"I think you have me at a disadvantage."
    "I have no doubt of that."
    "Meet us in about an hour."
    "Very well." She got up and walked through the wall as the girl returned with a huge stack of books.
    "Here's the town list."
    "I'm not sure how to spell it."
    "Well it probably starts with an R." She turned the book so he could see it and stood behind his shoulder.
    "I'm afraid I can't read, actually," he lied.
    "Well, let me help...." She draped an arm over his shoulder.
    He extricated himself as gracefully as possible and left the library, rejoined us at the house.
    "I found Rajid, she's going to meet us here soon. She's not human. I'm not sure what the hell she is, but she's not human. We've never met her before, right?"
    "No," I replied, surprised by the question.
    And then she walked out of the woods. There was something familiar about her, as well as the strong sense of the undead. Trying to turn her would probably be considered rude. She looked around.
    "Well."
    "Well met, madam," Talon said. "I am Phoenix Talon, these are my companions, Needle and Scott Silver."
    "Ah. That explains quite a bit. Your reputation precedes you, though not descriptions of your appearance. From what I had heard, you were nine and a half feet tall."
    "I'm sorry to disappoint you."
    "No disappointment, you're much less threatening this way. I had also heard that you had been seen in Gretchen's capital city not a day ago.... You travel fast."
    "We do, madam. We have received a piece of intelligence about you that we felt it incumbent to come and discuss with you personally."
    "What would that be?"
    "You are aware that we are part of the resistance against the forces currently ruling this place."'
    "I am aware of the fact that you seem to be the centerpoint of the resistance against Gretchen, yes."
    "What are your political symphathies, if I may be so bold?"
    "You wouldn't be here if you didn't already know that I would like nothing better than to see Gretchen gone," she replied softly. "Something is very much awry, and I do not know what. But I can tell you that fifty years ago it was not like this."
    "We have a report that you know of an artifact that could destroy Gretchen."
    "You're from the temple of Da'an, aren't you."
    "Yes."
    "When I tell you this, I want your word that you will take no action against me. That you will not raise your hand against me, that you will not attempt to harm me in any way, nor reveal my presence to my enemies."
    "Agreed."
    Pause. "You are aware that my deity and yours have never been allies, up to the time when Xyrgoth made his presence known in an avatar form, correct?"
    "True."
    "Millennia ago, Da'an saw his wife the moon being adulterous to him. Rather than deal with that directly he tore out the eye that saw it, and hurled it down to the ground. That's why there is only one sun in the sky, where there used to be two. For a very long time, millennia ago, that sun, that eye was at the center of one of your religion's greatest temples." She looked a bit uncomfortable. "Some of my religion's forces decided it would be best if it were in a different location, perhaps under, um, someone else's watchful guardianship. I know where it is. If you could cause Da'an to open his eye, in front of her.... nothing could survive that, especially not an avatar of Xyrgoth walking around in daemon-possessed wolf-form."
    "And will this destroy anyone holding the eye, as well?"
    "Not if the one holding the eye is a chosen of Da'an, no. It is fortuitous that you are here."
    "Perhaps it is by this that I can atone for my failure...."
    "Where is it?" I asked.
    "Failure?" she inquired.
    "Let's not get into this now," I said to no avail.
    "Gretchen is controlling this world through an angel that I was the guardian of."
    "And we never hear the end of it," I muttered, rolling my eyes somewhat.
    "I see," Rajid said. "There is an island in the eastern sea. My church put the eye there, under strict guard and supervision; summoning up devils, creating undead guardians, building foul traps. Simply to make sure that no... chosen of Da'an could approach it and claim it. I feel somewhat sheepish about the fact that at this moment the only thing that I can think of to do is explain to you where it is, and hope that you can get past all of those."
    "I should note, ma'am, that you're not going to get it back," he felt compelled to point out. "I just want to make that clear."
    "I am willing to accept a shift in the balance of power, even a shift toward Da'an if it means a shift away from Xyrgoth. Da'an at least has always followed the law; Xyrgoth is chaos incarnate."
    "I have felt his touch," he nodded. By this point it was clear that Rajid would have liked to kill him. "I'm trying to set things right, that's why we're here," he added placatingly.
    "I can produce a map to this place. The journey there will not be easy, and the passage to the eye will not be easy. I also cannot tell you exactly what the defenses are; I don't know."
    "Well, danger is our middle name," I sighed.
    "What's your relationship with Lord Fimulwinter like, ma'am?" Scott wanted to know.
