Page 121 of The Frog Prince

It felt too good to be true.

“Your thinking is so loud, my prince,” Otto whispered an indeterminate amount of time later.

Alwin opened his eyes to find Gisela asleep, her head resting against the side of the carriage, and Farwin with his eyes closed, still tangled in her hair.

“I can’t really help it,” he murmured, not wanting to wake her. He raised his own head from Otto’s shoulder and gave him his best attempt at a smile. “My mind won’t stop spinning every mile we draw closer. I’m finally going home.”

“Long overdue—”

Otto’s words were interrupted by their carriage screeching to a halt and a cacophony of sounds coming from outside. Alwin tensed, shifting over and peeking through the gap in the curtain of the small window.

People were gathering around the carriage, dirty riding cloaks over their shoulders. Alwin thought he glimpsed a familiar flash of green and gold before he pulled back.

Gisela startled from her sleep, dislodging Farwin, who looked incredibly displeased about it. Jurgen had not even stirred. “What is happening?”

“We are stopping for some reason.” Otto parted the curtain slightly and leaned out to see what was going on.

“Kurt? Albert?” he called out to one of the older farm boys from the village who had been tasked with getting them to Hallin. “What happened? What’s going on?”

“We’re being stopped by a group of people under the Hallin flag,” Kurt said, appearing on foot. Alwin froze in place. Green and gold. Hallin. “They seem to be saying it’s a routine inspection of the merchant cart ahead. They’re looking for someone.”

“A criminal?” Gisela asked.

It seemed neither of them knew, but Alwin couldn’t hear anything anymore. His mind was full again.

“Couldn’t catch too much,” Albert said, still holding the reins. “But I am sure we will have this sorted in a second. Looks like they’re just checking faces—”

“No!” Alwin’s legs stiffened with the need to spring from the carriage and into the forest.

He wasn’t ready yet. He wanted this so much, and yet he wasn’t ready. To be turned down, to be rejected when all he wanted was to go home.

“Alwin,” Otto called gently, leaning back into the carriage and touching his hand as if he would break.

Alwin knew his eyes were wild when he faced him, trying to speak without words.

“Who do you have in there?” A voice came from behind Kurt and he startled, turning his back to the carriage window and trying to block Alwin from view. Loyal without even knowing why. Alwin wished he could whisk the entire village away to a better life.

“Just a few people from my village going to Hallin,” Kurt said.

“For what purpose?” the person asked, and something about the voice sounded so familiar to Alwin as he hid. He had heard it before. He was certain.

“Healer’s apprentice hoping to learn from Hallin’s healers,” Albert said casually—the story they had agreed upon should someone ask where they were heading.

“And this healer’s apprentice, can he not speak for himself?”

Alwin felt Otto stiffen at his side before he shuffled over to lean back out, further blocking Alwin from view with his large frame.

“He can,” he said. “I was asleep and only just woke up. What seems to be the problem?”

There was a tense moment of silence as Otto’s words were assessed.

“We are looking for someone. We have reason to believe he will be traveling this road today.”

“Ah,” Otto said. “Well unless it is me you’re looking for, I am afraid I can’t help you.”

“Is it just you in there?”

“And my sister. She does sleep like the dead. Little wakes her. If you want—”