From a muffled distance, some one called her name. Fand opened her eyes. Muted morning light slipped into the cellar. She had slept after all. She looked up at Resen. His face was so near hers. She reached up and touched his cheek. Bruel’s medicine had erased most of the scratches she had given him. He covered her hand with his and said, “I hate to wake you, but we must be moving on.” She felt the muscles of Resen’s cheek draw into an apologetic smile. She smiled in return and met his eyes. They held the same intensity that Pyre’s held when he wanted to kiss her. Resen’s fingers tightened over hers before he pulled her palm away from his face. He said, “We can make it to our next stop if we start now.” He helped Fand to her feet. He was so close, so very close. His eyes traveled to her mouth. He looked away and said gruffly, “Lets go.”

*

It started raining again. The gray wool cape Resen put on Fand did little to repel rain. Her boots and britches were soaked. The large brimmed hat she wore had dribbled more than a little cold rain down her back. Her body ached and her head hurt. She was miserable. Up ahead, Resen did his best to keep up a steady pace, but the path had turned to mud that was quickly becoming a slushy goo. In frustration he said, “Blast this rain. We won’t make it to our stop.”

Too cold to respond, Fand just hope they would not be spending the night in this weather. Resen waited for her and her horse to catch up with him. When she reached him, she reigned in her horse and surveyed the dreary landscape.

Resen told her, “My mother won’t like it, but she will have to put us up for the night. This way.” He did not elaborate on why his mother would not like it and Fand did not ask. He turned Donner off the path and headed in what might be west. It was hard to tell without the face of the sun. Fand turned her horse to follow.

The trees around them were pine and spruce. The rain intensified the smell. It reminded Fand of the woods back home. Home. A place she would never see again. They broke through the trees onto another muddy road. In the distancea farm appeared. It looked much like the Holz farm. Three huge barns and a squat two story farm house with a thatch roof. Resen said, “That’s it.”

To get out of this blasted rain would be a godsend. The lights in the window were inviting.

Resen lead the horses into the first barn and dried them off. Horses seemed to come first with Resen. Fand forced herself to be patient. Warmth and dry clothes were near at hand. She just had to be a bit more patient. After Resen brushed both horses down, he fed them. Fand’s own stomach was growling. How much longer?

Finally, with his jaw clenched he told her, “You are going to be a boy, named Cedric, and you are my apprentice.”

“What?” Fand knew she did not look like a boy. “Why would you lie to your mother?”

He shrugged. “She doesn’t like me bringing my cases home. An apprentice may set with her better. If she won’t let you stay, my stepfather will, I hope.”

“So shelter is not guaranteed?”

“With my mother no.” He left the barn and Fand followed. At the back door of the house Resen knocked.

The door swung open and a woman with fair skin and graying brown hair peeked out. Once she saw whom it was she exclaimed, “Praise the Keeper! You are still alive.” She threw her arms around her soaked son and then her eyes landed on Fand. Her face blanched. She let go of Resen and took a step back. Her voice dropped low and she said, “Tell me that you have not brought Angs’ concubine to my house.”

Despite his mother’s reaction Resen continued the ruse. “Cedric this is my mother, Mrs. Hilfen. Mother, this is Cedric, my apprentice.”

Mrs. Hilfen glared at her son. “Cedric my eye. Don’t lie to me. You take that girl elsewhere. I won’t be tangling with those damned beasts again.”

From behind Resen’s mother a man appeared. He put his hand on Mrs. Hilfen’s shoulder. “Lily, let them in. They’ll catch their death out there.”

Mrs. Hilfen shrugged the man’s hand off her shoulder. She said, “No, I will not let them in my house.”

This was absolutely brillant. Resen had quite a mother. The look she gave Fand, was so cold. It probably would be better to stay in the barn, or even the weather than face what ever poison this woman excreted.

In a low firm voice the man said, “Last time I checked Lily,the deed to this house has my name on it.”

Mrs. Hilfen looked dagger’s at her husband.

To Resen Mr. Hilfen said, “Come in you two. Resen you know are always welcome here.”

Resen said, “Thank you Mr. Hilfen.”

Mrs. Hilfen spun around on her heel and stomped past her husband.

Fand followed Resen into the mud room and took off her soaked cape and boots. There were dry slippers by the door. When they entered the kitchen Mrs. Hilfen was violently stirring something on the hearth. She looked up at Fand and dropped her spoon into the pot. Wide-eyed horror transformed her hard face. She sputtered, “T-tell me this is, is not Stella’s child.”

