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“What happened to it?” I asked Gullie, who had buried herself in my fur to keep warm.
“Malys,” she said. “It happened the night your parents found out she was an impostor. First, she became Queen, then the palace… changed. It was as if your parents learning the truth and being written out of the minds of the people gave her even more power.”
“And nobody cares?”
“I don’t think anyone’s noticed. In their minds, this is what Windhelm has always looked like. We’re the only ones who know this isn’t right.”
“So, everyone else is just… living like this.”
“What else can they do? Their lives have been entirely altered, but they have no idea. In a way, it’s a mercy.”
“A mercy?”
“Well, if you woke up one day and knew everything had changed, you’d panic, right? But if you didn’t know… you’d just wake up and go about your day as normal. Sure, everything’s different, but you don’t know that it is.”
“I guess you’re right. That doesn’t make me feel any better, though.”
“It should make you feel a little better, at least. If we’re somehow able to fix all this, then no one should know it even happened.”
“Assuming it all works like that.”
“Well, yeah. I guess I’m just used to being an optimist. I was usually the one who had to reel your mother back in whenever she’d start to spiral.”
“My mother…” I paused, “Spiraling. I don’t believe it.”
“Oh yeah, big time.”
“That can’t be true. My mother is like, the most well put together person I know.”
“Sure,now, but you should’ve heard her complaints back when we were going on adventures!Oh, what if they find out I’m human? Oh no, the Prince is so handsome, but I need to stay away from him. Oh, everyone’s going to think I’m ugly even though this dress I made is made of literal stardust.”
“My mother doesn’t sound like that.”
“You’re welcome,” she whispered against my furry ear, which caused it to twitch.
“Over there,” Valerian called out, “We’ll wait behind that hill and figure out a plan.”
I was about to question why we needed a plan, but then I saw the four soldiers standing at the edge of the only bridge that led into and out of the city. I followed Valerian, Melina and Colbolt as they made their way off the main road and onto a hill that overlooked the way into Windhelm.
I took my Fae form when I reached the top, just as Valerian hopped off Colbolt’s back. Together we slunk toward the edge of the hill and observed the soldiers as they stood around. They were armed with swords, and shields. One of them had a bow. None of them seemed to be doing much except stand around chatting about something I couldn’t quite hear over the gentle gust of wind rushing through the area.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“Four of them, five of us,” Valerian said. “We outnumber them.”
“Except they’re trained soldiers, and we aren’t.”
“We have the element of surprise from up here… I could take two of them.”
“And I could take the other two, but it’s dangerous, Valerian.”
Valerian sighed. “I know.” He shook his head. “But there are too many of them for us to cross that bridge without being detected. We have to consider fighting them.”
“What if they call for help?”
“We’ll have to take them down quickly.”
“I may have another idea,” said Melina, who joined us at the crest of the hill. Gullie was riding on her shoulder, holding onto her blue hair. Melina pointed down the road, back the way we had come. There, riding up toward the city, was what looked like a small, blue carriage being pulled by a white Elk. “That could be our way in.”
