When Ace was at last able to stand, Alice helped him out of the tent to meet Bill. Holding his arm to keep him steady, she searched the campsite for the woman. Her eye snagged on Ina sitting in the shadows. When she saw them emerge from the tent, she immediately rose and approached them.

"How is he?" she asked, her eyes nervously darting to Ace.

Alice smiled. "He's fine. Thank you for staying with him."

"And have you..."

She trailed off and looked at Ace nervously. Alice understood what she was referring to. "Yes, he knows everything now." Almost everything.

With a warm smile, Ace put his hand out to Ina. "I think we may need to be introduced again now that I've been made aware of our connection. It's a pleasure to meet Alice's sister."

"Stepsister," Ina corrected as she gave his hand a shake.

"Still family."

Tart squeaked his agreement, and Ina looked at the critter in surprise. Still, something in Ina's eyes softened, and she almost looked like she might smile. "Where is Bill?" asked Alice.

Pulling her attention away from Ace, Ina cleared her throat. "Last I saw, she was speaking with Dove. They;re waiting for the search party to come back with Froggy."

"Froggy?" Ace repeated.

"The one they think is a traitor," Alice said.

As they spoke, Bill appeared, accompanied by a woman with an eyepatch and a long, black coat. "Ah, I see he's up and about," Bill said when she saw Ace.

"Yes, thank you so much for tending to his injuries," Alice said.

"Bambi is a superb healer, and of course she would spare no labor in caring for Little Alice's husband." She smiled at Ace and looked him up and down before extending her hand. "Name's Bill, Bill the Lizard."

As Ace took it and gave a smile. "A pleasure to finally meet you."

"So you're the young lad who our Alice bagged. Not too bad. A little skinny, but great hair."

She ran her hand through his hair, ruffling it slightly. Ace's face turned red, and Alice couldn't help but chuckle. "Yes, the hair certainly caught my eye," she said as she leaned into him. "But his lilting laugh and smiling eyes were what truly pulled me in."

Bill raised her eyebrows. "Lilting laugh? Do demonstrate."

"Ah, not something I can really do on command," Ace said. He turned to Alice. "'Lilting'? Is that another way of saying it's girly?"

Alice planted a kiss on his cheek. "Your laugh is very manly, Captain."

"Let's get Fate over here. He tells the best dirty jokes," Bill said, grinning at the woman beside her. "I'm sure he can get this one laughing in no time."

The color drained out of Ace's face. "Oh, no, no, that's not—"

"Hey, Fate!"

Ace turned to Alice, his eyes wide. She shrugged helplessly.

An old man with stark white hair sticking up every which way came meandering over. "What can I do ya?" he asked, glancing at Alice and Ace.

"As you well know, our dear Alice is newly married," Bill said, a wicked smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "And this here is the lad who won her."

"Is that so?" Fate said, scratching his chin with the hook attached to his left hand.

"We thought maybe you might want to give him some of your sage advice regarding married life. You know, how to keep a woman happy and such."

A grin spread across the old man's face, revealing a number of missing teeth.. "Well, if it will make our Little Alice's marriage a happy one."

Despite being a head shorter than him, Fate put his arm around Ace's shoulders and drew him close. Ace swallowed hard and threw Alice a desperate look, but she could do nothing but watch as the old man cozied up with her husband.

"All right, my young man. The most important thing to remember about women is—"

A loud whistle interrupted him before he could begin. All of the Swans reached for their weapons and turned towards the sound. From amidst the trees came the search party Bill had sent out. A short man was being dragged by a tall fellow and a petite girl. Bill stiffened and laid her hands on the knives at her hip. The man in custody was brought before her and thrown at her feet. He stayed down, not even raising his head. Alice gripped Ace's arm and looked around at the others. The lighthearted humor had quickly disappeared, replaced by a somber silence. Tart sensed the change in mood, and he quickly scurried into one of Alice's pockets, thankfully not the one with the watch. Ace squeezed Alice's hand, and she glanced up at him. He gave her a soft smile, and she leaned in closer to him.

"Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in," Bill sneered.

Still, the man refused to lift his head.

"How long?"

Silence.

"How long, Froggy?"

"How long what?" the man asked in a raspy voice.

