From a High Tower (32 page)

“Yes,”
they all three chorused, and that was that.

At least it wasn't growing quite as fast as it used to.
I wonder what Mother intended to do with all those long braids of it she had.
As far as she knew, they were all still locked up in a chest in Mother's room, back at the abbey. She hadn't been in there since Mother died.

She cast the thoughts aside, and finished putting her hair in order. Once her hair was properly braided and coiled up, she was ready for the first show. “Ready?”

“Lead on.” Rosa gestured to the door.

The
vardos,
along with the living tents of those folks who were not amused by having their every move watched curiously by spectators, were behind a second wall of canvas just inside the first one. They hadn't needed that particular arrangement elsewhere, but here, those ticket-holders who were allowed to roam the camp seemed to take that as liberty to go
everywhere.
Having that canvas wall there had been working so far, at least. Giselle had a sort of three-sided tent with a campfire and a little arrangement of camping equipment in the Cowboy Camp that she was supposed to be in when she was not performing or practicing. She sometimes wondered if these people actually believed she lived like that. She was beginning to get a very good idea of what an animal in a zoo must feel like.

There were already people wandering through the camps as she took her place in “her” tent. She and Rosa exchanged a look, and Rosa shrugged. “I'll go to the mess tent and get luncheon for both of us,” she offered.

“Then I'll start the coffee.” Giselle had managed to learn the trick of brewing the bitter drink, which she had become quite fond of, as had Rosa. It lent an air of verisimilitude to her campsite, to have a coffee pot on a grate over the fire. By now the days were cool enough that both the fire and the hot coffee were welcome, and she was glad of the heavier buckskin garments in her costume wardrobe.

Rosa returned with a straw basket full of food. By this point, Giselle was surrounded by people asking questions about her presumed life in America, about her shooting, and so on. Giselle was about halfway into the narration she could have told in her sleep by this point, but interrupted it to put the sausages that Rosa had brought on the grate over the fire to rewarm while Rosa poured them both coffee and added sugar and cream. To facilitate eating while talking, Rosa wrapped a piece of dark rye bread around a bratwurst on a bed of sauerkraut, dabbed on some mustard, and handed it to her.

At that point, Rosa got included in the questioning. She had decided on her own story. No one recognized her as one of the Indians when she wasn't wearing the black wig, which was all to the good as far as she was concerned. So when she was out in the camp with Giselle, she had decided that she was a horse-tamer. As an Earth Master that had been simple enough to pull off, and Cody had even added a couple of places in the show where she could demonstrate that. One, where she and a brown and white “Medicine Hat Pony” called Pitalesharo ran through a number of clever tricks, and one where she “tamed a Wild Stallion” that was one of the bucking horses. Both routines could easily be dropped from the show when she'd had to go off on mysterious errands on behalf of the Brotherhood—which she had done at least six or seven times over the course of the summer. She never explained where she went, or why, and no one ever had the temerity to demand she tell them. According to her story, she had learned her trade from her father and she had tamed Lebkuchen for Giselle, which was how they had met. Captain Cody had taken her on to be in charge of the company's horses and buffalo.

Giselle had finished her luncheon and was deep in explaining to a group that was about three deep around her that no, she had never met Old Shatterhand, and no, she had never seen the mysterious gunsmith “Mr. Henry” who had supposedly made his amazing rifle when . . . she got the oddest, and most unpleasant sensation of being watched.

She couldn't exactly break off what she was doing to look around. And she couldn't summon one of the sylphs to see if her feeling was correct, either. All she could do was glance at Rosa to see if
she
was exhibiting similar unease. For all she could tell, all was well with Rosa, which did nothing to make
her
feel any better.

It made her skin crawl, actually. It was nothing like the feeling she got when someone was gazing at her with rather too much admiration. No, this was as if someone was measuring her, sizing her up, judging her. It was the feeling she would have associated with being weighed by a predator she couldn't see.

The feeling did not go away. In fact, if anything, it got slightly stronger, right up until the moment when the visitors were chased off so the first show of the day could begin.

And at last, as she and Rosa hurried toward the staging area, she got the chance to say something. “I had the most awful feeling that someone was
watching
me, and it wasn't friendly!” she said, as the two of them lined up for the Grand Entrance Parade. “Did you?”

