyears ago that they started bringing new slaves in.Not just grabbing people off the mountain if theygot too close, but actuallygoing down and kidnapping girls off the streets. That's why I'm here.That'swhy P.J.'s here."
Beside Maggie, P.J. shivered. Maggie put an armaround her and felt the slight body shaking againsthers. She gulped, her other hand clenching into afist. "Hey, kiddo. You've been really brave so far, sojust hang on, okay? Things are going to work out."
She could feel Jeanne's sarcastic eyes on herfrom beyond Cady, daring her to explain exactly howthings were going to work out. She ignoredthem.
"Was it the same for you, Cady?" she asked. Shewas glad to get off the subject of Delos, and shewas remembering the strange thing Cady had saidlast night. I was coming here for a reason....
"No. They got me on the mountain." But the wayCady spoke alarmed Maggie. It was slowly and with obvious effort, the voice of someone who had touse all their strength just to concentrate.