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tonight.”
    “Her mother is forcing her to wear perfume-scented gloves to keep her from chewing on her hands,” Lord Higgleton admitted, “but we have great hopes that she’ll keep her hair out of her mouth on her own.”
    Sarah managed a smile, accepted another round of profuse thanks, then forced herself to wait until Lord Higgleton was out of sight before she pulled on the drawstrings of his purse and peered inside. There was less gold than silver, but when added to what his wife had already given her, it would be enough to see her over the mountains and well on her way to somewhere else. She would have indulged in a well-deserved swoon, but she didn’t have time. Perhaps later, when she was certain she would get out of Doìre without any other visitors. She silently wished Prunella Higgleton a very happy match and turned to her own plans.
    Ned was peeking around the corner. She walked over to him and handed him two silver coins. It was likely more than she should have given him, but he had served her mother for years and stayed on quite happily after her passing. She could do no less.
    “Thank you, Ned,” she said honestly, “for your service to me and my mother.”
    He blinked in surprise. “What do ye mean, mistress?”
    “I’m off on an adventure,” she said, putting on a confident smile.
    “Mage’s business?” he asked, in hushed tones.
    “Of course.” And that was true, especially if that business included being as far away from mages as possible. “I think I must be off on it posthaste. I’m sure your father will be glad to have you back.”
    Ned didn’t look as if he thought so, but he went because she gave him a push to start him in the right direction, then another pair of them to keep him headed that way. He looked over his shoulder, once, then frowned in a baffled sort of way before he turned and shuffled off reluctantly toward home.
    Sarah abandoned any hope of going inside the house for gear or waiting to weave a cloak. She would just make do with what she’d hidden away in the barn. If she hurried, she might manage to be deep in the mountains by sunset. She walked quickly around the house, then winced as she grazed her wrist accidentlly against the wall. She paused and looked down at the wound she’d earned in her brother’s bedchamber by touching that scorched book.
    ... Dedtroy the world ...
    She tried to laugh that off silently, but it suddenly didn’t seem very amusing. He couldn’t be serious.
    Could he?
    An unsettling feeling snuck up on her from behind, a little niggling something that suggested that she pay attention to what he’d said.
    She considered, then shook her head. Daniel was seven kinds of fool and would destroy himself long before he managed to destroy anything else. She put her shoulders back, took a firmer grip on her rampaging imagination, and turned to the task at hand.
    She walked swiftly into the trees, found a particular one, then turned and looked down at the ground as she counted the paces to the first of her hidden caches of gold.
    Only to realize that no counting had been necessary.
    She came to an abrupt halt and gaped at the hole at her feet. It had been neatly dug, she could say that much. Neatly and thoroughly and obviously quite carefully, for there was a pile of nettles laid tidily to one side. She dropped to her knees and reached down into the hole on the off chance that her eyes were deceiving her.
    It was empty.
    She would have said it was impossible, but she could see the pilfering of her funds was all too possible. She pushed herself up to her feet, then strode off to see if her next hiding spot had suffered the same fate. She looked, but she could hardly believe her eyes.
    Obviously, the mushrooms hadn’t been deterrent to whomever had stolen her future.
    A quick, furious search proved that every last bloody one of her stashes of gold had been discovered and plundered. Magic had obviously been brought to bear in a foul way.
    She would have