"What a happy meeting," she said. Her voice was melodic, and strong; she seemed to taste each syllable as she spoke it, weighing how it might best be pitched. "What are you doing so far from town?"
"Looking for my sister. She... she came this way." He felt suspicious suddenly, wary of admitting Emmy's vulnerability. "Have you seen her?"
"No..." She tasted the word as if it had some special savor. "But then I have only just ventured onto this trail. Perhaps she went by earlier?"
"Not long ago." He heard himself groan faintly, knowing he must have missed Emmy somewhere in the dark. "Please," he said, "can you help me? I'm scared for her. I can't find her. She should have been... back there." He looked around at the curtains of black. "Maybe I missed her."
"All right." She came up to him, and her fingers lightly touched his shoulder as she walked past. He found himself turning as if she held him tightly. They began to pick their way back along the trail.
"I've seen you up at the mansion," she said. "You're the lad who outwitted the stone mother, aren't you?"
"Yes, ma'am. Jordan Mason."
"Yes." She was smiling now, as if delighted. "It's fortunate I met you just now, Jordan. It saves me a lot of time."
"Why?"
"I wanted to talk to some of Castor's people. On my own, you know?"
Jordan thought about it. She didn't trust Castor? "Is that why you were out at the church?"
"Yes." She shot him a dazzling smile. She was, he noticed, notably taller than he.
His lantern guttered and finally went out. "Shit," he said, shaking it. "Excuse me."
"You're not afraid of the dark, are you?" she asked, chiding.
"No, ma'am. I'm afraid of what's in it."
"I see." He heard, rather than saw, her smile in the sound of the words.
The lady appeared to be thinking. She glanced about herself, then said firmly, "I heard voices a ways back. Was your sister going to meet someone?"
"No" But what if she had met Allegri, or someone else coming from the priest's house? "Where did you hear the voices?"
"This way." She held the lantern
high, and walked back the way she'd come. He followed, hopeful that they would meet Emmy coming back from the priest's house.
The lady paused at a fork in the path. The way to the priest's was on the right, Jordan knew. The left way led deeper into the forest. She stepped onto the left-ward way.
"Wait!" He hurried forward. "She wouldn't have gone this way. It doesn't lead anywhere."
"But one of the voices I heard was that of a girl," said the lady, frowning. "And they came from down this way." She stood hipshot, radiating impatience. "You are keeping me from my own errands, young man. I need not help you at all, you know."
"Of course. I'm sorry." He followed her onto the lesser of the two paths.
This way was half-overgrown; the lady seemed to have no trouble seeing the path ahead of them, but to Jordan every way quickly came to look the same. He glanced behind them, and saw only a thatchwork of tree trunks and ferns, framed in black.
"Are you sure this is where you heard the voices coming from?" he asked after a few minutes.
"Of course. Look, there's a footprint." She lowered the lamp for him to see. Jordan peered at the ground where she pointed, but he couldn't see anything.
"I don't see-"
"Are you questioning me?" said the lady. "You are keeping me from my duties. What will Castor and Turcaret say about my lateness?"
"You mustn't tell them!"
"Well, then, stop dawdling."
Jordan was silent for a while, but his heart was sinking. Could Emmy have run afoul of a bandit, or worse, a morph? Who else would be out in this blackness?
"What were you doing out here alone, ma'am?" he asked boldly. "Were you visiting the priests?"
"Yes, of course," she replied promptly. They continued on over the uneven ground, until the thickets and trunks surrounded them tightly, and there was no longer any indication of a path underfoot.
The lady had one foot on a fallen log, about to step over it, when Jordan said, "Stop."
"What?" She stepped up and balanced precariously on the mossy log.
"This is crazy. She can't have come this way. Sound plays tricks in the forest. Maybe the sound came from somewhere else."
"Maybe." She sounded doubtful.
"We need to go back and get help," he said. "I'll roust my work gang. There's no need for you to worry yourself, ma'am. You have your own business to attend to."
"True." She started to step down from the log, but slipped. Jordan saw the lantern fly in an arc, then complete darkness fell around them.
"Damn!" He heard the lady groping about for the lantern.
Jordan put his hands out and hesitantly edged in the direction of the sounds. The darkness was total. "Are you all right, ma'am?"
"I'm fine. But I can't find the lantern."
Now that he was completely drowned in darkness, Jordan realized Emmy could never have come this far. It was impossible to take two steps in any direction without encountering a wall of uncertainty more solid than any tree trunk.
"Hmmf. Well, that's that," said the lady. "I can't find it. Give me your hand." He reached out tentatively, felt her warm fingers entwine his own.