“What with? Most of your wealth was burned.”
Fidel squeezed his son close to his side and was silent. Again they stood and watched the dark road below them as morning slowly broke through the fading dragon smoke. Monster twined and purred about the prince’s ankles until Felix was persuaded to kneel down and rub a comforting hand down the cat’s head and back. And still they watched the road.
Suddenly Felix yelped like a puppy and ran down the hill at breakneck speed, and Monster careened blindly behind him, tail high above his head. The prince hardly slowed himself before he fell into the outspread arms of his sister on her way up the road. She laughed and nearly toppled over backward, but Aethelbald reached out and caught them both, steadying them. Felix, much to his disgust, found tears running down his face, and he swiped them away at first, but to no avail. Una laughed again and tried to wipe his cheek with her thumb, but he brushed her off gruffly before whirling her about in another hug.
Gently Aethelbald parted them and, taking Una by the hand, led her up to Fidel, who waited like a sentinel before the gates of his palace. Aethelbald bowed to him. “I have brought you your daughter, Your Majesty.”
Fidel took Una’s hand as Aethelbald offered it. He stared at it a moment, small and white in his own. Then he knelt down at Aethelbald’s feet and wept.
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Una, her father, and her brother were too full of joy after their bitter separation to consider the fragility of their position. They clung to each other and laughed and cried and interrupted each other and laughed and cried some more. When at last Prince Aethelbald asked them to follow him into the Wood, they did so without question, still laughing, still crying, and saying words very little worth hearing save for the glad voices in which they were spoken.
Aethelbald never once let go of Una’s hand.
He led them into the shadows of the forest and onto a strange path that blurred on the edges of their vision and that seemed almost to carry them as they walked, crossing miles with each step. But they held on to each other and were not afraid as they followed the Prince of Farthestshore away from the ruins of Oriana Palace and the smoke-filled destruction of Sondhold.
When they emerged from this path, they found themselves far north along the coast and facing the city of Glencrocus.
Felix looked back the way they had come and did not see the Wood anywhere, and he shivered, not with fear so much as with wonder. Monster, close to his heels, meowled imperiously until Felix picked him up and carried him the rest of the way into Glencrocus.
The watchers at the city gates hailed the newcomers, and when they learned that King Fidel approached, they sent out word to the mayor. What followed was a time of great commotion as the faithful people of Parumvir rushed to greet Fidel and his children and to carry them safely into the city and on to the mayor’s fine house. But before the rush of servants met them, Prince Aethelbald drew Una aside.
“I must go,” he said.
She did not answer, only looked at him.
“I must find my servants and see to your father’s interests as well.”
She nodded.
“But I will return for you, Una. Will you wait for me?”
Then the crowd was upon them, and people swarmed about the princess and took her hand from Aethelbald’s. She had no time to give him any answer but a smile. This she gave him even as they were pulled apart and she disappeared in the rush that carried her into the city.
And in the excitement at receiving the lost king and his children, no one noticed the Prince of Farthestshore as he turned and disappeared, vanishing onto his own strange path.
Una was bustled along through the streets of Glencrocus, losing sight of her father and brother but trusting the joyful people about her. She was nearly to the front doorstep of the mayor’s house when a familiar voice grabbed her attention.
“Una! Princess!”
She looked back over her shoulder and recognized a funny old face calling and waving from the depths of the crowd. “Nurse!” Una cried and demanded that the old woman be brought to her. The people surged around them and propelled Nurse into Una’s arms, and the two of them stood and hugged each other and cried.
“Come, Miss Princess,” Nurse said at last with a gruff sniff. “It’s not seemly for a lady of your station to be seen making so much ado over her staff. And in full public eye! What will they all think? Come inside at once, and I’ll see that they fix you a nice bath, ’cause you smell a terrible something, my dear, I ain’t going to lie. . . .”
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