Preparations for our trip were hectic, but they would’ve been a lot more hectic if it wasn’t for Iset.

Gladwyn wanted us down at Sauvage Preserve as soon as possible. Jacky agreed, and he was on both of the Torrs that we had to deal with when addressing the ridiculous amount of bureaucracy required to allow Kappa and Conrad to move around. He was able to rush things through by making a few phone calls and intoning vague and ominous statements to the unfortunate person on the other end. That cut the amount of time we had to prepare down from a month to only four days.

Conrad was unruffled. I was pretty sure he could’ve prepared for a spontaneous trip to Africa in under an hour.

It wasn’t hard for me either. All I needed to do was commit to a pack I was willing to buy and order it.

The troublesome one turned out to be the star of our excursion: Kappa.

Bog-monsters don’t travel well.

“Geez!” I said while flipping through the three pages of notes Iset had created to help streamline our work. “How did you get him here in the first place?”

“Darius brought him home,” Iset said. She had a pen in hand and was halfway done creating page four. “He was unconscious at the time.”

I stopped flipping and looked at her.

She paused but didn’t raise her head. “It took him two days to wake up, and another two months to recover.”

“He was sick?”

She put her pen down. “Sick, malnourished, and injured. Dr. Belliston was here nearly every day. When he wasn’t here, he was doing research or calling up other experts. I had to tend Kappa through the night.”

“What happened to him?”

I was standing beside the desk chair she was seated at, so she had to raise her head to look at me. “We aren’t completely sure. Darius was called in because Kappa had been spotted several times by mundanes. He was out of his territory.”

“What territory?”

“There were two or three colonies he could’ve come from, but he was so far away from all of them, it was impossible to tell.”

Colonies.

I hadn’t read all—or, any, really—of the report Iset had printed out for me about Innt. P. vigiles, but I’d glanced at the first page. It had talked about how they were social creatures.

My heart sank. “He was alone?”

“Yes.”

“Was he lost?”

“It’s been busy hasn’t it?”

“Huh?”

“How much of my report have you been able to get through?”

I decided that the rug under my feet desperately needed an immediate visual inspection, and cleared my throat.

Iset went on, “Bog-monsters don’t get lost. That’s part of what defines their territory. They have complex mental maps connected to several different senses that help them navigate as long as they’re within a given range of their home. We tested Kappa’s ability and senses, and they’re all fine. He left his colony on purpose.”

“I thought you said he was a child!”

“For his species, he is.”

“How did you test his ability to navigate if it’s built around their home?”

“By that time he was attached to the mansion and its grounds.”

“And his colony?”

“That’s us.”

That night I squeezed Kappa extra hard during his goodnight hug, and I only let go because he yelped in my ear and squirmed out of my arms.

Conrad offered to take care of the Torr stuff so I could concentrate on the Kappa side of things. I touched bases with him every day to make sure I knew what was coming, then Iset and I would get together and brainstorm how to make our journey as smooth as possible.

The raincoat was a brilliant touch. Iset warned me that Kappa would probably want to cuddle as much as possible during the trip as a way of coping with his anxiety. When I joked about buying a raincoat to keep my clothes from getting soaked from the water he secreted, she pointed out that if we bought it for him, it’d slow down the rate the water evaporated from his skin, and I could pull up the hood if I ever needed to hide him.

We found a few that were close to Kappa’s size online. I insisted that he needed the bright yellow one.

Upon its arrival, preparations were delayed because I had to take a thousand pictures of Kappa while cooing at him and telling him that he was the cutest thing in the whole universe. Then we were able to get back to business.

The four days flew by, and early in the afternoon, on the day of our departure, our ride to the airfield arrived to pick us up. It was a limousine. It wasn’t a stretch limousine, but the humbler version (if there is such a thing) still had the all-important tinted windows to make sure that no one could see the passengers inside.

Conrad, Kappa, Iset, and I were in the front hall. Kappa was playing with the cuffed-up sleeves of his oversized raincoat, and Conrad was waiting off to the side while Iset double-checked everything with me and worried over a thousand details.

“You have to be careful of how much salt he eats,” she reminded me.

“I know. We’ll be careful.”

“Do you have the rag strips?”

“They’re in his bag.”

“What about Dr. Belliston’s number?”

“You watched me put it in this morning,” I assured her.

That’s what she needed—assurance. It was easy to see she was nervous, and my heart went out to her.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

I put my hand on her bandaged arm. “It’s okay, Iset. We’ve got everything.”

