ry knelt to take a look for himself. i felt embarrassed.

"lendill says to tell you he was serious," tory said. "what did he ask you?"

"nothing," i said, trying to rise. tory got to his feet first, then pulled me up. ry stood, too.

"whatever it was, he said it was driving him crazy," tory went on. "and he wants to talk to you about it as soon as you get back."

"is there any way to not go back?" i asked sarcastically.

"reah, he gets on my nerves too, sometimes," tory soothed. "but he's good at his job. he has to be."

"don't ask her to let some of that go-not yet anyway," ry countered. "we haven't been treated like that. em-pah is still in a snit over it."

"em-pah?" i didn't understand who ry was talking about.

"grampa wylend," ry gave one of his heart-stopping grins.

"oh." what did wylend have to do with all this? he'd been there when i woke after the whole shooting and claiming incident. karzac had sent him away.

my comp-vid was beeping when tory herded me back to the bedroom. teeg was calling. tory and ry left the bedroom.

"teeg?" i saw his face and wanted to cry. only then did i realize how much i missed him. lendill's schaff's words had unsettled me, too-how was i supposed to react to a marriage proposal from someone who probably didn't care anything about me? where had that come from? and i couldn't say a word to anyone, least of all teeg. i wanted to, though. i wanted to skip away to where he was, wrap my arms around his neck and tell him all my troubles. instead, we were worlds apart, speaking through a comp-vid.

"reah, sweetheart." the half-smile teeg offered was doing funny things to my insides. we talked about grish and his death. we talked about the planting and pending harvest in six eight-days. we talked about a lot of things. teeg brought up something i hadn't considered, though. i knew i hadn't seen delvin and a couple of arvil's other wizards for a few days. arvil hadn't told me what they were doing.

"they've been here, gathering several courtesans to take to zephili," teeg informed me. "don't trust any of them." my eyebrows lifted in alarm at his comment. i knew not to trust delvin or the others-was this a ploy to get rid of us, just as arvil was getting close to harvesting his dream?

"arvil had me send out invitations, too, reah-to all his business associates. it'll coincide with the harvest. do i need to tell you to be careful?"

"no." i ducked my head. i had to be careful every moment. i was going to go to farzi, too, and tell him what teeg had told me. he and his brothers could help me keep watch.

teeg terminated the call after saying he loved me. well, i loved him, too.

arvil's holding a formal meeting here with his business associates-teeg told me he sent out invitations, i sent the mindspeech to tory and ry when i was finished talking with teeg.

does that mean we're staying here until the harvest? ry asked.

i don't know, i returned. arvil hasn't said anything to me, but then he didn't tell me about the big meeting either. he's bringing several courtesans-delvin and two other wizards went to pick them out. teeg told me to be wary of all of them.

something's up, tory agreed.

delvin wants what arvil has-he was lying when he said that he didn't know what haral was up to. i was pouting as i sent the mindspeech.

you can tell when somebody's lying? tory was staring at me.

yes. i crossed my arms over my chest and the pout got bigger. i think he's bringing those girls to help him get what he wants. those other wizards-i don't think they understand how ambitious delvin has become. he'll do just about anything to get what he wants, including sacrificing his best friends. bel came to mind.

he doesn't have the intelligence or experience to run arvil's empire, ry snorted aloud. he has no idea about the business end of things. if all he can do is sneak around trying to undermine people, with the occasional murder here and there, the best he'll become is somebody's underling-which is exactly what he is. even if he kills arvil, there are too many others out there who would have his liver for breakfast. the hardlows would kill him without thinking about it.

i shook my head, still trying to reconcile the wizard i'd met on mandil with the wizard i knew now. it was as if he were two different people. that doesn't mean he can't do damage along the way, i said. he'll come after me and he may go after teeg, to see if he can worm his way into arvil's good graces.

now's the time i wish i had compulsion, tory grumbled mentally.

delvin and his two wizard buddies returned the following day with six courtesans. arvil took two of the women with him when he went to bed; the other four went with the hardlows and their warlocks. farzi wasn't happy at all with those arrangements.

"we hear from workers in fields-they say that grish staff-those that left, are talking about returning to cause trouble," he grumbled to me as i poured out juice for both of us.

"does arvil or the hardlows know about this?" i stared at farzi.

