But if I am caught and I rob him now, they will say I killed him to rob him. But if I leave him untouched, there is a bare chance that someone will believe me if I say he became so angry with me that he dropped dead of apoplexy.

“Go ahead of me and warn me of anyone in my path,” she whispered to the sylphs, who seemed just as eager to leave that room of death as she was. As they whisked through the little cracks in the walls around the window, she, who could do nothing like that, eased the window open and looked cautiously out of it. There was no one in sight, and the Maifest was still in full and joyous cry, judging by the light and the lively music in the direction of where the field would be. So she eased herself over the sill, made sure she had left nothing of herself or her property behind with a last glance around the room, and closed the window behind her.

Then she bent over and ran for the inn’s stable, where her horse and all her belongings were. Ordinarily that would be a bad place to leave property, but Giselle’s wicked little mare was trained to let no one into her stall but Giselle herself. She was as good or better than a guard dog.

Where did I leave my hat? She wondered irrelevantly, as she moved from one shadow to another, listening for the sounds of footsteps under the faraway music of the Maifest. It hadn’t been with her in the captain’s office. I must have left it at the beer stall. . . . If this had been a situation where she was likely to be tracked by another magician, that would have been a catastrophe, but there hadn’t been the least sign of another Elemental Master, not even an Elemental Magician, in the entire town. The hat could safely be left behind. She certainly wasn’t going to go back after it now.

She was out of breath when she reached the stables and paused just outside. Her sylphs gathered around her, no longer mischievous. “Is there anyone in there but horses?” she murmured, pressed up against the wall, trying to squeeze every bit of herself into a particularly dark shadow.

“No, Master,” said one. “We made the drunk have bad dreams and he went somewhere else to sleep.”

She looked up at them, hovering above her head. “Well done. I’m going to get my horse and get out of here. Keep watch while I do, and scout ahead of me on the road.” She intended to lead the horse to the edge of town by the quietest ways before mounting him. A man leading his horse calmly would not attract any attention, but someone galloping as if the devil was after him certainly would. And the latter would be remembered, which was not something she wanted.