“The only reason I would look for my father is if I decide to kill him,” Dancer said, his blue eyes hard as topaz.

Stunned into silence, Han didn’t say anything for a long time. He’d never seen Dancer so bitter. Dancer was the one who always saw the good in people, who was always the peacemaker.

“I’ll go with you,” Han said finally. “To Oden’s Ford, I mean.”

“And do what?”

“I’ll go to the warrior school at Wien House.”

Dancer looked him up and down and actually grinned. “You? In the army? It’s all about rules. You wouldn’t last a week. You’d be asking why all the time. You’d be better off going into temple orders.”

“It could work,” Han persisted. The more he talked about it, the better he liked it. “All the armies are eager to take on Wien House graduates. I could find one that I fit in with.”

“How would you pay for that?” Dancer asked. “You don’t have any money.”

“How are you paying for Mystwerk House?” Han countered.

“The camps are sponsoring me, over the Demonai warriors’ objection. It’s one way to get me to go away.”

“What’s the Demonais’ problem?” Han asked.

Dancer shrugged. “Ask them. But you’re not a soldier. I’m not sure what you are, but you’re not that.”

When Han arrived back at camp, he told Willo where Dancer was, making it clear that Dancer was frustrated.

“It’s all right, Hunts Alone,” she said, looking up from her dye pot. She was stirring a cauldron full of bright blue yarn over the fire in front of the Matriarch Lodge. “Leave him be. Dancer needs some time alone. Hanalea soothes him.”

“What’s he going to do when he has to leave? What’s going to soothe him then?” Han was angry with Willo, like this was all her fault.

“He will find his way. He has to,” Willo said simply.

“How long have you known about this?” Han demanded. “That Dancer is a jinxflinger.”

Willo blotted her sweaty forehead with her forearm. “I knew it was a possibility from the…from the beginning. But wizards don’t manifest until they’re older, and I had hopes it wouldn’t happen. I began to see the signs three years ago. And finally he noticed too, and came to me.”

“There has to be something you can do.” After all, Willo was a gifted healer. Couldn’t she heal her own son?