“It’s also dangerous. Other people outside the family will notice if the family is acting oddly, especially the man of the house, and next thing you know, people are looking for a witch in the kitchen,” Elfrida replied with a frown. “I wouldn’t use it now if I weren’t sure no one’s going to escape it. If you’re worried about the beasts taking fright, we can feed them a bit of bread once a day—”

“No, I can handle the beasts. They trust me,” Rosa said, and sighed. “All right. I expect that the Captain and the Indians are—”

“—are violatin’ your privacy an’ comin’ up. Kellermann’s with us,” called Captain Cody from below. “Iff’n yer afraid t’be seen—”

“Oh don’t be an idiot, get up here!” Rosa snapped, and soon enough, the sound of boots on the stairs heralded two of the three. Fox’s footsteps could scarcely be heard, of course, because he was wearing his usual soft moccasins. They were all in pants pulled hastily over their nightshirts, and wrapped in blankets, including Fox. It seemed that when it came to sleeping in Bavarian cold, he had decided to do as the white men did, and bundle into a warm, thick, red flannel nightshirt. They all pulled chairs up to the side of the bed and huddled in them.

Rosa and Giselle took it in turns to tell them what they knew, and Elfrida added how she intended to keep the rest of the company from taking fright. When they finished, Cody and Fox exchanged a look and a wry smile. “See, now, Fox, I tol’ ye the ladies woulda figgered out a short plan afore we got up here,” Cody said. “Here’s th’ thing, though. Fox an’ me, we’ve seen a good bit’a fightin, an’ we figger this storm ain’t but the beginnin’. It’s got a evil feel to’t. That kinda matches up with you tellin’ me there’s some Fire Magic mixed up with it, on’y turned t’cold. I ain’t never seen that, but I heerd ’bout it, from a feller in England what recognized me as a mage.” He shook his head. “That feller allowed as how he ain’t never heerd of a Cold Elemental critter that weren’t all bad, clear through. You go makin’ a deal with one’a them, an’ it freezes all the heart right outa ye.”

“That . . . doesn’t sound good,” ventured Giselle.