Chapter 37
Parisar
‘You gave her a weapon?’
Tain smirked as she continued to strap on her own weapons.
We were in a small cottage built into the castle walls. Tain had just returned from checking on the princess, and we were readying ourselves for the coming rescue. The others; Cor, Sim, Zeyr, and Weylei had already left to scout their positions.
‘But she doesn’t know—’
‘Give her some credit,’ Tain said. ‘She’s not the helpless princess she was when she first came to us.’
‘She doesn’t remember any of it,’ I replied, frustrated and worried and pretty much going insane with the waiting.
‘Why do we practise drills?’ Tain asked, placing her hands on her hips to stare at me. ‘Muscle memory.’ She answered her own question when I didn’t. ‘We do the kata so our body remembers, even when our minds are somewhere else.’
‘You gave her a sword?’
‘Of course not,’ Tain replied. ‘Where would she hide a sword in that goddess-awful dress she is wearing?’
‘She only ever practised with a sword, and a wooden one at that.’
Why was Tain so unconcerned? I couldn’t understand it. Tain had been the most vocal in her objections about Snow. She had been the one who’d complained that she’d be a danger to herself and to everyone else if we let her train. Now she was confident Snow would remember the lessons?
‘Why are you so upset?’ Tain asked, narrowing her eyes at me. ‘For this to happen, we need the princess to have some agency, some initiative. She needs to want this. She needs to participate in this escape.’
‘Rescue,’ I said.
Tain pointed at me. ‘That’s it. That’s your problem. You want to be the knight in shining armour who rescues the princess. But the princess needs to save herself. Can’t you see that? This isn’t a rescue mission; this is an escape…for all of us.’
I looked at Tain, contemplating what she said. Had I wanted to play the hero? Was that why I was so upset Tain had given Snow the weapons?
‘Stealing her away, without her participation, is exactly what Elil did to her,’ Tain added quietly. ‘He staged it to look like a rescue, but we all know it wasn’t. He planned this entire thing with Breust—’
‘We don’t know that Breust had anything to do with it,’ I snapped, cutting her off.
Tain snorted. ‘Of course it was Breust. That is the only explanation.’
‘I just…’ I growled in frustration. My head knew Breust was part of this, but my heart…my heart just couldn’t accept he’d done it.
Tain’s face softened. ‘I understand. I know what you’re feeling because I’m feeling it too. I want to believe Breust is innocent, but we need to be honest with ourselves, or we’re likely to get ourselves killed. We all know the protocol for if we get separated. Cor and Sim did what they were supposed to do, but Breust didn’t.’
‘Unless something happened to him.’
Tain shrugged. ‘If something did happen to him, then he’s no use to us now.’
I opened my mouth to reply, but Tain cut me off.
‘We will deal with that later. Right now, we need to focus on this escape. And you can be sure that if I lay eyes on Breust anywhere near the princess, I will stick an arrow in him and ask questions later.’
I rolled my lips together and nodded. Tain was right, even if my heart warred with the acknowledgement. If Breust was alive, then he should have come to them.
The outer door opened, and Tain stiffened beside me, a knife appearing in her hand in less time than it took me to blink. But then, I’d also palmed my knife too.
‘It’s me,’ Weylei’s voice came through the door that separated them.
We both relaxed, but only slightly. Tain went to the door and opened it a crack. After confirming Weylei’s identity, she let him into the room.
‘They’re starting,’ he said.
I nodded and pulled on my cloak to hide the weapons I wore before pulling the hood over my face. My beard had grown thick and wild in prison. I’d trimmed it but kept the fullness. All the better to hide my face.
We slipped out of the cottage and into the crowd that was moving slowly toward the main entrance of the palace. The ordinary people, the peasants, wouldn’t be allowed inside the palace to witness the ceremony, but there were tents and tables set up in the courtyard for them to celebrate. The mood was not exactly celebratory. The people looked worn-down and resentful. Nobody wanted to celebrate the wedding of the prince, especially when the cost of the nuptials had put such a burden on them.
In the short time I had been out of prison and amongst the people, I realised just how oppressed they were. Querencia was broke, or so it appeared. I understood now why Elil had been so eager to get his hands on Snow and what she represented. Eudaimonia was in a far better financial position, and with Snow now being the reigning monarch, if Elil could control her, he would control Eudaimonia as well.
This was more than just helping Snow White escape; this was about ensuring Eudaimonia’s sovereignty.
