Put back together

59. Let the ghosts lull you to sleep

By the time the end station finally came into sight Patton's fever had broken, Roman had read through three of the stories in Logan's book and was seriously doubting that they were meant for children and Elliott had discovered that they had small retractable spikes on their tail.
It was not a good thing for them to find out.

Roman watched Logan untangle their tail from one of the bags for the fifth time in less than a hour.

"So, did I miss anything?" Patton asked suddenly. He was still a bit pale and looked exhausted but his eyes were clear again.

"Err, not much," Roman said. "Well, a little bit we uhm... We found two more pieces."

Patton's eyes widened.

"Not much? What? Who is it?!"

"Virgil and King Janus."

Patton gaped at him before frowning.

"But that makes no sense! They are siblings," he turned to Logan. "I thought it said that we were spread over the islands?"

Logan shrugged, finally freeing Elliott from the bag.

"I've been trying to figure out how that's possible too. Emile said that Virgil wasn't born to the royal family and instead just showed up one day but I can't figure out how Janus and Remus can both be pieces."

"But then they probably know about the glowing, right?" Patton asked. "I mean, I'm not an expert but siblings touch each other, don't they?"

"Oh, definitely," Roman agreed. "When I was six one of my brothers liked to sneak up on me and just throw himself on me. I doubt it's possible to have siblings and not at some point get poked in the cheek until you try to push them away, they fall even though you didn't even push that hard and then you get in trouble."

"That never happened back at home," Logan frowned.

"Be glad about it."

"So," Patton interrupted, "what do we do about them being pieces? I mean, we don't even know if Virgil is alive or not! And if, how do we get on the good side of someone we've stabbed? And his family?"

"That is a very good question," Logan said. "Not one I can answer but a good one."

"Mum," Elliott called and tried to wave their tail only to slide the entire bag around with them. "I did it again."

"Have you considered," Logan tried to figure out how to untangle them without hurting them or ripping the strap of the bag in two, "to maybe retract in your spikes?"

"But like them."

"Then maybe try to keep your distance from the bags?"

Elliott looked disappointed but agreed.

"So, do we just stick to the plan?" Roman asked, getting back on topic. "Go to the castle and go on from there? Or do we change the plan, now that we know three others? Six people in total is already a lot!"

"I think we should stick to the plan for now," Patton said. "They won't just let us march back into the capital but from the castle we can send a messenger or something, right?'

"That's true," Logan nodded.

"They also can't just kill the messenger or imprison them," Emile added. "It's common law that you can't punish the messenger for the news they bring or from whom they bring news."

"Really?" Patton asked surprised.

"Yes, would be pretty shitty if you had to bring a bad message and then got punished just because you did your job, wouldn't it?"