"Isn't that impossible?" Delos's cool voice camefrom the very back of the group, where he wasexpertly holdinghisnervous,dancinghorsein check. "If they're only humans?"
Hunter didn't move or blink an eye, but Maggiesaw a glance pass between.Sylvia and Gavin. Sheherself twisted her head slightly, just enough tolook at the other girls in the tree.
She wanted to see if Jeanne understood whatthey were talking about, but it was Cady whocaught her eye. Cady's eyes were shut, her headleaning against the dark furrowed trunk of the tree.Her lips were moving, although Maggie couldn'thear any sound.
And Jeanne was watching her with narrowedeyes and an expression of grim suspicion.
"Human vermin are full of surprises," Hunter Redfern was saying easily down below. "It doesn't matter. We'll get them eventually."
"They may be heading for the castle," Sylvia said."We'd better put extra guards at the gate."
Maggie noticed how Delos stiffened at that.
And so did Hunter Redfern, even though he waslooking the other way. He said calmly, "What do you think of that, Prince Delos?"
Delos didn't move for an instant. Then he said,"Yes. Do it." But he said it to a lean, bearded man beside him, who bowed his head in a quick jerk.
And he did something that made Maggie's heartgo cold.
He looked up at her.
The other people in his party, including the hounds, were looking up and down the road, orsideways into the forest at their own level. Deloswas the only one who'd been sitting quietly, lookingstraight ahead. But now he tilted his chin andturned an expressionless face toward the cluster ofbranches where Maggie was sitting.And met her gaze directly.
She saw the blaze of his yellow eyes, even at thisdistance. He was looking coolly and steadily-at her.
Maggie jerked back and barely caught herselffrom falling. Her heart was pounding so hard itwas choking her. But she didn't seem to be able to do anything but cling to her branch.
We're dead, she thought dizzily, pinned into immobility by those golden eyes. He's stronger thanthe rest of them; he's a Wild Power. And he couldsense us all along.
Now all they have to do is surround the tree. Wecan try to fight-but we don't have weapons. They'llbeat us in no time....
Go away.The voice gave her a new shock. It wasclear and unemotional-and it was in Maggie'shead.
Delos?she thought, staring into that burning gaze. You can-?
His expression didn't change. I told you before,but you wouldn't listen. What do I have to do to make you understand?
Maggie's heart picked up more speed. Delos, lis ten to me. I don't want I'm warning you,he said, and his mental voicewas like ice. Don't come to the castle. If you do, I won't protect you again.
Maggie felt cold to her bones, too numb to evenform words to answer him.
I mean it,he said. Stay away from the castle if you want to stay alive.
Then he turned away and Maggie felt the contactbetween them broken off cleanly. Where his presence had been she could feel emptiness.
"Let's go," he said in a short, hard voice, and spurred his horse forward.
And then they were all moving, heading on downthe path, leaving Maggie trying to keep hertrembling from shaking the tree.
When the last horse was out of sight, P.J. let outher breath, sagging. "I thought they had us," she whispered.
Maggie swallowed. "Me, too. But Cady was right.They went on by." She turned. "Just what was that stuff about us blocking them?"
Cady was still leaning her head against the treetrunk, and her eyes were still closed. But sheseemed almost asleep now-and her lips weren'tmoving.
Jeanne's eyes followed Maggie's. They were stillnarrowed, and her mouth was still tight with something like grim humor. But she didn't say anything.After a moment she quirked an eyebrow andshrugged minutely. "Who knows?"
Youknow, Maggie thought. At least more thanyou're telling me. But there was something elsebothering her, so she said, "Okay, then, what aboutthat guy who looks like Delos's father? HunterRedfern."
"He's a bigwig in the Night World," Jeanne said."Maybe the biggest. It was his son who foundedthis place back in the fourteen hundreds."
Maggie blinked. "In the what's?"
Jeanne's eyes glowed briefly, sardonically. "In thefourteen hundreds," she said with exaggerated pa tience."They'revampires,allright?Actually, they're lamia, which is the kind of vampire thatcan have kids, but that's not the point. The point is they're immortal, except for accidents."
"That guy has been alive more than five hundredyears," Maggie said slowly, looking down the pathwhere Hunter Redfern had disappeared.
"Yeah. And, yeah, everybody says how much helooks like the old king. Or the other way around,you know."
Delos sure thinks he looks like him, Maggiethought. She'd seen the way Hunter handled Delos,guiding him as expertly as Delos had guided hishorse. Delos was usedto obeying somebody wholooked and sounded just like Hunter Redfern.
Then she frowned. "Buthow come heisn'tking?"
"Oh..."Jeanne sighed and ducked under a sprayof fir needles that was tangled in her hair. She looked impatient and uneasy. "He's from the Outside, okay? He's only been here a couple of weeks. All the slaves say that he didn't even know aboutthis place before that.
'Me didn't know..."
"Look. This is the way I heard it from the oldslaves, okay? Hunter Redfern had a son namedChervil when he was really young. And when Cher vil was, like, our age, they had some big argumentand got estranged. And then Chervil ran off withhis friends, and that left Hunter Redfern withoutan heir. And Hunter Redfern never knew thatwhere the kid went was hem." Jeanne gesturedaround the valley. "To start his own little kingdom of Night People. But then somehow Hunter found out, so he came to visit. And that's why he's here."