She had time for the boy, then. Enough, that she did not need to consider the matter further.
No more than a handful of minutes passed before Cree Bega and his company of Mwellrets appeared out of the gloom, heavy bodies trudging warily through the forest dark, slitted eyes glittering as they caught sight of her. Repulsive creatures! she thought, but she kept her face expressionless. She rose to meet them and stood waiting on their approach.
“Misstress,” their leader, her designated protector, hissed, bowing obsequiously. “Have you found the little peopless?”
“I have decided to leave that to you, Cree Bega. To you and your companions. There has been a battle in the ruins ahead, and those of the Druid’s company who are not dead are scattered. Find them and make them your prisoners. That includes the Druid, should you come upon him and find him helpless enough to subdue.”
“Misstress, I thinkss-“
“Be careful otherwise, because he is more than a match for all of you put together.” She ignored his attempt to speak. “Leave him to me if you find he is able to defend himself. Do not go into the ruins; they are well protected. Do not expose yourself or your men to the danger they pose. Keep a close watch over both airships and do not land them under any circumstances.”
He was watching her closely now, realizing that she had already removed herself from everything she was instructing him to do.
“Something has come up that I must investigate.” She held his reptilian eyes with her steady, calm gaze. “I will be gone for a time, and while I am gone, you will be in charge. Do not fail me.”
For a moment there was no response and she thought he had not understood. “Am I clear on this?”
“Where iss it my misstress goess?” he asked softly. “Our mission iss here-“
“Our mission is where I say it is, Cree Bega.”
Something in the Mwellret’s cold gaze turned suddenly dangerous. “Your masster would not approve of thiss diverssion . . .”
Two quick steps placed her right in front of him. “My master?” There was an uncomfortable silence as she waited on his reply. He stared at her in silence. “I have no master, ret,” she whispered. “You have a master, not I, and he is not here in any case. I am the one you must answer to. I am your mistress. Is there anything else that I need to explain?”
The Mwellret said nothing, but she did not care for what she found in his eyes. She gave him a moment more, then repeated softly, “Is there?”
He shook his head. “Ass you wissh, misstress. Little peopless will be our prissonerss on your return, I promiss. But what of the treassure?”
“We’ll have it soon enough.” She looked away, off in the direction of Castledown. Was that so? Would it be so easy? She thought that her knowledge of the situation gave her an advantage over the Druid, but she could not afford to underestimate the enemy that warded Castledown. If it could defeat the Druid so easily, it was much stronger than she had expected. “Leave the matter of retrieving the treasure to me.”
She dismissed him with barely a glance, then remembered Ryer Ord Star, still kneeling in a huddle to one side, still lost in some other place and time. “Do not harm the girl,” she told Cree Bega, giving him a quick, hard look of warning. “She has been my eyes and ears aboard the Druid’s airship on this voyage. There is much she knows that she has not yet told me. I want her kept safe for my return so that I may discover what she hides.”
The Mwellret nodded, giving the seer a doubtful look. “Thiss one sseemss already dead.”
“She sleeps. She is in a trance of some sort. I haven’t had time to discover what is wrong with her.” She brushed the ret aside. “Just do what I told you. I won’t be long.”
She departed the clearing without a glance back. Cree Bega and the others would do what she had ordered. They would be afraid to do anything else. But she was reminded again that it was growing more difficult to control them. She would be better off without them once she had the treasure in hand. Sometime soon, she would rid herself of them for good.