After a relatively uneventful night, Charlie and his companions spent the morning planning. Well, most of his companions. Sir Thespin apparently had some obligations to fulfill today, so he’d sent Obie to check on them instead. He was in the dining room now, showing Merlin an assortment of wooden toys he’d brought with him. The kid in an old man’s body had knocked right on their door with a large wooden toy chest so big he had to turn and shuffle sideways to get through the front door. Merlin had drawn the short straw and was now getting the grand tour.

  Arkady, Vetica, Charlie, his two favorite fur balls and Orb were in the kitchen, talking quietly amongst themselves so Obie wouldn’t overhear. Vetica hadn’t been sure about talking about their plans with a hex knight in the house, but Obie seemed generally harmless and he was so wrapped up in his conversation he wouldn’t overhear. Charlie looked over and eavesdropped for a moment.

  Merlin leaned his head in his hand, his eyes fighting to keep from squinting shut. He mumbled along every once in a while to make it seem like he was paying attention.

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Is that right?”

  “That one’s pretty cool.”

  Obie didn’t catch on to Merlin’s lack of excitement. “Oh, and this one can even shoot out water! Look!” He held up a wooden horse toward Merlin and pulled its tail. A small spurt of water splashed out of the horse’s mouth and struck Merlin in the face.

  “What the—” Merlin sputtered.

  Charlie giggled, turning back to Arkady and Vetica’s conversation. Vetica seemed unconvinced. “We don’t have any idea where to even start looking. We need to get out and collect some more information,” she insisted.

  “We can’t do this blindly. If we go around asking too many questions, people might start to talk. There’s three town’s worth of people here, so it’s impossible they all know each other, but they do have a common interest. They want this place to be safe, if a group goes around asking suspicious questions, they’ll report us to the knights before a single drop of rain from that hex storm hits the ground,” Arkady said.

  “Wanna bet how long it takes Vetica to stab this guy in the throat?” Orb whispered to Charlie.

  Vetica rolled her eyes. “We’ve only just got here. We are blind. What do you expect us to do? We don’t have any leads, and if we can’t ask around, we’ll just be counting on luck.”

  Arkady smiled. “Not luck. There has to be a prison of some sort here. I wouldn’t have come right out and asked Thespin about it, but no harm came of it. That being said, something like that wouldn’t really be something most people knew about. They might know it exists, but they’d have no reason to worry about where it was. Of everyone in this place, we can narrow our search down to two groups of people.” Arkady leaned back against a large grandfather clock.

  “The hex knights…and who else?” Orb asked.

  Charlie thought about the fancy houses and buildings they’d seen when they first arrived. He saw where Arkady was going with this. “The builders!”

  Vetica arched a brow, turning to look at him sitting on the dining room table. “What?”

  “The knights had help building this place, so the people that helped them would know where the prison is! They helped build it!” Charlie explained.

  Arkady grinned. “Smart boy! That’s right, Charlie. So, since we can’t ask the knights, we’ll go to the people they relied on to make this fancy fort of theirs. The problem is…we still have to figure out how to find them.”

  “Squeak?” Mousifer said, temporarily prying himself away from a piece of fruit he was nibbling on next to Charlie.

  Arkady shook his head. “Sorry, I don’t speak mouse.”

  Charlie translated. “He asked if we should go around looking for people building.”

  “Unfortunately…I don’t have that part figured out. We might get lucky and run into some construction, but that could take some time.” Arkady sighed.

  He and Vetica kept talking, but Charlie’s attention turned back to Obie and Merlin. If he were being honest, he did feel like there was some way to get information out of Obie. Vetica and Arkady thought it was too risky, but Obie was a kid, and Charlie was good with other kids. He’d met lots of them on his journeys, and so far, most of them had become his friends. Obie might look like an old man, but there was a kid’s soul in there. If Charlie just gave him a chance, maybe the hex knight would surprise him. Besides, it’s not like all hex knights were bad. Richard was a hex knight once, and Thespin seemed to legitimately care about the people behind the fort walls. Maybe if—

  Charlie tilted his head. The answer, it turned out, had been in front of him the entire time. He’d paid particular attention to the buildings when they’d first arrived. He’d thought they looked so cool, full of life, vibrant and energetic even. It was something that the toys Obie was showing off now had in common with the houses. In fact, he recognized some of the same patterns etched into a miniature toy house Obie had pulled out of his wooden chest.

