Denoriel had been whirled round and round by the playful nymphs and fauns. At first he laughed and let them have their way with him, but then, when he realized that he was being separated from Elizabeth, he began to push them away. The fauns pushed back, butting him with their blunt-horned heads; the nymphs draped themselves around him, hanging on his neck, kissing him all over his face. Denoriel strained upward, looking wildly around for Elizabeth's red hair. A nymph slid down his body and embraced his knees. A faun slammed into him from behind. Denoriel fell forward and a dozen frolicsome creatures piled on top of him, laughing and singing snatches of song.
Heaving and rolling, Denoriel struggled to get rid of his playful tormentors, but he was not having much success until the laughter changed to little shrieks of fear and they all leapt off him and began to rush away. Denoriel climbed to his feet and bellowed for Elizabeth.
She was nowhere to be seen.
And in the next moment, Harry, Mechain, and Elidir rushed toward him shouting that they had lost sight of her when the fauns and nymphs had raced into the area. He felt his throat close with fear.
First they spread out to look for her, afraid she too had been knocked down and hurt. The search did not take long because all except Harry could sense Elizabeth's aura—which was strong for a mortal. She was nowhere near. Harry sprinted off to ask the performers if they had seen anything. The magician, who spent a lot more time looking out at his audience than performers like tumblers, remembered the red-haired mortal who had enjoyed his display and left a coin in his box.
"She was caught up in the riot of nymphs and fauns." He shook his head. "Curse whoever gave them those sweets; they have cost me half my performance time."
"The girl," Harry urged. "What happened to the girl?"
"Oh, yes. The redhead. She went off arm in arm with two males—maybe mortals. They were not tall enough to be Sidhe."
"Where did she go, in God's name?" Harry took a gold coin from his purse and held it up. "I will pay you well to tell me where she went."
The magician grimaced. "Down one of the aisles—sorry I can't say which one. Believe me, I would if I could."
"Which side? You should be able to guess that. Farthest from you or nearest?"
"This side, I think." He gestured. Harry threw the coin and he caught it. "But I must tell you the truth; I was not really watching her. I was watching the goblins chasing the fauns. I cannot be sure where the girl went."
It was something. There were only three aisles on the side to which the magician gestured. They could discount the one that opened almost behind him; he would have remembered that. Only two to examine. Elidir and Mechain down one; he and Denno down another.
"Oh, I will get her back." Harry heard Denoriel say as he reached them. Denoriel's face was utterly colorless, his eyes blind with guilt and horror. "I will go at once to King Oberon. He will order that Elizabeth be brought to him or he will send out a Thought seeking her—"
"No!" Harry, Elidir, and Mechain cried in chorus. "Even Mother Dannae could not guess what Oberon would do to you."
"What does that matter?" Denoriel said harshly. "I have failed in my trust. Elizabeth is lost!"
"No, she's not!" Harry cried, catching at his arm. "Denno, don't be a fool. I almost know where she was taken."
"What?" The green eyes cleared.
"It has to be down one of those two aisles. The magician saw it. He said she went off arm in arm with two males, not tall enough to be Sidhe. I suppose they were holding her by the arms. She wouldn't have gone off arm in arm with strangers."
"Seized in the rout. Oh, those accursed, brainless—"
"Someone gave them sweets," Mechain said, darkly.
"Then it was all planned." Denno hesitated, then shook his head. "Why waste the time? We don't know how far down any aisle they took her. We don't know whether they turned off. No, I'd better go to Oberon at once."
"Why?" Elidir asked, laying a hand on Denoriel's arm. "No one will hurt her. Oh, in days or weeks, if she has been taken by the Unseleighe, they will try—"
"The Unseleighe want her dead!" Denoriel cried, suddenly beginning to shake.
Mechain patted his shoulder. "If the purpose was to kill her, it is already too late to go to Oberon. They only needed to take her outside the market, which they must have reached already, and do it. But then why go to the trouble of such an elaborate scheme? It would have been easy enough to wait in the place where transport is kept and shoot her with elfshot when we left the market."
