We are over halfway! Seven chapters left!

Because Meilin liked order, she liked Glengavin. Although the others were horrified by what had happened to the musician the night before, Meilin could see where MacDonnell was coming from.

"What?!" Rollan shouted "You clearly do not understand!" "I do too!" Meilin snapped "I grew up in a "palace," as you call it, where there were laws." "Yeah" Rollan said "But with stupid laws?"

Meilin did not answer. Rollan smiled knowing he won that argument.

The harpist had known the rule. She could have approached MacDonnell with their predicament and asked for a solution. "If you like him so well," Rollan said over an impressive breakfast, "why don't you convince him to let us go see Rumfuss?" Meilin daintily bit into a crumpet. She chewed it and swallowed it entirely before answering, "That is my plan." Finn, on the other side of the long and mostly empty table, looked up from his own meal. "Hospitality is very important in the North, and if we hope to impress Lord MacDonnell into allowing us access to Rumfuss, we must convince him that we are worthy. Where's Abeke?"

"Locked up somewhere" Abeke said

Meilin had just been wondering this herself. Abeke had not returned after going after Uraza this morning. It was possible she'd gotten into trouble. But it was also possible that Abeke was hunting for Rumfuss on her own or otherwise doing something for the Conquerors.

"I'm glad you still trust me" Abeke said sarcastically "You should probably go with the first option"

Meilin didn't know how long it would take for her to trust Abeke.

"Well" Abeke said "Not until…" she counted on her fingers "Book five. I think. Cuz lets see if each book is a mission to hunt the talismans… then yes book five."

All she knew was that it hadn't happened yet. "She went out this morning and hasn't come back yet." Finn narrowed his eyes. "That seems troubling. Meilin, why don't you, Conor, and Rollan go speak to MacDonnell while I look for Abeke? I can move about the castle more safely than you three;I Know more of the customs." And what is it you want us to do?" Rollan demanded. "Be charming?" As Lord MacDonnell entered the room, Meilin stood up and patted her hair. "I don't have a problem with that." She called loudly, "Lord MacDonnell! Good morning!" Behind her back, she gestured for the others to join her. MacDonnell seemed pleased to see them. He boomed, "How are you liking that kilt, Conor? It looks fine on you! You'd be a good addition to Glengavin. You and your wolf." "Briggan is not really mine, my lord," Conor said. "If anything, I suppose I'm his."

Everyone laughed

"Where is he at this fine morning?" Conor held up his arm. Briggan was frozen in mid-flight in the tattoo. "Let that wolf loose!" Conor released the wolf with a brilliant flash. Immediately Briggan frisked around him. Playfully, the wolf took Conor's hand in his mouth. He looked ferocious when he pretended to bite Conor, but he meant it all in good fun. Meilin glanced up to MacDonnell to see what he thought of this. The older man's expression had gone very un-jolly, but it Snapped back into good cheer when he noticed Meilin watching. "What's your surname, boy?" "You mean my last name?" Conor blushed, and Meilin felt bad for him. "I don't have one. I'm just a shepherd's son, my lord." "No shame in that," Lord MacDonnell said. "What's your father's name?" "Fenray." "If you were from Glengavin, you'd be Conor MacFenray," Lord MacDonnell said.

"So that's where you got your last name," Abeke said. "I'm just glad I'm not the only one with a last name" Meilin said

"Mac means son of." Conor tried it. "Conor MacFenray." "You could pick any old last name, you know," Rollan said from just behind them. "Who says you have to have your father's name? I'd pick something like SuperStrongGuy. Rollan SuperStrongGuy. Or Rollan FALCONMASTER."