    "Nonexistent. He doesn't know I'm here. His troops believe that they killed me some time ago. I let them burn down my building and destroy my crypt, and hid out inside the library. The library is older than them, it is older than Gretchen, it is older than this country. They cannot touch it."
    "We'd like to get a message to Lord Fimbulwinter," Talon said. "We have some information that he will be very interested in, and that will help all of us, too. It seems that Gretchen is preparing an offensive to the north, all the signs point to it, and she's been breeding special monsters probably for the purpose thereof. If her resources were distracted here, our task would be much easier."
    "I'm not sure what exactly sort of person decides it's necessary to cross-breed fire-breathing wolves and dragons with daemons—well, I do know exactly what kind of person that is, it's Gretchen, I just can't figure out why," the golem confessed.
    "Because she's completely bugfuck," I shrugged.
    "Well, she is absolutely barking mad," he agreed, "but...."
    "Well, if you can produce some directions for us, we will no longer trouble you," I said to the vampire. Having her around was making my teeth itch.
    "As far as getting a message to Lord Fimbulwinter, I am not the messenger."
    "Of course not."
    "And if we gave it to the librarians?" Talon wondered.
    "They would file it away as an interesting curiosity."
    "Do you think it would work if we wrote it out and left it in the town square for one of the ogres to find?"
    "I do not think it would be given any great credence, and I think that they would burn a section of the town," was her composed reply.
    "So, we're back to my 'just knock on the front door and ask for an audience' plan," Scott shrugged.
    "Or forget the entire idea," Talon replied.
    "The idea has some merit, but we can discuss that later; we have a limited time here." I looked at the vampire.
    "I am heading back now. Tomorrow, ask the librarians to produce the map for you."
    "Map of?" Scott prompted.
    "Ring Island. They'll find it," she smiled, and faded away into mist.
    We retreated some distance from the town to avoid the ogre patrols and discuss how and if to alert Fimbulwinter to Gretchen's renewed threat.
    "Are you out of your minds?!" Septimus wanted to know, as if we hadn't already answered that. "He'll just kill us."
    "Depends on how we go about it, really," I temporized.
    We all seemed to like the idea, but couldn't see any way to bring it off. The sun rose.
    "If you can think of a good way to do it, we're all for it," I told the golem.
    "Oh, you want me to limit it to a good way? I had a harebrained scheme...."
    "Well, what was the harebrained scheme?"
    "Just leave it to me, let me take care of it. Give me the documents, let me take care of the delivery."
    "Okay. How long should we wait for you?"
    "Give me 'til sunset. This could take a bit."
    He and Talon went about their errands. I played cards with Septimus and wondered what we would do if either of them got into trouble.
    
    Phoenix Talon snuck into town, eluding the guards with his usual ease and the interest of the youngest librarian with somewhat less of it. He ended up spending several hours there while she looked for the map; the library didn't get much business, it seemed.
    When discovered, it was a faded roll of parchment that had been sealed with wax at one point. It showed the coast of Maine and the waters between it and Ring Island, with maps and shoals and all kinds of other symbols that were meaningless to him.
    "Is this what you needed?" the youngest of the three asked.
    "Yes. Is it all right if I take this out?"
    "Excuse me?" she said blankly.
    "I'll have to take this with me. That's why it was here."
    "This is not a lending library."
    "A person left this here, for us, a long time ago by the looks of it, which is kind of weird. But I was the one who was supposed to pick this up." He looked around in hopes that Rajid would appear and lend some support.
    "Someone left this here for you, and you're the... I thought you said you were just a traveler, heading north?"
    "I am."
    "This is a map of the ocean. Correct me if I'm wrong the ocean is—"
    "South. We're going around the long way. This is extremely important for the future of the entire world."
    "Wait here." She turned away, turned back to pick up the map, and walked out of the room.
    He followed her. "If you just leave that here with me, it'll be fine."
    "He says he needs to take this out," she told the oldest woman.
    "What!" she screeched.
    "It's extremely important for the future of the entire world," he repeated. "And the freedom of the entire world, otherwise there will be an age of darkness lasting a thousand years, and I'm completely serious here..."
    "Completely serious, are you," she murmured, coming closer.
    "Please. This is part of a great quest."
    She reached and grabbed his chin, pulled him down to her eye level. She forced his jaw open and looked inside. "His teeth look good." She let him close it. "If you don't bring it back, I'll hunt you down to the end of your days, flay the skin off of you, tie you up with it, and dip you into an ocean full of salt," she said pleasantly. "And then I'll go to town on you."
