Alexandra heard nothing more about the dwarves, and she didn't say anything more to Granny Mahnkey or anyone else about the jimplicute hunt. She didn't know if it was a coincidence or not that Granny Mahnkey stopped sending her on errands, and instead gave her more chores around the cottage, which allowed Alexandra more time to study, but less opportunity to visit other Hollers and pick up news or gossip.

The week before Christmas, Alexandra received another owl from Julia. She still wasn't quite sure how owls could find her but Inquisitors couldn't.

"My Dearest Sister,

I am delighted to inform you that as of December 17, we are both aunties! Livia's son Nicholas Austin Farr-Pruett was born at 8:47 a.m. Claudia went to visit her in Milwaukee, and sent me pictures to relay to you via Owl Post…"

Alexandra read the rest of the letter with bittersweet feelings. Julia bubbled about the baby, and how she hoped Livia would let her visit soon. The photographs Claudia had taken showed a squalling, puffy, red-faced thing nestled in Livia's arms. Julia proclaimed their nephew "adorable."

Alexandra was sad she couldn't visit herself, though she'd never been around babies and wasn't sure if she'd get along with one.

The reminder that the rest of the world was moving on without her put her in a melancholy mood. Granny Pritchard found her sitting on Granny Mahnkey's porch, holding Julia's letter with her face sunken and her shoulders slumped.

"Constance an' Forbearance an' Innocence are back home," Granny Pritchard said. "They'uns is eager to see you, if'n you can pull yoreself outter yore doldrums and fix a proper bonnet on yore head."

"Last time I visited them, I didn't wear a bonnet at all," Alexandra said.

Granny Pritchard sniffed. "Is that letter from yore sister?"

"Yes," Alexandra said. "How did you know?"

"So what think you 'bout goin' to stay with Angles?"

Alexandra's brow wrinkled. Granny Pritchard, seeing her confusion, said, "Angles is what we call Old Colonials who settled in New England."

"Wait, what?" Alexandra said. "Why would I be going to New England?"

Granny Pritchard put her hands on her hips. "Din't you finish that letter?"

Still not sure how Granny Pritchard knew who her letter was from or what was in it, Alexandra read quickly through the rest of the scroll — lots about Nicholas and Livia and Claudia, not much about Julia's school year, tidings from Croatoa and Ms. King and the Kings' elves, gentle queries about Alexandra's doings in the Ozarks (and fortunately no mention of Burton) — until she came to the end.

"I know you've only met Lucilla and Drucilla once, but Mother and I have had many conversations with them since the possibility was first suggested, and they are positively lovely people — like all our sisters! So I hope you will give your deepest consideration to their offer, dear Alexandra. They make it with not inconsiderable risk to themselves, given the fraught political situation, but of course they are already accustomed to the hardships of being our father's daughters, perhaps even more acutely than we are, which is probably why they so readily agreed to offer you an apprenticeship and a home out of reach of Central Territory."

Then Alexandra saw the second, smaller roll of parchment, attached to Julia's letter and sealed with a small circle of wax stamped with an owl. When she opened it, it fluttered out of her hands and unrolled itself in midair before her eyes, displaying a much briefer letter.

She looked up. "The Whites want me to go live with them?"

"So I'm given to understand," Granny Pritchard said.

"But I'll still be wanted," Alexandra protested. "I'll just be bringing trouble to them. If you're exiling me —"

"Stop bein' foolish!" Granny Pritchard snapped. "Hain't no one turnin' you out. Now go dress yoreself decent and might be you'll get things 'splained to you, on the way to my grandson's house."

"I am dressed decently," Alexandra said. "I've worn dresses and bonnets to make Granny Mahnkey happy while I run errands all over the Five Hollers, but if I'm going to meet my friends, I'll wear what I please. I'm a foreigner, and I'll dress like a foreigner, especially when you're clearly trying to get rid of me because I'm a foreigner."

"You are a wicked, troublesome, spiteful girl. You oughter be glad you hain't no kin o' mine."

"Yes, ma'am," Alexandra said.

They stared each other down for a moment, and then Granny Pritchard sighed. "Come along, then."

"Are we going to Apparate?" Alexandra asked.

"Nope," Granny Pritchard said. "An' my boots hain't charmed like yourn, an' I hain't sittin' on yore broom. I came by mule. He'll carry us both."