She paused, then nodded to herself. “You’re right.” She stepped to the side. “Kappa?”

Kappa walked over. He was standing upright. His webbed feet poked out from underneath the rain coat. “Iset!”

When she opened her arms, he jumped into them.

Once she had him perched on her hip, she used her free hand to gather up his hands, and she put her head close to his. “You’ll be a good boy, won’t you?”

“Yes!” he cried.

“You’ll listen to Conrad and Emerra?”

“Mera-mera!”

“And when you’re all done, Conrad and Emerra will bring you home, okay?”

“Kay!”

Her hand tightened over his hands. “Don’t forget to come home.”

The area between Kappa’s two eyes wrinkled with confusion. He tilted his head.

Iset’s shoulders shook with her silent laugh. “Be careful,” she ordered.

“Kay!”

Conrad picked up his bag, my bag, and the bag with all of Kappa’s stuff, then walked over and held out his spare arm toward Iset.

“Up you get,” Conrad said.

Kappa jumped from Iset to the wolfman and scampered up to his shoulders.

To me, Conrad said. “I’ll help get our luggage out to the car.”

Sure, I thought, “help,” as opposed to doing it all one-handed.

“Is there anything Kappa needs for the ride to the airfield?” he asked.

“There’s a hard chew toy in the front pocket of his bag. We shouldn’t need it, but I’d rather have it, just in case.”

He nodded and went out the door, leaving it open behind him. I heard him greet our driver, Mr. Hobbs.

“Remember,” Iset said, “you can call me, any time, day or night, if you have any problems or questions.”

“You really love Kappa, don’t you?” I said with a smile.

The mummy sighed. “I never realized how attached I’ve become. He’s been with us for almost fourteen years, and this is the first time he’s ever left the mansion for more than a few hours. I think I took it for granted that he’d always be here.”

“Don’t worry, Iset. I promise I’ll bring him home.”

She put her hand on my shoulder. “That means you have to come home safe too.”

“I guarantee it.” I winked at her.

Her hand tightened on my shoulder, then she pulled me into a hug. Feeling surprised and delighted, I gingerly put my arms around her frail body. I didn’t dare squeeze, but it felt nice to hold her. A faint exotic scent that I couldn’t recognize filled my nose. As I closed my eyes, I thought I caught a glimpse of long coily black hair by my face.

Iset didn’t have any hair, but it didn’t matter. When you have a set of unreliable magical eyes stuck in your head, you get used to seeing things.

We let go of each other at the same time.

She had one last nag saved up for me. “Try to stay out of trouble, Emerra. At least as much as you can.”

I laughed. “One of these days, I’m going to surprise all of you with how responsible and boring I am.”

Iset sounded amused. “I look forward to it.”

I waved to her, then headed out to the limo. Hobbs, in his neat black suit, was standing by the open driver’s side rear door.

“Good afternoon, Miss Cole.”

“Good afternoon, Hobbs.” As I slid into the car, I asked, “Are you the only driver for this Torr, or did you just get lucky?”

“There are a few other drivers, ma’am, but I’m the only one that’s completed all the extra training.”

Extra training?

I would’ve asked him what he meant, but he’d already shut the door, and I had to convince Kappa that licking the neon light strip running around the interior of the limo wasn’t a good idea.

When we made it to the airfield, the standard entourage was there to greet us—two people in black suits and ties, flanking the short walk to our private jet.

One of them opened our car door while Hobbs got out our luggage.

“It’s all clear, Mr. Bauer.”

With that kind of greeting, Conrad had to take the lead. He stepped out of the car and rose to his full and impressive height. For the life of me, I couldn’t tell if he was supposed to be the action-hero movie star or a bodyguard. Limos are confusing like that.

If he was the bodyguard, that meant I was the personal assistant to the VIP, who, unfortunately, was already starting to show his nerves.

A few miles away from the airfield, Kappa had curled up against my chest, resting his cheek just below my collar bone and holding his chew toy with both hands while gnashing away at it. He insisted that I keep the hood of his jacket up, and every once in a while, he’d let out a quiet, heart-breaking whimper.

Since he was in no mood to let go of me, getting out of the limo was difficult, but Conrad was there to offer me a hand up. (Definitely a bodyguard.)

The plane was smaller than the last one the Torr had let us borrow, but it was still more luxury than I was used to. I didn’t have the bank balance needed to feel comfortable in a jet like that. I kept worrying I might break something.

There was only one pilot this time. He was waiting by the door to greet us.

