“They’re not gone.”

Cordelia stopped walking so abruptly that her brother stepped straight into her.

Giles gave a crow of delight as they untangled themselves. “I told you it was silly to leave! You missed a tremendous battle. Rosalind’s still trying to make out how all of the sword moves worked.”

“Of course she is.” Cordelia rolled her eyes. Since she was Rosalind’s usual sparring partner, she was likely to experience those moves all too soon. “But what happened?” she demanded. “How did they escape Mother’s creatures?”

“We-e-ell, I wouldn’t say they escaped,” said Giles. “I’m working on a whole new ballad about it, though! They sliced and swished in mighty thwacks—”

Cordelia gave him one of Alys’s best Stern Looks, which all three of the triplets could copy by heart. “No singing. Just answer the question!”

“Chi-i-i-ldren!” Alys’s voice echoed through the courtyards as if Cordelia had summoned her with the impersonation. “No more lollygagging! Your supper’s growing cold!”

Everyone in the castle knew better than to argue with Alys when it came to food. But as they both obediently broke into a run, Cordelia hissed, “We would’ve had enough time if it weren’t for useless ballads!”

Giles huffed back, “You should have listened. It’s my best one yet! One day kings and queens will empty their treasuries to hear me sing.”

Not if I’m the queen! The retort rose automatically to Cordelia’s tongue … but she bit it back instead of tossing the rude words at her brother as usual. That jest felt suddenly too dangerous to make in the open air, where anyone might overhear it.

“Where are those soldiers now?” she whispered as they hurried through the open doorway into the buttery, just outside the great hall. She scooped up the leather shoes she had left there after breakfast and slipped them on quickly as she walked. “Are they hiding in the forest?”

Giles leaned down to breathe his reply into her ear as they swung the big door of the great hall open together. “No, they’re gathered just outside the castle, right there in the open. That’s why she covered up all the windows when she gave up on chasing them away!”

Gave up? Cordelia’s jaw dropped open.

Mother never surrendered. Not about anything! A thousand questions swarmed to Cordelia’s lips …

But the door swung open under their hands, and she swallowed down every word as she saw Mother and Alys already sitting at the hulking wooden table ahead with Rosalind and Connall and a steaming cauldron of stew.

When Mother was in a good mood, the whole castle felt as if it had been filled with sunshine, and every member of the family glowed with her vibrant warmth. But when she wasn’t …