"Sir, you do have a plan, right?" Napoleon asked, brow furrowed.

"What's that?" Waverly looked up from a book. They were riding in the back of a large sedan, just over halfway to the arranged meeting place.

"Well, I mean, you're not just going to, ah, to give yourself over, are you?"

"Mr. Solo, I had no intention of *not* giving myself over."

"But-- well, you're not going to *stay* that way, are you?"

"I would like to finish this book, if you don't mind. It's rather important I be allowed *some* leisure time before the trade, don't you agree?"

"But Mr. Waverly--"

"But nothing, Mr. Solo. Have you gotten a hold of Mr. Kuryakin yet?"

"No, Sir. He, ah, he's not responding. I still think they have him."

"Well, you may find out soon enough."

---/-/---

"And eventually, it became time for the princes to marry. Their king, being wise but eccentric, decided that each prince should fire off an arrow, into the sky. Each prince would follow his arrow to its destination, and each prince would marry whomever found it."

"What if nobody found it?" Micheal asked.

"Well, then I suppose he would fire it off again, but as it so happened, all of the arrows were found."

"What if another boy found it?" Claire challenged.

"Well, then the prince who fired the arrow would face a major lifestyle change, Claire. But as it so happened--"

"I think it did happen like that."

Illya sighed. He looked back over to the guard. They were still being watched.

"Piotr's arrow fell at the feet of a beautiful girl, the daughter of a baron, with hair as black as ivory and skin as smooth as silk, all right?"

"Okay."

"Ivan's arrow fell at the feet of yet another beautiful girl, the daughter of a count, with eyes as green as emeralds, and lips as pink as rosebuds. Acceptable?"

"Uh-huh."

"But when Prince Napasha followed his arrow, he found that it landed not outside of a castle, but in a swamp. And no beautiful girl had found it, but a--"

"Boy." Claire finished.

"No." Illya corrected. "A frog."

Micheal laughed uproariously at this. Claire pouted.

"The frog returned his arrow, and Prince Napasha was honour-bound to wed the creature. And so he did. Now, a year passed uneventfully, and it came time for King Alexei to announce his retirement. He announced that whichever couple was best suited would take over, and since his sons were all equally capable, he must test their wives."

"What kind of test?"

"I'm getting to that." Illya grated, rolling his eyes. "You children have so many questions... Anyway, the first test. The king ordered that each of his daughters-in-law would sew him a shirt, and he would favour the husband of whichever girl's shirt was the finest."

"That's it?"

"Well, there were three tests. The shirts were just the first."

"And?"

"And so Napasha returned home distraught. How could his frog wife sew a fine shirt to please the king?"

---/-/---

April Dancer sat on the edge of the CEA's desk, her feet dangling off, and DeLeon batted at them halfheartedly.

"Do you think Waverly's gonna do it?"

Mark shrugged, setting the cat's dish down. "Who ever knows with him?"

Ginger Lawson, a redheaded girl who worked in archives, scooped DeLeon up and buried her nose in his fur. "I hope Solo gets him out of it."

"He has a way of doing that." Mark assured her.

April nodded, reaching out to scratch behind the pointy orange ears. "I don't know what's going to happen. I only saw them a minute when they were rushing out, and if you ask me, Napoleon had a lot more than Mr. Waverly on his mind."

"More than the Old Man?"

"Perish the thought, April."

"Hey, I call 'em as I see 'em."

"Miaow."

Ginger set DeLeon down on the desk. "My sentiments exactly, Poncey."

Mark spat out a mouthful of coffee. "What did you just call that poor creature?"

She laughed. "Sorry, Mark. He was named after Ponce DeLeon-- devil if I know why-- so I called him 'Poncey'. Didn't mean to throw you for a loop."

"And you better hope Napoleon doesn't find out that you were the one to spit coffee all over his very important notes."

"Did Illya go with them?" Ginger asked.

Mark and April both paused, at the same time, for the same length of time. And then in unison, they said 'I don't think so.'

"I haven't seen Illya all day." April continued.

Mark didn't say anything, but he did start mopping up coffee, rescuing all the papers he could.

DeLeon, already on the desk, helped clean up the coffee, purring loudly.

---/-/---

To be continued...

---

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