She saw the look of shock and anger that flashed across the other woman’s face and knew she had guessed right. She felt a quick surge of satisfaction, but also an odd sense of shame.

“Do you spy on us, witch?” Sarys Ohmsford cried. “Are you so desperate that you must stoop to that? Get out of my house!”

Khyber did not move. “When I leave here, I will travel to Leah and ask the same questions of Mirai’s father. He will tell me what you won’t. Then I will fly to wherever Redden and Railing have gone and speak with them. Fate and circumstance have made it necessary, Sarys. You cannot avoid either any more than I can. Now tell me where to find them. Do the right thing.”

Sarys rose slowly and faced her down. “My sons will never agree to go with you. I have made certain of that, Ard Rhys. I have taught them of the Druids’ schemes and their destructive history. You are wasting your time.”

“Then let me find that out for myself. Let me go to them and tell them of my need. Let them refuse me face-to-face.” Khyber kept her voice calm and even. “Do not presume to speak for them. They will resent you for it. You raised them to think for themselves and to act as they determined best, didn’t you? Prove it here.”

There were fresh tears in Sarys Ohmsford’s eyes as the women faced each other across the table. “I hate you,” Sarys said softly. “I hate all of you. You Druids, who think you are so special and believe so deeply in your twisted causes. I hate you with every fiber of my being.”

Khyber nodded. “You are entitled to that.”

“If the earth opened and swallowed every last one of you, I would not shed a single tear. I would rejoice. Druids, with your magic and your black arts, twisting the lives of others, shaping events to your own purpose. I despise you.”

Khyber said nothing, waiting.

Sarys looked away, suddenly defeated. “They are in Bakrabru,” she said quietly.

“Thank you,” Khyber said.

The other woman looked back again, a hint of disbelief in her dark eyes. “I don’t know why I am helping you.”

“Because it is the right thing. Because you trust your sons.”

“But not you, witch. I don’t trust you.”

Khyber kept her anger carefully in check. “I will say nothing to them I do not know to be true. I will do nothing to force them to choose. I will leave it to them. Even if I could make the choice for them, I would not. Help of the sort that is required of Redden and Railing can only be useful if it is given freely.”

Sarys smiled thinly. “If you say so.”