“Not at all,” Rosa replied, and frowned. “I know better than to ask another Master if that was just her imagination, so it must have been concentrated only on you. Do you have any idea why anyone would be spying on you from a distance? I assume it was at a distance.”

“Not at all,” Giselle said, mounting Lebkuchen. “I couldn't catch anyone nearby at it, and I felt as if I shouldn't give away the fact that I knew it was happening by looking around. But I don't like it, not one bit!”

“Try and give me a signal if it happens again,” Rosa replied, bringing her pony up beside Giselle. “I'll try and slip off and see if it's being done magically. I might not be able to tell if it's Air Magic, though,” she added warningly.

Giselle tried not to feel a little sick. “Ugh! It makes me feel unclean, or somehow naked. And if it's being done magically, there's no telling what whoever it is might try to see. I suppose if I don't want to be spied on in my
vardo
I'm going to have to ward it, but wards aren't going to do me any good at all when I'm outside. I mean, I can ward myself, but all that would do is make a blank me-shaped spot in the scrying bowl or whatever he's using, and that's not much better.”

Rosa nodded, but they didn't get to say anything more. The entrance curtains opened, and the Grand Parade began.

Twice more that day, Giselle got that feeling of being watched, and each time, the sensation wasn't as if the distant voyeur was the friendly sort. The opposite, rather. The second time, she managed to signal Rosa, but as her friend had warned, the Earth Master wasn't able to detect anything. It happened a third time as they left the show enclosure to go to the
Alpingarten
for supper, but it appeared that once they were moving, the crush of the crowds made it harder for the watcher to find her, and he never managed to catch up with her again. So Giselle was able to relax and enjoy a rather delightful dinner, sitting at a huge table and entertaining an enraptured, and thankfully quiet, group with her manufactured tales of life on the frontier.

It was very dark by the time they finished and returned, and it seemed that the watcher had either given up for the night or wasn't able to find them. The grounds of the Oktoberfest were astonishing. There were electric lights strung down the main thoroughfare—an innovation Giselle had never actually seen for herself until now—and the effect was quite startling to someone used to the light of candles, lamps and fires all her life. Of course, most of the grounds were still lit by lamps and even torches, but seeing those glass bulbs glowing steadily without so much as a flicker seemed more magical than the use of her own powers.

“Do you want me to help ward your
vardo?”
Rosa asked, as they entered the now-quiet grounds of the show. It looked as if the visitors had just been cleared out; people were relaxing at their tents, rather than being “on show,” and people were eating various delectables they had gotten out in the grounds and brought back to share. Pastries and pretzels mostly; Giselle spotted a lot of decorated gingerbread and jelly-filled donuts being devoured, as well as both hard and soft pretzels.

“Yes, please,” Giselle said gratefully. “And . . . I think I ought to start refusing presents of food. Or at least we should start testing it somehow. I didn't like the way that watching
felt,
if you know what I mean. It . . . it seemed cold, measuring. Not at all friendly.”

“I completely agree, and it will be easy enough to for me to make sure anything you are given is safe to eat,” Rosa replied, waiting to mount the stairs of the
vardo
behind Giselle. “Earth Magic is good for that sort of thing.”

“I'm glad you don't think I'm being silly.” Giselle lit a paper spill at the coals in her stove, and lit her two hanging lanterns with it.

Rosa snorted. “I've been stalked by werewolves, hunted by other Elemental Magicians
and
by a ghost, threatened by
vampir,
and . . . well, I am the last person to think you are being silly if you feel as if you are being watched by something or someone unfriendly. I don't know what enemies you could possibly have, but who knows what enemies your Mother collected! And for all
we
know, that wretched Blood Witch has an ally here, and that's what's watching you!”

“Or it might be an Elemental of some sort. I don't know enough about what's likely to be around a city,” Giselle said doubtfully.

“Or it
might
be one of the Greater Air Elementals that has been coerced in the past and is
not
pleased to see an Air Master about that might think about coercing it again.” Rosa set about gathering the few things she would need for her warding. Giselle didn't need anything more than a bit of incense, which she got out of a little box and started burning.

“I hadn't thought of that. I hope that is what it is,” she said, sitting herself down at the table and composing herself so that she could concentrate on building her wards. “If it is, well, it will see I am no threat eventually, and go away.”

