Prin and Elwin eventually drifted back to their own room toward evening, once Valor was settled and asleep.

“Is this a little preview of what it would be like to have a baby?” Elwin wondered.

Prin laughed, the sound sleepy and muted, he had a long day. “He’s not a baby.”

“Clearly.” Elwin said dryly. “I think . . . since he knows we’re leaving soon he feels like he has to take his shot with you.”

“That little kiss? It was nothing.” Prin said dismissively.

“He’s trying to think of anything he can to keep us from leaving.” Elwin sat on the edge of the bed and took off his boots. There was a hole forming in the corner of one long sock and he wiggled his big toe through it. When they went on the road again they would be truly on their own, no one to darn a sock. Maybe he should ask Mrs. Frances to do it?

Well, alone together of course. He supposed he could learn to mend his own socks. Or just go feral and sockless eventually, like a wild thing.

“It’s going to be hard, going on the road again.” Elwin said. “And we’re going to have to get on another boat.”

“Well . . . unless we fly. It is an island.” Prin said wryly.

“If only we could.” Elwin said. “We wouldn’t be here right now. . .”

“Do you think we would have found her by now? As the crow flies.” Prin wondered.

“Depends if she’s hiding. Or just going about her business.” Elwin said.

“Why would she hide? I doubt she’s scared of us.” Prin said with a chuckle.

“Or even knows we’re after her.” Elwin said.

“She might. She probably knows a lot.” Prin said softly. “But we still don’t know why she did it.”

“More importantly than that . . . How are you going to get her to reverse it? If we even find her that is.” Elwin asked.

Prin, who had been laying on the bed like a puppet with cut strings, sprung to life, sitting up abruptly. “Don’t even say that! Of course we’ll find her, because we have to! And if we don’t find her, we will find an even stronger witch or magic user who can go over her head and remove the curse.”

“I’m sorry.” Elwin said.

Stolen novel; please report.

Prin sighed. “I don’t know what I’ll say to her to get her to take it back, but I’ll figure it out when the time comes. For now lets just concentrate on going forward.”

“Getting off the island.” Elwin said. “With Aster.”

“Yes, with Aster. And the little fairy too.” Prin said.

“That one is very portable, at least.” Elwin said agreeably. “Let’s take that nap, okay? We need to recharge our batteries.”

“Right.” Prin nodded. “I don’t know if I can sleep.” He took off his shoes and outer layer of clothes.

“You can, I believe in you.” Elwin pulled him down next to him on the bed. “Just for a little while. Then we can go check on Valor again and make sure the maid isn’t trying to kill him.”

Prin let out a short little laugh, as though he had been trying to suppress it. “Okay.” He relaxed into the bed, pulling Elwin’s arm around him and leaning into him. “What would I do without you?”

“Anything you wanted.” Elwin said. “It’s me who . . .” Would be lost. He added silently to himself, feeling Prin’s breathing rhythmic and relaxed. He was already half asleep.

“I can’t believe we met a real fairy.” Prin said drowsily. “I wish I could have enjoyed being in the moment with her more, instead of having all this darkness on my mind.”

“I think you do a pretty good job being, just being.” Elwin whispered. He hoped they would fall asleep soon, they both needed it.

“You think?” Prin asked.

Elwin fell asleep before he had a chance to answer. No matter how stressful things got, he could always sleep better when he at least knew Prin was beside him, in his arms even, so he would know if he got up. All might not be right with the world, but at least this one thing was.

“Wake up! Wake up!”

Elwin woke to being roughly shaken, and Prin’s anxious face leaning over his.

Fearing the worst, he shook off his dreams like soft rags and tried to prepare himself. “What happened? Is it Valor . . ?”

“What? No, no.” Prin said. He chewed his lower lip. “I had a terrible thought.”

“O-oh, is that all?” Elwin asked. “Happens to me all the time.”

“No seriously.” Prin said. “Please tell me, tell me something. Tell me this could never happen.”

“What?” Elwin asked. He wondered if Prin had a bad dream.

“If Aster is talking to the fairy right now, maybe she figured out how?” Prin said anxiously.

“Yeah? That would be good. We can find out where she came from.” Elwin said.

“No! It’s not good. What if she tells Aster that I killed Freya?” Prin asked.

He forgot to lower his voice, and Elwin looked around anxiously. There were a lot of eyes and ears in this house. He had already been afraid they were speaking too freely about it. “Shh, shh, don’t say that.” Elwin whispered. “What do you mean? No, no, that won’t happen.”

“Why wouldn’t it?” Prin asked. “The fairy likes Aster, wouldn’t she think it’s relevant information? And I already thought of the whole, maybe she doesn’t have our kind of intelligence, but she was able to answer the questions. Well sort of . . . but still.”

“I think . . . the fairy doesn’t act like she believes you’re dangerous, right?” Elwin asked. “She even hitched a ride with you, so to speak.”

“But then left me as soon as possible!” Prin pointed out.

“She probably sees you as her rescuer.” Elwin said. “And thinks the killing was justified.”

“You think so? But, that doesn’t mean she won’t tell Aster . . .” Prin said.

“Unless, Aster never asks.” Elwin said. “And she wouldn’t believe a dumb old fairy over you anyway.” He hoped this was working, because he wasn’t at all as confident as he pretended to be.

“Hmm.” Prin said.

“Even if she did wonder if it was true. Aster would ask you before anything else, right? Right.” Elwin said.

“Elwin, we’re talking about a brutal murder.” Prin said. “She might be scared to ask me about it.”