"Super Strong Guy and Falcon Master?" Abeke said laughing "You weren't even close to being a falcon master"

Both Meilin and Conor raised their eyebrows. Rollan was a long way away from being a falconmaster. With a booming chuckle — always the booming! — Lord MacDonnell led them to an open courtyard in the center of Glengavin. On the grass and under the covered stone walkways, more than forty soldiers in kilts were training. Only, Meilin would not have guessed it was training if Lord MacDonnell hadn't told them. Because instead of engaging in mock battles, the men copied music into decorated books, practiced harp and lute, and recited ballads at each other. Only a few of them had spirit animals, but when they did, the spirit animals seemed content to help them with these strange tasks. Next to one man, a shaggy Highland cow stood patiently as her human partner used her massive horns to hold her elaborate knitting. Another man was aided in his harp-playing by a stoat. It plucked the low notes. He plucked the high ones. Rollan said, "Sweet merciful chicken. What are they training for? Becoming a princess?" "War," Lord MacDonnell said.

"How is knitting and playing a harp gonna help in war?" Abeke asked

"War against princesses?" "War's useless if you don't know how to live with peace," Lord MacDonnell boomed. "Not very long ago, Glengavin had the best soldiers in Eura. But our skill was meaningless. We were almost destroyed by war. All we did was murder each other, and for nothing. Cattle! Glory! We were great warriors, but we didn't know what to do if we weren't fighting." Meilin raised an eyebrow. Finn would have liked to hear this description. "So you turned to the arts." "Exactly," Lord MacDonnell said. "Now we spend equal time on training in the arts as we do keeping our muscles fit." "That's a sweet story," Rollan spoke up. "But what about those musicians last night? The ones that are now scrubbing pots?" Cheeky, Rollan, Meilin thought. Be careful. But Lord MacDonnell merely said, "Disorder leads to war, and I won't risk more war. My castle, my law. It's not difficult to follow the rules."

"Not difficult?!" Rollan said "Your rules suck!"

They stopped to watch two men who were laughing and playing chess. Lord MacDonnell said, "Will you young heroes know what to do when the battle is over? You're spending your childhood saving the world. What happens when it's saved?" "We should be so lucky," Meilin said. Conor said, "I know what I will do. I will return to my family's farm with enough money to pay off our debts, and then I will take my place among my brothers as a shepherd, just like my father before me." No, Conor, Meilin thought. You're forgetting Briggan. You can't take a wolf among the sheep. Rollan's eye briefly caught hers, and Meilin knew that he was thinking the same thing. "My lord," Meilin said, "Speaking of saving the world — the Great Beast, Rumfuss. There's a rumor he's locked in your gardens." MacDonnell continued to stare at one of the chess players for a moment, then turned to Meilin. "Indeed he is." He said this very simply, the same way one might say, "It's a touch rainy today," or "I'm wearing new shoes." She tried to sound quite collected. "We really would like to speak with him." MacDonnell shook his head. "Only I am allowed to hunt in the gardens.

"Really?" Olvan said "Does he know how important that talisman is? Stupid rules"

Even if your hunt is just for a word with the Great Beast. It's for the best — he's a miserable, grumpy creature. He'd likely trample you." "Sir, it's important," Conor said. "It's why we've come all this way." "To collect the talismans. To recapture the power of the Great Beasts. To destroy the invaders." MacDonnell said all this dismissively, like he didn't believe it. "Finn told me last night why it is you seek Rumfuss. The Greencloaks are wrong, if you ask me. No man-made machination could possibly fix soured relationships with spirit animals. Sometimes, things have simply gone too wrong." "How can you believe that with such conviction?" Meilin asked. MacDonnell frowned for a moment, then drummed his fingers together. "l'Il tell you a story. When I was a boy, I was cruel and proud.

"I see where this is going" Lenori said "I'll try my best-"

