"yes," ry answered the question first. they were all folded away.

"lissa, remember your pregnancy," rigo cautioned as lissa strode quickly toward narissa's cottage. they'd folded directly inside narissa's boundary-it couldn't hold the queen or the falchani back-they were too powerful.

"narissa!" lissa shouted. "come out now before i turn your house into matchsticks!"

toff jerked at the shout-it sounded very close. he'd been sitting at the table, having dinner with narissa after cooking most of it for her.

"well," narissa wore a nasty smile, "that didn't take long, did it? come on, boy." narissa jerked toff from his chair, had a knife held to his throat quickly and hauled him toward the door.

toff was terrified-the protection jewel had turned black after it thwarted the attack from gren and the others. toff figured it was made to work once, but he couldn't bear to part with it-it was all he had of nissa, though she most likely would never speak to him again after he'd run away like that. now, someone he barely knew was threatening his life again. narissa pushed the front door to her cottage open and forced toff out in front of her, the knife still at his throat. toff, terrified as he was, still was surprised by the people who stood outside, waiting.

ry dug an elbow into tory's ribs to keep him from calling out to toff. both boys recognized him, all right, and ry was quickly piecing together just how toff might have come to be inside narissa's boundary.

"narissa, harm that child and i'll kill you." those were the queen's words, and tory and ry both knew their mother wouldn't bluff about something like that.

"what are you going to do, lissa?" narissa sounded unhinged in ry's estimation. toff must have realized it too-his eyes were wild with fright as narissa tightened her grip on him, bringing the knife just under his chin.

"surely you know as well as anyone just what i might do," lissa snarled. drake and drew flanked her, which meant that narissa's eyes were on the queen and the twin falchani instead of rigo. narissa should have watched him, but ry imagined this may have been the plan all along. rigo could move as swiftly as any vampire and he was behind narissa, had the knife in his hand and narissa flung to the ground in the space of a heartbeat. toff was left standing and holding his throat, which had the barest of bloody scrapes on it.

"toff, honey, are you all right?" the queen went straight to him.

toff wanted to shrink away from her. "how-how do you know my name?" he muttered, still gripping his throat. tory and ry were beside their mother in two blinks, doing their best to check on toff.

"honey, i've known your name since you were tiny," lissa murmured, holding a hand out to toff. toff was too afraid of her to take it.

"mom won't hurt you," tory tried to reassure toff. toff blinked at tory and ry before extending a shaking hand to the queen. her hand gripped his and he was pulled against her in a tight hug. she may have kissed him on the cheek, too, but toff was too dazed to know for sure.

"honey, i can't believe that redbird and corent haven't been camped out on my doorstep, wondering where you were," lissa held toff away from her and brushed hair back from his forehead. "and i have to say, i don't think i'm willing to let you go back unless you just can't stand to be parted from them."

"what?" toff didn't understand any of this. "where's nissa?" he turned to tory and ry, who both hung their heads. they were just about to get in trouble with their mother.

"nissa's missing, honey. has been for several days, now. how do you know about her?" the queen held toff's face in her hands. toff was surprised-the queen's hands were gentle as she held him.

"redbird always said you'd drink my blood," toff blurted without thinking. that caused the queen to go still.

"did she?" toff didn't realize how angry the queen had become in less than a blink. "well, let's go have a talk with your foster-mother."

toff didn't know what happened. one moment he was outside narissa's cottage, the next he was standing at the door to his home inside the green fae village. one of the tall men with a long black braid down his back was knocking on the door. redbird answered with corent right behind her.

"would you care to tell my why toff has been missing for six days now and you failed to report it?" the queen was asking as nicely as she could under the circumstances. ry and tory stepped up to flank toff, each holding onto an arm. toff was glad they were there-he felt safer, somehow.

"but toff has not been missing," redbird insisted. "he has been here all along, hasn't he, corent?" redbird turned to look at her mate.

"toff has been inside narissa's boundary for the last six days; we just went to get him when we found out narissa was threatening him," the queen insisted, sounding quite angry.

"he has been here the entire time," redbird said, "and now you show up with some trumped up lie, when toff is supposed to be out gathering clay for mother fern."

"you say he's been here all along, and is out working right now?" the queen's eyes narrowed at redbird.

