“Aren’t you scandalized?” Dru asked. “By my story?”

  “We aren’t easily scandalized,” Elwin said. Although he could see that maybe they were no longer the people they once were, who might have reacted more strongly to a gruesome tale like this one, whether they believed it or not.

  “How do you know they were fae?” Prin asked eagerly.

  “They were basically textbook examples,” Dru said. “I mean, all the signs were there!”

  “Like, Stay on the path?” Elwin said.

  Dru rolled her eyes. “Like, their size, appearance, coming from the woods, the singing . . . the air they had about them in general?”

  “The air?” Prin asked innocently.

  “Like beings from another world, who are only pretending to be one of us,” Dru said. “Some say they can bend time itself to their will.”

  “I thought you were talking about the fog when you said air,” Prin said.

  “Well that too,” Dru said, waving her hand in his direction.

  “Let’s take that nap now,” Elwin suggested. He could feel a yawn overtaking him, and was too sleepy and comfortable to talk about weird stuff that was probably nonsense until it devolved into an argument. He snuggled into Prin, holding him in his arms like an oversized teddy bear.

  “Agreed.” Dru rolled over so that her back was to them.

  After a moment Prin called softly to her. “I’m sorry about your parents. Whatever did happen to them.”

  “S’alright, it was a long time ago,” Dru whispered back.

  When Elwin woke up from a sleep so comfortable and all consuming he could have been slowly sinking to the depths of the ocean itself and never known it, Dru was gone.

  Prin was sitting up beside him, gazing thoughtfully out the porthole. Elwin propped himself up on his elbow and tried to see what he was looking at, but from his angle all he could see was a bit of shiny blue sky and a section of brass railing. Maybe that’s all there was.

  He put his arm around Prin’s waist. “Whatchu thinking about?” His words blurred together slightly as he tried to unstick his dry mouth, wondering what it would take to get a glass of water around here.

  “Hmm? Oh, nothing.” Prin’s sweet voice drifted past like the fluffy cloud that was passing by the window. “Just . . . there are a lot of people on this ship, aren’t there?”

  “Hundreds,” Elwin said. “Actually, maybe thousands.”

  “That’s amazing isn’t it? I wonder how it compares to the number of people in TallHillde,” Prin said.

  “Could be . . . about the same. Maybe more back home, but I don’t know what the census said,” Elwin said. Although, come to think of it, the population must have been dwindling for some time. He remembered hearing that most of the young people who happened to leave, for work or exploration, never returned, and there was talk there wouldn’t be enough people to work the mines without bringing some in from elsewhere. And where were they to get them from? People who didn’t mind hard dirty work, far away from their homes in an isolated village? You do hear a lot of gossip when you are of the servant class and considered basically invisible. “You know, I bet there will be even less by the time we get back there.” Elwin laughed.

  “Do you really think we’ll ever be going back?” Prin asked.

  “I . . . kind of assumed. Eventually,” Elwin said. Although . . . did he? Only if they did manage to somehow conquer the curse. Conquer it without giving up its blessings, its benefits, the small voice in the back of Elwin’s mind added, as it always did. Prin was solid and warm in his arms. And real, and here, and healthy. There was nothing he wouldn’t give up to make sure his prince continued this way.

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  A chill hit him and he shivered.

  Prin reached behind himself and ruffled Elwin’s hair. “It really is fall, soon to be winter.”

  “Although, are we moving further into it, or away from it?” Elwin wondered.

  “What?” Prin asked. He turned around to look at Elwin, backlighting causing his face to be full of shadows.

  “You know, because the weather changes depending where you are?” Elwin said.

  Prin laughed. “Of course. I thought you were speaking symbolically or something.”

  Elwin laughed too. “Not me. But why are you asking how many people are on the ship?”

  Prin scratched his stomach. “I’m just . . . wondering if . . . I’m just wanting to know if it would be possible that one of them wouldn’t be missed.”

  Before he could answer this rather troubling statement, if an answer was even needed, there was a rhythmic knocking on the door. Doo doo da doo doo. Doo doo.