Denoriel was as white as snow. "If she is dead—"
"Not dead."
All three spun around toward the harsh voice. Behind them was a goblin, a goblin clutching a very satisfied-looking kitten that was licking a paw and applying that to its whiskers.
"Not hurt," the goblin continued. "Not intended and not by those who took her. She is a valuable prize. They went out by the Orbis Gate."
"Where?" Harry cried, emptying his purse so he could hold out a handful of gold. "Where did they go?"
But the goblin did not reach for the gold. He raised a peculiar-looking rod. Denoriel shouted and threw himself physically in front of Harry. There was a faint buzz, a faint blue light . . . and the goblin was gone.
Denoriel spun around and grasped Harry to him. "Are you all right? Did that set off your wound?"
Harry hugged Denoriel and shook his head. "You've got to stop trying to protect me," he muttered, rubbing his face against Denoriel's neck. "I'm fine. I don't think that was a weapon."
"No, indeed," Mechain said. "It was something like a Gate, a portable Gate. It took him somewhere. And that's what happened to all the things in his booth. I saw him wave his hand over the counter while we were all looking at the mirror, and then he and everything else was gone."
"Hmmm," Elidir remarked, frowning. "I thought that all movement inside the market was supposed to be on one's own. I will have to speak to the management—after we have recovered Elizabeth. The Orbis Gate."
"I do not remember an Orbis Gate when I was coming to the market," Mechain said.
"Nor I," Elidir agreed.
"Doesn't matter," Harry said, impatiently. "It has to be down one of those aisles. You go down the left one. Feel for Elizabeth and ask as you go along if anyone saw a red-haired girl escorted by two men, and ask for the Orbis Gate."
Accustomed to acting on Harry's ideas, the two Sidhe started for the aisle to the left. Harry turned to Denoriel who was still white-faced, and put his arm around his friend's shoulders.
"Come on," he said. "If we find the Orbis Gate, you can read the termini. If we have to we can go to each one in turn, but maybe you'll even be able to feel which one has been most recently used."
"But if she is taken—"
"What if she is?" Harry said, his lips pulling back from his teeth in what was not a smile. "Once we know where, we can get up a nice little hunting party. All the Sidhe in my hunt would be thrilled to be asked along. And we might not even get into trouble for hunting in an Unseleighe domain. Likely we'll even be able to get permission from Oberon to retrieve Elizabeth."
Denoriel blinked and nodded and he smiled, too—but his teeth suddenly looked very long and very sharp. "Hunting. Yes. We will go hunting."
Suddenly Harry chuckled. "And we won't even need to tell Oberon. We can ask Titania's permission."
Denoriel took a deep breath and struck Harry lightly on the shoulder. "You are getting too full of mischief, my lord. If you plunge Underhill into a new conflict between our rulers you are not likely to be thanked." He sighed. "Better to go hunting in Unseleighe territory without any permission. Very well. Let us see what we can find."
They struck—if not quite gold—silver almost immediately. Only a few yards down the aisle, a tall Sidhe just coming out of a shop nodded when they asked about the red-haired girl with two men.
"Yes. I did see them although only for a moment. I was inside the shop and could not get out in time, but I thought that the girl-child was being taken unwilling." The Sidhe looked faintly troubled. "Of course she was mortal, and the men pulling her along were mortal. I did wonder from whom she had tried to escape. A Seleighe Sidhe I am sure, since she was unhurt and spirited." He shrugged. "I thought I might try to discover whose slave she was and offer a price for her since she seemed unwilling to stay with her present master."
Harry flushed slightly. "She was not a slave at all but given special permission to visit Underhill by Queen Titania. She was reft unwilling from our company."
"So?" The Sidhe sucked on his lower lip. "I am sorry I have no more to tell. It was but a passing thought and I was not interested enough to follow."
"I thank you nonetheless," Denoriel put in. "We know we are on the right track now. Did you come by the Orbis Gate?"
"No. I never heard of that, but I suppose it is one of the Gates within the market. My elvensteed awaits me at the main Gate."
"Again our thanks," Harry said, and bowed.
