The Book of Fire by Marjorie B. Kellogg Page B

but . . .”
    “But? There’s something more important than Fra Guill?”
    Spoken aloud, the priest’s nickname made her shiver. “I don’t know. It’s all mixed up together.” There was a larger significance to these dreams than her own confused feelings, and it was her duty to reveal them. “Fra Guill is part of it, but . . . well, um . . . what would you say if you had dreams, I mean, really
real
dreams, as if you’d actually traveled there, about someone you knew was your enemy, and he’s there in your dream and you’re almost talking to him and he doesn’t seem like he could really be your enemy, and then suddenly he isn’t, because the real enemy is someone else?”
    “Goodness. Breathe, child!”
    Erde realized she hadn’t been.
    Rose waited a moment before asking, “Does this no-longer-an-enemy have a name?”
    Erde nodded. The hardest part of all was going to be speaking it out loud. Her lips moved uselessly.
    “Haven’t we been through this before?”
    “No, this is different. It’s not Rainer.” Whose name had lodged in her throat the night she’d thought him murdered by her father’s order, and rendered her mute for months until she had discovered him alive again. “I mean, I can say the name. I just . . .”
    “Then just say it and get it over with.”
    “Adolphus of Köthen.”
    Rose sat back a little. “Dolph? You’ve been dreaming about Dolph?”
    Rose was surprised, but Erde was even more so, to hear Baron Köthen spoken of so familiarly by someone without estates or title. Or perhaps Deep Moor was Rose’s estate. Erde had never thought to ask. Now she nodded and braced herself for ridicule. But Rose pursed her lips thoughtfully. Raven glided past behind them, trailing a fond hand across their shoulders. Rose caught the hand and held it. “You might want to hear this.”
    Raven leaned over. “Is that all right, sweeting? Do you mind?”
    Erde shrugged. Her humiliation might as well be total.
    Raven sat, reaching for Erde’s hand to press it lightly between her own.
    “Our Erde has been dreaming about Adolphus of Köthen,” Rose announced.
    “Really?” Raven laughed deep in her throat. “Can’t say as I blame her.”
    Erde looked down, heat and confusion flooding her cheeks already.
    “Raven, please . . .”
    “Can’t I compliment her on her good taste?”
    “Just listen,” said Rose irritably.
    “I don’t understand . . .” Erde began.
    Raven squeezed her hand. “Don’t feel badly, sweeting. It’s all rather . . . complicated. Isn’t it, Rose?”
    “I think we’ll leave your past out of this for now,” said Rose. “Now, child, when you left for, well, this other place you’ve been, Baron Köthen was in revolt with your father and Fra Guill to usurp the King. So you must have had news of the war since you returned, yes? I mean, about Dolph’s, shall we say, conversion?”
    “Conversion?” She needed to hear it again. She needed it confirmed. Beyond all misunderstanding.
    “You heard he switched sides.”
    The smile bloomed on Erde’s face before she could take control of it. Her dreams had been true. “And is he now leading the King’s armies to victory?”
    Rose and Raven exchanged glances.
    “No,” said Raven. “Not exactly . . .”
    Erde’s heart contracted. They were telling her he was dead. And since her dreams had been true, she knew how it had occurred.
    Rose laid a hand on her wrist. “If you’ve not had news, why did you say he was no longer your enemy?”
    Now that Baron Köthen’s name was on the table, the rest of the tale came out in a rush. “Because I dreamed it. That’s what I’m telling you. I saw the enemy camp. I saw my father in it. I saw everything that happened: the hell-priest murdering poor Prince Carl and making it look like suicide, then trying to blame it on Baron Köthen, and when that didn’t work, accusing him of witchcraft and heretical practices, so that the only thing left for the