  Prin hopped up and went to the door, the smile on his face showing he knew exactly whose small fist came rapping. He opened it and went outside.

  Elwin got dressed as quickly as he could manage, still feeling sleep fogged and wondering if that whole story time with Dru bit was a dream, or in any case really how he remembered it. He went out to the hallway and met Aster and Prin there.

  Aster was a sleeker version of herself. With more of a torchlit singer by night, gangster’s classy girlfriend by day kind of a vibe going on, and less of a candy sugar layer cake confection.

  He wondered if she was trying to lay low or if it was mostly due to the difficulty of packing such creations, and the fact that her old wardrobe had been burned in the fire. Elwin winced at the thought of burning them, though it had seemed so necessary at the time.

  Aster’s dress was made of a form fitting silken yellow shift with a whispery sheer over lay of white and pink flowers and green stems and leaves. Her hair was brushed back and somewhat tamed into a bun at the base of her neck, errant curls escaping here and there. A barrette of roses was big enough to properly conceal the little fairy among its artificial petals, although Elwin, knowing to look could see the slow luxurious movement of her wings.

  “I guess we slept right through lunch,” Aster said. “But there is a buffet and drinks all day in the Sea Swept Lounge. I did my research.”

  “Let’s go,” Prin said eagerly.

  “Oh! Forgetting something?” Elwin looked pointedly at Prin’s sock feet.

  Prin laughed. “Right, right.” He went back into the room to put on his shoes and all.

  When he was gone, Elwin turned to Aster. “You look great. Also, I’m sorry. About your dresses.”

  “What do you have to be sorry about?” Aster wondered.

  Elwin wouldn’t dare tell her, if she didn’t already know. He just smiled awkwardly and gave a little shrug.

  “Clothes are a dime a dozen, sweetheart. Don’t worry.” Aster took Elwin’s arm. “We might have to . . . do something about the two of you, get you to blend in better.” At Elwin’s blank look, she added. “This is supposed to be first class!”

  Elwin looked down at his clean, but patched and slightly miss matched traveling clothes. They had seen some heavy wear by now. “This is the best outfit I have.” He said sheepishly.

  “There’s actually a shop on board,” Aster said. “Overpriced, I’m sure. But we’ll see. . .”

  Prin hurried out, locking the door behind himself. “Sorry guys!”

  Aster looped her other arm through Prin’s. “Nothing to be sorry about, hun.”

  “Whatever happened to Dru?” Prin wondered.

  “She can look after herself.” Elwin was sure of this, if he knew nothing else about her.

  Aster frowned. “I wish she had never stowed away. I feel like she thinks she ran away with us and will now be clinging like a barnacle.”

  “I don’t think she’s that interested in us.” Elwin said. He felt weirdly defensive of her, as much as she had been an irritant earlier. “I do think she has had a rough life . . .”

  The three of them strolled down the corridor and back out towards the deck of the ship. “Are you saying I should forgive her?” She asked. “Already?”

  “Only if she asks for it.” Prin said quickly, a brief frown crossing his own features.

  “Which she will never do.” Elwin pointed out. “She’s not all bad. I think?”

  “She told us fairies killed her parents,” Prin said. His voice was entirely deadpan, but one dark eyebrow arched independently of the other as if to say, do we believe this?

  “What!?” Aster looked from one to the other, and then her eyes rolled upward toward where she knew the tiny fairy rode along. “Did you do a thing like that?”

  Prin giggled. “Not her. Too small.”

  “I suppose we shouldn’t think it’s impossible.” Aster said thoughtfully. “Knowing what we all know . . . about the world and it’s dark pathways.”

  “Filled with trees on both sides, and eerie singing.” Prin said ominously.

  They stepped out into the bright afternoon sunshine on the deck and took in the view.

  “Let’s take a proper stroll around the deck before we go eat?” Aster suggested, suddenly cheerful again. “It’s so nice out here! Not that the sun will stop the bad things.” She let go of the boy’s arms and punched Prin lightly in his. “Right?”