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to lay aside fear because your desire to do right outweighs your desire to avoid getting hurt. You said you were frightened of the panther.”
    “Terrified.”
    “Then why didn’t you run away?”
    Frightened though he had been, Aidan never even considered that possibility. “I couldn’t leave Dobro to be eaten by a panther. I couldn’t leave my sheep either.”
    Bayard smiled. “You felt fear. But you didn’t act out of fear; you acted out of courage. Dobro was fearless. You were courageous, which is a much better thing to be.”
    “I was also lucky. I could try a thousand times and not hit such a perfect shot at a charging panther.”
    “You could try ten thousand times and not enjoy such success. But you wrong the Providence that preserves you when you credit luck for your deliverance.
    “You are a skilled slinger, but neither skill nor luck explains what happened today. You succeeded for one simple reason: Long before you, or even I, were born, it was foretold that the Wilderking would slay a panther with a stone. Your act of courage fulfilled a prophecy.”
    For the first time Aidan began seriously to consider the possibility that Bayard was telling the truth. “What if you are correct?” he asked. “What if I am destined to be the Wilderking? How should I live?”
    “The same way you should live if you weren’t the Wilderking. Live the life that unfolds before you. Love goodness more than you fear evil.”
    Good advice, thought Aidan, but he was looking for something more specific. He was a loyal subject of King Darrow. Surely he wasn’t destined to lead a rebellion against his king. He didn’t quite know how to ask the question. “If I am the Wilderking, how do I become the Wilderking?”
    No longer playing the role of wise teacher and adviser, Bayard had resumed the mysterious speech of a prophet.“A traitor is no fit king. Live the life that unfolds before you. Love goodness more than you fear evil.”
    “Yes, of course.” Aidan had more questions, but the old man was waking his goats; Aidan could see that he was preparing to leave. “Bayard, there are so many things I don’t understand. The Wilderking is a wild man. He comes from the swamps and forests, not fields and pastures.”
    “Live the life that unfolds before you.”
    “Am I supposed to leave home and go live in the tanglewood?”
    “Live the life that unfolds before you. You need not force yourself on the ancient prophecies.”
    The sleepy goats were getting to their feet. Bayard led them toward the entrance hall. “Tell your father that I cannot stay for supper. I have many things to tend to.”
    Aidan followed him out the front door. The old man inhaled a deep breath of spring air. “Now is the springtime. Look well to your sowing. The harvest will come in its time.”
    He strode down the steps, trailing his goats behind him. As Aidan watched the white ball of hair and beard bob down the cart path toward the River Road, he knew that his future was bound up with Bayard the Truthspeaker. But he still didn’t know whether the old man was a prophet or a lunatic.

Chapter Six
An Alligator Hunt
    Dobro Turtlebane
River Tam, below Hustingreen
Corenwald

    Dear Dobro—

    I don’t know how often you come to this neighborhood. I don’t even know if you can read. But either way, I hope this letter finds you well.

    Things have been quiet here in the bottom pasture since the day you were here. I’ve just been doing the usual—tending sheep mostly, helping in the fields from time to time.

    I was hoping I’d run into you again. Maybe you’ve headed back to the Feechiefen. Isn’t that where most of the feechiefolk live? Anyway, there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you. Do you know what happened to the panther we killed? Ebbe, the servant, says he didn’t see any panther when he came down here. That doesn’t make any sense to me, but I never found hide nor hair of it either.

    Around here, everybody thinks I made the