Chapter 12
From the window, Hydris hollered, “I don’t see anything wrong! What was that sound?”
“We’ll find the source and any damage, Your Highness,” the guard who’d taken off his helmet said. “I advise you to stay indoors until we do.”
As the guards exited the room, Hydris flew back down to me, his gaze on the table beside me. “I can’t let this happen,” he said quietly.
“Do you know which one’s the head guard or whatever? Was he the one who wants you to stay inside?”
Hydris nodded up at me.
“Then when he comes back, you can tell him to scrap these plans. None of it’s happening now. He’ll know what to do with that order.”
He glanced at the table again before taking a deep breath and sighing.
I didn’t know what it might’ve been like when they’d gone to war with their neighbors in the past, but I had to assume everyone played a role and knew their part.
Hydris didn’t have to be versed in every aspect of combat to say stop.
They just had to listen when he did, and it sounded to me like they would.
“Your Highness?”
We both looked over to find his four advisors standing side by side and facing him.
“We should like to reaffirm our fealty to you,” the Lady Anezka said before she curtsied so low that she practically had her nose on the floor. “I am your servant, Your Highness.”
Naunet, Ottokar, and… What was his name? The spellwork guy? Well, they all bowed low and said the same thing. I was glad for Hydris—he needed to know there was a team of people behind him.
“Would you appreciate,” Hydris asked, “having a reversal of the order I gave some time ago that had your spouses removed to your estates?”
All four of them exclaimed like he’d startled it out of them, but it was clear to me that they were all missing someone. Ottokar even wiped away a tear, and I knew Sarosh was going to be so happy.
“Alright,” Hydris said, “I reverse my order. And I apologize.” He cleared his throat. “I should like to reverse or modify other orders you disagree with, if you’ll tell me what they are.”
I gently scooted him along toward his throne, very much wanting him to sit there and be the prince I knew he was.
He rolled his eyes, but grinned as he sat down, his advisors now standing in front of him.
I stole the chairs from around the planning table and had them each sit down. They seemed to appreciate that.
I sat with them but off to the side, not sure of my role or if I had one at all. Being Hydris’s head cheerleader suited me fine, but I was also crazy curious to see how all of this worked. Or was supposed to work when it wasn’t being run by a lunatic on a power trip.
“At the border with Winter,” Hydris said, “the people there talked about a tax…”
“To fund the war,” said the man whose name I couldn’t remember.
“Ah. We’re going to cancel that then.”
Lady Naunet said, “There are other recent taxes that seem excessive. Lord Valborg, there was one on common spellwork ingredients, was there not?”
Valborg! That was his name.
They discussed the taxes, Hydris listening intently and asking questions before rendering a decision.
He wasn’t struggling with any of this, in my opinion.
Maybe he never had, but thought he had? It was clear he didn’t know about some things, but I didn’t think he needed to know everything about everything.
He was catching up just fine on all that Mannix had done without him, too.
They canceled taxes, changed what one tax funded, and then Anezka asked that their assistants and advisors be allowed back into the room.
That caused a whole lot of activity as we let everyone in and found enough chairs for all of them.
Now it really looked like things were going to get done, and I wasn’t sure my heart could get any fuller.
When Naunet suggested they break for luncheon, I hustled over to Hydris to check in with him. He immediately smiled up at me.
“Did you see?” he asked. “We’re doing so much good!”
“I did see,” I said on a laugh. “You’re a natural at this.”
“I didn’t think I was. I thought I was terrible because of how much I didn’t know.”
I’d thought so. “No, come on. Nobody knows everything. Just the fact that you’re letting everyone explain what they know—what they’re good at—is excellent. They’re excited to share with you because you listen.”
He fluttered his wings to bring him up high enough to kiss me. I held his cute face and kissed him back and…the words just flowed right out of me.
“I love you so much.”
We blinked at each other for a few heartbeats. Then he wrapped his arms around my neck and his legs around my waist and giggled as he looked me in the eyes.
“I love you, too, Bridge.”
Almost instantly, another of those strange explosions sounded. I clutched Hydris to me, and we both flinched.
“What is that?” I complained. “Is there a volcano about to explode?”
“A what?”
“You don’t have volcanoes? A mountain that has molten rock inside that sometimes explodes out of it?”
His eyes got huge and he clutched my head to his chest. “The human world is so dangerous! Thank goodness you came here where it’s safer.” He patted my head like I needed comforting.
I couldn’t help chuckling at him.
“Your Highness!”
We flinched all over again, but this time it was a guard rushing in, so I set Hydris on his feet.
“Did you find the source of the noise?” Hydris asked.
The guard nodded, looking shocked to his core. “The barrier with Summer is falling, Your Highness. General Albion sent word—”
“How excellent!” Hydris exclaimed.
“—asking permission to begin the attack.”
“What?”
“Oh, shit,” I glanced at the table we’d pushed out of the way hours ago. “The soldiers are already there. Mannix already sent them.”
