"Sissy, that's just scary—I thought you were Mom for a minute," Ry teased.
"Come on, those two are down at the end," Tory came to take his sister's arm.
"Leave us alone." Those sullen words greeted Ry, Tory and Nissa as they reached the proper cell. Nissa stared at the two boys inside.
"They're both seventeen, although the dark-haired one is slightly older than the blond," Ry said, pulling Nissa back from the bars.
"How big is the one they beat up?" Nissa looked up at Tory.
"About your size," Tory answered.
"Didn't your mothers teach you not to hit the smaller ones?" Nissa had her hands on her hips again.
"Leave our mothers out of this," the dark-haired boy hissed. "Leave us alone or Gren will make you sorry, I promise."
"Now, that's the truth—as he sees it, anyway," Tory nodded.
"How will Gren know to make us sorry?" Ry asked.
"None of your business." The blond boy finally spoke.
"Who is Gren, and how will he make us sorry?" Nissa weighed in on the questioning. Her arms were tight across her chest and Tory and Ry knew this was upsetting their sister.
"Why should we tell you?" The dark-haired one snapped. "He'll get that little eunuch first, though."
"What did you call him?" Tory took a step closer to the bars.
"He's a eunuch. Don't you know what that means?"
"I know what that means," Tory huffed. "But that's not what he is, or why he's missing—well, certain things."
"I suppose you're going to tell us? You being so smart and all," the blond taunted.
"Tory, the guards are coming!" Ry hissed. He'd gotten a hit on his perimeter shield. The two prisoners blinked in surprise as all three children who'd come to visit disappeared suddenly.
"That boy in the Fae village needs our help." Nissa insisted for perhaps the fourth time. Tory had skipped them to the arboretum, which was located on the top level of the palace. Huge and mostly circular, the arboretum was built of curved glass walls all around, except for one flat side that backed up to the palace at the rear. All three children sat at the front of the glass, cross-legged on the floor and staring out the thick window at the capital city of Lissia. The city had been named for their mother, after all.
"But Sissy, we've already been late to class once this week. Dad found out. He didn't do anything this time, but he might if I'm late again." Ry glumly toyed with a shoelace.
"But I only have tomorrow to do anything," Nissa complained.
"What are you going to do?" Tory looked down at his little sister.
"I have this." She pulled a necklace from beneath her tunic that had a gray jewel strung on it.
"A protection jewel?" Ry sounded surprised.
"I made this myself, when nobody was looking," Nissa whispered. "I can key it to someone else. I think that boy needs this."
"His name is Toff," Ry nodded, getting on board with Nissa's suggestion.
"If we hurry after blade lessons tomorrow morning, we might be able to do this." Tory considered the possibilities. "Meet us in the sword room in the barracks. We'll go from there."
Toff was digging in the likeliest place he could find for the clay Mother Fern demanded. She'd only given him the barest of instructions on how to find it and left him in a deserted spot just inside the boundary Father Tiearan erected around the village. Fern had instructed him to go to the old streambed and dig. That was the extent of his teaching. Toff had two large canvas bags to fill with clay—if he could find any.
Toff jerked backward and sat down with a thump on a damp patch of ground when three people appeared before him. The two boys he knew, but they'd brought a girl with them, this time. She was right at Toff's height, with a slender build. Toff imagined they could wear the same clothing, they were so close in size.
"We didn't mean to scare you," the one named Ry held out a hand to help Toff off the ground. Toff accepted the offered hand and allowed Ry to pull him up and get him steady on his feet. "This is our sister, Nissa," Ry introduced the girl. Toff nodded shyly at her.
"We came to give a warning, and to bring you something," Tory said. "We don't have much time, so we'll make this quick. We went back to the dungeons last night to see those two who hurt you, because Sissy wanted to go." Tory nodded at Nissa, who seemed embarrassed to be called Sissy in front of Toff.
"Those boys said that somebody else wanted to get back at you," Nissa pulled a necklace over her head. "I've already rekeyed this, so all you have to do is put it on and it will tune itself to you." The gold chain with the dark-gray jewel was offered to a gaping Toff.
"It's a protection jewel," Ry said, when Toff continued to blink at them in confusion. Nissa took Toff's hand and dropped the necklace into it.
"Wear this at all times," she said. "Even when you're bathing. You never know when your enemies might strike."
