Bow adjusted his position, but the branch was still digging into his back. There was nothing comfortable about the way he was sitting but this was the only spot where he could hear the music coming from the second floor and still see the front door.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. He'd still be able to see the front door from the overhang which was easy enough to scramble up onto. He'd be able to hear it better from there too, but then Kay could see him. His oldest sister had made it pretty clear that for as long as this visit lasted, if she caught him or any of the other younger kids so much as breathing near her room while she was practicing her lute, she would kill them. And the thing was, she probably only meant it in a general kick your butt kind of big sibling way… but you could never really be sure with Kay and Bow wasn't taking any chances. She was… kind of terrifying.

Besides, he was already flirting with danger enough today. There was the distinct sound of an explosion and a thin line of red smoke rose from behind the house. A second later, the back door slammed, and he heard George shout, "Boys! What did I tell you?"

Bow shook his head as he heard his dad unloading on his brothers. He'd told them they were just going to get in trouble again, but nobody ever listened to "The Baby." Like he wasn't a whole seven and a quarter years old! It had been bad enough when it was just Dags and Boomer, but now they roped Trebber into their schemes too and there was nobody left for him to play with.

Just because he didn't enjoy getting in trouble all the time, they left him out of everything. It wasn't tattling if he was trying to protect them! Why couldn't it be like it was when they were little? They used to play normal stuff that wasn't dangerous and made their dads mad all the time!

At least Jav didn't mind if he hung around. Though she'd spent the last week buried in a dusty old book she'd found in the basement, muttering to herself in some dead language. On a rainy days, he'd go sit with her, sketching out plans for one of his projects just for the company, but it was too nice a day to be stuck inside reading anything that smelled that gross.

Everybody else was grown, already moved out, living their own lives. This was why he ended up alone most of the time. Well, everyone except…

"Dirk!" Lance dashed out the door, his robe flying behind him. Bow grabbed his bag and shimmied down the tree as fast as he could. He'd been so busy listening to his idiot brothers getting grounded for life, he'd almost messed up the whole plan.

"Yeah, I know, dad. I promise, no hard digging without protective gear." Dirk shifted his weight, clearly impatient to get going. He left for work this time every day, always in the same old work boots, the same dark blue work apron. They'd both be covered with rock dust when he came back from the evacuation site at the end of the day.

At least, he said it was rock dust… but that probably wasn't true either.

Lance was still going. "And don't forget to put up supports, no matter how stable the rocks look because, believe me…"

"A cave in is a grave in," Dirk finished with him. "I know, Pops! You've only told us a million times. I love you, but I really gotta get going."

"Oh, alright. But you're not too big to get away with leaving without giving your old man a goodbye hug, so get over here."

Hmm. Bow watched from behind the tree as Dirk sighed and gave their dad a hug goodbye. Well, it was now or never. He hadn't planned on Lance being there for this, but maybe it might work out better this way. He took a deep breath and stepped out to where his oldest brother was just turning to leave.

"I'll be careful too!" Bow went over and wrapped his arms around Lance's middle. "Bye, Dad!"

"Oh! Bow, you're going with your brother?" Lance looked from him to Dirk in confusion.

"Yeah. Dirk's letting me come watch." Bow smiled his sweetest, most innocent smile at his dad and then turned to Dirk, who was just staring at him. Which wasn't surprising, since Dirk had not agreed to any such thing. In fact, Dirk had pretty much been avoiding Bow entirely since their incident at the market all those weeks ago, even though Bow had done everything his brother had told him to do and hadn't said a word about any of it to anyone.

It was actually the market thing that had done it. Watching his brother lie so easily about their adventure made him realize… that wasn't the only thing Dirk was lying about.

"Well, that's wonderful! And here I was afraid you two were on the outs! What a marvelous opportunity for little Bow to get some field experience and some extra time with his big brother. Great idea, Dirk!"

"Now hold on, I never—" Dirk began, but Bow was ready for this. He had the journal out of his bag in half a second, his cheerful grin never wavering from his face.

"Don't worry, Dad, I brought my schoolwork to do while I'm there and, if I get bored, some books to read." He held up the thick green book as if he were showing it to Lance but making sure Dirk saw it too. He knew his brother had when he gasped.

"How… Where…" Dirk stammered. He grabbed for his bag, feeling for the book that was no longer there and Bow just turned to him with that same innocent smile on his face.

"Marvelous! I don't recognize that book. Is it from our collection?" Lance reached for it.