“No,” Hydris breathed. “No, they can’t.”
“Your Highness?” the guard asked, clearly confused.
“I did not consent to an attack,” Hydris barked. “Send word immediately that they’re to stand down. Retreat.” He waved that away. “No, I’ll go. They might not believe anyone else.”
Hydris flew out of the room, and I ran to catch up with him, grabbing his ankle. “Hold on! You’re not going alone.”
“I can do this,” he said and tried to shake me off. “They just need to see me say to stop. Mannix did everything in my name and—”
“I don’t mean that you can’t,” I said as I grabbed his waist and pulled him down to me. “I just mean I can’t let you go into danger without me. Those sounds? They sound like the barrier is exploding.”
He settled against me with a little grin. “You want to protect me?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Okay.” He gave me a kiss, and I let him stand on his own feet. “Come on then,” he said and took my hand to fast walk down the hall.
“So what’s the fastest way for both of us to get to—”
“Silver Sparkle.”
“The unicorn? No way can she hold me.” She was entirely too delicate for my bulk.
“Of course she can,” he said with a frown. “Don’t insult my unicorn. She bites.”
She also had a dagger on her forehead. “Wouldn’t dream of insulting your unicorn.”
We ran for the stables, Hydris leading because I had no idea how to get there from inside the palace. Eventually, I realized someone else was trying to catch up to us, and had Hydris slow down so Ottokar could join us.
“Something else wrong?” I asked the man.
Ottokar shook his head. “Our forces were under me before Mannix was made. I assumed I should be there to—”
“Yes, come with us,” Hydris said before he started pulling me along again. “You’ll handle the retreat. And I want to know how the soldiers have been treated.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
We ran and ran, and I just knew that if we’d gone outside, it wouldn’t have taken nearly as long. The palace had a lot of pokey little hallways that zigged and zagged in every direction except the one we wanted to go.
Finally, we burst outside, scared the hell out of Doran and a few of his gardeners, and kept going right for the stable. Sarosh saw us coming and smiled, his hand raised in a greeting, but he soon caught on to something being wrong.
“What’s happened?” he asked Ottokar. “Are we under attack?”
“No, not here.”
“What?”
“Long story,” I said as Hydris went inside the stable. “We need the unicorn and the second fastest horse because the barrier with Summer is breaking—that was the explosions—and Mannix has a whole platoon there waiting to invade.” Huh. Guess it wasn’t that long of a story.
“And we’re getting married,” Ottokar said before grabbing Sarosh up in a filthy kiss.
“And I turned Mannix into a puddle!” Hydris said with way too much glee as he led Silver Sparkle out of the stable.
Sarosh stood there looking dazed, his lips still pursed from his lover’s kiss.
I left him to Ottokar and refocused on Hydris. “Hon, I’m sorry, but look at her. And look at me.”
He stood beside her and kissed her cheek. “Silver Sparkle, my wuvvy duvvy do, I need help getting to the border with Summer as fast as possible—which I know you can do so easily—but we need to take Bridge and he’s scared you’re not big enough to hold him.”
The unicorn snorted and raised her head, doing the same thing he did when he stared down his nose at someone taller.
I put my hands up. “I’m worried about your back! This isn’t about me. It’s about your health and safe—”
I cut myself off as she started growing. Literally, she went from slender and pony-sized to a hulking Clydesdale with a horn as big around as my forearm.
“There you are,” Hydris cooed from three feet below her nose. “Lookit my pretty baby! She’s so…” and he said a bunch of unintelligible baby talk as he threw his arms wide and leaned on her in what I assumed was an attempt to hug her now massive bulk.
I nodded at the unicorn. “You’re incredible. I’m a gnat in your presence. Please forgive me.”
She gave another snort and tossed her sparkling silver mane.
“You first,” Hydris said as he flew over to me.
“First for— Oh, god.”
He picked me up and flew me over top of Silver Sparkle’s back. I spread my legs and braced myself for… I didn’t know what, but all that happened was him setting me down on her.
“Hold my hips,” he said as he hovered above me.
“Why?” I asked even as I reached up and held onto him.
“I don’t want to just drop on her. Lower me down gently.”
He stopped fluttering his wings, and I had his full weight. I lowered him in front of me until he was sitting on her back, too, his wings spread against my chest.
Hydris leaned forward and patted Silver Sparkle’s neck. “Okay, baby, go ahead.”
Instinct had me grabbing onto Hydris when the damn unicorn took off like a rocket.
Flames should’ve been shooting out of her ass, that’s how fast we were going.
And yet, I wasn’t jostling all over the place, bouncing without a saddle, my legs flapping.
Nope, it was one of the smoothest rides I’d ever taken—and I meant in cars, trains, and planes.
I was afraid I’d fall off if I looked, but I wasn’t sure her feet even touched the ground.
Which was when I realized that I was riding a unicorn to stop a war with a winged prince sitting in front of me and holding his hands out while he giggled. Never in my life would I have thought this would actually be my life.