After saying good-bye to Granny Mahnkey, they went to the little yard outside, where the grass that showed through patches of snow was blueing with evening shadows. Granny Pritchard walked over to an ordinary-looking mule, and said, "You set in front, I'll hold onto you."

Alexandra patted the mule's nose, then swung a leg up in what she knew was, according to Ozarkers, a most unladylike fashion. This provoked a snort from Granny Pritchard. Once Alexandra was astride the mule, Granny Pritchard placed a hand on the mule's saddle, and with surprising spryness, hopped on to sit sidesaddle behind her.

"Hie, you ornery thing!" said Granny Pritchard.

"You talking to me, or the mule?" Alexandra asked. Granny Pritchard's hand clutched her shoulder as the mule's hooves left the ground.

Rising through a light curtain of snow, the mule turned toward the one place Alexandra had avoided for the past few weeks. The mule was slow so Charlie was able to keep up easily.

"You recall as I schooled you some on the Confederation and its Territories?" Granny Pritchard asked.

"Yes," Alexandra said.

"You are currently wanted in Central Territory. You hain't officially a fugitive, seein' as how you weren't never convicted. But the Guv'nor still ordered you arrested on sight."

"Same difference," Alexandra said.

"Not quite. If you was an escaped felon, you'd be subject to extradition, as you said. Every Territory'll send fugitives back where they come from. But an arrest order only applies within the Territory it was issued. Now, Guv'nors can ask other Guv'nors to honor their arrest orders. Most will. An' o'course, nearly every Guv'nor will do anything Guv'nor-General Hucksteen asks."

"Of course," Alexandra said.

The snow was getting heavier, but Granny Pritchard waved a hand and the snow and cold air flowed around them.

"Can you teach me that spell?" Alexandra asked.

"Pay more attention when Granny Mahnkey sets you to yore chores an' you'd learn a piece," Granny Pritchard said. "As I was sayin', most Guv'nors will do as the Guv'nor of Central Territory and the Guv'nor-General asks."

"But not Ozarkers," Alexandra said.

"Nope. Nor the Guv'nor of New England, because Angles's always been an ornery bunch. We'uns never had no love for them nor they'uns for us, not even back in the Old World, but we'uns both held the Ministry of Magic in contempt, albeit for different reasons."

Confederation politics, and Granny Pritchard's surprisingly detailed knowledge of them, would normally have been of greater interest to Alexandra, but as she saw a familiar hill with a Muggle highway curling around it, an indication that Furthest Holler and the Pritchards' home was not far beyond, she asked, "What are you saying? New England won't extradite me, and the Governor-General has no power there?"

"Oh, the Guv'nor-General is a powerful man," Granny Pritchard said. "Hain't nowhere in the Confederation where he hain't got power. But the Angles' Guv'nor is nearly as muleish as we'uns when it comes to been' pushed 'round by outsiders."

"What about Special Inquisitors?" Alexandra asked.

"They'uns still have authority in any Territory. But since the Guv'nor-General hain't declared you an Enemy o' the Confederation, it's right pervokin' to folks when Inquisitors snatch someone without a warrant in a Territory where the Guv'nor hain't invited 'em."

"How do you know all this legal stuff?" Alexandra asked.

"We'uns can read, Missy," the Granny said. "An' as isolated an' backwards as you may think we are, some of us find it needful to regard the world outside our home."

"I don't think you're backwards," Alexandra said. The mule began to descend toward a familiar homestead. The snow was falling heavily now, but three figures waited in the tiny half-circle of light cast in front of the Pritchards' house, pressed close together beneath the heavy coats they'd donned over their dresses and bonnets.

Charlie cawed a greeting and the three of them turned their faces upward — Constance, Forbearance, and Innocence, all waiting for her.

"Granny Pritchard!" called Constance.

Right — and her, Alexandra thought.

"Alexandra!" called Innocence.

"Hello, Charlie," Forbearance said, as the raven swooped low and landed beneath the eaves over the porch.

When they settled on the ground, Alexandra waited until Granny Pritchard slipped off the mule and then dismounted herself. She put an arm around Innocence, who was the first to hug her.

"I never reckoned you'd be a genuine fugitive!" Innocence said.

"Really? Everyone else seemed to think it was inevitable," said Alexandra.

Constance and Forbearance traded places with their younger sister and embraced Alexandra.

"We'uns missed you terrible," Constance said.

"We'uns was so feared for you," Forbearance said.

