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take her there. But I want you to be careful. Not just to avoid capture, but I would also like you to be … sensitive to anything that seems untoward.”
    Oliver gave his mother a baffled look.
    “If it seems like the princess is not safe there, I want you to bring her back,” Lady Emily clarified.
    “You want me to kidnap her all over again?”
    Lady Emily gave a sigh of great suffering. “I want you to ask her to come with you,” she explained. “Insist, in fact.”
    “What if insisting doesn’t work?” Oliver was not about to throw Princess Petunia over one shoulder and run off with her into the forest. Not that it would be all that hard, she wasn’t very big, but it was the principle of the thing.
    “Just do your best, please,” his mother said.
    “All right,” Oliver agreed, though he still felt like the conversation was slightly beyond his grasp.
    He wasn’t sure how he felt about his mother’s believing in fairy tales, and that one of the Nine Daughters of Russaka was currently living on his estate. According to the stories, each of the Nine Daughters of Russaka had been visited in the night by the King Under Stone, had borne him a son, and then wept bitter tears when he took the children away to his invisible kingdom. What on earth would lead his mother to believe that one of the Nine Daughters would take up residence in the middle of the Westfalian Woods?
    And how did his mother expect him to know if the princess was in trouble? He wasn’t going to go into the manor house with her. He was going to leave her at the gates … just within sight of the gates, actually, and then run for it. It was his very fervent hope that he would never have to see Princess Petunia again, despite her thick, dark curls and blue, blue eyes. It could only lead to discovery or death for him, and either would be a disaster for his people.
    But his mother seemed satisfied that he was going to look after the princess and so she left the little chapel after giving him a warm smile. Oliver wondered why she even cared. Being friends with the late Queen Maude hadn’t helped their family one whit. Still, he gathered himself mentally and went out into the weak winter sunshine to find the princess and take her to the estate that should have been his home.

Guided
    Looking at Oliver sidelong as they trudged through the woods, Petunia wondered if he was staring at her more than usual today. Was it because of her nightmares? Had he heard her? He was definitely watching her, but was that only so she wouldn’t run away? They had been walking for an hour now, and Petunia could not have been more lost. The sun, which had been shining bravely through the trees as they set off, was now hiding behind gray clouds that threatened snow. Petunia pulled her cloak closer around her, but it caught on the basket and nearly made her stumble.
    “All right, there?” Oliver tried to take hold of her arm, but she shook him off. “I’m just trying to help.” He held up his hands in a placating gesture.
    “I’m fine,” Petunia said, not caring that she didn’t sound fine, or very gracious, either.
    “At least if it snows, no one can lose you,” Oliver said, inwhat Petunia assumed was an attempt at humor. He indicated her red cloak.
    She didn’t bother to reply.
    Petunia could not wait for her humiliation to end. If Poppy ever found out about this, she would never let Petunia live it down. First she had been kidnapped while relieving herself—or nearly so—despite having her pistol at hand, and then she had embarrassed herself further by raving in her sleep all night. She was sure that everyone in that crumbling old hall had heard her—how could they not? The walls were riddled with holes!
    In the first few years after they had defeated the King Under Stone, Petunia had suffered only the occasional nightmare. And most of the time, these nightmares were about perfectly mundane things, like tripping and chipping her front teeth or finding a