If anything, the second performance went better than the first. People were confident now that the changes were going to meet with audience approval, so they threw themselves into their parts with great enthusiasm. Almost too much, but after all, this wasn’t on a stage, it was in an arena, so perhaps at that distance “too much” was just about enough.

There were so many people wanting to make the “tour of the camps” that it was not until well after dark that the last of them were escorted out.

Feeling more than a little drained, Giselle sat by her little campfire after the last of them were gone and the camps settled down, not doing anything, not even thinking, really, just enjoying the sounds and letting her mind empty. It was a lovely night, balmy, and there was a nightingale singing somewhere in the distance. People were talking quietly; someone was playing a banjo, though not in an irritating fashion, just tinkling out a little melody. I didn’t realize how tired I was, she thought. Now that she wasn’t explaining things to Leading Fox, answering questions, or doing her turns, her energy had just run out. She was just about to get up and head for her wagon when a voice, a female voice, addressed her in German, out of the darkness.

“That was quite an impressive show, Fraulein Giselle.”

She stiffened.

The speaker stepped into the light from her campfire; it was a young woman perhaps a year or two older than Giselle, blond and dressed in a red cape and a loden-green hunting jacket and divided skirt, exactly like the one that was packed away in Giselle’s wagon.

Giselle knew the moment she laid eyes on the stranger that this was an Earth Master. The Earth Energy, golden and vital, was strong enough around her to practically taste. That and the hunting gear could only mean one thing: this was a Hunt Master of the Bruderschaft. And since this young woman knew her by her real name, and not as “Rio Ellie,” she also must know . . . everything. Giselle scrambled to her feet, a cold thread of fear running down her spine.

But the young woman laughed. “Oh don’t look at me as if you think I am about to eat you! Tante Gretchen already sent us a full report on your . . . unfortunate accident. The Brotherhood tentatively concurs with what she told us. I’m just here to hear it from you, directly.”

Giselle didn’t bother to ask how this young woman knew that Giselle and Rio Ellie were one and the same person. Tante Gretchen would have reported her direction, and after that, it was only a matter of asking the Elementals if there was a strong female Air Master about that they did not already know. It wasn’t as if she had been trying to conceal her presence.