"No!" Both Bow and Dirk said at the same time, Bow pulling the book out of his dad's reach. Lance looked between the two of them, his eyes narrowing.

Dirk exhaled. "It's nothing interesting. Just one I lent him. Which he really ought to give back to me."

"Not yet. I'm not done with it." If his dad wasn't watching, Bow would have stuck his tongue out.

"Well, it's a delightful idea and I am glad you boys are going to have a little bonding time but—" The music ended abruptly on a discordant note and there was a terrifying roar from the upstairs window.

"That's IT! You brats are going to DIE!" Kay screamed as Dags and Boomer tore out the front door giggling and, with a conspiratorial nod to each other, took off into the woods in different directions. A door slammed somewhere and something smashed upstairs.

"Keep it down, Kay! I'm trying to read!"

"Oh, you wanna start with me too?"

There was a loud thud and what sounded like Jav screaming as George appeared in the doorway, with Trebber slung under his arm like he was a struggling stack of firework. He gave Lance a pointed look, the vein in his neck looking half a second from bursting. "Little help?"

"Oh, yes. Of course. Be right there." Lance nodded and George ducked back into the house, slamming the door behind him. "Just promise me you two will be careful. And smart?"

"I promise!" Bow said cheerfully. This had actually worked out a lot better than he'd planned. Assuming he actually survived the next few minutes, that is.

"OK, well, you two have fun and we'll… we'll talk about it tonight when you get back." Lance gave them a quick nod and then, after a moment's hesitation, took off into the woods after Dags.

Bow waved in the general direction of the house and then walked in what he hoped looked like a brisk, excited type of kid walk and not what it really was which was him trying to put as much distance between him and Dirk as humanly possible before they were out of sight of the house. Every one of Dirk's steps was like three or four of his, so if it came to an all out footrace, he was a goner.

Bow knew they were out of sight from the house without looking back because he suddenly heard his brother's footsteps pick up behind him and Dirk mutter, "OK, give it back, you little punk!"

He didn't bother to answer, but started sprinting outright. If he could just reach that hole before Dirk caught up… There!

He veered off the path, diving into the narrow gap between two trees. He hadn't had his bag the other day when he'd practiced this and he nearly got stuck, but at the last minute he yanked it through after him, just as Dirk reached the tree. He saw his brother on the other side of the hole, glaring, and allowed himself half a second of triumph before he kept running. Dirk wasn't anywhere near as short or skinny as Bow was, so he couldn't get in that way. Of course, it would only take him a few extra minutes to go around the stream, but that was all Bow needed.

It was about three minutes later when he heard his brother's heavy footsteps crunching through the forest floor while Bow braced himself at the top of the tree, trying to catch his breath. Dirk spotted him almost immediately, and this whole thing stopped being excited and move directly to scary when he saw the look on his brother's face. He couldn't remember EVER seeing Dirk this mad.

"You've got to the count of three to toss it down or I come up there and get it."

"You can't come up here! You're too big!" He wasn't taunting him. It was just a fact. He'd specifically picked this tree because it was thin enough to support him, but not enough to support someone as big as Dirk. Sure enough, Dirk tried to hoist himself up, once, twice, and the branch gave each time.

Dirk swore, one Bow had never even heard before, which with that many siblings was impressive. He grabbed the bottom of the tree and shook it. Oh, shoot. Bow hadn't thought about that. His foot slipped, and he nearly lost his hold on the branch.

"Stop it or… I'll throw it in the stream!" He pulled the book out and held it out and over the stream like he was going to drop it. He wouldn't really because you can't grow up in a library and be like that about books, but he'd run out of plans. Luckily, his brother bought his bluff.

"Alright! Alright. I'm not touching the tree, see?" Dirk stepped backwards, his hands in the air, like he was admitting defeat. "You know, you're supposed to be the good one. I can't believe you actually used to be my favorite little brother."

"Wait, was I really?" He lowered the book. "Because you haven't let me come with your or even talked to me in weeks, even though I didn't say anything about what happened, just like you said!" Bow didn't want to cry, especially not now, but he didn't realize until the words were out of his mouth how hurt he'd been by being shut out. It wasn't just that he missed getting to leave the house. Dirk had been the only one of the older kids who'd even paid him any attention and then, when it seemed like they were going to hang out more often, he stopped talking to him entirely. Just like everyone else.

