"It would appear that my choice of outfits has turned out to be rather costly," Zedd observed.

The burly innkeeper smiled with one side of his mouth as he held out a meaty hand, palm up. "The price is the price. You want a room, or not?" Zedd dropped a single silver in the man's hand.

"Third door on the left." He nodded his head of curly brown hair toward the hall in the back. "Interested in company, old man?"

"You'd have to share it with the lady who called. I was thinking you might be interested in a bit more profit. A considerable bit more."

The man's brow twitched with curiosity as he closed his fist around the silver coin. "Meaning?"

"Well, I heard a dear old friend of mine has been known to stop here. I've not seen him in quite a while. If he were here, tonight, and you could direct me to his room. I'd be so overwhelmed with joy and happiness to see him again that I'd foolishly part with a gold piece. A full gold piece."

The man looked him up and down again. "This friend of yours have a name?"

"Well," Zedd said in a low voice, "like many of your other patrons, he has a problem with names-he can't seem to remember them for very long, and has to keep thinking up new ones. But I can tell you that he's tall, older, and with white hair down to his broad shoulders."

The man stroked his tongue across the inside of his cheek. "He's. . busy at the moment."

Zedd produced the gold piece, but pulled it back when the innkeeper reached for it. "So you say. I'd like to decide for myself just how busy he is." "Then it's another silver."

Zedd forced himself to keep his voice down. "For what?" "For the lady's time and company." "I've no intention of availing myself of your lady."

"So you say. When you see her with him, you might have a change of mood, and decide to try to rekindle your. . youth. It's my policy to collect the money first. If she tells me you gave her no more than a smile, then you can have the silver back."

Zedd knew there was no chance of that. It would be his word against hers, and her word would carry the sweet ring of extra profit, if not the truth. But in the scheme of things, the price was of no consequence, no matter how much it irked him. Zedd dug into an inner pocket and handed over the silver coin.

"Last room on the right," the innkeeper said as he turned away. He turned back to Zedd. "And we have a guest in the next room who doesn't want to be disturbed." "I won't bother your guests."

He gave Zedd a cunning grin. "Plain as she is, I offered her a little companionship-no extra charge-and she told me that if anyone disturbed her rest, she'd skin me alive. A woman with enough brass to come in here alone, I believe her. I'm not giving her her silver piece back if you wake her. I'll take it out of your hide. Understand?"

Zedd nodded absently as he gave brief consideration to asking for a meal-he was hungry-but reluctantly dismissed the thought.

"Would you happen to have a back door, in case I. . need some night air?" Zedd didn't want Nathan slipping out the wrong door. "I'd understand if it cost extra."

"We're backed up to the blacksmith's shop," the innkeeper said as he walked away. "There's no other door."

Last room on the right. Only one way in. One way out. Something about this was wrong. Nathan wouldn't be so foolish. Yet Zedd could feel the air crackling with the magic of his link.

As dubious as he was that Nathan would be so conveniently bedded down for them, he moved silently down the dark hall. He listened intently for anything out of the ordinary, but heard only the well-practiced, feigned sounds of passion from a woman in the second room to the left.

The end of the hall was lit by a single candle on a wooden bracket to the side. From the next to last room Zedd could hear the soft snores of the brassy lady who didn't want to be disturbed. He hoped it wouldn't come to that, and that she would sleep through the whole thing. Zedd put his ear close to the last door on the right. He heard soft, throaty laughter from a woman. If this went wrong, she might be hurt. If it went very wrong, she might be killed.

He could wait, but having Nathan distracted would certainly be convenient. The man was a wizard, after all. Zedd didn't know how strongly Nathan felt about being captured.

Zedd knew how he would feel about it. That decided him. He couldn't afford not to take the opportunity of the distraction.

Zedd threw open the door, casting a hand out, igniting the air with silent, confusing flashes of heat and light.

The naked couple on the bed cringed away, covering their eyes. With a fist of air, Zedd threw Nathan off the woman and over the far side of the bed. With Nathan grunting and flailing at the air, Zedd seized the woman's wrist and threw her back out of the way. She snatched a sheet with her.

As the flashes of light sparked out, and before she was even able to throw the sheet around herself, Zedd loosed a web, paralyzing her where she stood. Almost simultaneously, he cast a similar web at the man behind the bed, except this web was laced with serious consequences should he try to fend it off with magic of his own. This was no time to be polite, or indulgent.

With hardly a sound, other than a bit of thumping onto the floor, the gloomy room was suddenly silent. Only a single candle on a washstand flickered weakly. Zedd was relieved it had gone so well, and he hadn't had to hurt the woman.

He rounded the bottom of the bed to see the man on the floor, frozen in place, his mouth opened in the beginning of a scream, his hands clawed to defend himself. It wasn't Nathan.

Zedd stared in disbelief. He could feel the magic of the hook in the room. He knew this was who he had been chasing.

He leaned over the man. "I know you can hear me, so listen carefully. I'm going to release the magic holding you, but if you cry out I will put it back on and leave you like that forever. Think carefully before you dare to call for help. As you may have already surmised, I'm a wizard, and anyone who comes will not be able to do anything to save you, should you displease me."

Zedd passed his hand before the man pulling back the veil of the web. The man scooted back to the wall, but he remained silent. He was older, but not as old as Nathan appeared. His hair was white, but wavy, rather than Nathan's straight hair. It wasn't as long, either, but the short description Zedd had given the innkeeper would have been close enough for him to think this was the man Zedd sought. "Who are you?" Zedd asked. "William's my name. You'd be Zedd." Zedd straightened. "How do you know that?"

"The fellow you'd be looking for told me." He gestured toward the nearby chair. "Mind if I pull on my trousers? I have a feeling I'll not be needing them off anymore tonight."

Zedd tilted his head toward the chair, signaling for William to go ahead. "Talk while you do it. And keep in mind what I told you about my being a wizard. I know when a man is telling me a lie. Keep in mind, too, that I'm suddenly in a very foul mood."

Zedd wasn't exactly telling the truth about being able to detect a lie, but he reasoned that the man didn't know that. He was, however, telling the truth about his mood.

"I ran into the man you were chasing. He didn't tell me his name. He offered me…" William glanced to the woman as he pulled the trousers up. "Can she hear this?"

"Don't you worry about her. Worry abut me." Zedd gritted his teeth. "Talk." "Well, he offered me…" He peered at the woman. Her wrinkled face was frozen in a startled expression. "He offered me a. . purse, if I'd do him a favor." "What favor?"

"Taking his place. He told me to ride like the Keeper himself was after me until I got at least this far. He said that when I got here, I could slow, rest, or stop, whatever my choice. He told me that you'd be catching up with me." "And he wanted that?"