I found my people just in time to see Wren grab Cloud Eye to keep him from dismounting to check out a spice store. My head was pounding. I dragged myself up onto the floorboards of the cart and squeezed myself under the seat and Magrat's feet so I could lie down.

"Owl, can I get a hand down," Cat asked.

Crap. I didn't want to upset Cat. Now he was going to check up on me.

"Are you not feeling well, Fuzzy?" Magrat asked, trying not to kick me with her heels.

"She probably had a horrible headache if she used any further magic to dissuade our human pursuers," Cat said. I heard his shuffling limp approach the cart and opened my eyes. His hand came down and scratched gently behind my ears. I didn't hear him chant under his breath but he had been getting better at chanting silently. I felt his hand caress my head and a welcome warmth spread down from his hand and take the edge off the growing pain.

Cat must have put me asleep after that because the next thing I knew, Owl was carrying me up some stairs.

Magrat's townhouse was narrow but five stories high. I opened my eyes as we climbed past a sitting room and a library. The next floor was where we stopped. He put me down on a window seat in a dining room. I heard kitchen noises coming through a door. Two young goblin ladies were bustling about, setting the table, and putting out dishes.

"Oh, you're awake," Owl said when he saw me stretch after he put me down. "We're at Magrat's house." He scratched the top of my head. "I need to help more with bringing our stuff upstairs."

I got up and started exploring, wondering if I could get some water in the kitchen.

An older goblin man with greying hair in a grey doublet hose and a middle-aged goblin woman in a brown dress were both at the cooking hearth. The man was turning a large roast of meat on a spit and the woman was stirring something in a large pot. Fresh loaves of bread on cooling racks filled up space on the kitchen table. Wren was already helping in the kitchen, cutting up vegetables and tossing them into a huge wooden salad bowl.

"Fuzzy, you're awake," Wren smiled at me. "How does your head feet? Any better?"

That's when I realized I didn't have a headache anymore. My boy was getting better at healing all the time. I walked over and tugged on Wren's hose.

"You want something, Fuzzy? Are you thirsty?" I nodded at Wren.

"Alright, let me find a bowl and I get you some water," Wren got up and soon I heard the sound of pouring water in a sink. Wren reappeared, "here you go, Fuzzy." She placed it in the corner away from all the bustle of people cooking.

I started to hear Cat's thumping steps as he climbed the stairs. Then from the dining room, I heard Magrat say: "Why don't you get comfortable at the table, Cat Rider. Let me check the kitchen and I'll be right back." She got as far as the kitchen door when she stopped and stared. Then she got a scolding look on her face, "Margo, what are you doing in my kitchen?"

"Helping with dinner, sister," the goblin lady in the brown dress smiled. "I heard you had a small horde of elves as guests for the evening and thought I'd drop by and help out."

"And she brought help too, said the goblin man who I assumed was Gragoy.

"Yes, I see that." Magrat gave her sister an annoyed look. "You could at least warn me when you want to misbehave, sister. I swear you're out to drive me to an early grave."

The two-footed ones had their dinner and I had a nice nap on the window seat. The two young goblins that Margo brought cleared the table, left a few bottles of sweet dessert wines out and retreated to the kitchen to do the dishes and clean up, closing the door behind them.

Margo sat back and waited as Gragoy poured her a glass of wine. Then he poured for Wren, my boy, and Magrat, in that order. I found that quite curious. It woke me up enough that I padded up to the table to see what happened next. Something was not quite right here.

He served Cloud Eye and Motley Owl, then himself. He looked at me, "do divine beasts drink wine?" I nodded no.

"Is there anything you do want?" he asked. I shook my head again.

"My, look at your beautiful eyes," Margo looked at me and smiled. I noted that both her and Magrat's dark green hair were greying at the temples. Magrat's hat had hidden her grey hairs while we had traveled together.

"Well, I will start things off by introducing myself to the Lady Fuzzy. I've never met a divine beast before so I don't know if there's any protocol for doing so but we're here at a casual dinner at my sister's house, so to hell with protocol for an evening. I'm Margo, the Goblin Queen, Lady Fuzzy and I'm pleased to make your acquaintance. I hope your headache has gotten better. I wish I could have seen your magic in action, your and your young man's."

"Now Wren and I have met before. I asked her not to blow my cover until dinner was over. I don't get to escape the court often and enjoyed not having to behave myself for an entire meal. Quit scowling, sister."

"Hmph," Magrat continued to scowl. Margo laughed. "My younger sister is the more serious one, in case you couldn't tell. And you, young man," the Goblin Queen looked at my boy, "are the amazing young mage who invented a spell that can kill a wyvern. You are also Cat Rider, the adopted son of the Elf King, and the missing Crown Prince Andray Nordweg. Therein lies a large problem for all of us, as my sister's note to me this afternoon conveyed. I wish I had known your identity before I invited your brother and his squad of soldiers here. I treasure my relationship with the elves much higher than I will ever consider any relationship with humans."

"Why did you invite the Nordwegians here, Majesty?" my boy asked politely.

"Your brother is a very clever young man," the queen explained. "He has invented a kind of ballista that will throw and envelope a flying wyvern in a net, stopping it from flying. To date, his ballista has brought down three wyverns in southern Nordweg, just over the border where they had established a nest and were terrorizing the nearby inhabitants."

"Yes, Willam was always clever with building things," Cat conceded. "His presence here certainly complicates things. I have no way to judge if he's a danger to me or not. By default, I can not trust him. His mother and her agents have attempted to murder me twice already and it's safest to assume that he's his mother's son."

"Is there some way we could disguise you?" Magrat asked. "The three humans who saw you this afternoon never saw you with your hood down. Is there some way we could darken your skin, bleach your hair and enchant points onto the end of your ears?"

I cast mind talking and added my input: * Changing the shape of any flesh is doable but also painful and permanent. It is also considered forbidden magic. *

"Did you know this?" Wren asked Cat. He nodded yes. Wren's mouth said "oh" silently.

* It is possible to cast a glamour spell on the person you want to disguise. It is an active spell and only lasts for as long as the mage can maintain it. The third way to change appearance is a general effect illusion spell cast on those who you want to fool into seeing someone else. It is very easy to cast an illusion on humans and it's much less work than a glamour spell. The problem here is that I found that Prince Willam has an amulet that protects him from magic. *

"You saw prince Willam today?" the queen asked.

"The prince and two others saw us enter the souk from the outside," Magrat explained. "Fuzzy delayed them while we lost ourselves in the souk."

"What was your impression of Willam?" my boy asked.

* I don't think he noticed you. What he noticed was Wren, and it was the wrong kind of notice, the kind that an infatuated young human male has when sighting someone attractive of the female variety. After I jumped him… *

"You what?!?" Cat exploded in shock.

* ...and had his complete and undivided attention, I explained that Wren was very off-limits and I was the chaperone, complete with teeth and an appetite for human youths. *

"Oh, Fuzzy," Wren laughed, "I wish I could have seen that."