“Mr. Bauer, Miss Cole, welcome aboard.”

“Thank you,” Conrad said.

“We’ll be ready to take off as soon as you’re settled.”

Conrad nodded. He could hide how shy he was if the situation required it, but he wasn’t going to volunteer to chat.

The pilot turned to me and the yellow raincoat in my arms. “Is this our third passenger?”

Kappa buried his face in my chest.

“Sorry,” I said. “He’s having a rough time right now. Yes. This is Kappa.”

The pilot nodded in a friendly way—which was about the only reasonable response, considering the situation—then he pointed out where the snacks and drinks were, told us when we could expect to arrive at our destination, warned us to expect some turbulence early in our flight, and left for the cockpit.

Conrad put the bags away, making sure that Kappa’s was the easiest to get to. That done, he came over to join me and Kappa. I had claimed one of the four full-sized recliners that they’d passed off as airplane seats, and I was trying to wrangle Kappa into the one beside me. It was like wrestling with a very vocal wet bar of soap that was determined to sit in my lap.

“Kappa, please!” I begged. “It’s just for takeoff.”

He gnashed his teeth at me.

“Kappa,” Conrad snapped.

Kappa stopped struggling. Under his hood, the fin on the top of his head eased down.

The wolfman hunkered until his eyes were level with the bog-monster’s. “Are you angry?”

Kappa nodded.

“Are you sad and scared?”

Kappa nodded again.

“Yeah,” Conrad said. “I don’t like traveling either. Do you want to make Mera angry and sad?”

I opened my mouth to object, but then I thought better and closed it.

“No,” Kappa said.

His voice was so small and pathetic that I wanted to throw out all the rules about seat belts, scoop him up, and tell him not to worry—that he could never, ever make me sad.

Fortunately, Conrad spoke first. He nodded to the chair. “Sit back for a few minutes.”

Kappa settled down and let me put the seat belt on him. I sat back with a sigh.

Conrad sat in the chair facing me. “Is he going to be okay?”

“Yes and no,” I said.

Now that Kappa was sitting properly in the chair, he had the chance to look around the airplane. His wide-open eyes created a fish-bowl reflection of the interior.

“We’re out of his territory,” I explained. “He doesn’t know where home is anymore. Iset figured that would upset him.” I glanced down at Kappa. He was patting the leather of the chair between his feet in an agitated, arrhythmic manner. “I didn’t think it’d be this upsetting.”

“Nobody likes to feel lost,” Conrad said.

His eyes were soft and full of understanding. I felt a surge of camaraderie for my wolfman.

“Yeah,” I muttered. “You’re right.”

I pulled Kappa’s chew toy out of my hoodie pocket and offered it to him. He shook his head.

“No?” I felt in my other pocket, in case a miraculous cure for lostness might have appeared while I wasn’t looking. All I found were my headphones.

That’s not bad for a non-magical hoodie.

“How about some music?” I asked.

Kappa stopped patting. “Music?”

“You know—music! Songs!” I picked my most recent favorite and la-dee-dahed my way through a few bars. Kappa watched me without a word. “Okay,” I said, “not like that. Better.”

“Better please.”

Conrad chuckled.

“Don’t laugh too hard!” I said. “You’re next in line for karaoke, wolf-boy.”

He raised one of his hands. “God forbid.”

I looked back at Kappa. “What do you say? Should we try it?”

My bog-buddy thought for a second, then nodded.

“Excellent,” I said. “I have so many good playlists—”

“Says you,” Conrad grumbled.

“Ignore the classic-rock enthusiast over there. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. We’ll find something you like.” I untangled my earbuds and plugged them into the bottom of my phone. “Now we’ll just…ah. Hmmmm.”

image [https://i.imgur.com/f011ZNa.jpg]

Iset’s phone chimed. She glanced over, saw Emerra’s name at the top of her screen, and snatched it off her desk. When her rushed attempts to answer the call achieved nothing, she muttered a curse and forced herself to slow down.

“Emerra!”

“Hey, Iset.”

“Is everything all right?” The mummy looked at the time displayed on the corner of her computer screen. “Are you even off the ground yet?”

“No, no. It’s fine. We’re all fine. The plane’s going to take off in a second.”

Iset put a hand to her chest. A moment later, she said, in a calmer voice, “Then you shouldn’t be on your phone. Is there a problem?”

“I have a really quick question. It’s nothing important.”

“What is it?”

“Um, does Kappa have ears?”