10

When I returned to the house, Lena was still asleep. I could hear Gannon’s voice out front, so I wandered out to see what was going on. He was talking to a small woman with dark hair that stood out around her pixie-like face in wild curls. “I know that it can’t be secret if it’s going to Forestal,” she said, her voice piquing. “I don’t care if it’s secret. Just make sure that it gets there before nightfall. If they don’t hear soon, they’ll be worried.”
“I’ll make sure of it,” Gannon reassured her. He tucked the small silver coin that she offered into his belt pouch, and they parted, she hurrying off down the street, and he down the alley toward the barn.
I heard a ladylike voice utter a very unladylike curse, and turned to see Lena hopping up and down, holding her toe, and scowling at the sign of the red mask that lay on the floor. I looked up at the sign yard, and noticed, for the first time, that the sign had been taken down. Just then, Gannon walked in from the back of the house. Lena stopped hopping and stood looking at him primly.
“Breakfast’s ready,” he growled, pointing to the pot over the fire. “I’m going to tie up a few loose ends, and then we’ll be off.” Less than an hour later, the wagon rumbled out of town on its way to Belkeep. Gannon hunched on the left, his mask dangling from its cord around his neck, driving in taciturn silence. Lena perched on the right, acting as if Gannon didn’t exist. I sat sandwiched between them, trying desperately to think of a way to break the awkward silence.
My opportunity came when a question popped into my head. “How do you send a message to Forestal?”
Gannon looked at me, incredulous. “The same way you send a message anywhere,” he answered. “You send a bird.”
“But,” I protested. “Forestal’s in the Deep Weald. There aren’t any Masks there.”
“No, there aren’t,” he agreed. I noticed Lena looking our way. “We can’t send secret messages into the Deep Weald, but they do just fine with regular messages.”
“How do they know how to use the birds?”