No, we're not!" Maggie said. She kicked the heavy cover off and jumped up, grabbing 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 that makes sense. They'll be expecting us 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 completely crazy-""Come on!"
"But you just might be right." Jeanne grabbed Cady from the other side as Maggie started for the door.
"You stay right behind us," Maggie hissed at P.J.
The landscape in front of her looked differentthan it had last night. The mist formed a silver netover the trees, and although there was no sun, the clouds had a cool pearly glow.
It was beautiful. Still alien, still disquieting, butbeautiful.
And in the valley below was 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 made her legswork. They headed at a good pace straight for the thickest trees below the shack.
"If it's dogs, we should try to find a stream orsomething, right?" she said to Jeanne. "To cut off our scent."
"I know a stream," Jeanne said, speaking in shortbursts as they made their way through dew-wetferns and saxifrages. "I lived out here a while thefirst time I escaped. When I was looking 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 them atall."
"Great," Maggie muttered. She glanced back andsaw P.J. 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 dampness of the rainforest around them. Although there were fourof them moving at once, the only sound from closeup was the soft pant of quick breathing and the occasional short gasp of direction from Jeanne.
They slipped and plunged and stumbled betweenthe huge dark trunks that stood like columns in themist. Cedar boughs drooped from above, making ittwilight where Maggie was trying to pick her wayaround moss-covered logs. There was a cool greensmell like incense everywhere.
But however still the world was around them,there was always the sound of the hounds baying in the distance. Always behind them, always getting closer.
They crossed an icy, knee-deep stream, but Maggie didn't have much hope that it would throw the pursuit off. Cady began to lag seriously after that.She seemed dazed and only semiconscious, follow ing instructionsas if she weresleepwalking,and only answering questions with a fuzzy murmur.Maggie was worried aboutP.J., too. They were all weak with hunger and shaky with stress.
But it wasn't until they were almost at the castle that the hunt caught up with them.
They had somehow finished the long, demandingtrek down the mountain. Maggie was burning withpride for P.J. and Cady. And then, all at once, thebaying of the hounds came, terribly close and get ting louder fast.
At the same moment, Jeanne stopped and cursed,staring ahead.
"What?" Maggie was panting heavily. "You seethem?"
Jeanne pointed. "I see the road.I'm an idiot.They're coming right down it, much faster than we can go through the underbrush. I didn't realize wewere headed for it."
P.J. 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 grimly. "Well have togo 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 some reason Maggie felt she ought to listen to her.
"Hey, waitlook at this." They were standing at the foot of a huge Douglas fir. Its lowest brancheswere much too high to climb in the regular way,but a maple had fallen against it and remainedwedged, branches interlocked with the giant, forming a steep but climbable ramp. "We can go 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 seemed to bein a trance again.
"I don't know. But we can't just stand aroundand wait for them to come." The truth was that herinstincts were all standing up and screaming at her,and they said to trust. "Let's try it, okay? Come on,P.J.,can you climb that tree?"
Four minutes later they were all up. We're hiding in a Christmas tree, Maggie thoughtasshe lookedout between sprays of flat aromatic needles. Fromthis height she could see the road, which was justtwo wheel tracks with grass growing down the middle.
Just then the hunt arrived.
The dogs came first, dogsasbigasJake the Great Dane, but leaner. Maggie could see their ribsclearly defined under their short, dusty tan coats.Right behind them were people on horses.
Sylvia was at the front of the group.
She was wearing 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 time to dwell on it.Coming up fast behind Sylvia were two other people who each gave her a jolt, and she didn't knowwhich shock was worse.
One was Delos. He was riding a beautiful horse,so dark brown it was almost black, but with reddish highlights. He sat straight and easy in the saddle, looking every inch the elegant young prince.
The only discordant note was the heavy brace on his left arm.
Maggie stared at him, her heart numb.
He was after them. It was just as Jeanne hadsaid He was hunting them down with dogs. Andhe'd probably told Sylvia that he hadn't really killedtwo of the slaves.
Almost inaudibly, Jeanne breathed, "You see?"Maggie 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 man, with bloodred hair and acold, handsome face. Maggie 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 man," she murmured urgently to Jeanne.
Jeanne answered almost without a sound."Hunter Redfern."
"It's not the king?"
Jeanne shook her head minutely. Then, whenMaggie kept staring at her, she breathed. "He'sDelos's greatgrandfather. He just came. I'll tell youabout it later."