    Not being suicidal, he didn't say, "Actually ma'am, the ocean's already full of salt." He did say, "Agreed. Can I have the map?"
    "Give it to him." She released him and turned away.
    "Thank you. That wasn't so hard, was it?"
    "And that goes double for me," the youngest said, glaring as she handed it over.
    He gave her a kiss on the forehead and got the hell out of there.
    "I just made some muffin..." the middle one trailed off as she entered the room and saw the door closing behind him.
    
    Meanwhile, at Fimbulwinter's castle, Scott coalesced at the gate and picked up the horn hanging there and blew a stirring blast. You have to do these things right....
    The door opened; a frost giant warrior emerged. "Yes?"
    "Request an audience with Lord Fimbulwinter."
    "Who requests an audience with Lord Fimbulwinter?"
    "A messenger from the south."
    "Wait here." He stomped off, stomped back. "Enter. Down the end of the hall."
    Scott stepped into the enormous sculptured ice palace, walked down to the end of the hall and into the presence of Lord Fimbulwinter, who from the look of him had prepared rather hastily for the interview but still looked impressive, all fifteen feet of him lounging on his ice throne. A winter wolf lay calmly near a wall, tongue lolling gently as it watched him.
    "So. A messenger from the south. I can infer from that, that you are not in fact a messenger from Gretchen Wolf-Queen. And therefore, who do you work for?"
    "I'm not sure I work for anyone, but in this case I am working with the Governor of the Bull, and the Lord of Cats."
    "One of these I know, the other is new to me, but you are here, and are following protocol; I will grant you an audience. What have you to say to me?" Scott handed the package to the flunky standing by the throne, who handed it to Fimbulwinter, who leafed through it. "And from where did you get these?"
    "One of her patrols."
    "They are written in her script... how long ago?"
    "Six days."
    "Come with me."
    "There is a second piece of information to add to that, sir."
    "One moment." He rose from the throne, turned to the guard and whispered something in his ear. The guard looked shocked but said nothing. Fimbulwinter left the room, Scott following. A door of opaque ice closed behind them. The new room was also large and ostentatious; there was no one else there. Fimbulwinter did not appear to feel threatened by him. "Within the week, then, you came across one of her patrols making maps?"
    "Yes."
    "How deep into my territory were they?"
    "Two, maybe three days."
    "You said there was other information?"
    "She's breeding flame-breathing daemon wolves and daemon-dragons."
    "She's doing what?" the giant whispered, fury blazing in his expression.
    "She has flame-breathing wolves and fire-breathing dragons and she's cross-breeding them with daemons. The maps are somewhat fortuitous in that we came across them while we were traveling north."
    "Those dragons were my gift, and were ambassadors under my charge," he murmured. "And she is breeding them with DAEMONS?" His voice rose to a roar. "Have you any proof of this latter allegation?"
    "No. There is a lava pit a couple of days south of her capital city, on the road towards Harborview."
    "The maps are bad enough," the giant judged quietly. "The maps are enough. You have no direct proof, however, and I have no way of verifying your story from this distance. Now, what are you doing traveling up here in any case? If you stumbled fortuitously across her patrol, it cannot have been to deliver this information to me."
    "No, it wasn't. Frankly, in all honesty, I don't necessarily need to like you to present this, because it would hurt her."
    "I know where we stand, and I know who you are."
    "There was a rumor of something that could cause her pain. We were looking into it."
    "For delivering these maps to me—I am assuming you fatally dealt with her patrol?"
    "She won't be receiving them."
    "For this, I will grant you leave for traveling across my territory. You have until sunrise tomorrow to be out of it. The other issues, thank you for bringing them to my attention, and I will look into them. If I discover that you have lied to me in this, you will be able to count more than her among your enemies. I trust we understand one another?"
    "Precisely."
    "You have little time to make it out of my domain."
    "In that case, I should be moving now."
    "I will let my people know not to kill you. At least, until sunrise tomorrow. Would you care for some mead, before you go?"
    "Unfortunately, I don't drink. But I do thank you for your hospitality, and the head start."
    "Go now."
    He walked out the way he had come, with dignity. There was a pool of rapidly freezing blood on the floor where the wolf had been lounging.
    
    We made excellent use of our head start, heading for our coastal rendezvous with Thunderbolt and whatever captain he had recruited to our cause.

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