Her vision had finally cleared, as if the land had settled down once it knew she was listening to it once more. But it wasn’t the view before her that gave her conviction.

The land was still murmuring into her head, its voices softer now but no less clear and intent.

Giles leaned even closer to peer down at her, his whisper hot against her face. “How do you know these things? What else aren’t you telling us?”

“Shh!” Rosalind hissed. “Save talking for later. All we need to know now is there are nine guards waiting. They all know the direction we started out from, but they’re not all waiting here together—so there must be more than one way we could be coming.”

“The main road split off a while back,” Giles muttered, rocking in place even faster than before. “Remember? Cordy told us which way to go. Again.” The look he gave her was narrow-eyed.

“So maybe there’s another, longer route we could have taken, if we hadn’t had Cordy with us as a guide.” Rosalind frowned with concentration. “We just have to figure out where that one would’ve come out. Cordy, where are all those other guards waiting right now?”

Cordelia’s arm swung left without a thought.

“Got it!” Rosalind smiled fiercely. “So that’s where our voices should be coming from. Go to it!” She clapped Giles on the back.

It sent him rocking into the boulder. “Careful!” Clutching his nose, which had taken the brunt of the impact, he glowered at them both. “Save the bashing for our enemies, Ros. And if Cordy would just trust us for once—”

“After the battle,” Rosalind snapped. “Now, go!”

“Sisters!” Giles groaned the word. Then he closed his eyes, drew that familiar deep, preperformance breath …

And Rosalind’s voice rang out in the distance, pathetically high-pitched with fear. “Help! Oh, help me, Giles! I am too afraid to fight!”

The real Rosalind’s jaw dropped open in outraged disbelief. Cordelia bit the inside of her cheek to stifle a laugh.

“I’ll save you, Ros!” Giles’s voice yelled. “Now that I’ve gotten us safely away from all those soldiers who scared you …”

Rosalind snarled soundlessly.

Cordelia’s lips tugged into a mischievous grin … until she heard her own voice call out faintly, moving away from the others: “I don’t care what you two do. I’ll go my own way, just like always! I don’t need anyone else.”

Rosalind gave an appreciative huff.

Cordelia’s fingers clenched against the cool, soft moss on the boulder before her. Did Giles actually believe—?

Armed figures shifted in her head. “They’re moving!”

A man’s voice bellowed indistinctly in the distance, summoning his comrades to help.