"Yeah, well, I'm sorry about that." Dirk rubbed the back of his neck. "Thing about lies is they're a hell of a lot easier to keep straight when you're the only one doing them and I thought, the more we talked the more likely… but I should have had faith in you, kiddo, and I'm sorry. There. So can I have my book back now?"

"No." Bow sniffed and tried to be really subtle about wiping his nose on his sleeve. "I know what you're doing."

"You're SEVEN! You don't know anything." But Dirk looked nervous.

Bow shook his head. He tried to keep his voice from shaking, but he still felt a lot like crying. "Our dads think you're working at some excavation site every day, but it's all made up. You're just telling them stuff from this old book."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

Bow opened to the page he'd bookmarked. "Last week, at dinner, you told everybody about finding a nest of baby spitters in the rocks. And you said the one had…" He started reading from the old notebook, the paper yellowed and writing cramped but still readable. "'A pattern on its back like dinner fork that'd been caught in a grinder.' And then there was the thing about how the shadows looked like spilled ink the deeper underground you got. That's in here too." He shut the book. "You don't talk like that. That's how I knew." He sniffed, trying to sound as triumphant as he'd pictured himself being as he revealed this. "You found somebody else's old notes, years and years of notes, and you're using them to pretend you're out digging for artifacts every day."

Dirk blinked at him for several long moments and then closed his eyes and swore again. He exhaled and glared at Bow. "You're too smart for your own good, you know that? So what is this, blackmail? I don't give you what you want, you tell on me, ruin my life? Because you know I can't let you do that."

Bow didn't want to ruin his brother's life, and he wasn't really sure what black mail. He took a deep breath and held himself as tall as he could considering he was awkwardly wedged in a tree branch. "You're doing something else all day, something you don't want the rest of the family to know about. And I want to come with you."

"You're kidding, right? You really think I want to babysit—"

"I am NOT a baby!"

"Well, then, stop acting like one! I've got… stuff to do during the day and that doesn't involve having to entertain my little brother!"

"You don't have to entertain me! I've got my own stuff to do!" He unzipped his bag and pulled out a handful of the random metal scraps and wires he'd been collecting. He debated pulling out some of the half-finished projects he had in his bag, but he was pretty sure Dirk wouldn't care about them any more than the rest of them did. He was still smarting from the last time he'd tried to work on something downstairs, and George has asked him to clean up all that "junk." Now he just kept it all hidden under his bed, but there wasn't enough room to work in there, not properly.

"You're not building bombs or anything with all that, are you?" Dirk looked concerned.

"No! I'm not doing anything wrong! I'm just… playing around." Which was true. He hadn't really figured out exactly what he wanted to do with all these ideas yet, just that he couldn't stop thinking about the gizmos he'd see at that little stand at the market and wanted to know if he could make one himself. "But… our dads don't want me to do it, and so I thought if you're already sneaking out, I could come with you, and work on my stuff while you do… whatever you're doing. What ARE you doing, anyway?"

"None of your business! Besides, aren't you supposed to be learning how to rebind a book or memorizing the cataloging system like Lance is always on your case about. Not fiddling around with wires and junk."

Bow groaned. "I don't want to do that. It's so boring! It's just like everything else! You all got to pick what you wanted to study, what instrument you play, what you get to do with your life, and I got whatever was left! And I HATE it!"

"So what do you want to do?"

Bow opened his mouth and closed it again. He pretended to be really interested in zipping up his bag so he wouldn't have to look at his brother. "I don't know. Not that."

"Well, what are you telling me for? Tell it to the pops!"

"I've tried! They don't listen."

For a minute Dirk stared at him, his arms crossed, like he was still really mad. Then he exhaled and leaned back against a tree, his eyes on the ground. "No. They really don't."

Bow watched his brother, not really sure what was happening. Dirk rubbed his face and watched the stream go by for a long moment. Then he stood upright again and held out a hand to him.

"Alright, come on down here."

Bow hesitated, not sure if it was a trap.

"I'm not going to attack you or anything, but I really gotta get going or I'm going to be late. You've got your deal. For today only, trial run. Things go OK, well, we'll see. You can even keep the book in your bag till we get there if it makes you feel better, but we gotta start walking now."

Bow slid down the tree, never taking his eyes off Dirk. He kept his distance, his hand on his bag, ready to run, though Dirk didn't even try to come near. "You're going to let me come?"

"Yeah, I am, so don't make me regret it." Dirk started walking and Bow watched him a moment before following.

"Where are we going?" Bow asked as they got back on the path.

Dirk shook his head, and the side of his mouth crooked up. "You'll see."