"I missed you, too," said Alexandra.

"Is you gals gonna stand out in the snow gabbin' like beasts too dumb to know when to come in?" boomed a voice from the porch.

"You're a right blaggard, Burton," said Constance.

"Who you callin' a beast, boy?" Granny Pritchard's voice was icier than the weather.

Burton immediately took his hat off. "Beg yore pardon, Granny Pritchard. I din't see you there."

"You'd a'knowed I come with Miss Quick if you had a lick o' sense," Granny Pritchard said. "Now let's all come in outter the weather. It's chillin' my old bones. Burton, you'll take care o' Pict, won't you?"

"Yes'm," said Burton.

Five females ascended the wooden steps and walked past Burton. His sisters stared past him, stiff and indignant. His cocky grin faded beneath Granny Pritchard's gaze, and he barely glanced at Alexandra. Charlie hopped onto Alexandra's shoulder, then took up a perch just inside the threshold, above the door.

"Big fat jerk," the raven said.

Mr. and Mrs. Pritchard were clearly uneasy with Alexandra's presence. She couldn't blame them. She thanked them for the food they offered and tried not to pepper Constance, Forbearance, and Innocence with a hundred questions about school and Anna and David and Sonja.

She initially tried to avoid Burton's gaze, then decided she wasn't going to act like a silly girl, as if she'd done something wrong, so she stared directly at him, until she worried she was being too obvious, and then she ignored him except for when she studied him out of the corner of her eye. As far as she could tell, he was doing the same thing — alternately ignoring her and staring blankly back at her. Sometimes she thought the two of them must have been obvious to everyone else in the room. By the end of dinner, Alexandra realized she'd spent so much time worrying about how to act around Burton that she'd barely paid attention to the conversation.

Granny Pritchard finally drew it back to her. "Has Miss Quick told you'all 'bout her letter?"

Everyone looked expectantly at her. Alexandra cleared her throat.

"My sisters — Lucilla and Drucilla, I mean — have invited me to come stay with them. I guess I'd be their apprentice."

"Oh," said Constance.

"Well," said Forbearance.

"Do you want to go?" asked Innocence.

"I don't know. I mean, sure. It would be good to… " Alexandra wasn't sure what she wanted. She started to say she was worried that she'd be bringing trouble to them, and realized that would imply she was okay with keeping trouble here in the Ozarks. She sighed. "I don't really know them. We've only met once. And I'm still not sure how Confederation law works. I've been worried the whole time I'm here that Inquisitors would show up and take me back to Eerie Island, and I don't know what will stop them from just showing up at Lucilla and Drucilla's house."

Granny Pritchard set her fork down and pushed her plate away. "You might've noticed they hain't come to snatch you whilst you was here."

"I have noticed that," Alexandra said.

"Consider how it makes the Guv'nor-General look," Granny Pritchard said. "All that effort to take in one little girl who had a tantrum makes the mighty Confederation look awful weak."

"One girl who's the daughter of the Enemy of the Confederation," Alexandra said. She wanted to add more about her "tantrum," but noticing how the mention of her father made Mr. and Mrs. Pritchard's lips tighten, she let it drop. She was surprised they hadn't kicked her out already.

"The decision's yourn," Granny Pritchard said with a shrug. "Granny Mahnkey'll let you bide with her s'long as it pleases you, and we'uns hain't never gonna turn you out o' the Five Hollers, long 's you behave yoreself."

Burton made a sound in the back of his throat. Alexandra's eyes flickered in his direction and narrowed.

"You'll stay at least through the holidays, won't you?" Constance asked.

"I haven't even answered their letter yet," Alexandra said. "I don't know when they expect me to come if I do come." She looked at her friends, who wore their bonnets even at the family supper table. Innocence grinned at her. "Yeah, I'd like to stay while you're here."

After dinner, she walked with Constance, Forbearance, and Innocence in the woods behind their house. Snow fell around them, making the Ozarks beautiful and wintry. The Pritchards spoke of Charmbridge, and their classes, mentioning several times how much Alexandra's other friends missed her.

"I reckon even Larry Albo misses havin' you to tussle with," Innocence said.

"I doubt that," Alexandra said. "He's in training for the Junior Wizarding Decathlon."

"Dean Grimm is sendin' a few students to New Amsterdam with him," Forbearance said.

"Larry's friends, I reckon," said Innocence.