  Obie was already helping out. “The toys!” Charlie cried out to his friends.

  Arkady and Vetica both turned to look at him as one. “What?” they said almost simultaneously.

  “Look, Charlie, I know you’re a baby, but the whole demanding toys that aren’t yours shtick is a bit much,” Orb grumbled.

  Charlie huffed. “No, look at them!”

  Arkady walked forward and peered through the doorway. “Wait…you’re right.” He turned to look back at Vetica. “You don’t think that…”

  She nodded. “It’s possible.”

  Arkady hurried into the dining room. Vetica swooped Charlie off the table and followed Arkady, but not before Orb swooped into one of her pockets.

  Arkady patted Merlin on the back. “Come on, Merlin, you’re hogging this tour all to yourself? That’s a real sick collection, Obie.”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Obie’s eyes beamed with pride. “Really? You like it? If you give me a few minutes, I can go fill the water horse back up! Merlin loved it!”

  Merlin glared at Obie. “Sure did. Absolutely loved it.” The front of his tanned button-up was still damp.

  Arkady smirked. “Maybe later, I was wondering if you had all these toys made in town. They look kind of familiar to me, but I can’t figure out why.”

  Obie grinned. “Oh, yeah! That’s cause Master Aveo made it! He’s pretty popular around here. He’s the one who planned out the city. Everyone loves him!”

  Arkady sent a sly look at Vetica. “Is that right? He does sound pretty cool. By any chance, would you know where I could find him? This collection of yours has me jealous. I’d like to commission something of my own from him.”

  Obie nodded. “Uh huh! His house is about halfway between here and the front gate! There’s a wooden statue of a dog near the front door! It’s really cool! I can show you if you want!” Obie offered.

  Arkady smiled. “That’s alright; that’s more than enough. Plus, I can tell Merlin’s eager to hear more about your toys!”

  Merlin’s jaw dropped at the sheer betrayal.

  Vetica bit her lip. Charlie looked up at her from her arms. It was clear she wanted to go too. Arkady caught on as well. He turned his body away from Obie and stepped toward her and Charlie. “It might look weird if you leave your injured husband the day after you arrive. Let me handle this; you rest up. We’ll need you and Charlie fresh so we can act on whatever information I learn.”

  Charlie nodded. Vetica would normally gather information, but she had been acting off lately, and he wanted to get to the bottom of it. With Arkady chasing down leads, and Merlin distracting Obie, Charlie would have a good opportunity to speak with Vetica in private. Vetica started to protest, but Charlie reached out toward her face. A fingertip just barely grazed her chin. She brought him closer to her face, and he smiled. “We can trust him. We’ll hang out here for now!” Charlie said.

  Vetica sighed. “Okay, Charlie, if that’s what you want.”

  Arkady wasted no time. After double-checking that his daggers were tucked away, and adjusting the red cloak he’d donned over his clothes, he left, this time using the front door.

  Charlie asked Vetica if they could go upstairs and talk. She seemed a bit surprised at the request, but obliged him. They found an empty bedroom, and she sat him down in the middle of the bed. She pulled a chair from underneath a desk for herself and sat facing him. She crossed her legs and leaned forward, waiting to hear whatever Charlie had to say. “What is it?” she asked. “Did you want to talk strategy or—”

  “Actually…” Charlie hesitated. “Actually, I wanted to ask if you’re doing okay. Is everything alright?” he asked her.

  Vetica’s eyes widened before her gaze fell to the floor. “Oh. You’re asking because I keep messing up, aren’t you? At the gate, I got caught off guard and nearly got us caught. Then, that Calda guy showed up, and I nearly pulled my knife, worrying he might expose us.” She sighed. “I came right out and asked Thespin about a prison. I’ve made nothing but mistake after mistake since we got here.” Tears welled in here eye’s. “I’ve done nothing but let you down.”

  Charlie shook his head. “No. No, don’t say that! I’m not asking because of anything like that; I’m asking because I want to know you’re okay, Vetica. I care about you; you’re my friend.” Vetica was a world-class assassin and one of the strongest people Charlie knew. She was an expert at collecting information, and going undercover was natural for her. If she was acting so out of character, making mistakes she wouldn’t normally make, something had to be going on. Charlie needed to know she was okay. “I just want to know everything’s alright,” he assured her.