Building the wards was one of the first things that Mother had taught her once they had
really
started in on her lessons, but Mother had warned her not to use them unless she actually needed to. “Merely putting up wards signals to other Air Masters and all Air Elementals that there is an Air Mage there,” she had said.
“Not
putting them up is often safer than doing so, if you are not planning on working any magic. Doing nothing at all keeps you invisible unless something is looking for you.”

Well, something had not only been looking for her, it had found her.
So, wards it is.
She breathed in the scent of the incense, and pulled in the energy of the Air and infused the incense with it, willing it to protect her from every sort of magical attack. Once the air was saturated with scent and magic, she gently compacted it all, “pushing” it away from herself and infusing it into the porous walls and floor and ceiling of the
vardo,
and creating invisible walls of scent and power over the windows and across the chimney vent. She left nothing to chance, and when she was absolutely sure she had every possible entrance blocked, she set it all in place with a final burst of power and opened her eyes.

Rosa had
her
eyes closed, and Giselle felt the pulsing of golden Earth Magic about her still. So she remained quiet, to keep from disturbing Rosa's concentration, until her friend exhaled and sent a final pulse of magic of her own radiating out into the
vardo
walls.

“Well!” Rosa said, opening her eyes with a smile. “That's that. If anything manages to see past what we've done, I will catch it and eat it.”

Giselle chuckled. “And speaking of eating . . .” She reached over her head and brought out a box of marzipan formed and colored into the most delightful shapes of fruits. “Look what I have!”

“Oh . . . marzipan . . .” Rosa licked her lips. “I really think though, just to be sure, I should test it first. You know. Just to be safe.”

“Of course!” Giselle chuckled. “Just to be safe. I'll make some tea while you test it. Just make sure you don't test it until there is none left for me.”

W
ITH
the visitors shooed out for the night, all of the chief members of the company had gathered around a table in the mess tent. There was just a little more than three weeks before they needed to be in winter quarters at the abbey, and plans to get there needed to be finalized. And it was not enough for just Kellermann to make those plans; anyone who might need to have a say needed to be here to speak up . . . just in case. There was a big map spread out over the table, and Kellermann had his ever-present notebook out.

“We have one more week of Oktoberfest, and then we move out,” he said. “And now we need to start transitioning to our winter quarters, the abbey that Giselle has so graciously offered to let us use.”

“I've heard from the builders I commissioned,” Rosa said immediately, not mentioning that those builders had been Elementals—dwarves, mostly, she'd said, but with a handful of brownies to make sure things were going to be comfortable. Dwarves tended not to think of
comfort
when they built, but rather making something substantial, that would last. If dwarves had their way, everyone would be sitting on stone furniture, at least, according to Rosa. “All of the repairs and needed additions are complete. I have a crew in place to start actually getting everything ready for us.”

A crew . . . that would be the brownies?
Giselle wondered.

“They are headed up by a relative,” Rosa continued smoothly. “So I know that we can trust that things will be safe there and there will be no pilferage.”

That clarified things a little.
A relative. That will be a member of the Bruderschaft. Or an ally, but definitely human, and probably another Earth Magician. Excellent.

“That was my next question. So if I were to start sending supplies, and possibly parts of the show ahead?” Kellermann asked.

“I'll make arrangements ahead of time from the nearest train depot. You can rest assured that everything will be safely stored in all the proper places by the time you arrive,” Rosa promised. “I'm intending to leave the company at the end of this stint in Freiburg, in any event, and journey on ahead to make absolutely sure nothing goes amiss. I can travel much faster alone, and I intend to go by rail most of the way. Once I leave you, I can be at the abbey in no more than three days. I'm arranging to have a horse waiting for me when I arrive at the station in Meiersdorf.”

“Ah!” Kellermann said. “That is excellent.” Both Kellermann and Cody looked a little surprised and a little relieved at that.

“You sure you'll be all right alone?” Cody wondered aloud.

Rosa laughed. “I have made journeys across three countries alone and never had a bit of trouble. I'll be fine, I promise you. And if I do that, I'll actually be there ahead of the first lot of supplies. It will not be the first time I have been responsible for a task like this. Anyone who thinks to cheat me or steal from you is going to discover that I open every barrel, cask, box and sack and double-check the contents.” She raised an eyebrow and patted the handle of the revolver that Cody had given her. She had proven to be a reasonably good shot with it and it was certainly easier to carry than her coach gun. “They will discover I am not a person to trifle with.”

