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The windows were all ablaze, and Galen could see anxious faces peering out: servants curious about the sudden wind. The princesses’ sitting room was on the third floor, and Galen thought he saw movement there.

But then his attention was caught by a sound that sliced through the wind. A hollow howling sound that was no dog Galen had ever heard. Strange, creeping shapes were coming out of the hedge maze, from behind a fountain shaped like a mermaid, around the corner of the palace. They were like tall men, stooped over.

“Hey, hallo there,” Galen called, his words carried off by the wind. “Hey!”

“Galen!” Walter shouted.

One of the figures lunged at Galen. He brought up his switch just in time and lashed his attacker across the face with it. A surprisingly human cry followed, and the hunched figure fell back. Now more creatures were coming at them, and Galen and Walter whipped at them as best they could.

“Stop there!” With a surge of panic, Galen saw that one of the figures had gone around them and was attempting to climb the ivy on the palace wall. It grew all the way to the princesses’ windows, and though it would not hold a grown man’s weight, these … beings … were slender and seemed almost insubstantial. “I said, stop!” Galen rushed after the figure, switching it across the back.

Above them, a window flew open. One of the princesses, her hair streaming in the wind, leaned out.

“I see you, Rionin,” she cried, her voice rough. She doubled over, coughing. “I see you!” It was Rose. “Go back, and tell him we’re coming.” More coughing, and another girl appeared at the window.

Galen heard a familiar click and froze. The second princess had just cocked a pistol. In the rising moonlight, he could see it in her hand, pointed squarely at the figure Rose called Rionin.

“He’s made his point,” the second princess said, her voice shaking.

Rionin reached up a hand.

Galen brought his rowan switch down just as the pistol went off. The bullet went over their heads and buried itself in the lawn, but Galen didn’t think the princess had meant to hit this Rionin, only warn him.

The figures began to fade back now. Rionin hissed at Galen and then lurched away, hunched in the moonlight and with smoke rising from his back where Galen had struck him.

Walter stumped over and called up to the window, “Your Highnesses, are you all right?”

“Yes, thank you, Walter.” The second princess lowered her pistol, rather unsteadily.

“Careful with that,” Galen yelped.

“She was taught well,” Walter assured him. “Back to bed with you now, young highnesses,” Walter called up to the window.

“But only for a few hours,” Rose said, drooping against the window frame. “We’ll have to go tonight, and it’s not even the third night.”

“I know,” Walter said quietly. The wind had died down, and in the following stillness, the old man’s words were clear.

Rose’s sister pulled her inside, and they latched the window. Cries could be heard now, and shouts, from inside and outside the palace.

“Walter, what just happened?” Galen’s voice shook, but he didn’t care. His skin still prickled, and a cold sweat ran down his back.

“The less you know, the better off you are,” Walter said. He tossed aside his switch. “Dispose of that properly tomorrow,” he grunted. “Moonlight enough to see you home?”

“I—I suppose.”

“Good night, Galen.” And the old man stumped away, leaving Galen with a sick feeling in his stomach, clutching a rowan switch in the moonlight.

Solution

There were … creatures … in Maude’s garden.” With shaking hands, King Gregor reached for the decanter of brandy, but he was too stricken to pour. He drew back and clutched the arms of his leather office chair. “You saw them, Wilhelm.”

“I did, indeed,” Dr. Kelling agreed gravely.

“Creatures?” Bishop Schelker, the bishop of Bruch, stared from Gregor to Kelling and back again. “Wild animals, you mean?”

The king could only shake his head as Dr. Kelling took the decanter and poured them all a glass.

“Men,” the doctor said, “or perhaps ghosts,