Natalie's shoulders slumped. She had been hoping Casey would reveal something else, maybe how to get to her. Or what the guard schedule was like. That was probably too much to hope for.

Sam cleared his throat, and she glared at him. "Natalie wants to go charging in to rescue her mother," he said, staring at her sternly. "I did try to tell her that it needs far more careful planning than that."

"Well you have a week," Casey said, rather bluntly, Natalie thought. "There's six days of open market and then the feast. You could maybe sneak in during the big feast, it will be insanity. But the north tower is no farmers market. It has its own special guard and everything."

Now her stomach really did plunge. It felt like an icy hand had closed over her heart. It wasn't as if she'd been thinking this would be easy, but it was sounding more and more impossible.

"So she might go into the castle to rescue her mother and just get caught." Edward's voice was biting. "Risking everything for nothing."

Natalie turned on him, anger burning hot beneath her breastbone. "My mother is not nothing," she hissed, and Edward leaned back in his chair, clearly startled. Once again, she lapsed into silence, this time her mind was spinning. This changed nothing. She was still going to try to get her mother out, she had to. Now that she knew she was there, that she wasn't dead.

She slid her hand into her pocket, fingers tracing the outline of the necklace. Devon didn't know about the necklace. It was possible that even if her mother was covered in the black veins if she got her back into their world the magic might not be effective anymore. She wasn't sure how it worked, and when she glanced sideways at Sam his face was so grim that she didn't dare ask any questions. He would guess that she was planning something. That she wasn't going to wait.

They cleared the table in silence, and Natalie helped Jewels wash the dishes, drying them with a scrap of a dishtowel. All of them kept glancing out the window, gazes drawn by the spectacle of the massive tower in the distance. It was lit up now, yellow lights sparkling from the windows of all but the tallest towers. It had started raining now, the drops pattering on the thatched roof above them, and in the rainy night the tower was somehow both eerie and beautiful, the lights sparkling through the rain. The streets were completely quite now.

"I'm going downstairs," Sam said gruffly. "I'll get some extra bedding from the owner for everyone."

He vanished downstairs without another word, and with Edward in the next room talking in low voices to Jewels and Devon, Natalie figured this was her best bet. She made eye contact with Princess Kira and jerked her head toward the kitchen. Thankfully the princess didn't ask any questions, just darted a look over to where Gwen and the others were huddled on the bed talking quietly. Kira joined her by the sink, raising a questioning brow.

Natalie made sure to make a fair amount of noise as she put the cutlery away, letting it clatter into the drawer to disguise the sound of her voice. "I want you to help me get into the palace."

To her surprise, instead of looking shocked, or giving her a disapproving look, the princess actually smiled, a crooked, mischievous look on her fair features. "I thought you might say something like that. Meet me for breakfast downstairs in the morning as soon as the sun comes up. Try to slip out without them seeing."

Natalie blinked at her. "What's your plan?"

"Not now, I'll tell you then." Kira glided away, and Natalie watched her putting a stack of bowls away in the cupboard, whistling to herself, as if they hadn't been speaking about anything more secretive than how dinner tasted.

It was the same dream.

The dark forest, the lavender field, the wind tangling through her hair. Natalie glanced around, fists clenched at her sides. The voice started up a moment later, carrying on the wind.

Natalie, where are you? Come to me.

She sat up, breathing hard, clutching the sheets to her chest. A moment later there was a gentle knock on the doorframe, and Sam's tall silhouette appeared, backlit by the lantern in the kitchen. "Natalie?" A moment of hesitation, and then he said, "Are you okay? I heard you wake."

Natalie sat up and threw her sheets off, relieved she was wearing the extra long nightdress that Jewels had leant her. "I'm okay." She didn't feel especially okay, her head ached and she was sweating, the voice was still ringing in her ears. "Bad dream. The same bad dream, over and over." She didn't know why she confessed to this, it just sort of came out. It was a relief to tell someone.

A shuffle from the doorway, and then Sam moved closer. "What sort of dream?"

His voice was concerned. He was a looming silhouette in the darkness, and Natalie moved to one side of the bed and waved for him to sit down. He did, repeating the question.

She hesitated. "I'm in the field, the one with lavender, just outside the village, it's always the same..." Natalie paused, not wanting to tell him about the voice. Not sure if it sounded insane.

