The king’s son liked Hadrian the most. Maybe because Hadrian let him watch as he picked locks as a practice, or maybe because he let him plunge a knife into a dead chicken.

Edwin had no idea what the demon child wanted. Little Elidys Gothenburg watched with fascination as Edwin stitched up the chicken for dinner. Giggled when the hedge healer had bandaged Daniel again, and the man had let out a scream.

He had taken to trailing Luciano and Rael and tugging at their hair, which the boys responded with tugging at the toddler’s hair; the cycle was renewed with a lot of unintelligible shouting.

Ben seemed to have Elidys wrapped around his finger, as he would pretend that his cut offhand hurt him every time the toddler touched it. That prompted the two-year-old to sneak up on him and poke the stump every chance he got.

So far, Daniel had trouble keeping the boy away from himself. If they got the king’s son with tree man syndrome, king Valyr of Gothenburg was going to give them a one-way ticket to the nearest execution block.

Elidys wanted to eat his dirty bandages, he had mumbled so himself. A shrill yell followed by “Eli wants!” That had gotten his point across, and Edwin had swatted him on the bottom and had withheld dessert from him that day.

The boy seemed to have trouble speaking in more complex sentences than ones that included his name, shortened, and another word. So, Edwin had slept during the night for a change and had taken the boy to a logoped on a shiny, snowy morning.

The logoped smiled brightly at the two. She was a young woman with strawberry-blonde curls and baby blue eyes. As soon as she saw Elidys, she handed him a wrapped candy.

“Hello, Eli and Edwin, was it?” Asked Victoria Ruth.

“Thank you for having us on such a short notice, miss Ruth,” said Edwin as he unwrapped the candy for Elidys. The boy was happy for a normal reason, for once, and he took the candy from Edwin and gobbled it up.

“He doesn’t seem to have problems chewing,” said the speech therapist when the loud crunches resounded in the room. “Which is good. You have no idea how many children come here thin as a beanstalk because they couldn’t chew properly. Now, what seems to be the problem?”

“He speaks in two-word sentences,” said Edwin as he placed Elidys in a raised chair for toddlers and began strapping him in. “Is that normal? I am also raising two three-year-olds, and they talk just fine. Well, they can’t pronounce r’s, but, for the most part, they speak clearly enough.”

“And little Eli is two, is he not?” Asked the logoped.

“He is,” Edwin’s hand was slapped by Elidys who giggled. Then a little fist bumped his nose softly. Edwin sighed and finished tying the knot on the safety of the chair.

“By two years of age, a child has a vocabulary in the range of 150 to 300 words. I think you expect a bit too much, mister Roberts. Eli, what can you see?” a picture of a dog was waved before the boy.

“Puppy!” screamed Elidys, and he waved his hands happily. Then he extended his hand for a candy. Edwin chuckled.

“Luciano, one of the three-year-olds, does the same thing,” he said. Elidys opened his mouth and then sucked in a breath and closed it. His little face soon became red. “But he doesn’t do that.”

Edwin sighed as Victoria Ruth chuckled.

“I take it all your children are adopted? Have you ever had children of your own?” A pang of pain stung at Edwin at the memory of his triplets.

“I did, but they are dead. And all four of them are adopted, yes,” answered Edwin. Victoria’s eyes softened, and she tickled Elidys absentmindedly instead of giving him candy.

“I think Eli would benefit from talking to your other boys more. And that they should come here for their little mispronunciation problem,” then she showed Elidys another picture.

“Don’t know,” said Elidys and he looked down. Edwin stared at the circle. It was just a shape, filled with black paint. Nothing more, nothing else.

“A couple of picture books for your children will not go amiss,” she showed another picture.

“Moo!” Responded Elidys, eyes shining.

“A cow does indeed moo, but this is a cow, not a moo,” said the speech therapist patiently.

“Not wrong!” Screamed Elidys and Edwin tugged at his ear. The boy looked at him with eyes full of betrayal.

“You are wrong, Eli. We admit when we are wrong, so we won’t be wrong about the same thing again,” Edwin parroted the same words his mother used to tell him when he got stubborn.

“Eli, sorry,” said the boy, looking chastised.

“This was good, mister Roberts. You disciplined without losing your temper. Now, I prescribe picture books, play sessions with your three-year-olds, and walks in the park, so Eli can get to know other children. Their speech pattern will rub off on him, and he will start to make more complex sentences,” and the logoped wrote all that down and handed it to Edwin.

“How much do I owe you?” Asked Edwin. When he had asked before at the help desk, they had told him that miss Ruth will tell him.

“Nothing, really. There is nothing wrong with little Eli. Now, for the other boys, I charge a gold coin per session. Furthermore, bring them separately, so I can focus on them better.”

“Thank you for your time,” said Edwin, and then he began to untie the boy. Elidys looked from left to right, and he kicked his feet. When Edwin picked him up, finally, he stopped and hugged him back.

They left the clinic and headed towards the bookstore. Back in the clinic, the secretary tutted at Victoria.

“You let another handsome man go without paying for the first session, didn’t you, Vicky?” Asked Odette Xariel, the only secretary in the whole clinic.

“He has four children, Ode. Do you think he is looking for a mother for them?” Asked Victoria wishfully.

“You can still have children of your own, Vicky. The results of the tests hadn’t come back yet,” said Odette compassionately.

“We both know what the results will be. The knife went through my stomach, Ode. You know as well as I what it means. Besides, he is handsome and kind, to boot,” the two giggled and Edwin sneezed as he was trying to decide between a picture book about a bear and one about a unicorn.