"Keep it inside your shirt—you don't want to let anyone know you have it. Once it keys itself to you, it's worthless to anyone else. It will only protect you from now on." Tory offered Toff an encouraging look.
Toff looked around him—he was hidden well enough in the copse of trees that grew along the old streambed. He'd been sent out alone, too, but he always suspected Gren of having him watched.
"There's nobody close enough to see or hear," Ry reported. He'd already checked. He didn't want tales going back to his parents of how they'd all sneaked away to do this. The protection jewel that Toff was getting—many kings and monarchs across the Alliance couldn't afford what Nissa handed to Toff. Toff slowly slipped the long chain over his head, trying to comprehend the gift he'd been given. He had no idea of its worth, but if it could protect him, then he might feel a bit safer around the others.
"It won't protect against words or disease," Ry seemed to be reading Toff's mind. "You'll still have to deal with that. And since this is Sissy's first protection jewel, we don't know how strong it will be. If somebody tries to attack you, do what you'd normally do."
"What I normally do is run, unless they catch me and hold me, like last time." Toff tucked the gray jewel inside his oatmeal colored tunic and patted it against his chest.
"I put the best spell I could make on it," Nissa said with a modest shrug. "I hope it helps." She reached out and patted Toff's arm. Toff blinked at her in surprise. Nobody touched him. Not because he didn't want them to—it was because they didn't want to touch him. Redbird and Corent hugged him sometimes, but that was all.
"We have to go," Tory insisted. "I'm sorry we can't stay longer and talk." Toff's visitors turned to leave.
"Wait—will you come and see me again?" Toff blinked hopefully at Nissa as he asked the question.
"I train at Grey House so I can't come very often, and Tory has to bring us or we'll be found out," Nissa offered Toff a sad look.
"But when can you come again?" Toff pleaded.
"Toff, I only get to come home once a month, on an off-day," Nissa said. Toff nodded, disappointment showing in his face.
"Thank you for the jewel," he lowered his eyes. When he looked up again after only a moment, the three were gone. Toff turned back to searching for the elusive clay Mother Fern demanded.
"How did he end up there?" Nissa asked the moment Tory skipped them back to his bedroom. Ry and Tory were busy gathering comp-vids before rushing off to class.
"Don't know. We'll talk later." Tory opened the door and he and Ry raced down the hall, leaving the door open and their sister staring after them.
"Mom, what will happen to those two boys in the dungeon?" Nissa knew she wasn't supposed to know about those two boys, but the comesuli did tend to gossip inside the palace. She could have come by the information in any number of ways.
"Honey, I'm going to stop trying to figure out how you three know about anything," Queen Lissa gave her daughter a hug. Nissa sat next to her mother at a private lunch inside the arboretum.
"You're not going to tell me?"
"We don't know yet. Everybody is still discussing this." Nissa's mother sighed and stared out the tall, glass windows overlooking the city of Lissia. A table had been set up and lunch had been served only minutes earlier, just for the two of them.
"You're not going to send them to Evensun, are you?" Nissa worried about that. Sentencing a criminal to Evensun was often a death sentence.
"I don't know, baby." The Queen's blue eyes were worried about that, too, Nissa decided. "With the ones who are already on Evensun, those two boys won't last a day. The final decision on this rests with the Council, and I only have one vote in that. I'm trying to find a place where they can't cause trouble for a while and their parents can go with them, if they want."
"Their parents will still face judgment, when the time comes." Kifirin appeared, blowing smoke from his nostrils.
"Honey, calm down," Lissa stood and took Kifirin's hand. "Nobody's trying to get around that."
"Avilepha, I grow tired of this. They should have turned the boy over to you when he was injured. Yet they did not. How can they think this will improve their lot in my eyes?" Kifirin was darkly handsome and Nissa watched him closely. She, like her brothers, was wary around Kifirin, though he wore an angel's face. Nissa didn't think Kifirin would harm any of them, but there was a dangerous edge about him that couldn't easily be defined.
"Little one, you should not be frightened." Kifirin turned his nearly black eyes on Nissa.
Nissa was too frightened to speak, so she nodded at Kifirin instead. She wondered if Kifirin would stand by his statement if he learned she'd given a protection jewel to Toff. She assumed he was the boy Kifirin meant.