  “I—” Vetica stopped before she could say anymore. A tear rolled halfway down her cheek before quickly being wiped away.

  Charlie crawled to the edge of the bed and patted the space beside him.

  Vetica looked surprised, but got up and sat in the space he’d patted. He looked up at her. “It’s okay, take your time,” Charlie said. He’d sit right here and wait until she was ready to say whatever it was she needed to. That’s what friends did.

  “It’s this hex, Charlie. Ever since I awakened this power, it’s like it…it’s like the hex is talking to me,” she said.

  Charlie stared at her. “You can hear it?”

  She shook her head. “No, not like a voice. It’s more like…this urge to kill. When we were at the gate, I kept having these thoughts. I kept thinking if I didn’t strike first the knights were going to take you away from me. They were going to take everyone away from me. And then in the wagon, it was like I interpreted Thespin’s words in the worst way possible. Like I wanted a reason to fight him. I just don’t feel like myself.”

  “This is really awkward, but I have the feeling you guys forgot I was in Vetica’s pocket,” Orb said, floating out. “I know, I know, I probably should just let you two have this moment, but like…I don’t know it felt like the kind of thing that was only going to get worse the longer I let it go on,” Orb said.

  Vetica rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

  Charlie huffed. “Orb! We’re talking!” he said.

  “Well sorry. But I do have to ask, don’t you always kind of default to killing things when we’re in trouble, Vetica? That’s normal for you,” Orb said.

  “Orb, that—” Charlie paused. It was true. Whenever something went wrong or it came time to make a plan, Vetica was the first one to want to fight, murder, or maim their way out of it.

  Vetica let out a breath. “I’m a…well, I was a Rawlin. I’ve been trained my entire life to fight my way through problems. But this is different. A dagger is still my first choice for most problems, but this is like…I don’t know. It’s like the hex wants me to let loose. Fighting my way out of a bad situation is one thing, but starting a bad situation just to fight is another. That’s what this hex wants me to do, and it’s driving me crazy. It’s like I’m on edge and I can’t calm down.”

  Charlie crawled up beside Vetica and put his arm on her back. It wasn’t very efficient with his baby body, but he’d seen others do that to comfort each other. “I know how that feels. It’s like how I feel when I go into a tantrum. When my powers activate, and I lose control and my dungeon crumbles. It can be scary. But when I feel like that, when I feel that anger boiling up, I try to think about my friends.”

  Vetica looked down at him. “You think about your friends when you’re angry?” she asked.

  Charlie nodded. “I think about the people I want to protect. When I don’t have any more bad guys to beat up, and I need to calm down, I think about the people I care about. You and Merlin and Orb, and all our friends. You just got this power a few days ago. But you’re really strong Vetica, you’re the toughest person I know. So I know you’ll master this power, and if that voice or feeling or whatever it is that makes you feel the way you do keeps bothering you, then we’ll just beat it up!”

  Vetica laughed. “We’ll beat up a voice?” she asked before soft laughter escaped again.

  “You did say your first solution to most problems is a dagger,” Orb reminded her. “Look, don’t tell anyone I said this, but if anybody can master some crazy, villainous, monster hex like that, it’s you, Vetica. You’ll have that hex quaking in its boots and pissing itself in no time.”

  Vetica shot Orb a weird look. “That was…strangely motivating. I don’t like that it was, but it kind of was.” She chuckled. “Thanks, you two. I’ll get myself together. I don’t want to jeopardize saving Mary because I can’t get my own thoughts in order.”

  Charlie smiled at her. “Well, just know you can always talk to us; we’ve got your back!”

  “Yup, sure do. You can lean on us anytime,” Orb said. “Well, not physically, I’m just a little ball and Charlie’s a baby. Leaning on us might be dangerous. But like metaphorically, ya know?”

  Vetica’s lips folded in. She turned and scooped up Charlie and hugged him close to herself. “I feel a little better.”

  “Good enough to go save Merlin from his children’s toy exhibit?” Orb asked.

  “No, not that much,” she said with a smile.

  Charlie leaned his head against her. He’d keep an extra-careful eye on Vetica from here on out. Whatever she faced from this power, he wouldn’t let her deal with it alone.