Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters (besides the mistress, she's mine).

A/N: I hope you like this chapter! Enjoy!

Chapter 3 Things to Consider

It was getting near dawn, though everyone going on the trip were already up and anxious to get moving. There was nothing stopping them, but they just felt like there was something holding them back.

"Shouldn't we start our hike? There's no use just standing here," Meggie said breaking the silence.

"Yes, I guess we should," Roxane said, and started walking.

One by one everyone started off behind her. There was Roxane leading the way, Farid and Meggie after that, then Mo and Resa behind them. It was going to be a long— mainly quiet— trip.

At the castle, the mysterious mistress was supervising the loading of her ship, with the one-eyed Basta beside her. There boat was an old sloop— a small fast boat— and the only people riding it were herself, Basta, the navigator, and the mistress's lady-in-waiting.

"Let us board the ship and be off," said the mistress in her royal-like voice.

"After you, mistress," Basta said as politely as he could. He was impatient to have his revenge on Meggie for stabbing him in the eye.

They boarded the ship, getting comfortable on deck. The lady-in-waiting immediately attended to her mistress, giving her cushions to sit on and her morning tea. After a quick sip of tea, she announced in an unexpectedly loud voice,

"Set sail!"

Once they were at a steady pace, she called Basta over.

"First I need to pick up some potion items at Silver Secret, so go off and tell the navigator,"

"Of course," and of course the lazy ass told the lady-in-waiting, making her send the message on.

Bad luck was in store for Meggie's group.

Going back to the other crew, they had made a fair amount of way across the Wayless Woods. They were doing so well, they were able to stop and get a bite to eat in the Inn of the Strolling Players. They were greated with a friendly smile from every face.

After a bite to eat and a drink, everyone split up, most finding an empty couch to sleep on. Instead of sleeping, Meggie decided to go outside.

She was outside, when someone snatched her. Fortunately, it was only Farid,

"Come with me, no one's around!" Farid said.

He led her into a the center of a circle of trees. It was quiet, and they got comfortable easily with their backs against the trunk of a tree. Then Meggie said,

"What do you think will happen on Silver Secret?"

"I don't know, maybe it's a secret," Farid replied sarcastically.

"Very funny Farid," she said laughing. Then her face turned grave and she said,

"But what about Basta and his mistress? What if we run in to them?"

"If we run into them, we'll think of something then. I think what we should worry about now is trying to relax and forget all those worries of ours," he said smiling.

"I guess your right," Meggie replied, smiling and leaning her head on Farid's shoulder. Then, for her delight, she lifted her head and gave Farid a kiss.

"What was that for?" he asked.

"What do you mean what was that for? Did you forget I'm your girl?" she replied, and kissed him again.

This time Farid didn't pull away, and returned the kiss happily. It felt as if they're mouths were glued together again, and they kept at it with pleasure.

Oddly enough though, they felt a little noise coming from above them, like a breeze passing through the branches of the tress... but there was no wind. Eventually they figured the trees had been... laughing. To add to that, the tree behind them started talking:

"Wow, we haven't had a couple here in a long time!" Its voice sounded like the wind going through your ears when it is strong.

"You talk!" Meggie said amazed.

"Of course, we've learned how to since we've been around so long!" said another tree in the circle.

"How long?" Farid asked.

"Were all around three hundred fifty years old, which is only halfway through our lifetime," the tree next to them replied.

"Farid, they could tell us about Silver Secret," Meggie whispered to Farid.

"You start the questions," he whispered back, giving Meggie a little dab on the cheek.

"Well, can you trees tell us about the island Silver Secret?" Meggie asked.

"Of course. The wind has told us about that island many times before. Just so happens that the island has very kind people, and they help you in any way they can!" another tree said. Meggie sighed and went on,

"Has there been any wind passing by here recently? And has it mentioned anything about the island?"

"Oh yes, just the other day actually," the tree behind them said, "It said they were aware of someone's coming, two parties actually!"

That wasn't good. Both Farid and Meggie had drawn the conclusion that they were one party, and Basta and his mistress were they other. Meggie couldn't utter another word, so Farid asked this,

"If we went there, do you think the people of Silver Secret can hind us well away from the other party of people?"