"but you have him right there," redbird pointed at toff.

"this toff has been inside narissa's boundary, trust me on this," lissa stated. "now, would you like to go with me and find the toff you've been harboring, or will you stay here and cower while i go do it?"

"we'll come," corent stepped around redbird and out the door. toff was transported again just as before, but the scene that greeted them at the old streambed had corent shouting, redbird screaming and drake and drew running.

nissa wanted to grumble as she shoveled clay and then used her power to remove roots and bits of rock before dumping it in the canvas bag. more than once the sides of the canvas bag had collapsed inward, causing the clay to slide down the outside instead of dropping inside the bag as it should. nissa was so busy concentrating on her work that she failed to notice the sounds of leaves rustling. she didn't miss gren's taunt, however.

"look, it's the baby worm, digging through the dirt. going to eat that dirt like the other worms, baby eunuch?" gren laughed at her.

"at least you're smart enough to know what worms eat," nissa snapped, shoving the edge of her shovel into the dirt and watching gren warily. "where are your spies, gren? you normally don't go anywhere without them."

"why are you worried about my friends?" gren still had a smile on his face.

"because you're just the distraction," nissa said. she was doing her best to go looking for anyone else in the area, even as she kept a close eye on gren.

"now!" gren shouted and nissa's head felt as if it were about to explode as her protection jewel activated, blowing her and gren away from one another.

lissa's journal

"my daughter is in your household for six days, and you don't even notice?" i paced in front of corent and redbird. tiearan and rain had come, too, but tiearan knew better than to say anything at this point.

"the disguise was very good," redbird muttered, hanging her head and refusing to meet my eyes.

"but surely you must have noticed some differences," i insisted. i certainly would have, even if i didn't have the scents. i would have known my daughter and my sons anywhere. i was waiting to hear from karzac-he'd come to check on nissa, who was still unconscious. he was also treating gren and two others, both of whom toff identified as the three who'd had attacked him six days earlier.

"and you also failed to notice that toff was getting bullied and marked for death. as was my daughter. those three boys will be held in my dungeons, i can guarantee that. i intend to find the reason for all this, i assure you. toff is also coming with me. you've worn out your chances on this." even my hair was crackling with energy, i was so angry.

"but the mindbond," redbird whined.

"how about that?" i snapped. "do you know what he said to me when we found him? do you? he said that you told him i'd drink his blood. you've been filling his head with lies. what else have you been telling him, redbird?" redbird was lucky i settled for merely saying her name with contempt. i wanted to do so many other things, and most of them involved a great deal of pain. for her.

"is that what you've been telling him?" corent was now looking at his mate in alarm.

"i wanted to keep him with me," redbird was back to whining again.

"you'd have done better to protect him from those bullies," i shouted. yes, i wasn't behaving in the most rational way possible, but then i'd never been faced with this much idiocy while i was pregnant.

"avilepha, you cannot reason with her-there is not much there to reason with," kifirin appeared in a burst of light. "come home with me now. we will take care of your two young ones and watch the others in the dungeons. had their parents been more vigilant, this might have been avoided."

"but you cannot just take them," tiearan was now standing and disagreeing with kifirin.

"we will take them. you depended too heavily on that boundary you placed around your village, tiearan, and failed to notice the blight within. now you will pay the price. we will advise you on the final disposition of those three miscreants." kifirin blew a curl of smoke from his nostrils and tiearan backed away.

"toff, we have enough space in our suite if you'd like to stay there," ry offered. toff blinked at ry and tory, shocked by what was offered. he now realized that they were both princes-sons of the queen. as nissa was the queen's daughter and a princess. nissa was being treated inside her suite and the queen, a healer and a tall, blue larentii were in attendance. ry and tory had led toff away, though he wanted to go to nissa's bedside to see how she was.

"we'll check on sissy tomorrow-she got a blast to the head. anyway, that's what uncle drake says. uncle drew said that those three were doing a chant normally used to crack nuts open. he says that if sissy hadn't had her protection jewel, she'd have died." tory shivered as he made his statement. both boys were leading toff down endless corridors toward their suite of rooms. "are you hungry?" tory stopped in his tracks. "i am. we didn't finish dinner earlier."