Roxanne lifted her chin and fought inwardly to hold her voice steady. "Sanctuary is not a prison."

"I know that." He was impatient now, frowning, but his eyes were still darkened with more primitive feelings. "But it's afternoon now. You could be caught out here when the Curtain falls and be in danger."

"I know I'll be outside the city tonight, it's unavoidable." She didn't know why she was telling him this. "I have to cross the valley."

"The only thing on the other side of the valley is the village."

"Yes. It is."

"Why do you have to go there?"

Her chin lifted another inch, and the blue eyes flashed. "Not that it's any of your business, but my mother lives there."

Was she being truthful? Or had she given herself enough time to heal from what had been done to her and meant now to find the men who had attacked her? Tremayne hesitated, every instinct warning him not to admit to having knowledge of what had happened to her; if she wanted him to know, she would tell him herself. Before he could say anything, she was going on, her voice soft but not at all weak.

"Wherever I choose to go is my own concern. If you'll excuse me, I have a great deal of ground to cover."

She made as if to walk past him, giving him a wide berth, but Tremayne turned with her and fell into step. "I haven't seen the village yet except from a distance."

Roxanne didn't stop walking or look at him, but her fingers tightened around the walking stick. "I don't believe I invited you to accompany me."

"If I waited for that, I've a feeling I should grow old and crotchety before I heard it," he said a bit dryly.

She nearly smiled, but they had reached the forest, and she knew the Sentinels at the gate would soon lose sight of them. Did she really want to be alone in the valley with this male? Even if he seemed different from the other male wizards, a difference that roused strange feelings inside her, and even if Serena and Merlin's odd relationship made such a thing at least imaginable, could she afford the risk?

A part of her wanted to take the risk; but it was impossible, her mind kept insisting. Even if their trip across the valley was peaceful, he was bound to interfere with what she had to do, and the last thing she wanted was to be forced to fight him.

"Roxanne?"

"I don't need your company," she said carefully, refusing to look at him. He was an arm's length away from her side, yet she was overwhelmingly conscious of him, tall and powerful and a wizard. She should be afraid of him, yet she wasn't…

"You will when the Curtain falls," he said matter-of-factly. "If I'm with you when any of the village men see you at night, they'll assume you're my concubine."

"I belong to no man," she said, her intense voice so low, it was almost a whisper.

"I know that, Roxanne. But what's the harm of protecting yourself with a bit of deception? Come, allow me to travel with you, please."

"You ask for too much. I don't know you, but I know what you are, and I have no reason to trust that."

Tremayne was silent for several steps, then said, "At night both of us are unable to use our powers in the valley, and during the day you could injure me as easily as I could injure you; I would say the risk you run in trusting me is a lesser danger than the one you face from the village men. I wish only to be with you, Roxanne. Can't you accept that?"

She was silent.

Still Tremayne felt hopeful. She hadn't said no, after all. He kept his voice easy and neutral. "We should be able to cross the valley and return in two or three days, don't you agree?"

After a moment she said, "That is… the usual time it takes for the trip."

He managed not to yell in triumph and was even able to speak calmly. "Good. Is your mother expecting you?"

"No, though I usually try to visit every few weeks." Roxanne felt guilty as soon as she spoke, but the feeling didn't prevent her from lying to him.

"You plan to be in the village only during the day, of course."

"Of course."

Tremayne thought about it for a moment, then frowned. "Your mother is powerless?"

"Yes."

He looked quickly at her delicate profile, finding her expression a bit tense but composed. "Then your rather is a wizard?"

Guarded blue eyes met his briefly. "Yes," she replied in a flat little voice. "Though, of course, he knows nothing of my existence. If he had known, I would have been killed at birth like all his other female offspring."

Tremayne felt a sudden shock, a peculiar certainty that might have been psychic. "Roxanne… who is your father?"

Her smile was filled with a terrible irony. "Your host and kinsman, Tremayne. Varian is my father."

The male guards and female wizard Sentinels were so astonished when Roxanne walked off with a male wizard that they were drawn several steps away from the gate as they looked after the shocking pair. That was how Kerry was able to slip through the gate and out of the city unnoticed.

On her back she carried a small pack that matched Roxanne's, and she walked with a stick that, also like Roxanne's, was nearly as tall as she was. She managed not to giggle and give her presence away as she snuck out behind the guards and Sentinels, but she was so excited, she could hardly bear it, and nearly danced with delight. In all her eight years, she had never been allowed for enough from the city to lose sight of the gate, and then never alone.

She hadn't been sure she could sneak out when Roxanne left, since children were never allowed out alone, but Tremayne's appearance had provided the distraction that had made her escape possible. And it was an even better game to follow Roxanne when she was with that tall male wizard with the smiling eyes and kind voice. He would tell her more about the sea beyond this valley's mountains; she just knew he would.

And Roxanne wouldn't be too awful mad, surely. After all, Kerry could take care of herself. She had a good sense of direction, she knew how to conjure something simple to eat if she got hungry, she was real good at conjuring fresh water for drinking and mirrors from sand, in case one became necessary, and she had Chloe in her backpack for company.

She slipped into the woods slightly north of Sanctuary's walls and made sure the trees screened her from sight of anyone standing near the gate, then she turned west in the general direction the other two had taken and marched on happily, wondering where Roxanne was going.

The morning air was a bit chilly even after the sun came up, but to Serena it felt good. Still, after she'd followed the stream a few yards and found a level place on the mountainside with a wide, deep pool suitable for bathing, she murmured a quick spell to warm the water to near body temperature to make the bath more enjoyable.

She stepped out of her slippers, then unbuckled her loose belt and dropped it to the bank. She wrestled the robe up over her head and tossed it aside with a sigh of relief; even though Merlin had lined the garment in silk, it was still the bane of her existence-heavy, shapeless, and making every move she made look and feel awkward. The white shift was better, though not by much; it, too, was shapeless, but it was thin, light, and rather silky to the touch. In Sanctuary she'd gotten used to sleeping in it. She drew it up over her head and dropped the garment to the ground, baring her body completely to the chilly, damp morning air.

The net confining her hair was quickly and easily unfastened and discarded, and Serena shook out the long, fiery tresses, running her fingers through them and briefly massaging her scalp. Then she stepped down into the warm water, wading out slowly to the center of the pool. There the water was just deep enough so that when she sat on a flat rock she absently conjured for a seat, it covered her breasts and nearly her shoulders.