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They paused outside of a door a few down from the sitting room they had been in, and Queen Paige opened it. “It’s a good thing you like her chatter. I have always worried she would end up with someone who would want to stifle her.”

Why would anyone wish to do that? Farrendel trailed after Queen Paige, holding Bertie steady as the young one shifted in his sleep. Essie was so...Essie. Vibrant and lively and so richly full of happiness. He could not imagine asking her to be anything less than who she was. “When she talks, I do not have to.”

“I can see how you’d appreciate that.” Queen Paige led the way across a darkened sitting room to one of the doors set in the walls. This must be a suite of rooms like his in Estyra. With this sitting room as a main room and the bedrooms branching off it.

Farrendel left both the door to the hallway and the door to the sitting room open as he followed Queen Paige inside. She laid Phineas in a small human bed with gates surrounding it. That must be what Essie meant when she said they added rails for their young ones.

Across the room, another similar bed was set against the wall with smaller rails. It must be the bed for the human child he carried. He set the child down on the mattress. There were blankets. Was he supposed to do something with them? He was not properly trained for something like this.

Queen Paige laughed, stepped around him, and tugged the blankets over Albert. “You are just like Essie described.”

What did that mean? Farrendel stepped back. His head pounded harder. All he wanted to do was curl up in bed.

Yet his own bed was far away in Estyra. Here, everything was unfamiliar. He was surrounded by stone, and the magic he had done earlier that evening had worsened his headache. Now, even his joints were beginning to ache.

He could not think about it. This was Essie’s home. For her sake, he would bear this.

“I’ll stand in the doorway of the room until you reach your room. Just to reassure the guards. They looked a little on edge.” Queen Paige bustled back into the sitting room. When she reached the door to the hallway, she turned. “Is there anything you’d like to know about Essie?”

That stopped him in his tracks in the center of the sitting room. Essie had learned a lot about him by asking his family, and he had been cowardly enough to be glad his family had explained certain secrets so that he did not have to.

But he had been unable to ask her family about her. What would he like to know about Essie that her family could tell him that she could not?

He glanced at Queen Paige, then focused on the floor. “How can you tell when her smile is happy and when it is a mask?”

Would she understand what he was asking?

When he dared look up, he found Queen Paige was smiling, arms crossed. “It’s a good sign you’ve figured that out already. Yes, Essie will keep smiling even when she’s sad or angry or hurting. But if she’s unnaturally silent while smiling, then something’s wrong. But, this is Essie. If you push her and ask, she will eventually tell you. Or she’ll burst into tears, then tell you. And if she’s really, really angry with you, trust me, you’ll know.”

That was good information to know. He always feared that Essie would be miserable at Estyra, and he would be unable to recognize it.

“Linshi.” He ducked his head. “Thank you.”

He hurried past Queen Paige into the hallway, mentally counting the doors until he found the one belonging to Essie.

“Goodnight,” Queen Paige called from behind him.

He nodded and entered Essie’s room. Quickly, he crossed the sitting room and the bedroom, opened the nearest window, and leaned out. The cool breeze washed over him, shoving away some of the headache.

Now to keep Essie from seeing just how miserable he was here.

Cold washed over Essiea moment before the muffled cry jerked her all the way awake. Rubbing at her face, she forced her gritty eyes open.

By the faint light of the moon filtering through the windows, Farrendel’s form shook, tangled in the blankets.

“Farrendel. Wake up.” Essie touched his shoulder.

He flinched away, his movement stealing the last of the blankets from her feet.

“It’s all right. Wake up.” She reached out and gently shook him.

Farrendel stilled, sucking in a sharp breath. His face was hidden behind a curtain of his white-blond hair as he pushed onto his elbows, breathing hard.

Essie huffed out a breath of her own. A nightmare-free night had probably been too much to hope for, especially for their first night here. At least she’d managed to wake him before his nightmare progressed past moans into screams. The palace walls were thick, but not thick enough that the guards and her brothers wouldn’t come running at the sound of screaming. “Are you all right?”

“Yes.” The word came out tight. A pause. Farrendel’s shoulders shook. “No.”

Essie eased closer and gently rested a hand on his shoulder. This time, he didn’t flinch away from her.