The Captain laughed. Kellermann just shook his head. “In that case, does anyone have anything to add or object to?” Kellermann looked around the group, but everyone seemed satisfied with the plans, and to have confidence in her competence. “Good. I think the entire scheme is a sound one. After Freiburg, we will run a smaller show. We'll break down everything we won't need for that show and ship it on ahead to the station at Meiersdorf.”

Rosa nodded. “I'll arrange for pickup there and see it all gets brought to the abbey.”

“I'll do as much purchasing of winter supplies as I can here, where the prices will probably be lower, and also send that on ahead,” Kellermann continued, as the rest of the company's leaders listened and nodded approval. “The rest of our engagements are no more than three days each. I'd skip them altogether but they'll offset the expenses of travel. But as I see the opportunity to pick up more supplies, I will, and either send them on ahead or we'll bring them with us.”

One of the men in charge of the cargo wagons spoke up. “If'n we pack tight for space, instead of fer how easy it'd be to unload and set up, if we pack up the Midway that way fer the year when we break down at the end of this here Oktober thing, we kin load a whole lotta supplies along the way on the Midway wagons.”

Cody and Kellermann looked at each other. “I don't see us needing the Midway after Freiburg,” said Kellermann. “It will be small towns. One show, two or three days running, for each.”

“If that,” warned Giselle. “Once the snow starts, no one will want to watch a show in a tent.”

“Once the snow starts, I ain't a-gonna wanta
be
in a show in a tent!” protested the chief “wrangler.”

“We'll take every show we get to do as a bonus,” Kellermann promised. “And once the snow starts,
we
will not stop except to camp until we reach the abbey.”

“Don't be fooled by light flurries,” Giselle added, frowning a little. “There is no real road to the abbey, and the last part of the journey will be over rough land.”

Kellermann looked over the heads of the others to where the chief carpenter of the show stood. “Can you have runners made for all the wagons in a week?” he asked.

The carpenter spit tobacco into the spittoon in the corner of the tent and nodded. “Skids is simple. Plenty of good wood hereabouts, and four skids for each wagon ain't gonna add much to the load. If'n this was gonna be for use all winter, I'd want iron skids, but wood ones'll git us there.”

“Get it done,” Kellermann said. “I'll leave that in your hands.” He looked around. “Is there anything else?”

“There prolly will be, but we kin handle it when it happens,” the chief wrangler said, laconically.

“All right then. Git t'yer beds. We have 'nother week of hard work ahead.” Cody brought the meeting to a close. Rosa and Giselle left together.

“Any more of your watcher today?” Rosa asked, quietly, as they headed for their
vardos.
“He doesn't seem to have let up at all.”

“Yes. It doesn't seem to be more, or more intense, but if I'm not outside the show grounds, it's off and on all day.” By this point, Giselle was less fearful than angry. She had tried getting her sylphs to find whoever it was, but they said it was not someone using a sylph or any other Air Elemental to do his watching for him. Fox had tried some other way to find the watcher—some Pawnee magic, he wouldn't give her any details—and he didn't have any more luck.

“It has to be by scrying, then, and good luck with tracing it back if you don't
already
know who it is,” Rosa decided. “That means the likeliest is a Fire or Water Magician, although . . . it could be Earth. There's a technique for scrying using a mirror made of obsidian or flint that works for some Earth Mages.”

They had to pause for a moment as a couple of the cowboys walked past them, chewing tobacco and speaking about the horses.

“But don't you know who the magicians in Freiburg are?” Giselle asked when they were out of hearing range. “Can't you at least check to see if it is one of them?” She was getting rather desperate at this point, after two whole weeks of feeling those eyes on the back of her head. Every evening, Rosa would ask if the unseen watcher had given up yet, and every evening she would have to say no.

But Rosa shook her head as they reached their
vardos,
and paused beside Rosa's
.
“Most of the magicians in cities are not part of the Bruderschaft,” she said. “It's different in a village or a small town, where there generally aren't more than one or two, and quite often there's none. So being part of the Bruderschaft is an advantage, even if you don't live at the Lodge, because if there is something going on that you cannot deal with yourself, you can call on the Bruderschaft.”