The Sidhe inclined his head and continued on his way. They went on down the aisle asking on both sides. Twice more they got nods of recognition, but both beings—another Sidhe and a being with a scaled head, a ruff of feathers around its neck, and folded wings—claimed that the red-haired girl was now being carried.
"She began to fight them, I suppose," Denoriel said, his voice catching. "Pray Dannae that they do not hurt her."
Harry looked white to the lips, but he shook his head. "They won't. Mortals down here are under some Sidhe's orders and that Sidhe went to a lot of trouble to snatch Elizabeth. Whoever has her wouldn't dare hurt her."
But they could not meet each other's eyes. Both now believed they knew which of the Sidhe would think it worth so much expense and trouble to abduct Elizabeth. To everyone but Vidal Dhu Elizabeth was no more than a red-haired mortal child, a child too old to be of interest to Titania and too young to be of interest to Oberon—not worth snatching. And only Denoriel's half-sister and brother could recognize her or give a description of her to abductors.
They went on down the aisle, asking . . . and now no one had seen the man carrying Elizabeth or Elizabeth being towed along between two men.
"Did the Sidhe meet them and spell them invisible?" Harry asked in a shaking voice.
"That isn't possible," Denoriel replied. "Remember, NO SPELLS." His hands were still shaking, but his eyes were intent. "Wait. They must have turned off. That thing that looked like a walking stick waved to the side when I asked about the Orbis Gate. 'Not in the aisle' he said."
They turned to retrace their steps, still pausing to ask anyone they saw and entering shops to ask the shopkeepers about Elizabeth and the Orbis Gate. At first they got no useful answers at all. None of the shopkeepers had seen a struggling red-haired child and none knew of the Orbis Gate. Denoriel stopped Harry, who was about to cross the road, and shook his head.
"We are only wasting time, Harry. Let me go to seek Oberon."
"Not yet." Harry clutched Denoriel's arm. "See, there are only five shops before we come to the place where that feathered being saw Elizabeth. If we can get no answers when we reach that place . . . I will give up."
Denoriel did not believe the young man for a moment. He was sure Harry would find some new excuse to keep him when they came to the last shop, but he said nothing. He put his arm around Harry's shoulder and they went into another shop. But this time when they asked for the Orbis Gate, the shopkeeper looked disgusted.
"It's right down the alleyway," he said. "But there's no sense in your going there. You'll never find it because it's closed. Been closed as long as I can remember. Most beings hereabout don't even know it exists anymore."
Elizabeth was running so fast that she had no hope of stopping. She was sure the lane had been clear just a moment before, so the wall was surely the doing of the men behind her. All she could do was throw up her arms. Between one stride and the next she felt a strong pulse of magic. "No Spells?" But the men were still behind her. Gate! It must be a Gate.
Escape. All the Gates she had been through took her to places of open land where there was no place to hide. Her captors—she had felt a pressure on her shoulder, but if it was one of her abductors, his hand had slipped off her shield—would catch her within steps. No. There was a place to hide. The mists of the Unformed land would hide her. Elizabeth plunged into the black wall, her mind fixed on the swirling mists.
Blackness. Falling. But she wasn't falling, she was running.
"Catch her. Quick."
"How?"
"She'll get lost in the mist!"
"Where the hell are we?
"Not where we're supposed to be. That's sure."
Elizabeth had stopped as soon as she could no longer see the men. She was not far away from them, she knew, because she could hear their voices clearly, but the mists were hiding her completely. They seemed to be even thicker and more restless than when she and Denno and Da had been there earlier with Elidir and Mechain.
Free and in a place she knew, Elizabeth's fear diminished, but she was beginning to feel a little weak and dizzy. Because she had been so afraid, she wondered? And then she remembered the warnings Tangwystl had given her about using the shields for too long. The power had to come from her and it was draining her. She would have to dismiss the shield.
"Do you think the amulet didn't work right?"
The voice was closer. Elizabeth jumped.
"It opened the Gate, like the damned Sidhe said it would. It must be working. And it's glowing, see? Maybe this was only a stop on the way and if we get back in the Gate it will take us where we're supposed to go."
