She shrugs. “Oh, the usual. What about you? It’s not often that the cousins come to any of our courts.”

“We’re hoping to get a lead on a friend of ours who’s gone missing,” Joe says. “I figure that Jilly’s built up enough good will with your people that maybe Tatiana will give us a hand.”

“Jilly,” Mother Crone says. “Do you mean Jilly Coppercom?”

Joe nods. “Do you know her?”

“I’ve certainly heard of her. She’s good friends with a human fiddler who visits our court.”

There’s a funny look in her eyes and something—I can’t say exactly what—in her voice. Fairies always seem to think they can put one over on anybody, but none of us here are buying what she’s selling right now.

“You know something,” Joe says.

“I don’t know what makes you think—”

“Ten to one it’s got something to do with those bogans,” Jack says.

Bingo. There’s a flicker in her eyes. The smile she’s been offering us goes just that little fraction tighter.

“Talk,” Joe says.

His voice is quiet, but there’s a dark promise in those strange eyes of his.

“I thought that’s what we were doing,” she says.

Joe shakes his head. “Easy or hard, you’re going to tell me what you know.”

Mother Crone gets up out of her chair and gives him a hard look.

“I think you’re forgetting where you are,” she says.

Joe stands up as well and takes a step closer to her. Jack and I exchange glances, then he shrugs and we both get to our feet.

“I don’t forget anything,” Joe says.

“Well, good for you. But if you have a problem, take it up with the queen. I’m not the one you should be—”

“You want Cody in on this?” Joe asks.

It’s not an idle threat. We cousins don’t have hierarchies the way the fairies do with courts and kings and queens and crap like that. But we have old ones that everybody walks a little carefully around—especially if you’re not related to them. In my clan it’s Lucius Portsmouth, because he’s the Raven who brought the world into being, though I’ve never heard of him actually admitting to it. With the canids . . . well, Cody’s the original Coyote, carries all the canid medicine in one dark-eyed package. And sure, he can mess up on a grand scale, but that doesn’t mean he’s ineffectual. He’s just got bad judgment sometimes.

But Mother Crone doesn’t seem to be worried—not by Cody, not by Joe smiling at her with those crazy eyes of his, which I figure should make anybody feel uncomfortable.

“Oh, like suddenly Cody’s your best friend,” she says.

“No, I wouldn’t say we’re close at all. But Wendy is.”

“Who’s Wendy?”