I checked back in on Andy and found Miles seated in a wooden chair next to his bed. He turned to look at me when I pushed the door, and gave me a small smile.

"Has he been up yet?" I asked quietly, staying in the doorway.

Miles shook his head, but he didn't seem worried anymore. "He was whispering in his sleep just a second ago though. Something about a cat... or maybe a hat, it was pretty quiet." He chuckled softly. He turned back to watch Andy again.

I let the corners of my lips turn up in a grin. "I'll come back later, okay Miles?"

"Okay."

I left before he could ask anymore questions, though I doubt he would have anyway. He seemed focused enough on the task at hand.

I didn't want him to know where I was going or what I was doing, since he might warn me against it. He would have a good reason to, if I'm being completely honest.

I strode through the castle calmly. It seemed as though I had been running everywhere lately. I took in the portraits lining the corridor near the library, my eyes skimming over the familiar faces and the beautifully crafted landscapes. Only a few days prior, I had been in the library searching for books about mythology and fairytales. Now I was on my way to find a siren, who had become rather important in my life. I quickened my pace, formulating a plan to find Symphony on my way out the door.

~~~~~

"Let me go!" I shouted, wrenching my arm from Susan's tight grip. She held me tightly by my wrist and dragged me toward the castle. "I command you to release me!"

"No, Princess, I cannot do that." Susan grinned tauntingly. "I have orders from your father to bring you straight to the throne room, no delays."

I pulled against Susan, but she had a strong grip on my arm. I sighed and trudged along next to her as we returned to the castle. I had been at the edge of the trees when Susan had found me, so I hadn't been able to begin my search for Symphony. I wondered why my father would want to speak. Perhaps he wanted to talk about what had happened to Andy.

Susan tugged me through the halls at a brisk pace as I continued to grumble and pester her with questions. Once I became queen, I would put her in her place, but for now, I was stuck listening to what she had to say.

We reached the entrance to the throne room and Susan threw open the tall, intricately designed doors and pulled me into a surprisingly crowded room. Representatives stood in groups, talking quietly among themselves. Up near the thrones, my mother, father, and a few consultants were gathered. All eyes flew to me as the throne room doors slammed closed behind me. I turned my head to see that Susan was gone. She must have stayed outside the doors and left me to explain myself. That horrible woman...

"Hello," I said genially, hoping confidence would help to smooth over my odd entrance. I walked calmly up to the raised platform to join my parents. They seemed slightly surprised to see me. Was Susan lying to me? "You wanted to talk to me?" I quietly asked my father as conversation rumbled back to life in the large room.

"Yes, yes, the future queen of Aglon should be present for the discussion." The king seemed distracted. I frowned and followed my mother's lead as she took her seat. I sat to the right of my father, wondering what this impromptu meeting was going to be about. Everyone present began taking their seats, chatter dying away. I had an uneasy feeling about the meeting, and my stomach was beginning to feel a bit like a swarm of eels.

I noticed the king of Crador was in attendance, along with his son, Charles. Charles looked unhappy with the situation, but I was still not sure what was going on. I watched in anticipation as the king of Crador stood up to address the now silent room.

"Good evening, lords and ladies." The king of Crador looked solemn as he continued to speak. "I am here to inform you of a tragic event in our kingdom that could potentially threaten yours. I hate to tell you this so bluntly, but time is of the essence. Horrible creatures are residing in the waters of our bay. Several of our ships have been attacked or their paths blocked by these creatures, and I believe they pose a very real threat to both of our kingdoms."

My heart sank with every word he spoke. He was talking about sirens, I just knew it, which meant my situation was about to get worse.

"These creatures are half woman, half fish, and Princess Winifred referred to them once as sirens in a meeting we had recently." The king nodded in my direction as though we had some sort of inside joke. I thought I might throw up. "The sirens that are invading our kingdoms are dangerous and must be stopped. King Tobias of Aglon has had his own near-death experience with these sirens." The king of Crador looked at my father pointedly before sitting down.

My father stood up, still looking shaken up. I was worried about him, although seconds earlier I had been rolling my eyes at the king of Crador's comment. King Tobias was not the one who had a near death experience, it was Andy! And I wasn't even sure if it was the sirens' fault...

I had to stop this meeting.

Luckily, someone else had the same idea. Charles stood from his place next to his father and addressed my father. "Your Highness, while my father has this ridiculous idea in his head that the source of this tragedy is a group of mythical creatures, I don't think such a thing could be true. Sirens are made up. There must be some other source of these tragic events."

I watched him carefully as he looked back at his father, who looked like a wasp that had been swatted at, or a merchant who had been stolen from, or a father whose son was deliberately disobeying him. In other words: he looked pissed. But Charles didn't look scared at all. He sat down again with his head held high, totally calm.

