Woostra assumed a thoughtful pose, gaze directed outward through the nearest window in a thousand-yard stare. He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

“Will you have a fresh look to see if there might be a mention somewhere? Look, as well, for references to the Elfstones. Any of the Elfstones, not just the blue ones. Take your time. Do a thorough search.”

“Mistress!” He straightened to his full height, which just about brought him up to Aphenglow’s shoulder. “I am not aware that I have ever performed any other kind!”

Looking misunderstood and put upon, he wheeled about and left the room without glancing back.

“Awfully thin-skinned, isn’t he?” Khyber said, mostly to herself.

She went back to reading the diary, finished a short time later, and leaned back in her chair. “I think this is real, Aphen.”

Aphenglow allowed herself a relieved smile. “I’m pleased. But what are we to do with it? Pleysia is right. It doesn’t give us any clue as to where the missing Elfstones might be found. The Darkling boy might have taken them to his home city, but he could just as easily have taken them somewhere else. If Woostra doesn’t find a mention in our records of a sighting of the Elfstones at a later time, we have nowhere to start a search. Perhaps I should go back and search the Elven histories again, this time looking for a mention of Aleia.”

“Perhaps.” Khyber thought a moment. “But I don’t want to risk you being attacked again.”

“I’m not afraid.”

Khyber smiled in spite of herself. “I know that. You are braver even than Bombax and twice as brave as me.”

Aphenglow blushed. “I doubt that. You must be thinking of Pleysia.”

“Pleysia?” She kept to herself the first words that came to mind. Better that her thoughts remained hidden. “Sit here a moment while I move about a bit, Aphen. The Druid Sleep has left me stiff and achy.”

She rose and walked to the far end of the chamber, looking out the window at the coming night. It was almost fully dark now, the sky gone deep blue, the first stars coming out to the north, shadows overlapping across the parapets and towers of the Keep. Torchlight blazed in tiny pockets atop the walls, and in the distance the horizon was a blood-red band of light fighting off the night’s descending blackness. She could hear the sound of the night birds and the soft tinkle of wind chimes.

What should she do?