Giselle nodded, and pulled her woolen shawl closer around herself. Over the course of their stay here it had gotten colder. Very soon she was going to need a coat or a cloak—or both, because if it got cold enough she could wear a cloak
over
a coat. “Now that I think about it, I believe Mother might have gone to help the Bruderschaft a time or two.”

Rosa nodded, and leaned against the side of her
vardo.
“Most magicians in the country make a point of knowing at least a few others. But in the cities, well . . . there's no advantage at all to being in a Lodge if you are the sort that doesn't care for being dragged into other peoples' problems. Magicians are people; plenty of them want to be left alone, and there are always the ones that use their abilities selfishly. That's
not
against the law or even our customs, or anything like that, but . . .” she shrugged. “You can imagine how someone like that would feel about constantly being asked to do this or that for the common good.”

“Like a rich man being asked to give to the poor,” Giselle grumbled, already disliking these people, and she didn't even know who they were. “It isn't as if they couldn't spare a bit to keep someone from starving. But when you see them being approached, often as not from the way they react you'd think they were being asked to sacrifice a limb.”

“Exactly. But if it's any comfort, magicians who only use their powers for selfish purposes don't get any help when
they
are in trouble.” Rosa paused with one foot on the steps to her
vardo.
“But to get back to our wretch . . . whoever it is has to know now that not only are you a Master, there are two other Masters here who helped you ward your wagon. Yet whoever it is only seems interested in you. That makes me think it has to be someone you've had
some
sort of encounter with in the past.”

Giselle shivered, and the shawl wasn't helping with the cold sensation of vague fear Rosa's statement made her feel. “Me too. But I can't think who it could be.”

“Well, think of the bright side. It might not be anything sinister at all! It could just be you have a very shy admirer.” Rosa laughed, but Giselle frowned. She didn't like that any better! If someone was an admirer . . . it might
sound
romantic to be gazed on from afar, but the reality was, it was extremely uncomfortable to know you were being watched but not know by whom!

“In a way, that seems worse,” she complained. “Why would he sneak around like this when I'm out in public all the time? Why would he hide himself? I haven't been unkind to a single person who's approached me, even when they were horribly intrusive.”

“Because
he
might not be a
he.
It might be a
she.”
Rosa's eyebrows arched, as Giselle's jaw dropped. “Yes, I am implying what you think I am implying. But I will come right out and say it. It might be a female who finds you attractive in the romantic sense.”

“But . . . but . . . but . . .” Giselle sputtered, her brain coming to a complete halt. How was that even possible?

“It happens, in nature, and with humans, my dear friend,” Rosa said, sounding more sympathetic than Giselle had expected. “Wolves, swans, geese, all of these sometimes mate with their own gender. Sometimes boys prefer boys, romantically, and girls prefer girls. Any priest would tell you that is an abomination, but in the Bruderschaft we are more . . . pragmatic. Frankly, we don't care. It harms no one, so why should one care who someone else loves? The only time it's been awkward for me was when I knew that another young lady had gotten a pash on me, and I am afraid my affections don't tend in that direction, no matter how ‘mannish' I may act.” She shook her head. “That may be the case here. You have a secret admirer, and she is afraid she will be rebuffed.” She waited, watching Giselle, as someone over in the camp played a harmonica into the night.

Giselle finally got her brains to work again. “No,” she said firmly. “No, I really do not think so. This does not feel at all as if someone is shy, nor does it feel as if whoever is doing this admires me in the least. This feels distinctly
unfriendly,
I'd even say hostile at times.”

The harmonica player switched tunes to something livelier. “Then it has to be either someone you have encountered in the past that considers you unfriendly or even an enemy, or someone who thinks that you have somehow wronged him, or . . . it might be a magician hoping to steal your power.” Rosa sucked on her lower lip.

“How likely is that?” Giselle asked. She frowned in consternation. “Mother never said anything about . . . something like that happening.”

“About as likely as the other possibilities.” Rosa thought for a moment, as the harmonica player gave up for the night. “In that case, your best defense is to never be out of the company of one of us. Don't answer any invitations that ask you to go somewhere alone. Once you're on the road again, never leave the compound. I think it's time to tell Kellermann and Cody about this.”