“The way was hidden before, but Kirisin found it,” Prue persisted. She gave Tenerife a withering look. “Why is it that I know all this and you don’t? No wonder the dead kept the Elfstones from the living for so long! The living don’t even know their own history!”

“Calm down,” Tasha hushed her, giving Pan a quick look. “We don’t want to fight among ourselves. We just want to find a way to help Phryne.”

“The Elfstones are a very powerful magic, aren’t they?” Prue asked pointedly. “If they were to come into Phryne’s possession, it could make a huge difference in what happens to her. Doesn’t it make sense that she would take a chance on being able to recover them? Wouldn’t she at least go looking if her grandmother asked her to?”

Both Orullians nodded somewhat reluctantly. “She would,” Tasha said. “She’s stubborn that way. She would be seeking a way to get back at Isoeld Severine and avenge her father’s murder. It begins to look more and more as if the assassin was telling the truth about the Queen. But how do we get to Phryne to find out?”

“I can show you where she disappeared!” Xac Wen announced, looking eager to depart immediately. “You just have to come with me!”

Panterra looked at the brothers. “Tasha and Tenerife have to stay here. They won’t be allowed to leave just yet. But Prue and I can come with you. Maybe we can do something to help find her.”

“Because you’re really Elves, even though you don’t look it?” the boy deadpanned.

Pan cocked an eyebrow. “Careful, now.”

“All right,” Tasha agreed. “You take little sister and go with Xac. And you, squirrel boy, take them where they need to go and make certain nothing happens to them. You didn’t do so well with Phryne, so let’s do better with our Tracker friends.”

“That wasn’t my fault!” the boy exclaimed in dismay. He turned to Pan and Prue. “It wasn’t!”

“No, Xac, it wasn’t,” Prue agreed, reaching out to touch his cheek. “It was just something that happened, and assigning blame for it doesn’t help anyone. I should know. Will you take us?”

The boy glanced at the other three as if to make certain of his footing, and then he gave her a firm nod. “I will take you anywhere you want to go, Prue Liss. And I will make sure that nothing bad happens to you.”

He looked at Tasha. “We could leave right away.”

Tasha rolled his eyes. “Tomorrow will be soon enough for this. Some of us need our rest.”

“Not me,” said the boy, and went back to eating.

Chapter Eighteen