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mischief and self-importance. This one we can add to our clan as a pet for the atrebuds.
    I smiled. “No, you really don’t want this one,” I said. “It’s very much like the others and the magic keeping it under control will end soon. I don’t think you want to be here when that happens.”
    The Gobbye was angered and rushed toward me. RoseIII and Talew leapt to my defense but I waved them back. “Threaten as you will, there is no way I will give one creature to another to be enslaved. It goes against my ken as a wit.”
    “You can’t tell me what I can and cannot do,” he roared at me.
    “I can and I do. Choose another payment.” I folded my arms to show him I stood firm in my decision.
    The Gobbye moved close, so close I could smell his foul, onion-scented breath. “Perhaps we will keep you then.”
    Alarm jangled along my spine but I held fast. “I think not. Choose again.”
    “I know,” Lise, the Gobbye’s female, said as she moved forward. She leaned to one side, eyes fixed on my face, and chose a stone by feel alone. “Let’s mark her. Use blood as payment.”
    I tried to keep the alarm from my features as I studied her. The male Gobbye said no word of arrest this time, but I glanced at him expectantly.
    “Don’t you know who she is?” Capel said from her position behind Talew. She peeped around and glared at the Gobbye female. “She’s the daughter of DaisyFir Widdershin, Mother of the Widdershin join and of the Witta clan.”
    Lise sneered at Capel, who ducked back behind Talew. “I care not for titles, smooth face. But payment. Payment must be true and fast.”
    I backed away from Lise and held up my hands. “Choose another way. We have many treasures that we can use as payment.”
    “No.” The male Gobbye finally spoke but not in my defense. “Blood is a good honest payment. Blood it is.”
    The Gobbyes, men, women and children, rushed as one toward me. I felt my own little troupe rush toward my back. In my mind, my sense, I clearly saw the injuries that would result from this encounter so I spread my arms wide and stirred magic deep within my core. It radiated out into my arms and the Gobbyes and Meab both recoiled from the energy.
    “Stop!” I cried out. “All of you.”
    I inhaled a deep breath then pushed up the left sleeve of my tunic. “Fine. Blood it will be.”
    I fixed the male Gobbye with a determined stare as I extended my arm to Lise. With my free hand, I made the finger gestures for the relief of pain, wishing that I had a good-sized sprig of rosemary to go along with it.
    Lise took my arm in one hand and her unwashed smell wafted to me. I gagged but managed to get my disgust under control. I watched as she turned the stone in her hand, no doubt seeking the sharpest side, but looked away when I felt the edge against the skin of my inner forearm. I set my teeth together as the edge dug in. I refused to wince and kept my features neutral as I looked at the male Gobbye. I watched as his eyes took on a respectful cast.
    “Lise,” he said quietly. “Enough.”
    The Gobbye woman mercifully took the sharp edge away, but reached down and gathered a handful of dirt and tiny gravel, which she proceeded to rub into the wound. The pain then was unbearable and it was all I could do not to scream. Instead, I lowered my eyes as tears sprouted in them, pretending to examine the wound. It was a narrow, ragged gash, no longer than the length of my hand. It was layered with sandy soil, and I jerked the arm from her so I could shake off the loose pebbles.
    “You belong to us, now,” Lise said jeeringly.
    I blinked my eyes and turned to the male. “Will you allow us peaceful passage?” I asked.
    He inclined his head and the entire group seemed to melt silently into the landscape.
    “Talew, you and RoseIII let the Neisi loose,” I said, wrapping my arm in a scarf I pulled from my bag. “Go downriver some, toward the falls. He’ll get back to his tribe faster that way.”
    “Do