Lark and Wren

invitation, and of reasonable duration.' She lifted an eyebrow at Talaysen, and he shrugged. 'Peregrine said that the messenger's word was good, and he's been dealing with elves for longer than we have. I'd be inclined to trust his judgment.'

'All right,' she replied, still dubious, but willing to take his word for it. 'So what else have you been doing, besides collecting bits of jewelry that are likely to get us condemned by the Church as elf-loving heretics?'

He chuckled, and put his arms around her, drawing her close to him so that her back nestled against his chest and they could both watch the dancing. 'Nothing much, really. Just learning things that would get us condemned by the Church as renegade mages.'

She restrained herself from jumping to her feet with a startled exclamation. 'I hope you're going to explain that,' she said carefully. 'Since I assume it has something to do with that music we've both been playing with.'

'Peregrine is a mage. It seems that we are, too. He told me that he'd identified the fact that we've 'come into our power' by something he saw when we showed up at camp. Then he gave me a very quick course in the Bardic use of magic, most of which I haven't sorted out yet.' He sighed and his breath stirred her hair. 'It's all in my head, though. I expect we'll get it figured out a bit at a time.'

'I think I'm relieved,' she replied, after a moment to ponder it all and turn the implications over in her mind. 'I don't think it's a good idea to go wandering all over the countryside, playing about with magic without even knowing the first thing about it.'

'That's almost exactly what Peregrine said, word for word,' Talaysen chuckled. 'He gave me quite a little lecture on-'

The bracelet tightened painfully around Rune's wrist, and she gasped. Her first thought was that the elven- made object was trying to cut her hand off-but then, it released the pressure on her wrist just as quickly as it had clamped down.

And Talaysen released her. He sat up quickly, and scanned the area outside the fire.

'There's someone out there, someone using offensive magic,' he said, in a low, urgent voice. 'Peregrine told me that these bracelets, being magic, would react to magic.'

'Offensive magic?' she repeated. 'But what is it? I don't see anything going on-how do we know it's being used against us, or even against the camp?'

He hushed her, absently. 'We don't,' he said unhelpfully. 'But Peregrine will know. We might not be seeing anything because whoever it is may be using something to watch us, or to try and identify someone. Peregrine has all kinds of tricks and traps around this camp-and whoever it is will trip one of them sooner or-'

A cry of anguish from behind them interrupted him, and Rune turned just in time to see a pillar of flame, twice the height of a man, rise up from the shore of the pond.

A moment later she realized that it wasn't a pillar of flame-it was a man, standing bolt upright, transfixed in agony, burning like a pitch-covered torch.

She turned away, her stomach heaving, just in time to hear Peregrine shouting in the Gypsy tongue, of which she only knew a few words.

She couldn't make out what he was saying, but the warning was clear enough. She flattened herself to the ground, instinctively. And just in time, for an arrow sang out of the darkness, buzzing wasp-like past her ear, and thocking into the wood of a wagon just where Jonny had been sitting a moment before. Two more followed it, both obviously aimed at Jonny, before the Gypsies got over their shock and counterattacked.

She had no weapons to hand, and no idea of where the enemy was, so Rune stayed right where she was, as angry Gypsies, men and women both, boiled out of the camp. They headed for the place where the arrows had come from, ignoring the man who was still burning.

He had fallen and was no longer moving; the Gypsies parted about the grisly bonfire as if his presence was inconsequential. They spread out over the area around the pond with torches in one hand and knives at the ready.

But after an agonizingly long time, it still didn't look as if they were finding anything. Rune got slowly to her feet, and made her way over to where Jonny and Gwyna had taken shelter behind a log-seat.

'Are you all right?' she asked Jonny, who nodded, his eyes wide and blank with fear.

'How about you?' she said to Gwyna.

The Gypsy sat up slowly, her mouth set in a grim line. 'I've been better, but I'm not hurt,' she replied. 'What in the name of the Lady was that?'

'I don't know,' Rune told her-as movement caught her eye and she saw Peregrine striding towards her, something shiny clutched in one hand, and a long knife in the other. 'But I have the feeling we're about to find out. And that we won't like it when we do.'

Peregrine sat back against the wooden wall of the wagon, his face impassive. 'This was no accident.'

Rune snorted, and gave Peregrine one of her most effective glares. 'Why heavens, Peregrine, I thought assassins with magic amulets always hung around outside of farm Faires, looking for random targets!'

The Gypsy met her look with one of unruffled calm.

'All right,' Gwyna said irritably. 'We know it wasn't an accident. And I don't think anyone's going to doubt that Jonny was the target. Now why? Who's behind this, and why are they picking on a simple musician, a lad with a stutter, who wasn't even a good thief?'

Talaysen shook his head and sighed. All five of them were huddled inside Peregrine's wagon, one of the largest Rune had ever seen, so big it had to be pulled by a team of four horses. The windows had been blocked with wooden shutters, and the only way at them was through the door at the front, guarded by Peregrine's fierce lurcher-hounds.

And still Rune kept feeling her neck crawl, as if there was someone creeping up behind her.