Their next destination was Todtnau, another alpine village. Between here and there . . . was more dense forest. But they headed out on their journey feeling more than ready to deal with the dark and gloom for a couple of days.

It helped that the forest they wound their way through on the first day was cut back from the road a bit, and there was none of that uncanny feeling about it. Every time Giselle looked up from her book to make sure her horses weren’t lagging, she caught glimpses of sylphs, pixies, and zephyrs among the trees. Probably there was just as high a population of Earth Elementals, she just wasn’t seeing them.

They found a sunlit meadow big enough to make a decent camp in halfway between Bad Schoensee and Todtnau. There was no water source in the meadow itself, but there was a spring not so far up the valley that it was too much effort to get the water barrels filled with the help of a wagon and horses. The more that they traveled, the more Giselle was glad she had chosen a vardo to live in, instead of a tent. While the vardo could get a little stuffy once the sun was beating down on it, and she certainly was a bit short on room, setting up at a campsite was merely a matter of parking where she was directed to go and unharnessing the horses to take them to the common area for tying up overnight.

Because she could set up so quickly, Giselle got in her practice before supper, and afterward had been planning on an extended read in Rosa’s Bruderschaft book. But Rosa had other plans in mind, it seemed, for she rounded up not only Giselle but Captain Cody as soon as dinner was over.

Giselle followed her when she beckoned, and the two of them caught the Captain just before he left the mess tent. “I wanted you both to see something,” Rosa said, looking mysterious. “Someone. Both, really. He lives not too far away from here.”

“Someone who’s also something?” Cody said quizzically, tilting his hat back on his head. “Now y’all got my attention.”

Rosa grinned. Giselle reflected that there was a lot less verbal prodding going on between them, now, which made things much more pleasant all around. During their time in Bad Schoensee, it seemed she had gotten tired of “testing” him—or was satisfied with her results. “Come along, then, it will be worth your while,” she said. “It’s a nice walk, and I promise that there won’t be any Vilis along the way.”

The Captain mock-shuddered. “Iffen I never see another of them, it’ll be too soon,” he admitted. “But . . . walkin’? Couldn’t we ride?”

She shook her head. “Not advisable. Where we’re going is fine for walking, but if the poor horse shied or slipped, it would mean a dead horse.”