“Hey,” Jack says. “We told you about it. We just didn’t know there was a connection.”

“And what were you planning to do to these bogans when you found them?” the queen asks.

“What do you think?” Jack tells her. “Somebody comes into our territories and starts hunting cousins, they’ve signed their own death warrants.”

The queen sighs and gives a slow nod.

“Would you let my people go,” she says. “Please. You have my word you won’t be harmed. Stand down,” she adds to her guards.

The bows lower, arrows are removed from their bowstrings. Joe lets Mother Crone go, and she takes a few quick steps away from him before turning to give him a glare. Jack dumps his fairy unceremoniously on the floor. I put the treekin down more carefully, but the female—she’s the woody one—turns and gives me a sharp kick on the shins. It hurts like hell, but I give her a pass on it. This time.

“There’s more,” Mother Crone says.

That gets everybody’s attention.

“Big Dan’s gang has a cousin running with them,” she tells us. “They call him Odawa. He’s old and powerful.”

And all of a sudden, everything becomes very personal for me.

“Tall blind guy?” I ask. “From the salmon clan?”

She nods. “Tall and blind, but I don’t know his clan.”

“You know him?” Joe asks me.

“We go way back, and none of it’s pleasant. Nothing he’d like better than to stick my head on a pole.”

“Why’s he so pissed with you?” Jack asks.

“I pecked out his eyes.”

“That’s a little harsh. What did he do to you?”

I shrug. “Nothing. I thought he was dead at the time. But the point is, if he’d come after me, I’d have had no problem. It was his right.”

“But he didn’t.”

“No. He killed my wife instead. He’ll kill anybody I get close to.”

“You mean lovers?” Even talking about something serious like this, Jack can’t help giving me a wink and adding, “Which would explain why you’re giving that sweet little fiddler the cold shoulder.”

“I mean anybody.”

Jack nods. “Well, thanks for that little late tip. I’ll make a point of watching my back.”

“But this doesn’t explain what he’s doing with the bogans,” I say, “or why he’s kidnapped these two women.”

“Well, Lizzie spoiled their party the other night,” Jack says. “Maybe they were bringing the meat back to him.”

“And Jilly?” Joe asks.

No one had an answer for that, least of all me.

“We will find out,” Tatiana says. She turns to her guards. “Fetch me Big Dan and his followers. And bring a gruagagh with you, in case this Odawa offers any trouble.”

Half the guards hurry off with the queen’s gaze on them before she turns back to us.