"Then we've got to find the girl. Do you want to tell that Sidhe we lost her?"
Elizabeth stepped away cautiously, deeper into the mist. She could feel the Gate behind her and she knew she had to get back to the Fair to find her friends. They would all be frantic, thinking her stolen away. But she didn't dare try to get past her abductors and get up on the Gate while the men were so close and could grab her. She would have to lead them deeper into the mist.
If it were only a little thinner they could get a glimpse of her.
"There she is!" one bellowed and plunged toward her.
Elizabeth ran away as fast as she could, thinking, Hide me. Hide me. And the mists closed in again. She stopped running and drew a deep breath. That had been very convenient, almost as if the mist obeyed her. Well, it had obeyed Mechain and Elidir. And it had let her make a kitten . . . The man's voice broke her thought.
"Gone again—oh God, where's the Gate?"
"It's okay. I'm still near it. Just come to my voice."
Elizabeth bit her lip. That had not worked out well. Now the men knew they could be lost in the mist and one of them would stay near the Gate even if she could draw the other away. She could wait, but not forever. Da and Denno must be half out of their wits. And poor Elidir and Mechain would feel so guilty. They would blame themselves for her being taken when they had only meant well by her, wanting to clear her mind so she would learn the spells right.
Spells. What a fool she had been. She could have used tanglefoot . . . no, she could not. Spells were forbidden in the markets although shields weren't, it seemed. And anyway, while the men held her, having them fall down wouldn't have helped much.
Only they weren't holding her now. And she wasn't in the market. Could she use gwthio or cilgwthio to push them away from the Gate?
Elizabeth bit her lip again. She didn't know how strong a push she could give, and tanglefoot wouldn't work very well unless they were running. If she thinned the mist so they would run after her . . . No, that was too dangerous. She needed them to run away from her. If only she could change herself to look like a monster . . .
Ah! Perhaps she could make a monster. Elizabeth drew in a deep breath. She was very angry and frightened and there was a hot feeling inside her. She had made a kitten. Why not a . . . a lion. She knew what a lion looked like; there was one in the Royal Menagerie in the Tower. Yes. If the mist would be so good? She looked around at it, thinking how kind a mist it was and how beautiful. Would it be kind to her, and protect her from these horrible men? It had already hidden her from them. Would it let her make a lion out of it?
The mist swirled around in shining coils. Elizabeth's eyes were as bright as the sun as she built an image of a fierce and terrible lion in her mind.
"It's thicker 'n ever out there. What're we goin' to do?"
"Don't worry. She's only a mite of a brat. She'll get scared about being lost pretty soon and start bawling for help. Hey, feels like there's grass here. We can sit down."
Lion, Elizabeth thought, feeling even hotter. She didn't like being called a brat who would bawl for help. Then shame built even more heat in her. She had been bawling for help from Denno and Da—but that was different, like calling one's guardsmen. She was supposed to get help from Denno and Da.
But she was still angry and thought more intensely—lion.
Somewhere there was a faint roar. Elizabeth's eyes shone still brighter.
Thank you, mist.
Lion.
The roar came closer. Hastily Elizabeth said the spells for gwthio and cilgwthio and then cast the shield spell. She felt a little weak-kneed again, but wasn't sure whether it was the draining of her power or just that she was frightened.
She shrieked and spun around when the next roar sounded almost in her ears. And the mist parted. And it was there! Huge, with the thick mane she had imagined, round yellow eyes and teeth . . .
At the same moment, both men yelled, "There she is!" and started forward. Elizabeth leapt sideways, away from the lion and the lion himself leapt forward, ignoring her, his terrible eyes fixed on the men.
Both men screamed. Both turned to run.
The lion was on them in a moment, enormous paws swatting at them. One man went down shrieking. Elizabeth did not wait to see what happened after that.
She ran blindly toward the feeling of "no mist" that meant Gate to her. The second man was also running toward the Gate.
"Minnau ymbil gwthio," Elizabeth screamed.
