“So that’s it, eh? You’re just going to ignore my warning and head straight into trouble? Then why bother letting me speak, if nothing I say is more than noise to you?”

“Please, spare me the drama or I’ll put the muzzle back on.”

“Foolish, foolish, foolish prodigals.”

“I don’t have a clue what you mean.”

“Humans who run off on their own and find disaster.”

“I don’t need to find disaster,” Darsal said. “It’s found me.” She urged the horse into a trot. “Do I need to muzzle you?”

Hunter bounced in front of her, silent for a few beats. “No,” he finally said in a heavy voice. “I suppose I’ll have to come along to save your neck. But I do wish you would have let me kiss Teagan and Martin before leaving.”

“Teagan and Martin? Who?”

“My two children. I have a terrible feeling they will be left fatherless.”

IT TOOK THEM AN HOUR AT A FAST CLIP TO REACH THE FOREST’S northern border, where Darsal pulled up the horse and stared at the flat desert, stretching as far as the eye could see. Ominous, but she’d been through enough desert in the last few weeks to deal with any danger that came from the elements. Apart from the foreboding voices that kept flogging Darsal’s thoughts, nothing threatened their progress.

Nothing, that is, until a horse stepped out from the trees behind them.

“Darsal?”

She spun her mount, forcing Hunter to frantically spread his wings to keep from falling. There on a brown mare that was ten times her size sat Karas, the little Horde girl who was no longer Horde.

Darsal was too stunned to speak.

“Well, well, well,” Hunter crooned. “Well, well, indeed. Hello, little girl.”

Karas showed no sign she’d seen or heard the Roush. But, of course, only Billos, Johnis, Silvie, and Darsal had had their eyes opened.

“What are you doing here?” Darsal demanded. She scanned the tree line for others, but it appeared that this squat had come alone, unless she was being used as bait while they hid in the bushes. “Are you alone?”

“Yes,” Karas said. “Except for the horse, that is. Do you count horses as companions?”

“People, you little fool, not horses.”

Karas frowned. “You think I’m a fool?”

Darsal scanned the trees again, just to make sure there was no one else.

Eyes on Karas. “You’re a fool for following me. What do you think you’re doing out here by yourself?”

“Following you.”

“Yes, following us,” Hunter said.

“Just you remember our agreement,” Darsal snapped at the Roush.

“What agreement?” Karas asked.

“Nothing. If you head back now, you’ll be home before it gets dark. I suggest you get moving.”

“I could take her,” Hunter said. “She’d get lost on her own.”