“We’ll still be able to watch the other fighters later in the week, right?” Andrew asked, after listening to Peter complaining about Daniel’s decision for several minutes. He knew that wasn’t what Peter cared about, but he hoped he could at least get his brother to see the silver lining. It did not work.

  “How could it slip his mind that some of us might want to compete?” Peter said. “Prince Lief made it a condition of joining the meeting!”

  “So you’ve mentioned,” Andrew muttered.

  “He just gets a special exception, since he can leave a diplomat behind to talk for him,” Peter went on. “We all have to sit there, in case someone has a question for us.”

  “That’s not a bad reason,” Anna said.

  “He could have just scheduled all the meetings for the afternoon!” Peter insisted. “That was the original plan, wasn’t it?”

  Andrew shook his head. He knew Peter could keep going for a while. Jeremy had also been rather upset once he realized he and his sister were requested as part of the meeting, though he hid it better than Peter. King Henry, for once, seemed to act older than his age, trying to cheer the other two for a little while. Andrew suspected he was able to do that because there’d never been any question of the king joining in himself.

  Peter started to repeat himself in a low grumble. It was more him talking to himself than anything else. He sat down on his cot and sunk into a more sullen mood. Andrew exchanged a glance with Anna, who merely shrugged and went back to focusing on her bracelet.

  “Are you doing alright now, Anna?” Peter asked in a tone that made it very clear to Andrew he was just trying to distract himself.

  Anna grinned back at him, holding up her wrist. “I’ve been making some progress in talking to the Wisps,” she said. She explained what had happened earlier and her theory that Halcyon had finally made some sort of breakthrough on his end. Now they were testing the limits of his new skill. The conversation seemed to bring Peter back out of his fowl mood, which Andrew appreciated.

  As they were talking, they heard fanfare from outside, accompanied by various indistinct voices. “Well, can Halcyon tell what’s going on, now?” Peter asked. Andrew raised an eyebrow at him, and Anna shrugged.

  “I’ll try asking him,” she said.

  “I think in this case we should just go and see,” Andrew said.

  Peter sighed, but he got up to follow, and the three of them left the tent. Andrew looked around for the bugler but couldn’t see him. Several others were outside their own tents, looking around. A few were heading toward the entrance of the pavilion. Andrew started off in that direction himself. The other two followed just behind.

  As soon as they made it around the other tents, it became obvious what was being announced. Rows after rows of white armored Selasi drew to a halt at the edge of the castle grounds. Andrew could see Queen Talitha dismounting and introducing herself to Henry and Emily. She wore a sleeveless green dress that Andrew assumed was formal Selasi garb, along with even more golden jewelry than she had when they’d met before. She was flanked on either side by advisors, though he couldn’t tell if either were the same they’d met by the pass. The black armored knight stood at her side as well, bowing as King Henry and Queen Emily greeted the new arrivals.

  They spoke a bit, Andrew only making out their voices but no words across the sea of onlookers. From their body language, Andrew guessed they were introducing the servant by their side, then pointing out the section of the pavilion that had been set aside for them. A moment later, they turned to go.

  Andrew glanced at Peter. “Could you make out anything they were saying?”

  Peter shrugged. “Every third word or so,” Peter said. “Just small talk, I think.”

  Andrew frowned and focused on the Selasi soldiers as they were starting to move toward their section of the camp. Then he noticed a small section of them break off, following the queen, who in turn was following the Scepters toward the palace. Behind her Andrew caught another blond figure following, flanked by warriors and mages on either side.

  “Why would they do that?” Peter asked, noticing Sheil as well.

  “They probably want to keep her in the palace dungeon,” Anna said.

  “Huh,” Peter muttered. He crossed his arms. “Well, alright. Guess we should head back to the tent then. Or maybe I can go talk to Jarn. Let him know what we’ve gotten done today.”

  “Oh, I can go with you,” Anna said. “I could see if Halcyon can tell the difference between Jarnvaror’s feelings and ours.”

  “You guys go ahead,” Andrew said, looking after the two royal parties headed up to the palace.

  “Are you going to go talk to them?” Peter asked.

  “If we’re going to follow the king and queen’s plan, I want to make sure I know where Sheil will be,” Andrew explained. “And I thought it might be good to let Talitha know we passed on her message.”

  “You sure it would be good to tell her about the plan?” Peter asked.

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  “I wasn’t planning on going that far,” Andrew said. He started walking after the group. “You both go check in in Jarnvaror,” he said, waving. “I’ll see you later.”

  The group of royals was moving slowly across the estate, so it was easy to catch up by jogging. When the guards noticed, they paused and turned to him, a little confused. Andrew bowed. He said, “I apologize for being a bit late. I wanted to offer our guests the Wisp Seekers’ personal greeting as they arrived, though.” He glanced up. Most of the guards still looked confused, but Henry and Emily were both grinning, along with Queen Talitha.

  “It’s good to see you again, Andrew,” the Selasi queen said.

  “Where’s Peter and Anna?” Henry asked.

  “They went to go tell the dragon how we’ve settled in,” Andrew explained.

  “Ah, yes,” Talitha said. A grin spread across her face as she looked north toward the arena. “I thought I saw a gray bird perched on the shoulder of the Colossus. I take it that must have been him.” She looked back at Andrew. “If you’ve time, why don’t you join us for a bit? If that’s alright,” she added, looking to Henry and Emily, who both nodded enthusiastically. “I would like to hear of your travels since we last met. And I believe I owe you thanks for carrying my messages to the Ryukyuujin and your own king and queen.”