"do the hardlows know about what?" astralan walked into the kitchen.

"there's a rumor going around that grish's old staff wants to organize and cause trouble," i said. "i don't know what kind of trouble, or if it's anything more than rumor."

"why don't you check on that? tell me if you find anything," astralan got out a glass and waited for me to pour juice for him, too.

"i will." i nodded. "but i'll probably have to go into town to do it-those people are there unless i miss my guess."

astralan shrugged and grinned. i shrugged right back.

"farzi," i jerked my head toward the kitchen door that led to the patio outside. farzi came with me, carrying his glass of juice.

"farzi, i talked to teeg last night-he says to keep an eye on the women that came in today. i don't know what he suspects, but he suspects something," i whispered as we walked along the cobbled stone trail that led to the barns. "i think we should watch delvin and the others, too. delvin was lying when he said that he didn't know what haral was up to."

"i suspect this as well," farzi said. we came to a wood fence, so we climbed to the top of it and sat down. "i think wizard delvin wants more than he can handle. not smart," farzi added. i nodded at his assessment. "my brothers and i-poison has no effect. we live many times because of this." farzi snorted and looked away.

"somebody tried to poison you in the past?" i was shocked, although i shouldn't have been.

"many times. we make poison. others have no effect on us. i tell you this because haral had poison. poison also woman's weapon of choice if she is not strong."

"you think delvin and those women look to poison us? what would be the easiest way to do that?"

"in food or drink, our reah." farzi had called me our reah. i think he meant his and the other reptanoids. i didn't mind the title. i nodded. the same thing had occurred to me. i sent mindspeech to ry.

reah? his question came back.

ry, can you put a shield or a guard or something on the kitchen, so we'll know if anybody tries to poison the food or drinks?

ry didn't answer for several ticks. when he did, he shocked me.

em-pah wylend is on his way with dad.

what? i almost shrieked my question aloud.

meet us in the pantry, ry ordered. i hauled farzi along with me and met ry in the pantry. wylend arden and erland morphis appeared only ticks later.

"here." wylend handed a fine gold necklace to me, one to ry and smiled when he handed one to farzi. farzi stared at wylend.

"farzi," i cautioned, "you may not tell this tale to any except yours." farzi was nodding, struck speechless, i think. wylend looked as if he'd been at high court or something, he was dressed so finely. he also had a gold band settled around his head, with jewels winking in it. he was king of karathia and looked the part.

"these," erland explained, "will tell you whether your food has been poisoned. here's an extra for tory, just in case." erland handed another necklace to ry.

"that must be extremely helpful," i muttered, slipping the chain over my head and settling the small, jeweled charm inside my shirt. farzi watched and did the same.

"i would do this and many other things for you, my darling." wylend leaned down to kiss me. now i was the one struck speechless. wylend and erland disappeared just as quickly as they came.

when i regained some of my sense, i discovered that ry was grinning widely. i wanted to smack him. "who was that?" farzi mumbled.

"farzi, that was the king of karathia," i whispered. farzi's eyes grew even wider.

i learned just how effective the jewels were the next day-someone had poisoned the flour during the night, causing my jewel to send a slight jolt to my skin the moment i touched the canister in the kitchen. i dumped the flour, then went to the pantry to look for more. there wasn't any, so i skipped from there to the city, bought more and was back before anyone suspected. if delvin wanted to pin the poisonings on me, then he needed to think again. i just wanted to catch whoever had done this and turn them over to astralan or one of the others. i did pay close attention though, to anyone not eating the hotcakes i served for breakfast. delvin, carthin, all six women and the rest of arvil's wizards refused. they were all in on it. tory, ry and i had a brief mental conversation over that.

arvil wanted to inspect the fields after breakfast, so he and a few others went. farzi, becoming even more helpful, asked darzi and chazi to follow delvin and arvil's other wizards. yanzi and hirzi were discreetly following the women. all reptanoids were going as lion snakes. farzi appeared grimly determined-he was familiar with poison. i think if anyone his brothers followed made a wrong turn, they'd get poisoned in a more conventional manner.

nenzi went to his repair shop-he loved that. i made a mental note to put him in charge of arvil's vehicles on campiaa-if any of us ever made it back there. i think i knew even then that if norian keef or lendill schaff wanted to lock up the reptanoids, they'd have to go through me first.