"I have to figure out how to get there," Alexandra said.

The sisters all tilted their heads to regard her with some surprise, as they stepped lightly over the thin crust of snow surrounding the house.

"What for?" Constance asked.

Alexandra said, "I need to do something there."

"Is this somethin' else you hain't gonna tell us 'bout?" Constance chided. "Hain't you kept enough secrets from us, Alex?"

Not enough, and too many, Alexandra thought, bowing her head. "It has to do with, um, what we talked about before. With Julia."

"Oh, you mean one o' those things you don't want to tell me about!" Innocence said, sticking her lower lip out.

Alexandra put a hand on the younger girl's shoulder. "That's right. Now let it go. Seriously."

Innocence looked at Alexandra, opened her mouth, and closed it again.

They were quiet awhile. Then Alexandra said, "I did have an idea, but it's probably crazy."

"Oh dear," said Forbearance.

"Let's hear it," Innocence said.

Alexandra said, "I've been Named, right? Like, according to your folks, I actually am Troublesome."

"That's so," said Constance.

"So, doesn't that… technically… make me an Ozarker?"

"Accordin' to the Stars Above, you surely are," said Forbearance.

"Alex," said Constance, "you hain't conceivin' what I think you are?"

"As an independent Culture, you Ozarkers can nominate anyone you like as your Champion to the Junior Wizarding Decathlon," Alexandra said.

Constance said, "That's… that's…"

"It's ingenious!" exclaimed Innocence.

"It's unprecedented," said Forbearance.

"It's crazy," Alexandra said. "But — it can't hurt to ask?"

Constance said, "We'uns hain't never sent a champion to any Confederation games. Not the Wizarding Decathlon, nor the Junior Wizarding Decathlon, nor the National Potioneers Championship, nor the Confederation Games, nor even the World Series o' Whist."

"There's some Grannies might like to attend the World Series o' Whist, if'n we ever condescended to participate atall in Confederation events," Forbearance said.

"It'd take some cajolery," said Constance.

"Even if it works, how do you reckon you can go to New Amsterdam bein' a fugitive?" Innocence asked.

"I'm only a fugitive in Central Territory, if what Granny Pritchard told me is true. I mean, nothing stops the Office of Special Inquisitions from making me disappear. But they could do that here, if they really wanted to."

"Alexandra Quick as Ozarker champion," said Forbearance. "My stars 'n garters."

"That is the most bodacious thing I ever heard!" said Innocence. "I bet you could win, too!"

"Maybe." Alexandra smiled. "But who can nominate me as the Ozarker champion? The Grannies?"

"Not officially," said Constance.

"But it's where we'uns oughter start," said Forbearance. The twins nodded in unison.

Two weeks later, Alexandra stood in the gravel parking lot behind the A&W. She adjusted her pack, checked her gloves and boots, and adjusted her wool scarf, tying it so it wouldn't fly away as she ran. It was the middle of January, and snow still blanketed the Ozarks.

Constance, Forbearance, and Innocence stood with her at this boundary between their Holler and the Muggle world.

Granny Pritchard had come with them, all of them riding on mules. Granny Pritchard stood at the edge of the woods with the mules, allowing the girls a semblance of privacy, though Alexandra had no doubt the Granny could hear everything they said.

Alexandra spoke first. "Guess it's time to say good-bye… again."

"We'uns'll see you again," Constance said.

"Maybe in New Amsterdam," Innocence said.

Forbearance shook her head. "Dean Grimm hain't gonna let us go to New Amsterdam. An' Pa surely wouldn't."

"It's probably for the best," Alexandra said.

Innocence stuck out her lower lip.

"I owe you so much," Alexandra said. "For everything. You got the Grannies to listen to me. Your family let me stay with them. And you've put up with me being…"

"Troublesome?" Forbearance said.

"I wish everyone didn't expect me to be like Troublesome," Alexandra said. "Those are just stories. Ozarker girls have been named Troublesome before, right? They didn't all —"

"Spell the li'l people an' churn the hill-folk?" said Innocence.

"Catch a Thren and kill an underwater panther?" said Forbearance.

"Or seduce our brother," said Constance, and suddenly there was no humor in her expression.

Alexandra's eyes went wide. "Oh my God. You knew?" She looked over their shoulders, and glared at Granny Pritchard. "She told you!"

Constance and Forbearance shook their heads. "No one told us, Alex," Constance said.

