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tried to fall upon me as she did.’
    Will examined the blade critically. ‘I didn’t know it was the practice of Sisters to go abroad with their athamen upon them.’
    â€˜Ordinarily, they do not. Take care to keep that one from her, Will. I recognize it for what it is, and I believe that unless you keep it away from her she will try to kill herself with it when she wakes.’

CHAPTER TWO
LITTLE SLAUGHTER
    G wydion slowly unwound the strands of magic that had afflicted the woman. Will marvelled at the wizard’s calm composure as he laid her down inside the circle and danced the harm from her. He laid charms upon her head, made signs above her body with his staff, and finally he drew a glistening adder from her mouth. He laid it down to vanish into the night.
    Afterwards Will found himself drawn to watch the simmering lights. The corner of his lip tingled, and a lump had started to come up where the witch’s flailing fist had marked him.
    â€˜What are you going to do?’ he asked.
    â€˜Do?’ Gwydion stirred. ‘Perhaps you should decide what’s best.’
    â€˜You’re the wizard.’
    â€˜But it was you who summoned me. ’
    â€˜Yes, well I thought you ought to know about… that. It seemed to me to be Maskull’s doing.’
    â€˜You are right. It is.’
    Will was about to ask the wizard how he could be so sure, but then he remembered how seldom Gwydion was wholly open with the truth, and how closely he shepherdedhis wisdom. Of course a wizard needed to, for he was a guardian and therefore must be adept at manipulation. It was the entire purpose of the Ogdoad to steer fate in order to keep the world going along on the true path, and so many times during the long history of the Realm members of the wizardly council had intervened at crucial moments. Gwydion knew about cause and effect and the motivation of folk, and he had lived for such a time that long consequences were plain to his eyes. Will understood very well that there were some things Gwydion could afford to divulge and others that he must certainly not, but it did not hurt any the less to think that certain of the wizard’s secrets probably concerned his own origins.
    He felt discomfort run through him while the Wise Woman twitched and muttered in dream at their backs and all three waited for the dawn to come. At last, the east grew grey with filtered light.
    â€˜She’ll be worried,’ he said, meaning Willow. ‘I’ll bet she hasn’t slept a wink.’
    Gwydion stared at him for a moment and then broke off the look. ‘Why not wait until the sun is truly up?’ he said. ‘You will find it easier to decide by the full light of day. The spell that cloaks the Vale is of necessity a powerful one. It is unlikely that even you would succeed in finding your way home in this half light.’
    â€˜Decide? About what?’
    â€˜About what you should do.’
    Will sighed. He had heard Gwydion speak this way before, and he wondered where it was leading.
    In the grey of that cold hour before sunrise the dew was penetrating. Thin mists rolled in the valleys that clefted the Tops, and as the stars went out one by one, he went over to the elder tree. He would not approach it too closely for fear that it might swallow him up again. Instead, he kicked his toes at the edge of the hole from which the battlestonehad been taken. It was like the gap from which a rotten tooth had been pulled, but the pain and the stench had almost been washed from the ground.
    â€˜Gwydion, where’s the stump gone?’
    â€˜Stump?’
    â€˜The big piece of battlestone that was left.’
    â€˜I took it away.’
    He inclined his head, surprised. ‘Why would you do that?’
    â€˜I wanted to give it to my friend Cormac.’
    â€˜It’s a strange gift for a friend.’
    â€˜Strange, perhaps, but useful certainly. Cormac is Lord of the Clan MacCarthach. He is