Moon Eye steps back, the mask tilting as they consider. “I’m afraid you’ve misjudged your negotiating position, Yappy. Here’s my counteroffer. No, it’s not coincidence you’re being recognized in Astera. Yes, the reason involves your birth parents. And we’ll tell you why…ifyou keep us informed on the princess’s movements.”
Behind him, someone sucks in a breath.
“Verette?” Eugene asks in disbelief. “What is this, some kind of secret insurrection club?”
“Theotherprincess. Rapunzel.”
He barks a harsh laugh. “You must be joking. You want meto spy on the brilliant and incredible girl who’s the sole reason I’m not dead or in a dungeon…just so you’ll toss me some scraps about the people who abandoned me? Again, hard nope.”
This time the person behind him makes an uncomfortable noise in their throat.
Moon Eye sighs. “Then I think we’re done for today. The offer’s open, but if you tell anyone…well, we know where to find you. And when you change your mind, you know how to find us. Torch, bag him.”
Eugene ducks his head just enough to make Torch’s hands slip as the hood comes down. He doesn’t see much, just leathery suntanned skin—and at the base of Torch’s thumb, a tiny black tattoo of a dagger. Not the easiest identifying mark, but better than nothing.
He waits until after the hood’s on, then slips his hands out of the long-loosened rope. Just to make it abundantly clear he’s stuck around this long of his own volition, he wiggles his fingers in a flourish. “Now IknowSolena didn’t do these knots.”
To his surprise, Solena herself hisses behind him, “What did Itellyou about the clove hitch?”
They faked her exit to try to intimidate him more. Out of professional courtesy alone, Eugene adds another half point to his abduction rating.
Eugene’s arms are twisted behind his back and shackled this time, and then he’s hauled to his feet. “Walk,” orders Torch, pushing him toward the door as it rattles open.
“I don’t even get to say goodbye?” Eugene pouts.
Moon Eye says grimly, “You’ll be back soon enough.”
But on the way out Eugene gets one terrible little crumb of something like an answer:
“Your parents didn’t abandon you, Eugene,” Solena calls after him.
Didn’t—
Then how did he end up in an orphanage?
Before he can ask, he hears the door slam shut at his back.
His mind is spinning even as he tries to keep his cool, even though he knows flustered people slip up. And he almost slips up, too; it’s not until he’s guided around a corner that he realizes he should be counting the steps and turns. He knows in his gut it can only help Future Eugene if he memorizes the way out.Twenty paces. Right. Five. Right again. Thirty paces, stairs, left.The air has a damp, earthy quality that comes and goes with the sound of rushing water. Maybe he’s in a cistern of some sort? The smell isn’t anywhere near as foul as a sewer.
It’s still a relief when they exit into the open, even if the hood remains. Torch walks him around a few blocks to try to confuse him more, and when they finally stop and the hood comes off, Eugene finds he’s facing a stone wall.
“Keep still or the bag goes back on and we go for another walk,” Torch warns. “I’m taking the shackles off. Count to fifty, then you can leave this alley. Understood?”
“Sure thing,” Eugene lies. The moment the shackles unclasp, he throws himself back—
And stumbles into the opposite wall.
Torch is nowhere to be seen.
In fact, the only other living creature in sight is a seagull perched on a nearby barrel, its beady yellow eye fixed on Eugene. It holds his stare a long moment, then opens its beak and screams.
“Gah.”Eugene flinches back and elects to leave through theotherend of the alleyway. His stomach lets out a ferocious grumble, which is his first cue that something’s wrong, not counting the seagull. He shouldn’t bethathungry; he got captured around noon….
Then, as he wanders into a completely new marketplace, he sees the length of the shadows. The social started well over an hour ago.
“Oh no,” he groans, eliciting a sidelong look from a nearby merchant. Sure, light kidnapping is a decent excuse to be late, but Rapunzel’s going to think he flaked on her. And until he figures out how to get back to the palace—preferably without the help of guards, since he’s still disguised as a servant—she’s going to keep thinking that.
His stomach rumbles again as he tries in vain to get his bearings. There’s another one of those statues? Fountains?Somethingat the center of this market, which feels even more run-down than the one he passed through earlier. When he makes his way to the statue’s base, he can see the tops of the sunmills peeking over the roofs. Eugene squints. From here, the fans all look alike, but the tallest ought to be the one onthe palace, right? No matter what, it’s going to be a long walk.
