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has been up to her tricks again?' he asked over his shoulder.
    Matthew scowled blackly. 'It was nowt so much the prank as her gettin' me so flustered I sat next to Miryum at nightmeal. That girl has as much grace an' wit as a lump of stone.'
    'Yet she is guilden,' Dameon said with faint reproach.
    Matthew looked put out. 'She has Talent, I grant ye. But all she ever thinks about is the latest way to make people do things they dinna want to do. I dinna see how ye can bide her,' he added, belatedly remembering Dameon spent a lot of time with the coercers in his work with Rushton.
    The sound of cutlery clinking and laughter flowed down the hall from the kitchen to meet us. There had long been vague plans to open up another room as a proper dining area, but somehow the alcoves adjoining the kitchen remained the main eating area.
    Guilds had got into the habit of sitting together for meals, but most of the masters sat at the head table with Rushton. He seemed to think of meals as another kind of strategy meeting.
    Dameon saw me seated then went to join his guild members. The empath spent most of his time working with Rushton and he had long ago offered to forgo his place as master of the Empath Guild, to make way for Miky and Angina, who managed it in his name. The twins had refused emphatically. No other guild had quite the same love for their master as the empaths. They made little official demand on his time, but at social occasions they were possessive.
    I was seated beside Rushton. Domick was on the other side of him and they were both absorbed in something being said by Gevan, master of the Coercer Guild. Rushton's soup was untouched.
    I sighed and wondered if he ever noticed anything he ate, or enjoyed a conversation just because it was fun.
    I noticed Louis Larkin standing just inside the kitchen courtyard door peering about short-sightedly. He hated coming to the house, preferring to eat in the farm kitchen. I wondered what had been important enough to bring him to the main house.
    I sent a probe to Matthew, telling him to find out what Louis wanted. 'He says he must talk with you,' Matthew sent after a moment. 'Will not tell me. Can't crack grouchybugger's shield.'
    I sighed. Louis was just as hard to get along with as he had always been. His hair stuck out like coils of wire on each side of his head, but was sparse on top. His cheeks and nose were red with cold but he insisted I come outside before he would talk. Matthew came too, closing the door behind him. It was growing colder and my breath came out in little puffs of cloud.
    'Hmph,' Louis grumped. 'I'm surprised ye've th' time to spare for a beastspeaker.' Louis regarded my decision to lead the Farseekers rather than the Beasting Guild as the worst sort of traitorous defection.
    'What is it, Louis?' I asked resignedly. There were times when he reminded me of Maruman at his most difficult.
    'No need to snap my head off,' Louis said smugly. 'T'were a bit of gossip I heard, I thought might interest ye.'
    Louis was a remarkable source of odd bits of information. He hardly ever left Obernewtyn, but he always seemed to know what was going on in the Highlands. And he knew everything that went on at Obernewtyn.
    'I heard ye were wonderin' if th' Druid had left th' high country,' Louis said, looking over his shoulder as if he thought someone might be listening. I was never sure how much of his eccentric behaviour was affected and how much genuine.
    'Have you heard anything?' I asked.
    He nodded smugly. 'Th' word is that th' Druid has nowt left th' high country. No one has seen a sign of his people in many a long day, but now an' then, there are disappearances.'
    'That could be our fault,' Matthew said. 'Them missin' could be Misfits we rescue, despite th' trouble we gan to make them seem natural.'
    'Ye'd be right of course! It could nowt be that th' Druid is doin' his own recruitin'. 'Tis nowt possible the disappearances are the reason th' Council takes an interest in th'