Go.” Granmare pointed at the door. “Let me work in peace.” Balthazar didn’t look back when he left. “Now, my dear,” the witch turned to her, “let me give you what that foolish boy paid for.” “He’s not foolish,” Arianne said. For giving a drop of his blood, the least she could do was defend the annoying oaf. “He’s going out of his way to help me, so if there’s anyone foolish here it’s me.” “My, my, my.” Granmare Baba gasped, spreading her hand at the center of her chest. “You have a mouth on you. I will so enjoy watching what happens to you when the time comes.” A chill went down Arianne’s back. She’d almost been afraid to ask, “What do you mean?” Granmare Baba only smiled her yellow toothy smile before she went about putting things together in a large cauldron that seemed to have magically appeared in the center of the round room.