Bektis did well, he thought, to summon the anger of the snows. It was certain that nothing less would stop her.

"Gil and the Icefalcon are with me," Rudy went on. "We're going to try to overtake them and hold them if we can. Tell her to get Janus and a party of Guards out after us ASAP."

He used a colloquial shortening of the phrase as soon as possible transliterated from their outland tongue-the outland trick of using the initial letters of each word in a phrase to represent the phrase itself was one that was creeping steadily into the Wathe as well.

"Tell her not to worry." Another foolishness, in the Icefalcon's opinion. "We'll bring him back."

Given that Rudy was a seven-year apprentice in arts that Bektis had studied through his lifetime, the statement was wildly optimistic to say the least, but the Icefalcon did not remark on it. Rudy started to put the crystal away, then changed his mind and gazed into it again, bending his head and hunching his shoulders to shield his eyes from the wind.

"Ingold?" he said softly. "You there, man?"

The merchant who had brought Ingold word of the library cache at Gae had said that it was in a villa on the town's far side, an area largely under water now.

The Icefalcon had accompanied the wizard on last summer's quest-when Gil's baby Mithyas had been only a few months old-and had familiarized himself with the city in its new state: sodden, ruined, head-high with cattail and sedges and creeping with ghouls. The old man would have to watch his back.

Ingold was evidently there.

"Look, you got to get back here. A wizard showed up at the Keep-Bektis, the Icefalcon thinks, and I agree with him. He's snatched Tir."

At least Ingold seemed to have no extraneous comment to make. "He's taking him over Sarda Pass. Me and Gil and the Icefalcon are on their trail, and we're going to try to hold them until the Guards come up, but it's gonna be rough. I don't know what's going on, but I got to get going now. I'll be in touch, okay?"