She didn't finish the sentence

I was the son of a warrior lord. I knew who I was. I knew what I had coming to me." Lord MacDonnell's gaze was far away. "I dreamed of the animal I would summon to be my spirit animal. The North is full of animals that would increase my glory. And yet, when my summoning ceremony happened, I didn't call a hound or a horse or even a fighting badger. I called a hare." Meilin remembered her own Nectar Ceremony. She had been so stunned and disappointed to see a panda instead of a more agile animal. "I was furious," Lord MacDonnell recalled. "A hare! An overgrown rabbit!" Now he ducked his head, and Meilin realized that his expression was one of shame. He had to consider for a long time before he could continue. "I tormented my spirit animal. At best I dismissed him. At worst I taunted him. I knew I was being terrible, but I didn't care. Part of me wanted him to lash back at me. To prove his mettle. But he was loyal to a fault — he swallowed my harsh words and did my bidding like a servant rather than a spirit animal. "One morning, I woke and he was gone. I had driven my spirit animal away." Lord MacDonnell closed his eyes. "Since then, there is a hole in my heart that nothing can fill. All joys and entertainments seem empty, and l'Il never know what the hare and | might have accomplished together. I am going through the motions of leading my people, but nothing truly matters to me. I'm a shell. A creature that was Lord MacDonnell." I will never let that happen to Jhi and me, Meilin vowed. I must treat her better.

"And you two are better" Rollan said

"But part of being a leader," MacDonnell said, straightening a bit, "is thinking about what you want in the future, not what you wanted in the past." He motioned to the chessboard. "This game teaches that strategy. I train my men to be masters of it, so they might succeed where I have failed." "Chess?" Rollan scoffed. "All chess ever taught me is that I should always play cards."

"Which is why you are you" Meilin said. "What?" Rollan said "Smart, handsome, and charming?" "No dummy" Meilin said elbowing him "Dumb"

MacDonnell ignored this and turned to Conor. "Play a round with me?" Conor's head jerked up, utterly horrified. He stammered, "Oh, I don't... I'm not really good at chess." Lord MacDonnell was already pulling out a chair at one of the unoccupied chess tables. He arranged his kilt all around the chair so that nothing too embarrassing was showing. "As I said, Briggan is a great leader. And this game is a lesson all leaders should learn." Meilin, not at all convinced, offered, "You can do it." But she was thinking: Not him! Conor was the least schooled of any of them, except for maybe Rollan. And at least Rollan had street smarts. What had Conor ever learned of strategy and leadership in a sheep pasture? He was going to blow their chance to hunt Rumfuss. "You summoned Briggan, Conor. That means your destiny demands that you become a great leader," Lord MacDonnell said. "Begin." Conor moved a pawn across the beautifully painted chessboard. Lord MacDonnell charged out with a knight. Conor inched out another pawn. Two moves later, one of his pieces fell to Lord MacDonnell. Conor slid his queen out to defend himself. Lord MacDonnell peacefully murdered one of Conor's bishops. Conor threw more pieces in the direction of Lord MacDonnell's king. Lord MacDonnell took several more victims.

"I could have destroyed him" Meilin said "But Conor had to learn how to play"

Just like that, it was over. Lord MacDonnell checkmated Conor's king. He stood up. "Not quite, Conor," he said. I knew it, Meilin thought miserably. I could have done this with my eyes shut! What Is the point of being on a team if you are the strongest one?

"Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, Meilin" Lenori said. "I know" Meilin said "You weren't suppose to know I thought that"

"Please, my lord," Meilin broke in. "We desperately need to speak to Rumfuss. If I could —" "No," Lord MacDonnell said. "Do not ask me again today." Just then, Finn burst from the fortress onto the grass of the courtyard. To Meilin's surprise, he didn't have Abeke with him. Instead, he had that absolutely ridiculous black cat, Kunaya.

"Kunaya is not ridiculous" Abeke said "She saved me"

"Abeke is gone," Finn said. "All I could find was the cat." Meilin snapped, "I knew it!"

"Oops" Meilin said "I thought you went to hunt Devin because I still didn't trust you"

"Look," Finn interrupted. He touched the cat's neck. A piece of string was tied around it — no, not string. Abeke's elephant hair bracelet. Several frantic knots were tied along its length. "A message." "What does it say?" Conor asked. Finn's face was serious. "'Help.' And then: 'Devin hunts Rumfuss.'"

"Uh oh" Rollan said "Dun dun dun"

"Ugh. Stop Rollan" Meilin said "And also. Thanks for volunteering."

She grabbed the book out of Conor's hands and shoved it in Rollan's face.