« Maybe. Maybe not.» He looked off into the gardens, into the pale, shifting patterns of color and the dappled shadows cast by the Druids and Gnome Hunters in the firelight’s glow. «In any case, it’s the only choice that makes sense.» He turned back to Tagwen. «If I agree to go with them, will that tall Druid keep his word and let you go? Is his word any good? Is he any better than the rest of them?»

  Tagwen thought about it a moment. «Traunt Rowan. He’s not as bad as the other one, Pyson Wence, and certainly not as bad as Shadea. But he joined them in the plot against your aunt.» He shook his head. «She always thought he was principled, if misguided in his antipathy toward her. He might keep his word.»

  Pen nodded. «I’ll have to chance it.»

  The Dwarf reached for him with both strong hands and gripped his shoulders. «Don’t do this, Penderrin,” he whispered.

  Pen held his gaze. «If you were in my shoes, Tagwen, wouldn’t you? To save her from the Forbidding, to give her a chance, wouldn’t you do just what I’m doing?» Tagwen stared at him in silence. He gave the Dwarf a quick smile. «Of course you would. Don’t say anything more. I’ve already said it to myself. We knew from the beginning that we would do whatever was necessary to reach her, no matter the risk. We knew it, even if we didn’t talk about it. Nothing has changed. I have to go to Paranor. Then into the Forbidding.»

  He closed his eyes against the sudden panic that the words roused in him. The enormity of what he was going to attempt was overwhelming. He was just a boy. He wasn’t gifted or skilled or anything useful. He was mostly just there when no one else was.