Hogarth gave them a week to continue resting and to make their arrangements. Once it had been decided that the king and queen would be going to Vulcuo, it became very obvious to Anna that Emily was working up her courage for the flight.

  “They told us there was a less dangerous route,” Henry told his sister at one point.

  “Less dangerous,” Emily repeated. “Flying is all well and good sometimes, but I don’t want to be over the ocean for that long, where you can hardly see land, even from up in the sky!”

  Henry had no response to that. Anna sympathized with the young queen. Even she still preferred a ship to flight when traveling over the open ocean. But she wasn’t sure how she could help the girl at this point.

  Anna told her father about the meeting. He’d listened in silence, nodding as she explained how the children would be going south while the trio continued seeking out Wisps and the Wisp Stealers throughout Grealand.

  “What exactly is your plan with all of that?” he asked. “Where are you going first?”

  “We still need to decide. That’s part of why Hogarth gave us so much extra time here.”

  Tomlan nodded, a thoughtful expression coming over his face. “Well, why don’t you all come over to my room for dinner, and I can help you with some brain storming,” he suggested, gesturing through the wall of the inn towards his own room.

  Anna agreed, knowing the others would as well.

  They spent the day in relative silence. Anna saw Andrew pouring over the maps again, while Peter was out talking to Jarnvaror and the other dragons. Henry seemed to be trying to make plans for once the pair of them were at the monastery, though Emily continued to voice her worries just about getting there. Through all of this, Anna found she couldn’t focus much on any one thing.

  Like Andrew, she saw the importance of stopping the Wisp Stealers. But she couldn’t think of how to begin. Her mind kept drifting back to the memory the Wisp had shared, and she found herself wondering if it was a fluke, or if they really would be able to see more memories if they could find the right location.

  So, when Peter finally returned around dinner time, they were all eager to go to her father’s room, get something to eat, and hopefully work out their ideas of what to do next.

  Tomlan had prepared a meal of fried food loaded with spice for them all. The royals both seemed to enjoy it, commenting on how much it was like something made for them back home not too long ago. Peter dove into the unfamiliar meal, eager to try something new, though he seemed to flinch at the heat. It distracted Andrew from his thoughts at well, at least until they were halfway through. “I can’t think what to do to find out what the Wisp Steelers are actually planning,” he said. “With Daniel functionally running the country, it seems like each place we go will just be a trap.”

  “What about leaving the country?” Peter suggested.

  “Then we’d be in the dark,” Andrew said.

  “And we wouldn’t be able to search most of the ruins for the Wisps,” Anna added.

  “The trouble is I’m not sure how we’ll manage without the royal connections. That’s most of what we’ve relied on in the past,” Andrew muttered.

  “What about your own connections?” Tomlan said.

  “Our parents back home?” Andrew asked.

  The Dwarven merchant shook his head. “No, no. You’ve been traveling for the better part of a year, now, and covering more distance than anyone else could in that time. Are you telling me you never made any connections?”

  Andrew shrugged. “We met people, sure,” he conceded. “But I don’t see how most of them would be able to help us. Not to mention how much danger most of them would be in if we asked.”

  Tomlan nodded. “I see. Well, I think when you decided to set out to protect your home, you chose to do away with safe roads. And especially now. You’ll have to tread carefully. Some may be your enemies because of this Daniel now. But others may surprise you. And it may only depend on what you need from them.”

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  “What we need is information on Daniel and his past,” Andrew said. He gestured again to the king and queen. “We’ve talked about it, but there’s nothing they can think of that may have motivated him to do this. The rest of his immediate family died during or before Zech’s plague, which just makes it more shocking that he’s doing this.”

  “Your goal is figuring out his motivation, right?” Tomlan asked. “What about his teachers or his travels?”

  “Sol was one of his chief teachers, like it was with us,” Emily said. “He didn’t travel much in an independent capacity, at least not in the last… at least eight years, I think.”

  “We were pretty young the last time he traveled alone,” Henry agreed.

  “Do you know where he went?” Andrew asked.

  The twins shook their heads. “No. It was a long time ago,” Emily said. She screwed up her face, in concentration. “Since then, he’s only traveled for official reasons.”

  “Maybe that’s when he started making his plan,” Peter said.

