William stacked the rest of the wood he'd gathered next to the fire pit and stood stretching his back muscles with a long sigh. Jep absently struck the piece of flint in an attempt to light a fire, but his thoughts were elsewhere.

"Let me do that." William said, taking the flint from his friend's hand.

"How could she have done such a thing, Will? How could she just murder an innocent woman like that? And my father..." His words choked off in a shaky snuffling.

"I'm so sorry, Jep. I- you just have to- to- accept what's happened."

"Accept it! Are you mad? I will never accept what that- that- harridan did to my parents."

William dropped the flint and grabbed Jep by the shoulders. "You know what I meant. Of course you can't accept it that way. I mean you have to put it away for now. Calm down and think through what it is you want to do. But whatever it is, it has to wait until this business with the stones is over."

He watched the realization come to his friend's eyes, and he released his grip, patting him comfortingly on the shoulder. "Listen, that young woman over there has suffered just as much, and for a longer period of time. I think you should get together and have a long talk, see how she handled the situation."

Jep looked over at the two women sitting together and felt a twinge of guilt for not considering Gwendolise's circumstances in all of this. He pulled himself to his feet and shuffled over to the wagon.

"I uh- wonder if I could talk with Gwendolise for a minute... alone. Please."

Mary flushed at the request and nodded, standing up and dusting off her skirt. "I'll uh- just go..." She waved a hand and hurried off.

Jep took her place, sitting with his arms wrapped about his knees. "I wanted to thank you for earlier. Pulling me back to reality."

"I think you would have done the right thing in the end." She said softly, watching him.

He chuckled, "Question is, what's right?"

"What our families entrusted us with, Jep."

"Have you always felt that way? I mean, giving up your whole life to finding and retrieving the stones. Why? Will the world be a better place without them? Will the bad people cease to be bad? Are you a better person because of what you've done?"

"No, of course not. But the good people that would become bad because of them, won't. Besides, if some way to control their power was to be discovered, it could lead to a whole lot of people being better."

"I wish I had your optimism. Nothing I've seen so far leads me to believe that will ever happen."

"It's called faith, Jep. I believe in what my family set out to do, and I'm more than content to see it through. And by the way, I don't feel that I've given up anything. My life has been hard, yes, but It's been a full life, with experiences most young women would never dream of."

"Listen, I didn't mean... I didn't- I don't know what I mean anymore." He shook his head and dropped it to his knees.

It was after dark when Derrick returned laden with sacks of fresh fruit and vegetables. He struggled under the weight of gurgling wine and water skins, happily dropping everything next to the fire with an exuberant cheer. Mokum skidded to a halt behind him, having seen this figure labouring across the valley toward their camp and unsure just who it might be.

"Some guard." Derrick teased.

"I saw thee the entire way." Mokum bristled. "Thee are lucky I recognized thy ugly form in time."

"I saw some of the Queen's men in the market. They are not a happy lot I can tell you. I got close enough to hear that if things get any worse, some of them might desert. They said something about an old woman being the cause of their misery."

"That could be good news." William said, unpacking the sacks and passing the goods around.

"She has someone else with her too, a Count I think. I didn't get his name."

"Consiflore." Jep and William echoed.

"Who?"

"Count Bragen de Consiflore." Jep said. "He's a disgusting little toady, but dangerous. The men are more likely to follow him than the Queen. I wonder about this old woman though. Who could that be?"

Gwendolise felt a stab of panic, wondering if it could possibly be Prize. She waited until Jep was alone and confided her concern to him.

"But why? What would she have to gain? She helped us both for heaven's sake, why would she join Hella suddenly?" The answer hit them both at the same time—the stone Gwendolise had given her had finally worked its power on her. She was using Hella to get at the rest.

"Well, there's not much we can do about that right now." Jep sighed and went to join the others. "I say we eat." A general roar of agreement rolled around the campfire and the little band of adventurers fell upon Derrick's purchases with unabated glee.

Mokum sat off by himself chewing on his ration of Huthwheat. None of them knew he could hear most anything that was spoken, even if whispered; it was a natural gift the Huth race enjoyed. The name Prize sparked his interest, since he knew of the woman from his travels to Dyst and Nygard, selling Huthwheat. There was something about this Gar DeBain that also puzzled him; somehow he felt the two were connected but he couldn't quite put it together.

******

At night, the Grand Market changed from commerce to entertainment, with musicians and magic acts, dancers and actors, all performing in various tents throughout the valley. Gar and Rodney stood just inside one of the larger tents where a group of traveling performers reenacted one of the more popular plays of the time. Gar had spotted some of the Queen's soldiers as they took in the show, and chose to watch them for a while.

"What good does this do?" Rodney complained.

"It just gives me some information. I can tell which of these buffoons are likely to cause trouble and which aren't."

"Trouble? What kind of trouble?" Rodney didn't like being subject to Gar's decision making.

"The kind that's waiting for us when we get between the Queen and the stones, because you can trust me on this, she'll be there, somehow, when we find the Pennistyle and Bogendancer kids."

"What, and creeping around this place is going to help us?"

"I told you, it gives me information." Gar slipped outside the tent pulling Rodney after him. "We won't know until daylight whether or not our friends made it this far. I think we should head up into the mountain and wait for them up there."

"Wait up there? For how long? What if they don't come?"

Gar turned on him sending Rodney stumbling back a few paces. "You're the one who told me this is where they were heading—to bury the stones in some mine. Was that a lie?"

"No!" He swallowed hard, thinking of the poor soldier back in the hills. "Very well, we'll wait—on the mountain."