I stood. “No one needs to go with me,” I said, “but after all we’ve been through, I won’t stop you if you decide to come.”
“Right beside you,” Eye said.
“I’ll go,” Eris said.
Jaya merely nodded.
“Not you, Radar,” I said. “Stay with Claudia.”
Her ears drooped. Her tail stopped wagging. There was no mistaking the hope and pleading in those eyes.
“No,” I said. “One trip to the Lily is all you get.”
“Woman’s getting ahead of us, Charlie,” Eye said. “And the main gate is close. If we’re going to catch up with her—”
“Walk, but slowly. We’ve got plenty of time. She won’t try entering until daylight. She wants to see with her own eyes that the Flight Killer isn’t her brother, and I imagine she’d like to save Elden if he still lives, but she’s not stupid. We’ll catch up to her before she goes in and I’ll persuade her to join us.”
“How will you do that?” Eris asked.
“By any means necessary.” No one said anything to that. “Elden may be at the Dark Well already, waiting for the moons to kiss. We have to get there and stop him before it happens.”
“By any means necessary,” Eris said, low.
“What if Leah don’t know the way?” Iota asked.
“Then,” I said, “we’re hung.”
“My prince,” Jaya said. “Charlie, I mean.” She turned and pointed.
Radar was padding along behind us. She saw me looking and raced to catch up. I knelt and took her head in my hands. “Disobedient dog! Will you go back?”
She only looked at me.
I sighed and stood up. “All right. Come along.”
She walked at my heel, and that was how we four—five, counting Radar—advanced on the haunted city.
6
The gate was close—looming—when something jumped out at us from a ruined building on the left side of the road. I drew Mr. Bowditch’s .45, but before I could bring it up, let alone aim, the shape took a large （but still slightly crooked） leap and landed on Radar’s back. It was the Snab. We were astonished; Radar wasn’t. She had carried this passenger before and seemed perfectly willing to do it again. The Snab settled on her neck, like a lookout.
I saw no sign of Leah and Falada camped outside the gate. I didn’t like that. I stopped, trying to decide what to do next. The Snab jumped down from its mount, went almost to the gate, then turned right. Radar followed, nosed at the cricket （who didn’t seem to mind）， then looked back at us to see if we were coming.
A paved path, perhaps meant for maintenance in the old days, led through the rubble near the outside of the wall, which here was covered with shags of ivy. The Snab led the way, jumping through weeds and nimbly hurdling spilled bricks. After no more than a hundred steps I saw a white shape in the dark ahead of us. It let out a whicker. Sitting beside Falada, cross-legged and waiting for dawn, was Princess Leah. She saw the cricket first, then the rest of us. She got to her feet and stood facing us with her hand on the hilt of her sword and her feet apart, as if ready for combat.
Falada spoke, but dispensed with the third person. “So. Sir Snab has led you to me. And now that you’ve found me, you must go back.”
“Who keeps your geese, my lady, while you are away?”
Not what I expected to say and not the way Charlie Reade of Sentry, Illinois, would have said anything.
Her eyes widened, then crinkled a bit at the corners. With no mouth it was hard to be sure, but I think she was amused as well as surprised. Falada said, “My mistress’s men, Whit and Dickon, keep them very well.”
As in Dick Whittington, I thought.
Jaya: “Does that horse—”
Leah waved her to silence. Jaya shrank back and dropped her eyes. “Now that your foolish question has been answered, leave us. I have serious business.”
I looked into her upturned face, beautiful except for the scar where her mouth should have been and the ugly sore beside it.
“Have you eaten?” I asked. “Because you have to be strong for what’s ahead, my lady.”
“I’ve taken what I need,” Falada said. I could see Leah’s throat working with the effort it took to throw her voice. “Now go—I command you.”
I took her hands. They were small in mine, and cold. She was putting up a good front—the haughty princess in total control—but I thought she was scared to death. She tried to pull her hands back. I held on.