"You don't have to worry so much, Sammy." Jewels turned the pendant between her fingers. "Natalie knows we aren't the bad guys here. You trust us, right?"

When Jewels glanced up at her Natalie nodded, but guilt flared suddenly inside her. But that was hardly fair, was it? The threshers would have killed her for this necklace if they'd gotten the chance, and she hadn't trusted Sam enough to show this to him, but it wasn't as if any of this had been easy. Every person she met seemed to want the necklace. How was she to know who was safe?

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. It's just, back at home, I had two people try to take it from me. The last man actually attacked me. I didn't lie about that. He chased me and I hid." She told them what had really happened. How it had been her librarian, how he'd already given her a weird vibe with his leather book and the way he'd stared, and how he'd attacked her on the trail and chased her for the necklace.

"The leather book," Gwen said, exchanging a look with Sam. "That had to be a scriven."

Slowly, Sam's look of annoyance faded. He nodded. "That means the queen knew about it somehow." He smoothed one hand over his jaw, clearly agitated. "She has spies on the other side. This is so much more serious than I thought."

Spies on the other side. Something in Natalie's stomach clenched. She remembered her feeling of being watched after she left Pirate Pat's shop, how jumpy she had been. Maybe she hadn't been so paranoid after all.

"What's a scriven?" Natalie looked from one to the other, frustration welling up inside her. She felt like she was floundering, her head barely above the water. She wasn't keeping up with the conversation at all. "And what does she want a key for? And who is this queen person and why is she so terrible?"

Sam blew out a breath. "Alright. Look, I'll tell you everything I can, but then you have to be completely up front with us. You don't hold anything else back, understood?"

Natalie flushed again, but she only nodded this time.

"For starters, a scriven is a set of books used to communicate between two people. One person writes something in their book, and it shows up in the other book. It works across miles, countries, even worlds. Likely your librarian was communicating with someone here in Brookland, and he was defiantly working for the queen, because no one posses the type of magic to create a scriven anymore, and most of them have been claimed by her highness."

Sam spat out the last word like it was poison, and Gwen nodded in agreement.

"The queen must have had him watching you, because she's been trying to get her hands on the last remaining keys for years now." Sam gestured at the pendant in Natalie's hand. "With that, you could travel between your world and ours."

"Why does she want it?" There was a rumbling sort of unease starting in her stomach. Just judging by the looks on their faces she could tell the answer wasn't going to be a good one. "What would she do with it?"

"She would take her men into your world and strip it of its natural resources, just like she she's done here." Jewels frowned. "You would never know what hit you."

Natalie shook her head. "Really? Does she know what we have over there? Guns, tanks, automatic bombs...we'd fight her..." she trailed off, the others were shaking their heads.

There was a scornful sounding laugh from the doorway, and Natalie turned to see Edward leaning against the frame. He had a black cloth throw over his shoulder, and a pair of oven mitts in the crook of his arm. He was staring at Natalie with sharp distaste. "Human are greedy. She knows that. Think of the most manipulative politician you have in your world. He or she is nothing compared to Casias, she could talk circles around them. She would bewitch them literally and figuratively and they would be entered into a binding magical contract with her before they realized what they were signing."

"Your world is loaded with metal and black powder," Sam said gravely, "And very low on magic. There is more magic in a square mile of Brookland's soil than there is in your entire world, and that's after she's come through and drained most of it. She would make short work of your world, and at first, you would thank her for it." He directed a stern look at Edward, "I was doing just fine explaining, thank you, Ed."

Edward only shrugged bad temperedly and did not move from his spot. "You're seriously telling me she has a key." He flapped one of the oven mitts at the others. "What the hell are you waiting for? Take it from her. You know damn well humans can't be trusted with something as powerful as that."

Sheer reflex made Natalie's fingers snap shut around the charm, and she glared at Edward, and then around at the others. Thankfully Jewels swivelled around on the stool and shook a finger at her sullen companion.

"You are being the worst kind of host right now. And Sam I'm still waiting on my herbs."

"Oh." Sam straightened up and reached behind him, presenting Jewels with a wooden box. He flipped the clasp on the front, revealing a series of compartments filled with dried plants and flowers. "Right. Mugwort?"

"Chamomile, and a bit of lavender paste too." Jewels smiled at Natalie. "It will take the sting out of it."

"Thanks," Natalie murmured. She watched as Sam fished into the main part of the kit and then handed Jewels a little clay pot with a lid. She dipped a finger in, and Natalie tried to relax as the other woman leaned forward, dabbing something cool and smooth over the cut on her face. Still, her gaze kept drifting to the sullen Edward, who was glowering at Jewels as if she were betraying them all in some horrible way. As if even touching her was somehow offensive to him.

"Basically Queen Casias is out to get as much out of the earth as she can. She's been slowly extending her reach, and she passed the king's borders over a year ago."

"It should have been a declaration of war," Gwen said sourly, "but he tried to negotiate with her. He's still trying, which is foolish if you ask me."

"He's a pacifist, you know that. He will be until the end." Jewels pulled back and put the lid on the pot, smiling at Natalie. "Feel better?"

Natalie nodded. It did feel better actually, the subtle throb in her cheek had dulled. "Yes, thank you."

"You can't negotiate with a monster," Edward said, and he looked pointedly at Natalie.

She glared at him. Even though she found him intimidating—he was not as tall or big as Sam but he was certainly still bigger than her—she was starting to get irritated with his attitude. Apparently the others felt the same way, because Sam shot him a scornful look and then turned away, ignoring him.

"The king wasn't used to war, before Casias rose to power there was no one who would have resorted to the things she has. We are an old land, but in a way still naive. We didn't think anyone could go as dark as she has. And I'm afraid Jewels is right. Our king is going to remain a pacifist until it kills him and all the rest of us with him."

"Those mines in the black mountains, those were hers?" Natalie shuddered, remembering how thick and choking the air had been. How rusted and dirty everything was.

"She's stripping Brookland of everything she can," Gwen said grimly. "Her soldiers and thugs take people from the villages she conquers and makes them work in the mines."

"Is that how you ended up there?"

Natalie watched as Gwen and Sam exchanged a look, and Jewels dropped her gaze, pursing her lips.

"You could say that."