We shelved the discussion for a little bit while Meara went looking for one of the local Fae, who were slowly trickling back into the valley (the milk bowl we'd been leaving at the front door showed signs of visitors). She didn't find any; they were there, but very skittish.
    Conner, in an inspired moment, tried the spell known as Find the Path to see if he could locate Wynn that way; it was usually used for finding one's way if lost, and while we weren't lost we also weren't sure which way to go from here. As soon as he finished casting the spell he heard sounds from the workroom—a thump and meow.
    There was no cat, and all the windows were closed. The bag he used for collecting magical oddments had tipped, and white and red roses scattered across the floor.
    "I find it unlikely that this is the spirits telling us that we should start a garden," he sighed.
    "Are you sure?" Gannon asked. "Perhaps you should try again."
    Conner sighed again. "I think we should.... probably consider.... heading back to the maze."
    Meara grinned. "I've been waiting for you to say that."
    "I'm amazed he said that," I admitted.
    "Notice that I put a lot of disclaimers in front of it," he pointed out. "Probably consider heading back to the maze—why do you have your armor on already? How did you do that?"
    "We're born with the skill."
    "That's why no one attempts to surprise attack the Rhys any more?"
    "It's just not worth it, "Meara shook her head. "They never act surprised."
    "I'm going to talk to Rhonwen," I told them.
    "Good idea. Take your time," Conner suggested gloomily. "Spend a couple weeks doing it."
    Meara looked for secret entrances to the workroom and found none, just a few more-or-less hidden cubbies where small objects could have been concealed. The people of the village didn't know anything more about him than they had while under Emer's spell; no one really knew what had happened to him, although most of them assumed he had died when the curtain of darkness appeared.
    I paid my visit to the reluctant queen. Someone had been working on the hall, sprucing the place up to fit its new status.
    "Your Majesty." I gave her a Court bow just to tease.
    "Good morning," she sighed. "What can I do for you today, Your Highness?"
    "Two things bring me here this morning. The place looks nice, by the way."
    "Thank you. You'll be conquering it any minute now, right?" she hoped.
    "I'm sorry, I have no plans whatsoever to do that."
    "Wouldn't change the fact that you're in charge anyway," Meara pointed out. "The land sort of chose you."
    "That is true."
    "That and a hundred pounds of salted fish'll pay my taxes," Her Majesty grumped.
    "I did want to talk to you about the Keep, however."
    "What about it?"
    "It's sort of in a great deal of disrepair at the moment. I was wondering, I could perhaps send down south for some stonemasons, to help you get the place in more defensible condition?"
    Rhonwen snorted. "Two rocks piled on each other would be more defensible than that at the moment."
    "It's still got walls."
     "Well, if you feel like rebuilding the castle, far be it from me to impede the Rhys," she shrugged. "Or in any way slow down and make you take stuff over," she added under her breath.
    "With your permission, then, Your Majesty." I wasn't sure if I should thank her or not.
    "Of course, Your Highness."
    "The other thing I wanted to mention was that Meara's been having some rather disturbing premonitions, as has Conner. I believe we're going to be heading back north again immanently."
    "Back north, where?"
    "Up to the rose maze."
    "Ah. Have fun."
    "I will, I don't know about the rest of them....." I could just imagine Conner's hysterics. "Just in case none of us come back, or a horde of ravening Fae comes down out of the hills, or something."
    "If a horde of ravening Fae comes down out of the hills, I will have words with you," she promised.
    "See you on Samhain, then. Just wanted to keep you abreast of our plans."
    "Thank you very much. We'll keep an eye out for hordes of ravening Fae. Don't know what we'll do, but we'll keep an eye out for them."
    "By your leave, then."
    "Farewell."
    We sent another passle of messages down to the capital, including an update for my father and an inquiry as to the possibility of getting some masons up to start restoring Seagate. Meara added an inquiry as to the locations of Deathgate, Dawnsgate,, and Stormsgate and gave me a lecture on the symbolism of fours as represented in the foursquare keep in Rutland and its echo in the great fortresses scattered across the kingdom. She seemed to think that having Seagate gone might cause trouble for the others, and proposed that when we did eventually return for Rutland we should do so the long way around, checking on each of them.
    "We're going to need some more horses," was my only comment. "I'm not moving at his walking speed."
    Gannon looked offended.
    "And it wouldn't really hurt the country at all to symbolically take the banner on a procession around it anyway," she added. "To make sure that all four of the gates are.... safe."
    "If we come back from this mission, we'll talk about it," I shrugged.
    "What do you mean, if?" the accountant wanted to know.
    I gave him a puzzled look. "I mean 'if.'"
    "Don't say if," he pleaded.
    "When," Conner corrected. "Allow us to maintain our illusions."
    "Sorry." I just don't know what to do with those two.
    We packed up our things, picked up our druid, and headed north to see what the rose maze had to show us. On the way Meara tried to get Gannon to admit that he was a mage; he resolutely denied knowing what she was talking about.
    "So we're doing this?" Conner said without enthusiasm as we started off.
    "Of course," Llweder replied.
    "I'm afraid so," I agreed.
    "Absolutely;" Meara put in.
    "It's the only thing that can be done," the druid intoned.
    Conner gave him a dark look and mumbled something about my having infected him. While we crossed the swamp, he saw will-o-the-wisps and suggested we all move along quickly. Meara crowed with delight.
    "My lady, when you were speaking to Rhonwen did you mention that the Fae have apparently returned?"
    "I forgot to mention that."
    "We should mention it when we return, just in case they hadn't noticed."
    "A, I suspect they will notice, and B we did tell them about the cave troll and the knocker."
    "They do know that there are Faerie about," Conner nodded.
    "They'll figure it out," I concluded. My thoughts went back to Wynn and the atrocities he had committed. Anxious to see him bleeding black roses sometime soon, we hurried on along what was rapidly becoming a well-worn trail.
    
         

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