Lady Constable had just destroyed any hope that remained of discovering what the cult needed to complete the theft ofYanseldara's spirit.

Yu Po glanced at Ruha's kneeling form, then leveled a stern gaze at Tang. "Do you still wish to keep 'guest'

locked inside Ginger Palace?"

"No." The prince kneeled before Ruha and held the sil- ver chalice to her lips. "She is free to leave as soon as she drinks potion."

Ruha grimaced at the reek of the syrupy elixir. She took her hands from behind her back and roughly pushed the cup away, then rose to her feet. "I have no wish to drink that rancid stuff."

The jaws of both Tang and Wei Dao fell when they saw the seared bonds hanging from her ankles and wrists.

The prince managed to recover his wits quickly enough to grab her arm and thrust the potion toward her face.

"You break promise!"

"I said I would drink a potion of forgetfulness," Ruha snapped. "That is a love potion, and I assure you that without fresh ylang blossoms, it could not possibly be strong enough."

With that, the witch brushed past her astonished cap- tors. She snatched herjambiya off a table, then stepped into the protection of Yu Po and his guards. "Will you please take me out of here?"

The adjutant waved her through the door. They climbed a set of stone stairs and exited the spicehouse via a secret door. With two guards leading the way and two following behind, the young Shou escorted Ruha past the enclosure where Tang kept his pet lizards, through a wicket door in the bulwark that separated the rear

grounds from those in front, and straight toward the main gates. As they walked, Yu Po said nothing and stared straight ahead, pretending not to see the many puzzled residents of the Ginger Palace who had gathered

to watch them leave.

By the time they passed through the gateway, Ruha had untied her veil and fastened it back into place over her face. She found Vaerana and Fowler, now dressed in his customary trousers and tunic, waiting for her on the portico. The Lady Constable glowered at Ruha, then took her by the arm and hustled her down the stairs toward the white-bricked avenue, where a long line of driverless wagons stood drawn up alongside the ginkgo forest. Min- ister Hsieh and the caravan drivers were huddled together on the opposite side of the road, surrounded by a

circle of mounted Maces.

As soon as their feet touched the white bricks, Vaerana released Ruha and glared down at Yu Po-she was a full head taller than most of the Shou. "Wait here. I'll send

Minister Hsieh along when I'm sure the witch is

unharmed."

"That is not our agreement."

"All right-I'll let the mandarin go when I'm good and ready," Vaerana growled. "If you don't like that, go back and fetch your little prince. I'll trade Hsieh for him any- time."

Yu Po's nostrils flared ever so slightly, but he bowed and did his best to conceal his outrage.

The Lady Constable led the way a short distance down the white-bricked avenue, and then, a dozen paces before they reached Tombor and the horses, suddenly stopped.

She grabbed Ruha's arm and, unable to control her anger another moment, dragged the witch off the road. With

Fowler following close behind, the two women slipped between two driverless wagons and walked twenty paces into the forest, where the fan-leafed ginkgo trees were so thick that it would be impossible for anyone on the road-Shou or otherwise-to see or hear what passed

between them.

"This is worse than Voonlar!" Vaerana hissed. "Couldn't you spend even one night without getting caught? I

almost didn't make it back in time to save you."

"I did not need to be saved!" Arguing with the Lady

Constable would do little to improve her standing with the Harpers, but she was as angry as Vaerana-and with better reason. "Yu Po could not have arrived at a worse time."

"I suppose Prince Tang was going to hand the staff over?" Vaerana tugged derisively at the heavy cloth of

Ruha's aba. "And what's this? Is this what you think a

Sembite spice trader looks like?"

"I know less about Sembite spice traders than you do about good manners," Ruha shot back. "It was better to pose as someone I could impersonate."

Vaerana narrowed her eyes and moved forward until she was standing chin-to-chin with the witch. "We found out in Voonlar what happens when you think. You should've done what I said."

Fowler slipped an arm between Vaerana and Ruha. "If she'd done what you wanted, we'd still be sitting in the courtyard with that back-stabbing dwarf Tombor claimed was a guide." The captain pushed the women apart, then interposed himself between them. "It was only the Lady

Witch's disguise and her quick thinking that got us invited to stay the night at all."

Vaerana's eyes widened at the rebuke. Her cheeks turned crimson and she dropped her eyes in embarrass- ment. "I shouldn't be sharpening my blade on you, Witch.

Whatever happened, your life was the one at risk." She backed away and said, "Why don't you tell us what hap- pened?"

Ruha glanced at Fowler. "I do not know how much the captain could tell you-"

"Not much," Fowler interjected. "I waited all night for you to come back and started to worry when you didn't return before dawn. Then the Shou went crazy, running

all over swinging their boarding pikes around like they were trying to cut up the air, and I knew they had to be looking for you. I cut a hole through the roof of the guest house, then climbed over the wall and ran for the trees.

Sorry I didn't stay, but I wasn't going to be much help."

"You made the right choice," Ruha replied. "And mat- ters did not go so badly."

Vaerana's eyes lit up. "Then you know where the staff

is?"

Ruha shook her head. "I am sorry. But I do know it is

not inside the Ginger Palace."

A dark curtain descended over Vaerana's face. "Not inside? But it's Shou magic stealing Yanseldara's spirit-

my sages are sure of it!"

"Yes, and Prince Tang's mother is casting the spell, as you suspected," Ruha said. "But Lady Feng has been

abducted."

"Someone stole her?" Fowler's tone was incredulous.

"From the Ginger Palace?"

Ruha nodded, then described all that she had discov- ered, from Lady Feng's starving familiar to Prince Tang's unwitting enrollment in the Cult of the Dragon.

Vaerana listened rather impatiently until the witch finished, then regarded her with a thoughtful expression.

"It looks like I owe you an apology-if you're sure of this."

"Of everything I have described, yes," Ruha replied.

"But I do not understand why the cult is going to all this trouble to steal Yanseldara's spirit. Wouldn't it have been simpler for them just to kill her?"