My father seemed more confused than upset about the interruption, and he cleared his throat to continue. "Thank you, Prince Charles, for your input." I watched the King of Crador shoot a look full of flaming daggers at his son, who sat without looking at him, unflinching. I was a little upset that he thought he was smarter than all of us by not believing in sirens, but if I tried to argue that they were real, I wouldn't have the time to search for Symphony and find out if she and her pod were a serious threat to the kingdom. I would have to talk to him after the meeting. After all, when we each assumed the throne in our respective kingdoms, we needed to be on the same page.

My father blabbered on about the potential danger our trade was in from this potential threat, and though he avoided using the word "siren" after Charles's input, most people in the room seemed to understand that the King of Aglon believed the issue was sirens. Charles did not seem happy. I was getting nervous, because nearly every lord and lady in the room seemed to think the sirens were going to harm the trading industry or the fishing industry or their children. One lady asked a question and used the word siren, and from the look in his eye, Charles almost interrupted to explain why sirens were fake. The lady quickly changed her wording, but it was obvious that the lords and ladies were believing the King of Crador's word rather than his son's. The elite in the room had begun murmuring among themselves, and I decided to try and turn this conversation around.

I stood from my chair and cleared my throat. I didn't check to see if my mother had fainted out of embarrassment or done something equally fake, because I needed to focus on the task at hand. "Lords and ladies, if I may, I would like to suggest an alternative possibility to the idea of the existence of 'sirens.'" I put air quotes around the word, really hamming it up to make it seem ridiculous. "It's possible that some of our enemies have created a technology with which they can attack our trade ships from beneath the water. Or, perhaps there are creatures in the deep ocean which have not been seen by men or women yet but are capable of drowning ships worth of men." I hesitated for a moment before crossing my arms,knowing it would be unladylike but also knowing it would help get my point across. "Charles is right. My idea about sirens' existence was silly, and is quite honestly pulling us off track."

There was silence in the hall. No one knew what to say. I looked beside me to see my father staring at me, either squinting or glaring. I couldn't quite tell. I sat down without another word, hoping that my little speech had been a good stopping point for the meeting.

Thankfully, my father adjourned the meeting. "We need more time to examine the bays along the coast of our kingdoms, we cannot just go assuming something without having proof. This meeting is over."

Immediately the lords and ladies began discussing among themselves what they thought about the conference. The eruption of noise and movement allowed me to slip away from the throne I had been seated on and weave through the crowd. I wanted to escape my parents' wrath, but I also wanted to find Charles and talk to him. It offended me that he had written off my idea so easily.

I escaped the chamber without any lords or ladies stopping me, but I wasn't sure where Charles had gone. He had slipped away just after the meeting ended, most likely to avoid his father. I walked down a hallway where a few groups of lords and ladies stood together, then turned a corner to an empty hallway. I continued walking, searching for Charles. He had to be somewhere nearby...

I turned another corner and saw a figure at the end of the corridor, sitting on a bench. He was hunched over, and it looked like he might have been writing.

"Charles?" I called, starting at a brisk pace down the hallway toward him. He looked up, quickly tucking away what looked like a small notebook. I noted this (pun intended), but didn't ask him about it. That wasn't why I was here. "You seemed to have some pretty strong ideas back there in the meeting. Do you have any specific reason for writing off sirens as fake?"

For some reason, I had totally forgotten that Charles had been at the dinner party where I had blabbed about my ideas about sirens before that moment. He was directly disagreeing with my ideas! Although, I had ended up disagreeing with my ideas too...

Charles frowned. "I thought you agreed with my beliefs, Winifred. You said so yourself."

I huffed and thought about how to explain this. Charles seemed like a good guy, so I hoped what I was about to do wasn't going to put Symphony in any extra danger. "I agreed with you so that the council thought I agreed with you. I actually believe sirens are real, just like I said at that dinner party earlier this week." Had it been less than a week since that party? So much had happened since then that it felt like years.

Charles raised one eyebrow. "It's kind of silly to believe in a mythical creature, isn't it?"

Charles was starting to get on my nerves. "Not if you have proof. Not if you've seen one with your own eyes." I crossed my arms and glared at him where he sat on the bench. "I know for a fact that sirens are real, but I still don't want anyone in that council chamber to know. At least not yet. I'm telling you because you seem trustworthy."

Charles's face had changed while I was speaking, from incredulous to something else. I couldn't place it. He looked at me for a moment, then motioned for me to sit down on the bench beside him. His eyebrows were drawn together, and as I sat down he turned to me. "You've seen a siren?" He asked softly, making sure the words didn't carry down the hall.

I was startled by the change of pace of this conversation, but I answered him anyway. "Yeah. I'm friends with one, actually. I would introduce you to her, except I'm not sure where she is right now."

Charles looked at the floor contemplatively. I squinted at him, trying to understand why this conversation had changed so suddenly. "Charles, why do you ask?"

Charles looked up at me again and said, "Because I'm friends with a siren too."