The happy secret I was about to tell can wait now. My dingledoody son's wife comes back from the horses and says she saw riders coming! 'Daig hops up. The sooner we get out of the cave, the merrier he'll be. I jump too, since this was what I wanted anyway. Keu gives the toad-mistress a sidelong glance before he lumbers over to the bags of loot. Baine, too, stares at Wintermist in wonderment. 'Daig drags her to her feet.

I scuttle over to grab pack and parcel. In the hurlyburly of our hasty departure, Sean argues with his elf-wife. I hear pain and anger in his voice. She wants to stay here?

That makes me pause. Why? She knows something we don't! What might that be, I wonder?

Well, whatever it is, she don't know what's waiting for us down the road. Nobody does but me!

I slap Sean on the back to hurry him along. "Come on, lad, no time for lovemakin' now! Move!"

Practiced at the art of deception, its understood that we'll all go off in different directions to confuse whoever might want to track us down. They all look to me for a word on where to meet.

"Take yer time, lay low and then we'll meet at sunset. Disguise yerselves well, for we'll meet at An Cailleach Mor.