They went on for a while, up through the higher part of the town. Dag started hearing two men talking. Their voices got louder and louder, and he thought… They turned a corner.

Dag stopped short. "Sergio?"

"Max!" Jennifer looked shocked.

"Stand back," Max ordered. Dag recognized him as the blond young man in the blue suit who had been talking to Jennifer on the yacht. "He blew this job, big time." Max waved his pistol at Sergio.

Dag stepped in front of Jennifer.

"What?" This was getting kind of eerie. "He hired me. You're saying you hired him?"

"Eh, he did," Sergio agreed. "Now he isn't happy, for some reason."

"Max, what are you talking about?" Jennifer came around Dag, and he put out his arm, trying to keep her back.

"I don't want you taking the throne," Max said sullenly. "He – " he pointed at Dag, "never delivered you to Sergio, so now there is a mess."

"Sergio didn't meet me at the right place," Dag retorted. "I tried calling him, and the operators were screaming about Princess Jennifer. So I took the 'woman in the red dress' somewhere else because I figured it wasn't safe to hang around with a princess on my hands."

Sergio gasped. "That's Princess Jennifer?" He stared at Dag.

Dag nodded.

"Hey, you didn't tell me she was a princess!" Sergio protested, pointing at Max. "You just said 'the woman in the red dress,' and that's what I told Dag."

Dag could feel himself getting angry. "You used me," he accused Max.

"Of course I did," Max sneered. "I knew you wouldn't have done it if you knew she was a princess."

"I thought you were a good person," Jennifer exclaimed, and for a second Dag thought she was talking to him. Then he saw that she was glaring at Max. Thank goodness. She walked stiffly up to him, her eyes snapping.

"I thought you, of all people, would want to get me safely back. I – I've known you all my life! You and Bridget, and – " Before Dag could stop her, she tripped on a rough patch of pavement. Out of habit, Max reached out to catch her, and when he did, Sergio stepped forward and took his gun away.

"I'll handle this one," he declared. "Dag, you take the little princess and keep her good and safe. She's better off with you than with these people, that's for sure. Adios!"


Once the thief and the princess were out of sight, Sergio lowered the gun.

"I'm glad you're such a good actor," Max commented dryly.

"Now what was the point of all this again?" Sergio demanded. Max took his gun back and hid it in his coat.

"She's safe with him for now. If I take her back to the palace she's going to be a sitting target for whoever Nicholas has out to get her. She has to think I'm the bad guy so she doesn't want to come back. I'm setting traps of my own to catch Nicholas; it's just safer for her to be away from the palace right now."

Sergio shook his head. "And I thought Dagoberto had a complicated mind."


Dag flagged down a two-wheeled mule cart, and he and Jennifer climbed inside.

The driver clucked to his beast. "Where to, señor?"

"San Julian."

The road was steep in places, and Jennifer stared wide-eyed at the view, all blues and greens with patches of red and white and orange and yellow and pink. Dag watched her, glad to see that she seemed to have recovered from her earlier scare, even though she still seemed upset about her bodyguard's treachery.

"You like it?"

"Yes," she agreed. "Europe doesn't have big huge views like this at all – there are houses everywhere. The churches are beautiful, though."

"I've seen pictures," Dag volunteered.

Jennifer looked back at him. "Do you want to go there, some day?"

Dag laughed. "I don't think they'd want me. I would take off with too many things." She was quiet for a moment, obviously thinking.

"I just don't see how Max could – could be so wicked," she burst out. He's my own…" Her voice trailed off. "He's practically like my brother."

"It does kind of make sense, though," Dag suggested. "If he needs money – or maybe that cousin of yours, Nicholas, is blackmailing him. He didn't seem to want to kill you; just get you off the throne. Maybe somebody else has plans he doesn't know about."

"I wonder if Bridget knows," Jennifer said sadly.


San Julian was another seaport town. They crested the last hill, and Dag stared, then groaned inwardly. He had forgotten that it was carnival week. And this carnival was absolutely huge. At least carnivals were easy to hide in, and Jennifer…well, maybe this would be a lot of fun. It would distract her from her gloomy thoughts of Max, and the Baron was taken care of.

They got out of the cart, and Jennifer kept turning around, trying to see everything. "It's so big!" she exclaimed. "Have you ever seen anything this big?"

Dag grinned. Her quickly rekindled excitement was contagious. "Yeah, since I was a kid. I was born in San Julian."

Jennifer looked around with renewed interest. She glanced back at him, hesitantly. "Do your parents still live here?"

Dag shook his head. "They've both been dead for a while," he said.

"I'm sorry."

"What about you?" Dag was suddenly curious.

"My mother is back at the palace," she explained. "The king is my grandfather, so we all live together."

Dag, remembering the stout man in the medals, couldn't imagine having a king for a grandfather. "Yikes."

"You would like Grandfather," she protested. "He's nice."

Dag pretended to be scared. "Uh-uh. I got one look at him, and that was enough."

They walked leisurely through San Julian, taking in the sights. Everyone was getting ready for the big parade, and they rode on a merry-go-round. Dag got cotton candy from a street vendor, since it was a carnival, and watched Jennifer get completely sticky eating it. She was getting better, but she still didn't get how some things were done. They found a water spigot on the side of a building and washed the cotton candy off, then found a good place to watch the parade.