"Yes, of course. So long as you do something for them in return. I'm sure that your hiding from another threatening group, and that group would be too violent to come to its senses and do something nice for Silver Secret."

"But what if they did, would they give away our hiding spot?" Farid asked cautiously.

"I'm afraid so child, so I think you'll have to take that slight risk," the trees responded sadly.

Farid and Meggie put their heads together and discussed the situation in whispers.

"I think we should take the chance," Farid said first.

"I think so too," Meggie replied bravely, "Besides, I don't think Farid and his mistress will ever do something kind!"

"Yes that's true," Farid agreed.

"But what about Mo and the others? How are we to tell them about this?" Meggie asked shyly.

"What do you mean?" Farid asked.

"Well, probably just Mo. He'll want to know how we came to talk to trees and what we were doing before that,"

"We'll think of something," Farid said smiling.

They spoke up to the trees, assuring the location of Silver Secret (turns out Roxane remembered correctly) and bade them good-bye. Then they made their way back to the Inn of the Strolling Players, rounding everyone up and telling them the new situation they had to handle.

Luckily they took it well and decided to just keep doing what they were doing, and Mo asked no questions about Meggie and Farid.

Since they had nothing else to do, they decided to get back on the road. This time they walked with less talking, and serious looks on their faces.

It was sunset when they reached the pool of the water nymph. They took a quick break, also letting Farid get a stock of fire honeycombs from the fire elf.

He went over to the little pool, calling the water nymphs out of the pool in a soft whisper, just like Dustfinger had taught him so long ago. He enjoyed the slimy touch of their skin, and happily went over to a nearby nest of fire elves.

He started humming— another thing Dustfinger had taught him to do— and grabbed three honeycombs, thinking, I don't think three of them is being greedy... for he also remembered no to be too greedy when taking fire honeycombs.

Once he had finished his errand, everyone crowded around the pool. Then Roxane whispered around the instructions to get to Silver Secret. It was actually quite simple. All they needed to do was get as near to the edge of the pool as possible, in a very clear voice murmur, "I seek the land of Silver Secret," jump in, and they should arrive on the island in a few moments. The only other thing Roxane mentioned was not to budge until you felt the solid ground of the island under their feet.

"Do I need to repeat anything?" Roxane asked.

Everyone shook their heads, impatient to get started.

"Ok then, I'll go first, then follow one by one. Wait a few seconds before jumping in after the person your after," then Roxane jumped in the pool, which was deeper than expected. Magically, she began to turn the same color of the water in the pool, and then vanished altogether. Then Meggie went, with Farid, Resa, and Mo following her in that order.

The villains had also landed on Silver Secret. The mistress— still anonymous— was picking out herbs and other things for her potions while Basta was trying hard not to take out his knife and threaten the merchant instead of asking nicely for the things they were taking. Unfortunately, the mistress already knew everything about the trading-type thing the people on the island had. Basta failed his task easily, so the mistress did it for him. You would be very surprised if you had seen how sweet she made her voice sound:

"Thank you so much for these herbs and other plants. I think this has been the best stop all day!" Then she gave the merchant some spices and walked off.

Once they were some way off, the mistress said to Basta,

"Let us go back to the ship, I have to so a quick spell for our trip, then we'll finish what we came here for." Then Basta replied,

"But I thought we came here for your potion needs!"

"If I had mentioned what we were actually here for you have never agreed to come, with all the nonsense your afraid of!" she replied mysteriously.

Basta went white as a sheet, for he knew exactly what they were there for.

Once Meggie and the others had landed, they searched for a person they could speak to. Finally, they found a merchant selling herbs and such (the same merchant Basta and the mistress had went to) and asked him questions.

"Have you seen a man with one eye and a mistress together recently?" Roxane asked with a friendly face, so that the merchant would get suspicious.

"Ah, yes I have! They just left actually!" he responded.

"Really? Were they buying anything in particular?" Roxane asked.

"Actually yes, and I was quite surprised at the items! They were buying everything they needed to do a spell that calls the White Women themselves!" he said, his face turning pale.

