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approached, their faces instantly
bright with recognition.
    ‘ Our old friend the magus!’ cried one, and she danced down the
path and put her arms around the old man’s neck, kissing him
lightly on the cheek. Gabel saw a hardwood violin in her left
hand.
    Rowan stepped forward. She managed a hello, realising how ill
she must look beside these two sprightly young women who were
scarcely much older than her, yet so much more full of
life.
    The two girls stepped lightly toward each other. They stood
side by side and bowed elegantly before the party, introducing
themselves as Maeia and Taeia.
    It was with
this bow that Rowan noticed how each woman was the antithesis of
the other; Maeia young and left handed, and Taeia older and right
handed. Both wore the same outfit in design – a heavy frock and
apron, and, Rowan gauged, a tight corset beneath each – but each
was the other’s opposite in colour: where Maeia’s was cream,
Taeia’s was brown, and vice-versa.
    Again they curtsied, grins showing bright teeth. The magus
seemed to beam with pride at the girls, and clapped. ‘And how are
people finding your music? Your skills seem to grow with each
meeting.’
    ‘ You see them around often?’ Gabel asked.
    ‘ We travel,’ Maeia informed them. Then she asked the magus,
‘Who’s this?’
    ‘ Joseph Gabel, a factotum I hired.’
    Rowan noticed the unguarded look that Maeia shot Gabel. It
was a look of barely concealed disgust: a
factotum! How revolting .
    Meanwhile, Taeia was saying, ‘We go from town to town to
share our talent!’
    ‘ Just this summer we played in Asunción,’ Taeia announced
excitedly. ‘For an inn in the city centre.’
    ‘ And it went down well,’ Maeia rebounded. ‘I believe they loved
us.’
    ‘ I believe they loved us!’ Taeia grinned back.
    Gabel touched Rowan on the shoulder as the magus moved to
talk to them quietly for a moment. ‘Are you well?’
    ‘ I’m fine,’ she said, and smiled. She looked exhausted from the
unexpected excitement.
    The magus approached them. ‘The girls are heading our way
toward Pirene. Perhaps they could travel with us for a
while.’
    ‘ I’d like that, Joseph,’ said Rowan.
    ‘ You don’t need my permission,’ he growled. They set off once
more, as the afternoon heat began to mount underneath the
leaves.
    The two girls chattered like chipmunks, but to Gabel their
voices were melodic. He found their energy astonishing in such a
dark and dangerous place and, though their presence made the others
feel too much at ease, he had no struggle in keeping himself
alert.
    Twice that
afternoon he urged them into silence as light footsteps were heard
behind them, then later beside them, across the river. An hour
before dusk he heard rustling in the branches of the trees on the
opposite bank, and in the overhanging boughs that reached over the
water like bridges. After he stopped for the third time the noises
disappeared.
    ‘ Is it anything, factotum?’ Maeia asked.
    Gabel ignored her and turned to the magus. ‘We should find
somewhere to camp for the night. If we set off early tomorrow we
may reach Pirene by late the next day.’
    ‘ The next day?’ asked Taeia with surprise. ‘Mister Gabel, we
must be closer than you think; we’re but an hour away.’
    ‘ An hour?’ said the old magus, who glanced briefly at the
hunter.
    ‘ Let’s hurry, then,’ said Gabel. He scowled and shucked his
satchel higher onto his shoulder, then pushed on through the
forest.
    Rowan felt
herself frown as well. Just for a divided second she thought she
had seen the hunter’s eyes flash, as if someone inside him had
flicked a switch and made red light bulbs blink behind his darkened
face.
    *
     

 
    Three
     
    ISAAC
CAPTURED
     
     
    A cloud of bats screamed and weaved their way through the
sun-bleached canopy. Their screeches, though out of the running
man’s range of hearing, gave him a headache. Though the day was not
yet over, light streaming between the boughs and