Right at that moment, though, all I could think about was Snow. I hadn’t seen her since she woke in the throne room and looked at Elil like he was her true love. I knew now that it was all fake…that Elil had done something to her to make her look at him like that, but it was a memory I couldn’t shake.
What if she really wanted to marry him?
Tain seemed to think Snow wanted to escape, but was that the truth? Snow didn’t even remember me…I meant nothing to her. How could I really know this was what she wanted?
Tain was right. Snow needed to participate in this escape. That was the only way I would know for sure that it was what she really wanted. Giving her those weapons could backfire on us. She could turn on us, but that was a risk we had to take. Snow White was not a pawn to be fought over. She was a person who deserved to have a say in her future. My job was to give her the opportunity to do so.
It was far too easy to get inside the palace. We were already within the castle walls, but I was sure the palace would be guarded. It was, but not very well. Was Elil so confident that he wasn’t concerned? Or was there something else going on? I couldn’t discount the idea that it was a trap—it just seemed too easy, but then, as I took in the guards and the people gathered to witness the wedding, I wondered if Elil’s quest for power had gone so far as to make his people impotent. Whatever he’d used on Snow to make her compliant, had he been using that on his own people? One thing was certain. The wealth and prosperity everyone thought Querencia had was nowhere to be seen.
I found my position high up on the mezzanine, looking down on the throne room. They had made an attempt to decorate, but the effect left much to be desired. How were the people fooled by this? I looked around me, and everyone seemed in good spirits, oohing and ahhing over the floral arrangements that looked limp and depressed. Comments about amazing gowns that to my eye looked threadbare. I sought out Tain, who was positioned across the hall from me. She raised her eyebrows in question, asking the same thing I was. Why were these people all so bewitched?
Tain tapped her ear and then her nose. I nodded. I could hear it and smell it too. There was probably something in the drinks they were passing around too. The music and incense were subtle. Too subtle to affect us. The people must have been enthralled for a long time, and the anima had been reduced to a level to serve as maintenance. That was why the security was lax. Elil and the king of Querencia were controlling the people to keep them in line.
I made eye contact with the others, tapping my ear and nose to make them aware, if they hadn’t already picked up on it, and then I looked to the windows. There were many gems hanging from every available beam and positioned in such a way to catch the light. We would need to do something about those. Not for our sake, but for Snow. She was just coming out of her anima state, so this could set her back and ruin our plans.
Weylei nodded and disappeared into the crowd. I didn’t know what he would do, but I trusted him. I trusted the entire team, which was why Breust’s betrayal cut so deep. Even now, when I knew he was to blame, I warred with myself over his guilt. I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to admit he was the one. There was even part of me that wanted to believe he’d been bewitched, under the thrall of anima, but there was no way it had lasted this long with exposure. He’d been with us in the woods for far longer than it would have taken for the effects to wear off.
The crowd quietened and turned toward the large doors. Elil stepped into the throne room, flanked by his parents. All were dressed in bright, silken fabric, in contrast to the drab clothes of the courtiers. There were sighs of adoration, and I wanted to roll my eyes. It was such a cheap trick. By bespelling everyone into thinking the worn and shabby decor and clothes were beautiful, the royal family looked spectacular by contrast.
Elil smiled beatifically as he made his way to the front. His parents took their seats on the dais, and he stood before them, facing the crowd, his crown sparkling with unnatural light.
So maybe he wasn’t entirely devoid of magic. If the queen had managed to save a relic from the times of magic, maybe Querencia had as well. That crown. I didn’t know why I hadn’t noticed earlier, but there was something about it. Something malevolent.
The atmosphere changed, and I knew. I knew Snow was here. I watched Elil as he smiled. There was something predatory in his eyes, and it took all I had not to scale the balustrade and drop down to face him with my sword drawn.
But that wasn’t the plan.
Instead, I turned to see what everyone else was looking at. Even though I knew, I was still not prepared to see her after all this time. Her hair had grown. It was not back to its original length, but it was also no longer the cropped bob it had been. I didn’t like it. Not that she was any less beautiful, but it was a symbol of her captivity. Snow had made the decision to cut her hair and done it to please herself. Seeing it grown out was a blow to her independence, and I hated it.
It took me a minute, a minute of cataloguing every inch of her, before I noticed the man standing beside her. My breath froze in my lungs.
Breust.
I looked to Tain, who already had an arrow nocked and aimed at his heart. I shook my head, and she hesitated before lowering it. As much as I wanted her to loose the arrow, we had to wait. It would satisfy our bruised and broken feelings, but it wouldn’t help Snow.