Pt’this and Sapphire entered the meeting room and saw Remtani sitting with his father. Sapphire had been holding Pt’this’s hand and now gripped it tightly. He felt a pang of fear and pity through the bond. He didn’t know if she was trying to forgive the prince, but he knew she felt bad for him. She saw him as much of a victim as she was. He was led to hurt her by a spell that caused him to do everything he could to hurt Ann, including hurt her friends. Then, he was punished for it, being imprisoned and beaten almost daily for three years. And how must he feel knowing his actions had been controlled for so long? Remtani still suffered, as the spell had not yet been removed. Andy had drained the spell to a dormant level, and then Ann had created a charm to block its return. However, if the charm was removed, the spell returned, and Andy had to drain it again. “Congratulations,” he said as they entered. “Thank you.” Sapphire nodded. “And, thank you for finding Ria.” “Glad to help.” Then he smiled impishly. “Anything to get away from Mother’s insane wedding planning.” “After Remtani had found your sister, he went to check on the guard at the various cities. Upon conferring with them, he found there were a large number of runaways living on the streets and most of them were criminals. He also found that either these children, or adults who had once been street kids, seemed to commit a large portion of the crimes. The only exception was Thager. Apparently, some years ago crime among the runaways dropped. It was rumored that a man was helping the children. He helped them find places to stay and legitimate work. He even gave them food or money sometimes. However, we couldn’t find him. Some claimed he didn’t exist. Others claimed he had disappeared.” “He died,” Sapphire said sadly. “That was Kith.” Pt’this was surprised. He had never realized that’s what Kith was doing in Thager. Sapphire turned to him. “How do you think I ended up living on his second floor?” Pt’this shook his head. “He told me about you, but he never talked to me about the rest of it, about any of his life there.” They hadn’t been getting along very well at the time. “We had hoped to follow his model in other cities, give the children a place to stay if they need it, help them find work, get educated, give them protection from their families if needed or if they want, help them reunite,” Remtani explained. “However, where Kith is not available to consult, we thought we’d try it on a smaller scale, just one city, here. Once we get the problems figured out, we’ll expand.” Sapphire nodded. “Ann and Andy lived in a boarding house. They might be able to advise you on some of the logistics for that portion.” Emeton nodded. “They could, but we were hoping you might be willing to run this.” “Me?” Sapphire couldn’t tell who’s surprise was greater hers or Pt’this’s. “Where you’ve been on the streets and have experience with Kith’s help we thought perhaps you would have the best chance to make this succeed,” Remtani said. “Take a couple of days and talk it over. It will mean not living in the palace. Your rooms will still be here, of course, when you need them, but the children will need supervision overnight. Talk it over, and let me know,” Emeton said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s my morning to sign the mountain of documents Kortu collects for me each week.” “Your Majesty, may I request you look at what you’re signing very closely this morning. Kortu was the one who tried to bar Nimitinas and Andy from the meeting the other morning. He may not be averse to slipping in something revising your earlier decision regarding Ann,” Pt’this advised. “I will. And may I request you refrain from roasting any of my servants?” “I will as long as they stop trying to get a peek at my wife and me.” “I’ll talk with them.” “I mean, I would hate for it to happen with Ann and Andy next,” Pt’this continued. “I said I would talk with them,” Emeton said firmly. “Thank you,” Pt’this said just as firmly. *** Sapphire followed Pt’this to his study. She was quite excited about the proposal. “You really want to do this, don’t you?” Pt’this guessed. She nodded. “It would be a great way to honor Kith’s memory. Fists, Rejenn, and I tried to keep it up when he died, but we didn’t have the connections he’d made. He knew who could be trusted and who he could barter with for favors. He had people to whom he could turn to help kids find work or places to stay.” “How long had he been doing this?” “I don’t know. I think the first was some runaway orphan. She’d gotten involved with some troll of a guy. Kith helped her see she wasn’t as bad as the guy had made her believe and helped her find a husband.” “Seriously? That was Tylan.” Pt’this couldn’t believe Kith had been helping kids that long and he hadn’t known about it. She’d married Emeton twenty-two years before Kith had died. He and Kith had several disagreements. Kith drank too much. He’d dropped out of school. Rather than taking a good job there in Sen-gan or in Baj-tisk, he’d gone off to Thager to work for that cheap blacksmith that only paid him half what he was worth. Kith was always broke and what little extra he made he drank, or so Pt’this had thought. It would have taken money to help those kids. “Why didn’t he tell me?” Pt’this asked although he knew the answer. He wouldn’t have listened. “He tried didn’t he?” “He wanted to. You disapproved of so many of his choices; he figured you would be unhappy with this one too. He was even afraid to tell you about me.” Pt’this pulled her close. “I messed up. If you want to do this for him, we will. Maybe we’ll look at that other place I was thinking of.” “If we’re going to house them, we’ll need a lot bigger place than what we looked at the other day. There’s going to be a lot of kids, plus all the kids you want.” “We’ll look around,” Pt’this promised.