"You're going to stunt his growth, you know," said Wyrdrune.

Billy's face scowled at him, though it was Merlin behind the scowl.

Makepeace chuckled, then frowned. "Phew! What a stench! How can you smoke

that

stuff?"

The tobacco had mutated its aroma once again, changing to something that

smelled

remarkably like tires burning,

"I don't mean to ask an obvious question," said Jacque-line, "but couldn't

you

use your magic to try to track him down?"

"Not really," Wyrdrune replied. "For the same reason Modred couldn't contact

us

to tell us where he is. Something is interfering. A spell, obviously, a very

strong one. And Modred is also probably in a severely weakened condition."

"And you could not get through to him somehow?" she said.

"Perhaps we could," said Wyrdrune, "but then we'd have to overcome the spell

that's warding him, wherever he is, and that would deplete our energies. And

the

moment we tried it, we'd give ourselves away. It's just what the Dark Ones

want

us to do. They'd realize what we were doing and strike back. Hard. When the

time

comes for that confrontation, and it's coming soon, we'd better be at full

capacity."

"Meanwhile... what if he dies?" Jacqueline asked softly.

"That's a risk we're going to have to take," said Wyrdrune.

Jacqueline's voice took on an edge. "A risk you are going to have to take?

What

risk is there to you?"

"Now you just hold it right there, Frenchy," Kira said.

"Kira—" Wyrdrune said.

"No, screw that! Who the hell does she think she is? I'm not going to let her

get away with that!"

"Come on, Kira, she didn't mean anything. She's just worried, that's all.

We're

all pretty tense."

"Forgive me," Jacqueline said with a sigh. "I apologize. But I still think

there

is something more we should be doing."

"Perhaps there is something we can do," said Blood, looking up from the

newspaper he was reading. "Here we are, waiting for Shavers to come up with

information on Lord Carfax, and there's something about him right here in the

Daily Mail."