"And what about it makes it a nightmare?" Sam leaned forward, his features were sharp in the black and orange light.

She finally told him about the voice, how it called to her by name. How it was trying to find her. Sam shifted on the bed beside her, his voice low and tense. "You should have told us about this earlier. Dreams are rarely just dreams here in Brookland. The queen has powerful magic."

Natalie's mouth went dry. Both because he was sitting so close, leaning toward her, and what he was saying. "You think...you think it's her?"

"I think she's looking for you...so it wouldn't surprise me to find she'd been slipping into your dreams."

"How would she do that?"

"The necklace," Sam said. "She's probably tracking it. Gwen takes a sleep draught for her nightmares. You can probably use that, but for the rest of the night you probably shouldn't have the necklace on you."

He put his hand out, and after one long moment Natalie fished into her pocket and pulled out the necklace. She hesitated for a moment, and then felt Sam gently close his hand around hers in the dark.

"I promise to take good care of it," Sam said softly. "And you'll have it back in the morning. You trust me, right?"

It was strange how little she had to think about that. "I...yes. I think I do."

She let the necklace go, and Sam eased back slightly, his fingers brushing over the back of her hand. It was more than a brush this time, and it send a delicious shiver over her skin.

Then he leaned back, and the bed springs creaked as he stood. "I'll get you the sleep draught tomorrow. Gwen should have extra. And then we won't have her rummaging around in your head anymore."

She knew she should be thinking about the nightmares, about the mysterious voice and the queen searching for her, but as Sam disappeared into the next room all she could think about was his hand on hers.

The next morning Natalie woke just as the sun was rising, orange light spilling between the crack in the curtains over the window. She wanted to tiptoe over to the window and check if the palace was still there, if it still looked the same in the daylight as it had last night. Of course she knew it was still there though, and she couldn't risk waking the others. The three newcomers were sleeping on mats that Edward and Sam had dragged up from storage somewhere downstairs, and one of them was gently snoring now, though Natalie couldn't tell which one.

She eased herself slowly off the edge of the bed, staring down at the others. The mat that Princess Kira had been sleeping on was already empty. She must have snuck out minutes before. Probably she was much more used to skulking around than Natalie was. She winced as her feet touched the ground and the floorboards creaked gently under her. Luckily the door was only a few steps away, and Natalie was able to slip someone's cloak off the hook by the doorframe, silently promising to bring it back right away, as soon as she was done meeting Kira. She would sneak back in and slip back into bed before anyone woke up and discovered she was gone.

She shut the door behind her as silently as possible, wincing a little when it clicked. Pausing on the other side of the door, she held her breath, but there were no footsteps, no shout of alarm went up. The others slept on.

Navigating the staircase without it squeaking like a bunch of outraged mice was a little more difficult, and Natalie eventually worked out that the staircase worked much the way her own did at home. If she stuck to one side of it, it wasn't as loud. Just the thought made her feel a wash of homesickness, and she swallowed hard.

Finally she reached the bottom, breathing a sigh of relief before slipping through the doorway at the bottom and into the pub. It was strange not having the necklace in her pocket, but she would get it back as soon as she snuck back in.

This early in the morning the place was almost empty. There was only the grumpy looking old bar tender, one man in the back with a hood over his face who looked as though he were sleeping off last night, and Kira, who looked, by contrast, disgustingly bright and cheerful next to the dimness of the bar.

"Good morning," she said, but she whispered it, and glanced over at the bar tender with a cheeky grin as she did so. "Make sure to be quiet, he scolds you otherwise."

The bar tender continued polishing his glass, and he didn't look at the princess, though he muttered something that Natalie thought was probably uncharitable under his breath. She moved forward cautiously, glancing at the prone figure in the corner before climbing onto a bar stool.

Kira seemed to notice her nerves. "Don't worry, the queens' soldiers won't come into a dump like this this early in the morning." She leveled a finger at Natalie. "But they'll be here at night so don't come down alone. Well, Sam will tell you."

"I bet he will," Natalie muttered, she couldn't help herself.

Kira seemed amused by this. "He's a good guy, he's just overprotective of his people."

Natalie felt a stab of guilt at this. "I know, he...I know. He rescued me and everything. It's just my mother..." she gestured helplessly, and Kira nodded, her face suddenly serious.

"I know. I get it." She folded her hands on the bar top. "Let's get breakfast, and I'll tell you my plan."