What? Did she really look so much like her mother. More importantly how could this woman have known her mother? She lived on the wrong side of the wall.

Resen went to his mother and said, “Calm down Mother.”

His words only further angered her. She glared at her him. In a hard voice she said, “She is Stella’s child. How could you bring this curse upon my home again? How? After all Stella cost me, cost our village-you bring her child here.”

Bewildered Fand asked, “What?”

Mrs. Hilfen asked, “You don’t know?”

Bewildered by the turn the conversation had just taken, Fand shook her head.

Resen pleaded, “Mother, don’t.”

"Ha!" Mrs. Hilfen hurled bitter angry words at Fand, “Imagine, she doesn’t know. I don’t guess I’d be telling any child of mine that saving my life got my village burned to the ground. Nor would I tell her the Pathfinder who rescued me was murdered for his success. No I think I’d keep that to myself.”

A sick feeling twisted inside Fand. This could not be true. Her mother was from the Ruhe Mountains. She had letters to prove it. This woman was crazy.

Mrs. Hilfen asked, “By the way, how is your mother?”

Softly, Fand said, “Dead.”

A strange look came into Mrs. Hilfen’s eyes. She asked, “How long has she been dead?”

Resen protested, “Really Mother-“

Mr. Hilfen said, “That is enough Lily.”

This woman was more than a little crazy, she was scary crazy and Fand would prove it. She said, “My mother came from the Ruhe Mountains. She never lived on this side of the wall.”

With a quirk of her right eyebrow, Mrs. Hilfen asked, “Really?”

“Yes. Really. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Again the woman asked, “When did your mother die?”

Fand glanced at Resen. For a brave man he sure was a ninny around his mother. Fand swung her gaze back to Mrs. Hilfen. This woman did not know what she was talking about. Fand jutted out her chin and said, “She died when I was a baby.”

Mrs. Hilfen shouted, “A baby! And you are what about sixteen.” With each word, Mrs. Hilfen raised the volume of her voice. “My husband gave his life so that your mother could have a scant year and half left on earth. She would have lived longer if he’d turned her over to Angs.”

This was too much. Fand shouted, “I don’t know what you are talking about. My mother’s name was Stella but she isn’t the person you say she was.”

“You look exactly like her. Doesn’t she Resen?”

Resen didn’t answer.

“Doesn’t she Bo?”

Mr. Hilfen said, “That is enough Lily.”

A grim smile of satisfaction crossed Mrs. Hilfen’s lips. She said, “See they can’t deny it. They know who you are, even if you don’t.”

What? This was a nightmare land. If only she had stayed on her own side of the wall. She looked at Resen. His eyes met hers. She read truth in them. Truth that her mother had been this woman his mother hated. His crazy mother wasn’t lying. Fand said, “If you will excuse me, I am going back to the barn.” She turned on her heel, went to the mud room, got her sodden cape and was just about to put her boots back on, when Mr. Hilfen joined her. She told him, “I will not stay where I am not wanted.”

“I don’t blame, but you need the shelter of a house. More importantly, the shelter of a cellar. We can’t risk the Sonpur getting a whiff of you. And though you can’t see the moon, the moon can still see you.”

This sounded like some kind of bad riddle. “I can’t stay here. I won’t stay here.”

He gave her a sad smile. “No one can force you to do anything.”

Resen came into the mud room. He said, “He is right. But, you have come this far, you don’t want to risk your life just because my mother was born with an ill temper.”

Truth was she didn’t. “Okay. I will stay inside.”

A genuine smile spread across Mr. Hilfen’s face. “I’ll get our girl Sandy to get you a basin and some dry clothes. He stepped out of the mud room and called out, “Sandy!”

Resen removed the wet cloak from her shoulders. “I am so sorry.”

Fand turned and looked up at him. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I did not think there would be a need. It just seemed better that you believed what you always believed. I couldn’t bear to see you lose one more thing.”

These words hit Fand hard. “So, you think I’ve lost my uncle?”

“No. I don’t. But you have lost your home, your cousin,” he paused then added, “and your friend, Pyre.” His eyes searched her face.

Stunned, Fand said, “What do you know of Pyre? Is he too dead?”

Resen took her hand in his and said, “Pyre is alive. He is the one who told me all I needed to know about you.”

“Where is he now?”

“In the Council City.”

“Did you cross over?”

“No. Somehow he came here.”

A spark of hope ignited in Fand, “If he could pass back over, why can’t Uncle Wert and I?”

“I don’t know. That is something you will have to take up with Petran when we find him.”

Fand pulled free of his grasp and said, “If we find him.”