The entire run at Bad Schoensee was a success. And the two weeks in the sun and under clear skies did wonders for everyone. It was quite clear at this point that the folks who hailed from the American plains had very much missed the sun; everyone was more cheerful, from the cooks to the band. The buffalo fattened up on the lush meadow grasses, and became even more docile thanks to Rosa’s intervention with them. The horses acquired glossy coats and a definite spring to their step, even the ones used for “bronco busting.” By the time they were ready to pack up and leave for their next venue, they were all more rested and in better fettle than when they had arrived, despite the two weeks of two shows every day.

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.”