Forbearance said, "Boys talk."

Constance said, "They gossip."

Innocence said, "They'uns is horrible braggarts, an' Burton worst of all."

Alexandra felt heat rising from her despite the winter chill. "So much for 'I hain't gonna ruin yore reputation,'" she said bitterly.

"I don't reckon he meant to," Forbearance said. Her cheeks burned brighter than Alexandra's as she spoke. "He's been braggin' to the Five Hollers 'bout slayin' a jimplicute."

"Oh," Alexandra said. Well, that's ironic. "But…"

"He din't 'zactly boast 'bout your part," Constance said, also blushing. "But it did come up. An' that led to what you done to the dwarves —"

"You ought've told us 'bout that, Alex," said Forbearance.

"I didn't realize," Alexandra said unhappily. "Not everything, at the time."

The Pritchards exchanged glances, then Constance went on. "Anyhow, I reckon Noah teased the rest outter Burton, an', well, then it come out that he, um, bedded Troublesome."

"Great," Alexandra said. "I guess now I'm the biggest slut in the Five Hollers."

Everyone's face was red now. "Well, he set up to you, I reckon," said Forbearance. "Neither o' you done anythin' you din't both want to do. So he's certainly 'sponsible 's much as you."

"More," said Constance, pursing her lips. "He ought've known better. An' with our friend!"

Alexandra looked away.

"Anyhow," said Innocence, "everyone knows Charity Harper is the biggest—"

"INNOCENCE!" Constance and Forbearance said together.

"I—" Alexandra started to apologize, then faced them. "I am sorry for any embarrassment I caused you. And I'm sorry if you think less of me now. But you're right — neither of us did anything we didn't both want to do."

The three sisters stared back at her with their bright, blue eyes.

"Well then," said Constance.

"We'uns don't think less o' you, Alex," said Innocence.

"Though we'uns might not fancy your choices," Constance said.

Alexandra hung her head.

"But you surely are Troublesome," Forbearance said, and there was something particularly sad in the way she said it.

All three girls embraced her.

"Be careful," Constance said.

"Be well," Forbearance said.

"Lick 'em good at the Decathlon!" Innocence said. "Show them furriners!"

Alexandra laughed. "I'm only an Ozarker on a technicality. We all know I'm still a foreigner."

"I reckon that makes you the first Ozarker furriner ever," Granny Pritchard said. She had walked forward to join them, leading the mules with her, and the other Pritchards quietly stepped back. The old woman fixed Alexandra with her gimlet stare.

"You have surely lived up to yore Name," she said, "and I 'spect you hain't half done."

"I expect I hain't," Alexandra replied evenly.

"You just 'member what you promised. This hain't all about you an' yore personal preoccupations, Missy."

"I know what I promised," Alexandra said. "And you know I have to live to keep it."

Her proposal to the Grannies, and their petition to whoever made decisions in the Five Hollers — the patriarchs of the Five Families, she supposed — had ended in vague promises from both sides.

She could open the cracks in the world, but they never lasted long. She didn't know if the Ozarkers meant to go to some specific World Away, and she certainly didn't know how she could hold open the way long enough for every Ozarker in the Five Hollers to pass through. She felt like they just expected her to fulfill her part because of her Name. And she had no idea what was going on between the Exodans and the Steadfasters, nor the disposition of the hill dwarves; none of them, not even the Pritchards, would talk to her about discussions that were only between Ozarkers.

Granny Pritchard gave her a rueful smile. Her voice softened. "For what it amounts to, I would prefer you alive to dead. And I suspect Granny Mahnkey's become a mite fond o' you as well. So do try to avoid gettin' into more trouble than you can extricate yoreself from. It would make my great-grandchillun' right melancholy."

"Thank you," Alexandra said. Her voice lost its sarcastic edge. "I will try. But you know, trouble seems to come to me whatever I do." She shrugged. "I really will try to avoid inviting more."

It was pointless to say this, and they all knew it. There was no way to accomplish any of the things she aimed to do and not run into trouble. But it made her friends feel better if she told them she was going to be careful.

She set off down the highway, and only when she was out of sight, and no Muggle cars were visible on the road, did she leap forward, letting her boots carry her halfway to the next bend with one step, around the bend with the next. She moved in bursts of speed, stepping into the woods when a car appeared. Once she was alone again except for Charlie, she emerged and resumed her trek to town, where she could catch a bus to New England.