All the travellers felt a little embarrassed at imposing on the kind princess in this way, and they did their best to help. The Sable Conclave meekly presented her with a bottle of Mendervan wine they’d brought with them to celebrate the reconquest of Clovenstone. Even Skarper peeled some carrots. Twiglings, who seemed fond of Ned, came creaking and whispering out of the woods with woven baskets full of mushrooms. There was so much activity in the old ship that it was quite easy, towards the end of the afternoon, for Skarper and Henwyn to quietly slip away. They felt the eyes of twiglings on them as they crossed the clapper bridge and went into the woods, but, as Skarper had hoped, they were known as friends of Fraddon and the princess now, and the people of the trees stayed high in the branches and let them pass. They climbed broad, grassy streets between the empty mansions, scrambled through thick stands of trees which had once been parks or kitchen gardens or parade grounds, and Skarper took the chance to roll in piles of leaf mould and the pungent places where passing badgers had peed, until he no longer smelled of softlings, giants, or Princess Ned’s ship.
