Ysabel. Guy Gavriel Kay

a friend.”

      “Yeah, I’m quick that way.”

      Another silence, he was a bit sorry about that one.

      She said, as he’d been pretty sure she would, “Ned, don’t be angry. Doing this is important for me.”

      “Sure,” Ned said. “And you’re doing a lot of good. Stay cool, keep phoning. Don’t worry about us. I’ll get started on my essays soon.”

      She was silent again, he could hear her breathing, far away, could picture her face right now.

      “Bye, Mom,” he said, and hung up.

      It had become necessary to get off the line. He stared down at the phone and took a few deep breaths. He heard his father come back in. He turned around. They looked at each other a moment.

      “Damn it to hell,” said Edward Marriner.

      Ned nodded. “Yeah,” he said, quietly. “Exactly.”

      His father smiled crookedly at him. “Watch your language,” he murmured. And as Ned smiled back, he added, with a rueful shake of his head, “Let’s go for dinner. I’ll let you have a beer.”

      they went to a bistro on the road east, a place out of town towards the mountain, but not so near as to worry Ned about what had happened earlier.

      Melanie had picked the place. She had about twenty restaurants in her notebook: phone numbers, specialties, hours. Probably all the chefs’ names, Ned thought. In green ink.

      Everyone else had some kind of special asparagus appetizer, and fish, but Ned stayed with steak and frites, a chocolate mousse after, and was happy enough. His shoulder hurt but he’d known it would. His father did actually offer him half a beer but Ned passed. He didn’t much like beer.

      His new cellphone rang as they were walking back to the car.

      “Damn,” said Greg. “Damn! I knew it was a hotdate. How does he get chicks to call him so fast?”

      “Better swim trunks,” Melanie said.

      “Right. And how would she know that?”

      “Women know these things,” Melanie said. It was dark in the parking lot, but Ned was pretty sure she winked at him.

      The stars were out by then, winking themselves in a blue-black sky, and the moon, nearly full, had risen while they were inside. He walked away from the others, his sandals crunching on gravel, and answered the phone.

      A woman. Not Kate Wenger.

      “Hello, is this Ned? Ned Marriner?”

      Not a voice he’d ever heard. Speaking English, slight British accent.

      “It’s me. Who is this, please?”

      “It is you. I’m so glad. Ned, listen carefully. Did anyone hear you ask that question? You need to pretend you’re talking to someone you know.”

      “Why do I need to do that?”

      It was curious, he really had never heard this voice, but there was something about it, nonetheless. A variant, a riff.

      “I’ll answer later, I promise. Can you make an excuse to go out for a bit when you get home from dinner? Running, maybe? I’ll meet you.”

      “How do you know I run?”

      “I promise answers. Trust me.”

      “And how do you know this number?”

      “The woman at the house gave it to me. I called there first. Ned, please? We need to meet, somewhere without people.”

      “That’s a bad movie line.”

      She chuckled at that; it made her sound younger. “It is, isn’t it? Meet me alone by the old oak tree?”

      “Then why? Why with no one there?”

      She hesitated.

      He had, with every word she spoke, more of that sense of something almost recognized.

      “Because I can keep track inwardly of anyone approaching,” she said.

      “What? How do you…?”

      “You know how I do that, Ned. Since yesterday.”

      That silenced him pretty fast. He walked a bit farther away.

      His father called. “Ned! You’re keeping people waiting. Bad manners. Phone her back from the villa.”

      He lifted a hand in agreement. “I have to get back to the others. And you still haven’t said who you are.”