“I’d rather not know,” Giselle replied faintly. “At least not right now.”

Rosa nodded. “Let’s go home. I mean, back to—”

“I know what you mean,” Giselle replied, “The camp feels like home, now. And . . . we saved those children and destroyed that horrid monster. I think we can sleep well tonight.”

“What’s left of it, anyway.” But Rosa laughed quietly. “Yes, we did. We saved the children. They are not going to go work as near-slaves on someone’s farm or in someone’s inn. They are going to go have a good life with Pieter.”

“I would say that is virtually guaranteed.” The scent of ozone and a cool breath of air was the only warning either of them had that the aether was back. “Well done, you. But let’s err on the side of caution shall we? I can carry a message for you to the Bruderschaft der Förster, Rosamund. If you like.”

“That would be . . . unbelievably kind of you!” Rosa exclaimed, as Giselle beamed her thanks at the ripple in the air that was the aether. “Please tell Gunther what happened, and that someone needs to look in on Pieter and make sure he has everything he needs for those children. I have no idea how he thinks he’s going to get clothing for them, for instance. It might be summer now, and they’ll be fine in clean rags, but winter will be coming all too soon.”

“Easily done. I can be there before Master Gunther goes to bed.” There was a wild wind that tossed everything around for a moment, and then the aether was gone again.

“You must have impressed that aether,” Rosa said thoughtfully, glancing over at Giselle. “I’ve never known one to volunteer to do that much before.”

“You also don’t know too many Air Masters,” Giselle pointed out hastily. “And neither do I. I have no idea what’s normal. For all I know, aethers are like Pieter, they like people and want to help if they can.”

“Point,” Rosa replied, and yawned hugely. “And since we are not aethers and will have to walk back, let’s get started. I can’t see my bed soon enough.”

14

FREIBURG was the biggest city that Giselle had ever seen, and in many ways she was very, very glad that the show had been booked here for most of the month of October as part of Oktoberfest, because it meant she was working, and working hard, six days in the week, and didn’t have much time to think about how very big and very intimidating the city was. She could not even begin to imagine the sheer size of cities like Hamburg and Salzburg and Vienna, when Freiburg made her head spin.