The others turned pale too, and once Roxane had calmed down a bit, she asked again,

"Is tonight a full moon?" She seemed frightened, and the man flinched as she asked.

"Oh, lord, it is! Do you know what this means miss?" he said, and Roxane nodded slowly. Then she asked,

"Do you know where they are to do the spell tonight?"

"There is only one place they can do it, miss. They would have to go to the highest point of this island, and that happens to be Hut Circle!"

"Is that the place up in the trees with all the huts?" Roxane questioned.

"Yes it is miss," he responded, "and if any of you are interested or in need of seeing this spell done, then I will certainly help hide you up in Hut Circle before they get there!"

"Oh, thank you! We don't have much, and even if you refuse the gifts, I am giving them to you anyway, for you have been a big help!" Roxane exclaimed, and gave the merchant a few very rare herbs of hers after fishing in her bag.

"I'll meet you at sunset under Hut Circle," the merchant said and left.

After he was out of hearing, Roxane gathered everyone into a huddle and explained everything they had been talking about.

"Turns out the mistress has a few spells up her sleeves, and she's going to call up a White Woman tonight, and the merchant shall help us get near enough to listen to what the White Woman and the mistress have to talk about."

When she finished the rest were as white as she. However they all nodded their heads in agreement. Before they left their little huddle though, Farid said,

"I don't think I can go. I have already died, and if the White Woman gets close enough she will probably try to take me back to their land again." This had perfectly good sense, and everyone else thought it was a very good idea for him to stay far away from the spell.

"I'm going to stay with him," Meggie said loyally.

They broke their huddle and went off to explore the rest of the island to try to take their minds off their plans for later on that night.

It was sunset now, and Roxane, Mo, and Resa were safely hidden in one of the huts of Hut Circle. The mistress and Basta hadn't appeared yet, and they were already getting stiff. They were crowded in one of the tiniest closets of a hut. Their arguments sounded something like this,

"Ow, get off my foot, Mo!"

"That's Resa's foot idiot!"

"Stop pulling my hair!"

"I can't!"

"Move over I'm cramped!"

"SO ARE WE!"

But then they heard footsteps, so they all quieted down, although the same things kept happening without their comments.

"Have you got my cauldron and the bottle I gave you?" the mistress asked.

"Yes," Basta replied.

"Good. Put the cauldron right on this bridge in-between these huts, and hand me the bottle. We have to wait until the moon is up," the mistress ordered.

"Oh, but I will be so tired by then," Basta tried as an excuse to get away.

"Stop your wining and do as you were told!" the mistress exclaimed.

"Yes ma'am," Basta replied, still being more polite than he thought was possible.

Obviously, by now the three eavesdroppers had concluded that their was some deal that made Basta stay this polite and obedient.

The moon had now risen, and the mistress started to chant something in a different language they couldn't understand, and then she put a drop of the liquid in her bottle inside the bowl. Afterwards, one of the pale White Woman appeared facing the mistress.

"Is everything prepared?"

"Of course. We have convinced the fire-eater that his friends will be able to save him, though as you understand it isn't true. However, the fire-eater has informed us that they are on their way, and your friends are also ready for the fire-eaters apprentice to do his work," the White Woman answered.

"Wonderful. How far is the journey to the end of the world?" the mistress asked.

"Only about a month by boat," the White Woman responded again.

"Thank you, you may return to you land," the mistress said, putting another drop of the liquid into the bowl, and the White Woman vanished.

Then the pair made their way down to the ground, and then Mo, Resa, and Roxane collapsed out of the closet. They were breathless from the information they had discovered.

They found Meggie and Farid sleeping peacefully under a tree nearby. Resa shook them awake, and they Mo told what they had found out. Then Farid asked,

"Are we still going then? Clearly, this is all a trap."

"I think we should still go. We should find out what their up to, and maybe we can still save Dustfinger in the end," Roxane stated.

"I'm game if all of you are," Meggie said.

They talked a little more, but decided it was a good idea. They were in no danger until they reached the end of the world, since Farid was needed to do his fire. Besides, this was too great of an adventure for them to miss out on!