And to make matters worse, the nearby vendors will only accept Asteran currency, which Eugene discovers when he tries to buy himself a belated lunch. He winds up successfully begging a day-old loaf off a baker, then gets a few mouthfuls of musty water from a public well before he sets off in the approximate direction of the highest sunmill.
He makes it five blocks and a quarter of the way through the loaf before admitting he’s lost. The walls of the narrow lane rise too high for him to see the sunmills anymore, and every passerby avoids eye contact and scurries away before he can ask for directions.
Then a familiar, dreadful toot sounds from above.
Eugene halts in place. Looks up.
A—the?—seagull is perched on a balcony, head tilted, yellow stare pinned. Not on Eugene.
On the loaf.
“No,” Eugene says instantly, “don’t you dare—”
The gull spreads its wings, lets loose a war shriek, and dives.
Eugene bolts down the lane, cursing and trying to shield himself from the beating wings. A sharp beak pecks at his arms, snapping after the loaf as he switches it from hand to hand. “Getoff—leave me alone—I didn’t even get lunch today! Where’s a frying pan when you need one—”
The gull’s beak closes on the bitten end of the bread. It flaps and squawks and, worst of all, maintains perfect eye contact with Eugene.
For a moment, he has the horrible thought that for all his joking before, this actuallycouldbe Gothel’s escape plan gone awry.
“Eugene!”
Hoofbeats clatter over the paving stones toward them. The gull, clearly not expecting Eugene to have reinforcements, rips free a dry strip of bread and takes off.
Rapunzel slows Maximus to a halt in front of Eugene. Guilt zings through his belly; she’s even in a silk party gown. As she swings down from the saddle, he launches into the apology he’s been cobbling together: “I’m so sorry, I didn’t forget about you or the thing this afternoon, I was—”
“Kidnapped,” Rapunzel finishes for him, grabbing his arms. “Pascal filled me in. What happened? Are you all right?”
The back of Eugene’s neck prickles.We know where to find you,Moon Eye had said. Whoever these people are, they’re competent enough to snatch him off the streets unseen; they could still be watching him.
“It’s not safe to talk here,” he says under his breath, then adds loudly, “Just a misunderstanding! I look like some guy who didn’t pay his tab. Come on, let’s get going.”
Rapunzel nods with a tight smile, and mounts up again. “Max, you know how to get back?”
He whickers an assent. Eugene ditches the servant uniform’s distinct coat—the shirt and breeches are generic enough to not raise red flags—and pulls himself up behind her. “Cressien must be pulling his hair out right now. How did you get out of the palace on your own?”
“Maximus didn’t give the guards much of a choice.” Rapunzel pats Max’s neck. “I think some tried to follow me. We’ll let them ‘find us’ and escort us back, and if anyone asks…”
“I was mistaken for someone else.” Eugene runs a hand through his hair, shaking out the ash, then winds his arm around Rapunzel’s waist to hold on as Max sets off. It’s nice, riding like this with her.
And—even though it’s utter folly, even though he doesn’t have anywhere near enough information to be sure—maybe this doesn’t have to be the last time.
His parents didn’t abandon him. And his parents were—are?—Asteran. Or known in Astera. If Solena’s telling the truth…
There has to be a good reason he’s lived his whole life elsewhere.
Abigreason.
Maybe big enough to have a real future with Rapunzel after all.
It doesn’t take long to attract the notice of the guards, who hustle them back up to the royal palace expeditiously. Both Minister Cressien and King Enver are waiting at the front steps, two separate variants of thunderstorms brewing in their faces.
Enver strikes first, striding toward them as Eugene dismounts. “By the skies, what happened? Princess Rapunzel said you were abducted. We didn’t even know you were gone—how did you escape?”
Eugene has roughly one split second to figure out how to thread this needle.
On the one hand, if he betrays his captors to Enver, he might lose his one shot at learning the truth about his parents.