Pushed violently, the man fell backward, screeching. The lion sprang from its first victim toward its second. Elizabeth thought, Goblin Fair, but the picture that formed in her mind was Denno and Da. The place where the Gate had been began to darken, but there was no wall of black, no sense of falling. And the lion looked up from what it was crouching on. Elizabeth could see its haunches tighten and rise.
Maybe the mist was kind to her, but the lion was no longer part of it.
"Denno!" she cried. "Da!"
Harry and Denoriel were making their way slowly along the alley. There was no sign of a Gate. They reached the alley's end and Denoriel shook his head, his mouth in a hard, thin line.
"I'll go to Oberon now. That shopkeeper said the Gate was closed and lost. I couldn't feel a thing."
"Denno," Harry cried, "they went into the alley. They didn't come out. The Gate must have worked for them."
"Pasgen has a way with Gates. He may have done a one-time activation—"
"If he did it, you can too," Harry insisted.
Denoriel shook his head, frantic now. "It would take me too long, not even knowing where the Gate is. Get Elidir and Mechain. Maybe they can find it. I can't wait any longer, Harry. I don't know what's happening to her." He bent forward and kissed Harry on the forehead. "You'll be all right. You have Mwynwen and your work. I . . . I can't bear it. I had rather be ended . . ."
"Denno, wait!" Harry grasped his friend's arm. "At least let us search backward as far as the aisle." He put his arms around the Sidhe's neck as he used to do when he was a little boy. "Please, Denno. I love Mwynwen but . . . Don't leave me all alone."
Denoriel drew a shaking, agonized breath. He could not. Not even for Harry could he leave Elizabeth in the hands of the Unseleighe. They would try to break her by torture. But not immediately. Not in the next few hours. He had time enough to walk back to the aisle they had come from. Elizabeth, he thought, Elizabeth, imaging her look and even more the bright, indomitable spirit, feeling for her more than for a Gate.
A black tunnel opened showing silvery mists at the other end, an untidy heap on the ground streaked with bright red . . . and Elizabeth popped out shrieking, "Close the Gate! Close the Gate! There's a lion . . ."
Harry caught Elizabeth in his arms and dragged her back. Denoriel felt for the power of the Gate. A lion's head came halfway through. Elizabeth shouted, "Minnau ymbil gwthio." The lion's head disappeared and showed tiny, infinitely far away, above the heap that had once been a man.
"Lileu dyddymu!"
Elidir's voice came from beyond the black tunnel and Mechain added, "Difelio! Dyna ben!"
The Gate collapsed and disappeared.
Denoriel braced himself on the wall feeling about to collapse himself. "Thank you," he whispered, voice shaking. "I hadn't the vaguest idea of how to close it."
Mechain laughed shakily. "Oh, we're experts on closing things and shutting things down." Then she smiled like a sun rising. "I see you got her back. Are you all right, Elizabeth?"
"She got herself back," Denoriel said, blinking back tears. "I couldn't even find the Orbis Gate. We'd walked all the way up the alley, and there wasn't a hint of power." He took Elizabeth from Harry's arms and hugged her, tears running down his face. "Sweetling, are you all right? Were you hurt in any way?"
"Not by those stupid men, but the lion almost caught me," Elizabeth told him in a voice that trembled with the aftermath of fear and exhaustion.
"What lion? Where did they take you?" Harry asked, staring at her in consternation.
Elizabeth blinked and sagged a little in Denoriel's embrace. "Can we go sit down somewhere?" she asked. "I feel as if I had run from Hampton Court to London."
Denoriel immediately swept her up into his arms. They all hurried out of the alley and down the aisle. In the open area was an eating place. Mechain went to look inside and came out to gesture them in. Elizabeth lifted her head from Denoriel's shoulder and breathed a sigh of relief. The single large room was very much like any inn in the World Above, even to the smell of spilled ale and wine and the tired bar woman going about and wiping the tables with a none-too-clean rag.
