When she turned to look at Rosamund, she found her friend surrounded by at least twenty odd little creatures that looked as if they were made of bits of forest detritus. Very peculiar little things they were too, no two alike, covered in odd garments of moss and leaves, spiderwebs and pine needles, flowers and woven grasses. She was apportioning bread and sugar cubes out to them with all the gravity of a paymaster giving out wages. When the last of them had taken up his or her burden and vanished into the long grasses, she straightened. “Well, my lot is a little braver than yours. Then again, Earth Elementals are very difficult to hurt, and I very much doubt that a ghost will even take notice of them. I think we can go to bed. But . . .”

“But?” Giselle asked.

“Sleep in your clothing,” Rosamund replied. “And sleep lightly.”

10

GISELLE was certain she would never be able to sleep, but the moment she put her head down on the pillow, it was as if sleep suddenly smothered her. Just like that, instantly, she was asleep and aware of absolutely nothing. She lay utterly insensible until the moment a sharp pain lanced her nose.

It hurt! And it jolted her from her nose to her toes.

She came awake at once, only to hear a snap, see a spark arc from one of the wisps to her nose, and feel the same sharp, jagged pain again, although this time it was confined to her face. That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt any the less! “Ow!” she cried, sitting up and clapping both hands to the offended appendage. “Why!” Then it dawned on her. This must have been the only way the wisps could wake her up! I have never, ever, been that thoroughly asleep. “Oh! Thank you!”

She scrambled out of her bed, glad she had followed Rosamund’s instructions to lie down fully clothed. Her feet hit the floor with a thud—she’d worn her boots as well—and she called up a glow on her own hand, making it shine as the wisps did. It was far safer to do that than to fumble for matches and a lantern in her half-befuddled state. She felt almost as if she had been drugged as she shook her head to clear it, but she knew that the only things she had had to eat and drink were those that Rosamund shared. Rosamund would not have drugged her. There was no reason for anyone else to drug her.

Therefore, that left magic. Magic which, by the utter silence of the entire camp, was intended to keep everyone in his or her bed. No wonder the wisps had had a hard time waking her. She knuckled her eyes and took deep breaths of the chill, damp air, and forced her mind to clear.