  “I would be honored,” Andrew said. He joined the royal procession. He didn’t speak at first, fearing he may have interrupted a conversation with his arrival. But after a few more pleasantries, the Selasi queen turned back to him.

  “How did your trip to Vulcuo go?” she asked.

  Andrew glanced at the king and queen, who shrugged, though Daniel, who was walking by their side, shook his head. Andrew sighed. “That’s… sort of complicated, and it’s more a question for Anna,” he said. “The plan is to go over that… tomorrow, yes?” he asked, looking at Daniel.

  “Ideally,” the Chancelor said.

  “I suppose it can wait then,” Talitha said with a sigh. What about the trip to Ryukyuu?”

  “Oh, yes!” Henry said. “Tell her about Peter’s fight with the Nordarin Prince!”

  “Peter’s fight with… I’m sorry what?” Talitha asked.

  So, for the rest of the walk to the palace, Andrew explained the details of their trip to Ryukyuu, including the details of the conflict with the Nordar and their eventual involvement in the fight. Henry seemed as happy as ever to listen to a story about Peter’s exploits. Talitha though, seemed to have a little empathy. She winced when Andrew described Peter just accepting the duel, and expressed some concern for Peter’s safety. “He’s still just a child, isn’t he? It must be hard being his keeper,” she said. “At least he had the dragon backing him up.”

  Andrew nodded his agreement. “During the fight, we learned that the Wisp Stealers had been to Nordar. We were able to intervene, and convinced the prince to come to this meeting to talk about it.”

  “Ah, so the Nordarin’s will be joining us as well?” Talitha said. “How’d you manage that?”

  “Prince Lief wanted a chance to fight in the tournament,” Andrew said.

  “As your brother has been reminding me,” Daniel muttered. Andrew decided not to respond to that.

  They reached the palace, where the city lord greeted them. Andrew was barely able to make out his name, as he tried to think of a reasonable excuse to follow the guards to the dungeon so he’d be know where Sheil was going. The elven mage seemed merely bored with all of the proceedings, and Andrew wasn’t sure how to take that. By the time the Grealish and Selasi parties split ways, he hadn’t figured out what to say. A few servants stayed with the Queen to lead her and her few attendants to their chambers.

  “Not yet,” the Selasi queen replied. “I would like to personally see this one in her cell before seeking my own comforts.”

  “Of course,” said the leader of the servants. He gestured for the group to follow him. To Andrew’s surprise, Talitha made a similar gesture for him to follow along.

  “I’m not quite done talking to you,” she said in a low tone when Andrew caught up to her. He found he didn’t have any response to that, so he waited for her to continue. “Does that noble, Daniel, want you keeping quiet about the Wisps for some reason?” she asked.

  Andrew shrugged. “He suggested we wait to reveal what we learned until during the meeting,” Andrew said.

  The queen scoffed, making a noise Andrew associated far more with the villagers back home than any noble. “I take it that means you at least found something?”

  Andrew nodded. “The stones we found in your ruins were the key to starting translations of the High Elven tongue,” Andrew said. “We only managed a page or so, but…” he paused. He didn’t want to go against Daniel’s instructions, but he found he was just as reluctant to hide things from their allies.

  “Well, I look forward to learning what that page said,” Talitha said. She lowered her voice even further, but the tone remained almost casual. “Were you able to deliver my… private message?”

  “Yes,” Andrew said, lowering his voice as well.

  “And? Did the children have any response?”

  “I don’t think they agree with you, but they were eager to try and help,” Andrew managed. “They have a plan.”

  A rueful smile appeared on the Selasi queen’s face. “Of course they did. I shouldn’t have asked for that message. I can see already that those two are good children. They aren’t ready for their scepters, though.”

  Andrew felt a sudden weight at the words. He felt duty bound to defend his king and queen. At the same time, he was fairly sure she was right, and that the only reason their government was functioning was because the pair had good advisors in Sol and Daniel.

  “As their servant, I’m not sure if I can… well, I’m not sure how to respond to that,” he amended.

  Talitha smiled at him. “Don’t you worry. If I can, I’ll have my own private chat with them. Hopefully that will do them some good.”

  They continued in silence for a while. Andrew glanced back at Sheil, then asked, “How has it been keeping her contained?”

  Talitha didn’t answer for a few seconds. Then she shook her head. “Too easy. I get the feeling she wanted to come here.”

  “She didn’t make any escape attempt?” Andrew asked.

  Talitha shook her head. “She made one that is far too pathetic, given how skilled I’ve seen she is. But she has no gemstones, and no way to communicate with any other Wisp Stealers.”

  “So you think she’s planning something here?” Andrew asked.

  “Or she trusts her companions enough that she doesn’t need to,” Talitha said. “I don’t much like either scenario. I’d already confirmed with His Majesty and Her Highness to keep a team of mages guarding her at all times, including a few of my own. That should help, I hope.”

  Andrew nodded, hoping it would help as well. A few moments later, they came to the entrance to the dungeons. They watched as Sheil was escorted inside. Again, Andrew got the impression that she was merely bored with everything around her, before she dissapeared behind the heavy stone door of her cell.

  He parted from the Selasi after that, leaving the palace while they found their quarters. Even as he left the gate of the palace, he heard the bugle again. He looked into the distance, and this time saw banners he recognized as belonging to Ryukyuu. He wondered if the Nordar were with them. He shook his head. For the sake of fairness, he knew he should greet Captain Yamada and their diplomat as well. But he didn’t plan on having so long a chat this time After greeting their allies, he would head straight back to the tent to talk with Peter and Anna.