“Well, you can probably take care of most of them yourself.” Rosalind’s brisk words made both of her triplets turn to stare. She sounded perfectly calm, though, as she continued. “You’ve been practicing all the way here. Why not just use your sorcery again?”

Giles lurched backward. “I … no, I can’t! I really can’t. Half the time, it won’t even work! That first time, I was just so scared, the magic burst out of me.”

“Well, then, let yourself feel that scared again.” Rosalind shrugged, swinging her sword-stick in lazy, sweeping circles. She bent her legs in preparatory stretches, still holding Cordelia’s arm with a firm grip. “If it doesn’t work, they will definitely capture us. Remember that part, and you’ll be more than scared enough to let your magic free again.”

“But—”

“Look at her!” Rosalind sighed and yanked Cordelia back into place beside her. “She’s not turning around, no matter what we say. Even if we drag her with us, she’ll just turn back and head here on her own the instant we stop holding her. Do you want to let her walk into a group of grown soldiers all on her own?”

Giles didn’t answer.

Rosalind’s voice turned to steel. “I am not running away like a coward again—and I’m not letting any more of my family be taken prisoner! You can leave us both behind if you like, but I’m staying with Cordy.”

“This is ridiculous!” Giles whispered.

But Cordelia’s shoulders relaxed, because she knew they had won. Giles had never turned away from their family in his life, so—at least for now—they would all keep moving forward together.

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

They all took turns peering over the curve of the final foothill, crouching together behind a mossy boulder that would have reached Cordelia’s nose if she’d been standing.

The vast slopes of Mount Corve loomed before them, covered in a dark-green, unbroken tree line with faint swirls of white mist curving near the top …

But a massive, unbroken white circle of mist surrounded all its lower slopes, ignoring every law of nature. Soldiers in tunics blazoned with bears and wolves walked along that shimmering shield again and again, pacing an endless, watchful circuit. Like the knights who’d hunted the children in their forest, these ones had abandoned heavy armor for stealth and speed. It must have been obvious to everyone that three unarmed children could present no danger to them.

“I count five.” Rosalind’s voice was, for once, a tightly leashed whisper.

“I saw five, too.” Giles’s fingers jittered against his knees as he rocked anxiously back and forth on the ground, his arms wrapped around his legs.

“There are nine,” Cordelia told them both with utter certainty.