At least the place was reasonably light. Glowing mage lights hung in cages from the ceiling. That was not all a benefit, Elizabeth thought. The clear light showed a most unusual clientele. As Denoriel wound around occupied tables Elizabeth counted four lizards, all with different-colored scales, one with a Sidhe face and another with long, curling hair. A badger (man-sized), a man with a fox head, and a girl with the boneless arms of a snake and scaled skin sat together talking pleasantly. Elizabeth only pressed closer to Denoriel when she saw a table full of humans. Here Underhill the strangest creatures were not at all terrifying; it was humans who were dangerous.
A deep growling voice drew her attention, and she winced when she saw the maned head of a lion lifted toward her. Her grip on Denoriel's neck tightened, and then she saw that the lion's mane was braided with jewels and it had human hands instead of clawed paws. It called out, "Do you want to be free of that Sidhe, pretty child?"
"No," Elizabeth replied, but smiling. "He is my Denno. He cares for me."
The lion may have said something more, but they were past him and Harry was standing by a table near the wall. Denoriel set Elizabeth down on the most sheltered bench. Harry knelt down by her side and kissed her hands. Elidir and Mechain also came and kissed her. Denoriel stood behind her with a hand on her shoulder as if he wished to be able to grab her if someone threatened to pull her away.
In a few moments plates were on the table. A basket of warm bread, a bowl of mixed roasted vegetables, and a huge platter of steaming meat stood ready to slake appetite.
"My," Elizabeth said, somewhat indistinctly because of a large mouthful of food, "I wouldn't have believed I would be so hungry after eating that great big drumstick, but I'm starving."
"Been doing a lot of magic, love?" Mechain asked with a smile. "That would account for it."
"Can you tell us what happened, dearling?" Denoriel asked as he sat down beside her, then hastened to add, "Not if speaking of it makes you frightened or uncomfortable."
"No, why should it?" Elizabeth said, smiling brilliantly. "I know one is not supposed to boast of one's own deeds or cleverness, but . . . by the Grace of God, I was both brave and clever."
"And you saved yourself while we were running about like ninnies," Harry said with a broad grin. "Boast all you like, Bessie, you deserve it."
"So where did they take you?" Denoriel urged, thinking he would visit that domain and make it clear that the pursuit of little girls by lions was not an acceptable amusement in his opinion.
But Elizabeth dumbfounded him by saying, "I don't think they took me. I think I took them. I wanted to go to the Unformed land, and that's where the Gate took us. And one of the men asked the other where they hell they were, so I must guess they didn't know."
Mechain muttered that Gates did not respond to mortals, and Elidir shrugged and said Elizabeth was Talented and had a deep reserve of power. Perhaps it was that to which the Gate responded.
Elizabeth paid no attention to them, going on to tell the whole story, beginning with the two men pulling her out of the small riot of fauns, nymphs, and goblins, remembering her shield, and being pushed into the Gate ahead of them, thinking of the roiling mists of the Unformed land and ending with her decision to create something that could frighten them away from the Gate.
"But I forgot . . . well, I didn't forget; I didn't know how to arrange that the lion shouldn't attack me. And it did come after me because I didn't know how to open the Gate, but Denno and Da must have done it from the other side." She turned to look at Elidir and Mechain. "And the mist was just wonderful. It was so friendly and helpful. When I needed to be hidden, it got thick as thick, and when I wanted it to show me, I just thought it would be nice if it got a little thinner."
"The mist . . . you felt the mist to be friendly and . . . er . . . helpful?" Elidir had lifted a bite of meat on his knife but he just let it sit there.
"Yes. When I was first running away I needed to hide so badly, and the mist got thicker and coiled around and it glistened. I thought how beautiful it was and how kind, and I thanked it. And then later when I realized I would have to draw the men away from the Gate to use it myself and the best way to do that was for them to catch a glimpse of me . . . the mist got thinner."
"And you thanked it again?" Mechain said.
"Yes, and I asked it if I could make the lion . . . and it let me. At least, I soon heard a lion roar and the mist got thinner and the lion popped out."
Harry laid his head on her lap and sighed, "Bessie. Bessie. That was very dangerous."