  “There’s no way of knowing,” Andrew said. “The point is we don’t have enough information to begin investigating him.”

  “What about the rest of his organization,” Tomlan asked.

  “We know even less about Zech,” Andrew said. “And I’m not sure he shares the motivation of the group as a whole. From descriptions, he always seemed the most chaotic to me.”

  “What about Sheil?” Peter asked. “Anyone we could talk to about her?”

  Anna sat bolt upright, remembering their first trip to the Crimson Wood. “Yes! And we’ve met him!” The others turned to her. “Lord Sallowain,” she said. “That’s how we knew she was Sheil in the first place, remember?”

  “That’s right,” Andrew said. “But he didn’t seem to know much himself.”

  “Maybe, but he might be able to point us in the right direction,” Anna said.

  “If he doesn’t side with her this time, anyway,” Andrew said. Still, he was nodding. After a moment he looked up. “I suppose that’s our main lead, then.”

  Anna smiled at him. Hopefully, this trip would also give them ample time to explore the ruins in the Crimson Wood looking for more of the Wisps’ memories. “We should get going as soon as possible,” she said “Maybe tomorrow morning.”

  “What?” Henry burst. “We’ve hardly had any time to rest and explore the city.”

  Anna decided not to point out that those seemed like opposite things. She acknowledged his point, though, and leaned back in her seat. “It’s just, with a plan I want to be off.”

  “I’m feel the same,” Andrew said. “But we should take more advantage of our time here to get some rest.”

  “So, I’m guessing this means that we fly to Vulcuo at the end of the week?” Emily asked.

  Andrew crossed his arms and leaned back without answering. He still hadn’t answered when the queen shuddered. “I’m still not sure I like the idea of flying over the ocean all the way there. We wouldn’t be able to charter a boat or something, would we?” she asked.

  “It’ll be fine,” Henry assured her. “Jarn’s done it before.”

  “Not with five passengers,” the queen pointed out. “I wish we could sail.”

  “The main concern with that is we just don’t have the money to buy passage all the way to Vulcuo for you,” Andrew pointed out.

  By their fallen, frustrated faces, Anna guessed the twins were still getting used to the idea of not having nigh on infinite resources for trivial matters like travel.

  Then Anna’s father spoke up. “Well, I may be able to help with that myself,” he said.

  Everyone in the room turned to him. He grinned. “Well, my business deal just went through, and I’ve got material to ship south anyway. I’ll be awfully close to Prohr. From there, I imagine finding a ship taking supplies to Vucluo wouldn’t be the hardest thing.”

  “The monastery is pretty self sufficient,” Peter said.

  “And their port town will still want goods from the outside.”

  “We know a merchant in Prohr, actually,” Andrew said, thoughtfully. “I think she would help if you mentioned us. Although I’m not sure what her thoughts on the current situation would be.”

  “What’s her name?” Tomlan asked.

  “Maria Nonell. She’s also a noble woman.”

  Tomlan nodded, repeating the name to himself a few times. “It’s familiar. Bet I’ve done business with one of her people before. I’ll see about calling on her, then.”

  “So what does that mean for us?” Emily asked.

  “Looks like we’ll be going our separate ways, soon,” Peter said. “No point in flying out just to wait for him at the next town over.”

  “Who will protect us, then?” Emily asked.

  “My father hires excellent guards to protect from bandits and the like,” Anna said.

  “Anonymity may protect you as well,” Tomlan said. “If you all leave first on the dragon, while this pair is disguised as some scrawny Dwarves helping me with the shipment, any spies trying to follow you are likely to think you’ve gone off with them. We’ll leave at the end of Duke Hogarth’s week, and they’ll be none the wiser.”

  “He’s right,” Andrew said. A smile tugged at his lips. “The longest period of peace I ever had was before anyone knew much about me or Peter.”

  “Lord Ironhill knew about us,” Peter pointed out. Andrew only shook his head.

  “Are you two alright with that?” Anna asked, realizing with only very little help from the Wisps that the pair of royals were anxious about the idea.

  She could still feel their anxiety. But, when the two exchanged a glance with each other and looked back at her, they nodded and said. “Alright. We’ll get to Vulcuo by ship, then.” Emily added, “But you’d better come out to get us when it’s safe.”

  “Of course,” Anna said. “I promise we will.”