"When the demonslavers, as you call them, first invaded the mansion, they came upon me here in this room. Strangely, they had their own list of requirements, just as you do. Then they held me as they went about selecting various herbs and oils, packed them up, and took them away before the mixing started. It took some time to search them all out. But in truth the job was not difficult, since all of the vessels were clearly marked. Master Faegan is nothing if not organized, you know. Then this group of slavers left quickly with their stolen goods, and I think they may have escaped you. And if that is true, then Krassus is now in possession of the very items you came here to procure. I suspect Krassus' herbmistress is either running low on stores, or she wishes to try new ingredients in her quest to view Wulfgar and the scrolls. Either way, she now has the means to do the job. He is a very clever fellow, this Krassus, yes, he is."

"But how could Krassus have known all of this was here?" Celeste asked. "Shadowood was supposed to have been one of the Directorate's greatest secrets, was it not?"

"I already know how," Shailiha answered sadly, shaking her head. "That day in the palace-the day Krassus materialized out of nothing. It is something I shall never forget. Remember how he violated Wigg and Faegan's minds? From Wigg he gleaned the existence of Shadowood. And from Faegan he learned the whereabouts of his stores and library. He claimed he was searching their memories for information about Wulfgar and the scrolls, but he found much, much more, and he never ever let on."

Suddenly thinking of Tristan, Shailiha's heart fell. But then something began prodding the back of her mind-something that had been bothering her ever since she had first seen the slavers in the glade.

"But Shadowood is protected from the rest of Eutracia by enchantments," she mused, "including the invisible canyon that surrounds it, the deadly forest, and the tunnel of bones. Isn't that so? And the slavers can't fly. Or at least I have never seen one do so. So how did they get here safely? I can't imagine the wizards' protective mechanisms all failing at once. It doesn't make any sense."

"If your assumptions are true about Krassus more completely violating my father's mind than we first thought, then he would have known about those dangers, as well," Celeste said, rubbing her brow. "But that still doesn't explain how he overcame them."

"I think I know," Lionel said quietly.

"How?" the two women asked in one voice.

"I believe the slavers came by sea," Lionel answered, "rather than overland, through Eutracia. When Shadowood was created during the Sorceresses' War, the wizards of the Directorate were far more concerned about invasion from the land side than from the ocean. Remember, at that time the sorceresses of the Coven were their great concern, and the Coven's armies were approaching from the west. The only safeguard on the eastern side is the Sea of Whispers, and the invisible canyon. If Krassus already knew of the canyon, getting his slavers over it might not have been so difficult. Especially if he is now as powerful a wizard as Master Faegan's letter suggests. Remember, the canyon was made to keep out those who didn't know it existed, rather than those who did. It's invisible only to the untrained. There are many ways that an accomplished wizard might cross it, though Master Faegan would know much more about that than I."

He paused for a moment.

"The slavers that took the goods are now long gone," he finally added. "In fact, there is most probably another ship still anchored just offshore, waiting for the ones that you killed."

Suddenly it all made perfect, tragic sense. Seething in her newfound knowledge, Shailiha yearned desperately to rush right to the coast, where Celeste could use her powers to blow that ship out of the water, along with any demonslavers that might still be aboard. But she knew that she couldn't. Gathering up whatever herbs and oils which were still salvageable and getting them safely back to Faegan and Abbey simply had to take priority. Krassus, she realized, had bested them at every turn. She turned back to Lionel.

"So what do we do now?" she asked urgently. "Are any of these mixed herbs or oils still useful?"

Lionel sighed. "Some, yes. But the rest must first be separated again, then tested to see how and to what extent their potency has been altered. Even then I cannot be sure how they will react if used. Something like this has never happened before on so grand a scale."

Curious, Celeste walked over to one of the canvas bags. Bending down, she untied the cinched rope at its top and reached in. She came back with a handful of what appeared to be ground-up, multicolored leaves. "Isn't there any way to tell what these herbs are?" she asked the gnome.

"Bring them over to me and I will try," Lionel said. "But don't expect too much, no, do not."

Celeste carefully emptied her handful of herbs onto the tabletop. From another area of the table, Lionel produced a magnifying glass. Peering through the glass, he pushed and prodded at the herbs. Then he bent over and sniffed at them. His face fell.

"This is even worse than I thought, yes, it is," he said, shaking his head. "There is an absolute riot of colors and odors in this handful alone. Too many to even try to count." Lifting his small head, he looked forlornly at the canvas bags lying on the opposite side of the room.

"This could take years, perhaps even lifetimes to unravel," he added. "And from what I glean from Master Faegan's letter, we don't have that kind of time. Still, even on a small scale it is worth trying before I send you back."

Reaching across the table, he picked up what he had referred to earlier as his equalizing spoons. Unhooking the ring that held them together, he placed them on the table in a neat row. There appeared to be about a dozen of them. He put a small amount of the herb mixture into each one, then sat back and closed his eyes.

"E'masteratu, ventricumtitas, didebfan, sente!" he chanted deeply. Almost immediately, the spoons began to move.

Shailiha and Celeste watched, spellbound, as the line of spoons rose into the air over the tabletop. Lionel opened his eyes. "Watch carefully," he said.

The wooden spoons began to shake back and forth, spilling some of their precious contents onto the table. As they did, they rose a bit higher, each to a different level. Then they came to hover in a neat, level row once again. When they had finally all stopped moving, Lionel spoke again.

"R'santos, tenticualrem, wensicat!"

The spoons obediently lowered themselves back down to the table. Curious, Shailiha and Celeste looked down into them.

There was now a different color and amount of herb in each spoon.

"Each spoon now only contains one kind of herb, doesn't it?" Shailiha asked. "But gnomes don't have endowed blood. How could you make this happen?"

"And that was Old Eutracian you were speaking, wasn't it?" Celeste interjected. "How does a Shadowood gnome come to know Old Eutracian?"

Lionel chuckled. "Master Faegan is indeed wise," he answered. "He took the liberty of enchanting these spoons centuries ago, for just such an emergency as this-namely, the untangling of mixed herbs. They are enchanted to react to anyone who recites the proper phrases in Old Eutracian. One need not be of endowed blood to make them work-one need only be able to say the commands correctly. There are other items here in the herb cubiculum that the master enchanted so that I might be able to use them if need be. And it certainly seems our day has come. Still, this only solves part of the problem, and only to a very minor degree. I'm afraid the most difficult part is yet to come."

Hopping down off his stool, Lionel beckoned the women to follow him over to what appeared to be a bare wooden wall. He raised his hands.