"Don't ever do that again, Elizabeth," Denno said.
"I had to do something!" Elizabeth snapped. "I didn't think it would be a good idea to let those men take me where they intended to take me."
Denoriel took a deep, sighing breath, leaned over and kissed her hair. "You are perfectly right, dearling. And you did right, and I was wrong. You did what you had to do, and you did it well. We must simply teach you more than we had thought we must."
Elizabeth turned her head to look at him. "You're going to take me back to Llachar Lle, aren't you?"
"You must be exhausted, Bess," Harry said, finally standing up.
"Oh, no," Elizabeth replied, feeling specially cheerful in the wake of hearing Denno actually agreeing that she had been in the right to use magic the way she had. "It is true that I felt dizzy when I got out of the Gate, but now that I've eaten I feel fine."
Elidir started to laugh. "Ah, the joys of youth. You may be completely refreshed by a meal and a short rest, Lady Elizabeth, but the rest of us, I dare say, are badly shaken by nearly losing you."
"You may say it for me," Harry sighed.
"And for me," Denoriel said. "I know the Sidhe do not sleep, but that is just what I wish to do, lie down in a bed and become unconscious."
"And there is still the last spell to teach you, my lady," Mechain pointed out. "I think we have seen quite enough of the Goblin Fair. Now we are all ready to return to Llachar Lle."
Sighing, Elizabeth allowed herself to be convinced. At any time she loved learning new things, and after the demonstration of how useful the spells she learned could be, she was soon reconciled to returning to Denoriel's apartment. She could come back, she thought, and Da and Denno would take her to see the other great markets. Her hand went down to touch the outline of the mirror in her purse. She would not even mind going back to St. James's Palace. There were a few faces she wanted to watch in the new mirror.
Elizabeth did not intend to include Blanche's among those faces, but because she was wearing only her nightdress, she had the mirror in her hand when Denoriel returned her to St. James's Palace. The maid, who looked tired and drawn after a night of watching and worrying, took Elizabeth in her arms and got bruised by the mirror.
"What's this?" she cried, taking it from Elizabeth's hand. "What a beautiful mirror." She peered into it. "And so clear and bright."
"You like the image?" Elizabeth asked, not turning her head to look at it herself.
Blanche laughed. "Well, I think I look younger and rather worried. But I was worried, Lady Elizabeth. I always worry when you go . . . ah . . . away with Lord Denno."
Elizabeth's mouth opened, but the only thing she could get out was an assurance that Denno took good care of her. And when she took the mirror from Blanche's hand, she dared to look and again saw only the face she knew and loved, a face darkened only by worry. She restrained a shiver. What would she have done if Blanche's face were changed?
The mirror might be a good thing, but for now it was better not to use it. It had shown her only what she knew about those she loved. As for strangers—what if she did see something she did not understand in someone's face? She might make a dreadful mistake. But she would need it, she thought. Someday she would need it.
For now Elizabeth put the mirror away at bottom of the little chest in which she kept her few jewels. Then she dressed, ate a hearty breakfast, and sat down to make a fair copy of a passage she had translated into Italian. It felt very odd to be completing work that the calendar said she had done the night before and her memory told her, according to the number of times she had eaten and slept in Denoriel's rooms, was three days past.
However, by the time she completed the copy and checked it against the original she was feeling much more settled. And when Master William Grindal arrived and began to explain the history lesson they had begun the previous morning—in his reckoning of time—Elizabeth listened to him with only a fleeting thought of tanglefoot, stickfoot, and gwthio-cilgwthio.
Since the history lesson soon branched out into her tutor's explanation of the balance of power among Spain, France, and England and therefore why it was necessary to make war on France, all thought of Underhill faded from Elizabeth's mind. She gave her tutor her full attention.
There she could ask a mist to make a lion to destroy her enemies; here it was not so easy. Even a man so powerful as her father needed to plan most carefully and negotiate most skillfully to accomplish a purpose. And this was her world; this was where she must live. The dangers in it were not so obvious as lions, but she understood instinctively that they were just as real, and that knowing these things was more important than any magic spell.