1 THE GOOSE WOMAN No one had ever told Jessica Church how to rescue a girl who was enchanted Yet here she was alone in a strange market somewhere in time trying to help her friend Sarah Maxwell who had been turned into an ermine Jessica sat on a bench away from the bustle of the Travelers Market A beautiful white ermine lay curled in her lap The bench was hidden behind a cartload of apples and she was glad for the temporary cover because she had stolen the long sinewy animal from its cage when the Animal Tamer was distracted Now she had no idea what to do next As she worried she absently stroked the animal’s lithe body Don’t fret I’ll think of something soon Did ermines worry She had no idea Sarah can you understand anything I’m saying A leg twitched Did that mean anything Jessica didn’t know She considered the animal’s bright brown eyes She’d never had a pet She didn’t particularly like animals they were smelly and many of them drooled If only the Greenman was here to help A shout dragged Jessica from her thoughts She startled almost 3
mAurEEN dOYLE mcQuErrY dropping Sarah The ermine squirmed A man’s voice boomed fol lowed by a steady stream of curses Jessica’s fingers tightened around the ermine’s narrow body She could feel the rapid heartbeat the small bones beneath the silken fur The animal twisted in her hands and Jes sica loosened her grip just a little She didn’t want to get bitten again I’m sorry but I don’t know what else to do It felt ridiculous apologizing to an ermine even when that ermine had once been one of her friends Jessica shoved the still-squirming Sarah into a burlap sack The bag bulged and wiggled Claws scrabbled at the fabric She eyed the thumb her friend had bitten when she’d grabbed her from the cage In no time at all Sarah would chew or claw her way through the sack Jessica needed a safe place to hide her friend and fast The shouting subsided Sarah stopped thrashing and the bag on Jessica’s lap lay still Jessica brushed a curly strand of hair from her eyes and took slow deep breaths She needed to put some distance between herself and the scene of the crime Peering out from behind the apple cart she considered her next move Any minute now the Animal Tamer might find her and then what would happen Her memory replayed the Animal Tamer’s laugh as he turned Sarah into an ermine and locked her away Their friend Peter had tried to save Sarah He’d caused a distraction so Jessica could get to the cage And it had worked But distraction hadn’t worked so well for Peter The last Jessica had seen of him was as a slinking brown ferret She shuddered 4
THE TELLING STONE As Jessica watched the crowd an idea unfolded The Travelers Market was bustling with men and women bartering wares buying apples filling their bags with green and gold squash arguing over the price for a cheese Her best hope would be to blend in with the crowd a curly-haired girl carrying a dirty bag that might be full of a day’s pur chases She’d get far enough away from the Animal Tamer’s stall that she’d be able to think clearly and come up with a plan Dusting off her skirt and with a firm grip on the sack Jessica walked briskly into the crowd looking straight ahead as if she had somewhere important to go No one noticed how fast her heart was beating It took great effort not to run Was it only a day ago she’d come to the Market with Sarah and Timothy Maxwell to find a cure for their mother who was desperately ill with rat-bite fever No she reminded herself they hadn’t come to this market between worlds they’d been led there through a portway by a scrawny little man called Nom who looked like a rat himself He had promised this was the place to search for a cure And they’d be given an ointment something that Timothy could take back to his mother But nothing had gone as smoothly as Nom had promised The Dark was already there waiting for them Balor the One-Eyed disguised as the handsome Animal Tamer and Tristan the Master of the Market who was his pawn Behind her something hissed Jessica froze Had she been discov ered Before she could turn something pinched the back of her thigh 5
