She made a face at him and gestured for Damion to lead the way out of the gully.
“That’s what your imp parents told you, but that’s not what happened,” Honey said. “You were brought to Ouda by a sylph, a spirit of wind. You were not hidden by your parents. You were hidden from your parents.”
Damion leapt up to the top of the gully.
“Why didn’t Ouda tell me this—?”
“She planned to—”
“But why did she tell you?”
Magda set Hero next to Damion’s foot. He reached down for her.
“She warned me not to fall in love with you, because one day you’d have to return to your rightful place as a Prince. That was why she took you in, because the sylph told her that the Elf King was hunting for you. He was afraid of you. That’s why you were stolen away.”
Magda pulled her hand away from Damion’s before he could help her up. “What did you say?”
Honey glanced back at Magda, her face like a marble sculpture, hard yet glorious. “I said that my Prince has a greater destiny than he realized.”
Magda gazed down at the bottom of the gully, where the shadows thickened as night rose. “Get out of the way. Move.” She herded Honey and Kaelan back from the trickle. “Tamia. Please, return. I must speak to you.”
“Who is she talking to?” the nymph said. “Is there a water spirit here?”
“I can’t believe this,” Kaelan was muttering. “I have to speak to Ouda myself.”
“You don’t believe me?” Honey pouted. “Why would I lie?”
“You wouldn’t,” Kaelan said. “But... so I was stolen from whom? And why? Why would the Elf King want me dead?”
Magda gazed down at the tranquil trickle. Tamia would not return, she knew. Not before strangers.
“Because you’re the one who will signal the end of the Crown and the Throne,” Magda breathed. “The child whose birth portends the unification of Alfheim.”
“How do you know that?” Honey asked.
“That’s why the Elf King of old began to wipe out the oracles,” she said. “Because they foretold this.” She chewed her lip as she thought. “But I don’t understand why the Elf King would want to kill you if Endreas intends to be the one to take over and bring Alfheim under Elven rule.” She scowled. “I hate prophecies.”
“Endreas?” Damion jumped down again. “Who is that?”
“We have to go with you,” Honey announced.
They all stared at the nymph. All three began to protest at once.
“No—” Kaelan said.
“Travel with a nymph?” Damion sneered.
“That’s a really bad idea,” Magda said.
“No. It’s the only solution, I see that now,” Honey said. She clasped Kaelan’s face in her hands. “I thought I could keep you for myself, but I have to think of you and the other small folk. You will only be safe with your own kind. You are a Prince. The Raes will be drawn to you”—she threw a cold look over her shoulder at Magda—“like this one was.”
“No, no, no,” Magda said, holding up her hands. “I have enough problems—”
“The nymph might be right,” Damion said grudgingly.
“Please,” Magda said to him, putting her hands together. “I beg you. Don’t say that.”
“If Lavana has Riker, then you are without a Prince. Even if you have the Enneahedron, so long as she has a Prince, she has a chance to challenge. But if you have both the Enneahedron and a Prince, the family will have no grounds to support her. A challenge will not be accepted. You will not have to fight her for it.”
