A wave of dizziness broke over Maggie. She bentover Sylvia, trying not to clutch at the slender shoulders. All she could see was Sylvia's pale face.
"Please tell me what you did," she whisperedwith passionate intensity. "Please tell me."
"I had him ... changed." The musical voice wasonly a distant murmur now. "Made him a shapeshifter ... and added a spell. So he wouldn'tbe human again until I wanted ..."
"What kind of spell?" Aradia prompted quietly.
Sylvia made a sound like the most faraway ofsighs. "Not anything that you need to deal with,Maiden.... Just take the leather band off his leg.He'll always be a shapeshifter ...but he won't be lost to you...."
Suddenly her voice swelled up a little stronger,and Maggie realized that the bruised eyes werelooking at her with something like Sylvia's oldmalice.
"You're so smart ... I'm sure you can figure outwhich animal ..."
After that a strange sound came out of herthroat, one that Maggie had never heard before.Somehow she knew without being told that itmeant Sylvia was dying-right then.
The body in the green dress arched up once andwent still. Sylvia's head fell back. Her eyes, the color of tear-drenched violets, were open, staringup at the sky, but they seemed oddly flat.
Aradia put a slender dark hand on the paleforehead.
"Goddess of Life, receive this daughter of Hellewise," she said in her soft, ageless voice. "Guideher to the other world." She added, in a whisper,"She takes with her the blessing of all the witches."
Maggie looked up almost fearfully to see if theshining figure who had surrounded Aradia like anaura would come back. But all she saw was Aradia's beautiful face, with its smooth skin the color of coffee with cream and its compassionate blindgaze.
Then Aradia gently moved her hand down to shutSylvia's eyes.
Maggie clenched her teeth, but it was no use.She gasped once, and then somehow she was in the middle of sobbing violently, unable to stop it.But Delos's arms were around her, and she buriedher face in his neck, and that helped. When she gotcontrol of herself a few minutes later, she realizedthat in his arms she felt almost what she had inher dream, that inexpressible sense of peace and security. Of belonging, utterly.
As long as her soulmate was alive, and they weretogether, she would be all right.
Then she noticed that P.J. was pressed up againsther, too, and she let go of Delos to put one armaround the small shaking body.
"You okay, kiddo?" she whispered.
P.J. sniffed. "Yeah. I am, now. It's been prettyscary, but I'm glad it's over."
"And you know," Jeanne said, looking down atSylvia with her hands on her hips, "that's how Iwant to go. Taking my own way out ... and totally pissing everybody off at the end."
Maggie glanced up, startled, and choked. Thenshe gurgled. Then she shook her head, and knewthat her crying spell was over. "I don't even know why I'm like this about her. She wasn't a nice person. I wanted to kill her myself."
"She was a person," Delos said.
Which, Maggie decided, was about the best summing-up anybody could provide.
She realized that Jeanne and Laundress andDelos were looking at her intently, and that Aradia's face was turned her way.
"Well?" Jeanne said. "Do you know? Which animal your brother is?"
"Oh,"Maggie said. "I think so."
She looked at Delos. "Do you happen to knowwhat the name Gavin means? For a shapeshifter?Does it mean falcon?"
His blacklashed golden eyes met hers. "Hawk orfalcon. Yes."
Warm pleasure filled Maggie.
"Then I know," she said simply. She stood up, and Delos came with her as if he belonged by her. "How can we find the falcon she had with her thatfirst day we met? When you were out with the hunting party?"
"It should be in the mews," Delos said.
A fascinated crowd gathered behind them as theywent. Maggie recognized Old Mender, smiling and cackling, and Soaker, not looking frightened anymore, and Chamber-pot Emptier ...
"We really need to get you guys some newnames," she muttered. "Can you just pick one or something?"
The big girl with the moon face and the gentleeyes smiled at her shyly. "I heard of a noble named Hortense once... ."
"That's good," Maggie said, after just the slightestpause. "Yeah, that's great. I mean, comparatively."
They reached the mews, which was a dark littleroom near the stable, with perches all over thewalls. The falcons were upset and distracted, and the air was full of flapping wings. They all lookedalike to Maggie.
"It would be a new bird," Delos said. "I thinkmaybe that one. Is the falconer here?"
While everyone milled around looking for him, Jeanne edged close to Maggie.
"What I want to know is how you know. How didyou even know Gavin was a shapeshifter at all?"
"I didn't-but it was sort of logical. After all, Bernwas one. They both seemed to have the same kind of senses. And Aradia said that Sylvia took care of Miles down at her apartment, and Bern and Gavinwere both there. So it seemed natural that maybeshe made one of them pass the curse along toMiles."
'But why did you figure Gavin was a falcon?"
"I don't know," Maggie said slowly. "I justwell,he looked a little bit like one. Sort of thin andgolden. But it was more things that happened-he got away from Delos and over to the hunting party too fast to have gone by ground. I didn't really think about it much then, but it must have stuckat the back of my mind."
Jeanne gave her a narrow sideways glance. "Stilldoesn't sound like enough."
"No-but mostly, it was that Milesjust had to bea falcon. It had to be something small-Sylviawould hardly be carrying a pigora tiger or a beararound with her up the mountain. And I saw herwith a falcon that first day. It was something she could keep near her, something that she could control. Something that was an-accessory. It just allmade sense."