"Physically she is fine. But she is lonely and heartbroken," Sileas said softly. She didn't know how she was going to tell him of the little ones.

"I'll fix that when we're together again." He said.

Sileas managed a small smile. "Good. Everything else can wait until you've rebuilt your strength."

"Being home with my wife will give me strength." He declared.

"I know, but it's going to take about a week to return home."

"I've already waited years." He said. "I'll try to be patient, though I may dive off the boat and swim to her."

"We'll get you home as soon as possible." Sileas still couldn't shake that feeling. The feeling that something wasn't right.

He nodded. "That will be good."

Sileas gave him a gentle hug.

Yehudit hobbled after Sileas. "Maybe Mama won't kill us."

Sileas decided to hold her tongue on her suspicions, at least with Yehudit, and simply observe Nelek. She would try to catch a quiet moment with Juniper and Questa.

"How did you find me?" He asked, his feet sinking into the beach sand.

"Ila drew a map and Lek found it. We went to Portside with Lek to talk to sailors to see if anyone knew where the island was and one of Juniper's men recognized it," Sileas explained.

"Lek is not here?" He asked.

"I needed someone to go to the keep and tell everyone where we were off too, and neither of them would go. The original plan was to gather the information and return to the keep for help. The plan went awry."

"Just you girls?" He asked.

"Juniper's crew is with us so we're not alone. It was that or let Lek go alone with people we didn't know anything about," Sileas admitted. "I'm sure Wulfsen and Papa sent people after us though."

"My wife couldn't come?" He sounded disappointed.

"Oh I'm sure she would have if we'd kept to the original plan of just gathering information and returning for help," Sileas assured him. "We didn't even bring our own supplies and had to use some of Juniper's."

"I miss her." He said sadly.

"I know. And she misses you, I can assure you of that. If she's not with Wulfsen and Papa, I'm hoping she's caring for Mama while she's running the kitchen," Sileas said idly.

"How soon till I see her again?" He asked hungrily.

"As long as Juniper has no business to conduct on the way home and we leave right away, about a week. That's how long it took us to arrive here."

"A week?" He was impatient. "It did not take me that long to get here."

"We don't have magical equipment for transportation, either," Sileas sighed. She missed her parents and baby sister horribly. The only thing she could find positive about the journey on the ocean was being with Larrigan in her dreams.