"How long have you been working with that murderer?"

Finally, he sat back on his knees and raised his eyes to her. His face was covered in warts and pockmarks. As if his countenance wasn't ugly enough, the damage that had been afflicted upon it intensified his homeliness. One eye was swelling up considerably, and blood trickled from his crooked nose and onto his puffy lips. He stuck out his long tongue to lick it away.

"He made me an offer. Said I could be powerful," he replied, his voice shaking slightly.

"How long?"

"He told me he'd make me his right-hand man."

"How long?"

"He promised me I wouldn't die."

Bill took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she had collected herself, she let it out and returned her sharp gaze to him. "How long?" she whispered.

His eyes wavered as his lower lip began to tremble. Without answering, he dropped his head down so low that his curls brushed against the ground. He stayed in that position until Bill heaved a sigh and turned to the woman with the eyepatch.

"Take him," she said.

The two Swans who had dragged him in earlier took hold of him again and followed the woman with the eyepatch to a tent. Froggy made no resistance. Every muscle in his body had gone lax. Any fight he may have once had was gone. Whatever was about to happen to him, he knew there was no way out of it.

"What are you going to do to him?" Alice asked Bill.

Rubbing the bridge of her nose, Bill turned to her. "I'm not going to do anything. I'm leaving the dirty work to Dove. It's what she's good at."

"Is she going to..."

She couldn't say the words. Even though she did not know this man who had nearly killed both herself and Ace, the thought of him being killed was more than she could bear. Any execution—warranted or not—brought forth memories of Mr. Ferret kneeling before the Queen, just moments before Raven took off his head with an axe.

Shaking her head to rid herself of the image, she focused on Bill who was watching her sadly. "There is no place for traitors in the Swans, Alice."

She turned eyes to Ina who was standing off to the side. After a long, cold stare, she addressed the rest of the band.

"The mole has been disposed of," she announced, "but there's still much work to be done. With our true Queen returned to us, we can restore order amongst our people. However, now that that rat knows she's alive, we have no time to waste. So, I think our first step should be to move the camp. He knows where we are, but we don't know his location, so that puts us at a disadvantage. Let's pack up and figure out where to go as we head out. Our next task will be to find out where he and his cronies are hiding."

"I can help with that," Ina said.

Bill glared at her.

"Ina is an invaluable asset," Alice said as she stepped closer to her sister and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Don't let her talent and knowledge go to waste."

Though her eyes retained their harshness, Bill relented and gave a slight nod. "Very well. We'll talk." She turned back to the others. "The rest of you—pack!"

The Swans scurried about the camp, dousing the fire and pulling down tents in a mad dash. Bill watched them for a moment before approaching Alice. She raised her eyebrows and gave a weary smile.

"I'm afraid we pulled you out of the frying pan and into the fire," she said.

"Where are we going to go?" asked Alice.

"Depends on where he is. I think we should try to stay close to him in order to organize a proper rebellion."

"I'm more than happy to give you an information I have," Ina said.

Bill's lip lifted in a snarl, but she caught Alice's eyes and refrained from making any snide remarks. The short girl who had brought in Froggy emerged from the tent where they had taken him.

"The mole has been silenced," she said to Bill.

With her lips pressed into a thin line, Bill gave a single nod. "I'll come take care of the rest." She looked from Alice and Ace to Ina and hesitated before her shoulders slumped in defeat. "Ina, would you please watch over them while I'm gone?"

"Of course," Ina said, a ghost of a smile playing on her face.

Though she didn't seem comfortable leaving them alone with her, Bill followed Dove and disappeared into the tent. Alice watched as the men and women of the Swans worked hard to take down every tent and remove any trace that they had been there. She finally turned to Ina who was watching the scene with an unreadable expression.

"What can we do?" Ace asked.

"Stay alive," Ina replied.

"I mean to help."

"Staying alive will help. We need a queen to place on the throne once we get rid of my father." She gave a quick smile. "A happy queen, if we can help it, so it's just as important for you to stay alive as it is for Alice."

"Other than not-dying, what else can we do?" asked Alice.

Ina's eyes flitted to Alice's smol before returning to her face. "Do you have any other weapons in that fancy bag of yours besides a butterfly net?"