She glanced over at the assassin and then back at Pan. “All right. Just this once. But not again, Pan. Promise me.”

He put his hands on her shoulders and squeezed gently. “I promise.”

Getting Bonnasaint back on his feet, Pan tied his hands in front of him, then lashed them to his waist and, using a length of cord, fashioned a leash by which he could be led. Bonnasaint grumbled about being trussed up, but the boy and the girl ignored him.

“Where are you taking me?” he asked finally, watching them shoulder their packs in preparation for leaving.

“To Arborlon,” Pan advised. “We have friends we can ask for help. They might have a better idea about what to do with you. Don’t worry. We won’t take you to the Queen.”

“You would be wise not to for your own sakes.”

Pan walked over. “Don’t think for a moment we won’t give you to the Queen if we find out you’ve been lying to us. We don’t have any reason to care about what happens to you. We only care about Phryne Amarantyne. To the extent that you can be of help to her, then you are useful to us. Otherwise…”

He left the rest unsaid and turned away. Bonnasaint snorted derisively, but otherwise didn’t respond.

The boy and the girl shouldered their backpacks, and with Bonnasaint in tow they set out. Both knew the meres well enough to navigate them safely in daylight, but even so they chose a route that kept them close to the northern edges of the lakes, angling their way east toward Arborlon. The sun was fully risen now, and the mists of early morning had begun to diminish, although patches still lingered here and there, thick and smudgy against the mix of daylight and shadows, trapped within thick stands of trees and along the shores of bodies of water that glimmered like mirrors.

“I wish this were all over,” Prue whispered to Pan, keeping her voice low and the conversation between the two of them.

He noted the scowl on her face and smiled. “So things could go back to being the way they were? Just you and me and tracking?”

She nodded. “Just you and me and tracking.”

He shook his head. “Maybe things won’t ever go back to how they were, Prue. Have you thought about that? I mean, after this is over, however it gets resolved, maybe things will have changed so completely that they can’t ever be the same. The valley isn’t a safe haven like it was. The outside world has found us, and nothing can change that. Like the Drouj, other things will be coming.”