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I glanced over at Windhelm, then looked to the rider of the carriage, who was patting his elk. I broke from the group and walked over to him. “I hate to ask you… but do you think you could do me a favor?”
His eyes lit up. “I would be honored to serve you, my Princess.”
I smiled at him. “Could you get me into the city unnoticed?”
“I… believe I could. There should be no more checkpoints between myself and my place of work. The guards at the inner gate are not likely to check my cargo.”
“We won’t all fit in the cart,” Valerian called out, “Or did you forget?”
I turned to look at him. “I’m going in alone,” I said.
“What?! You can’t do that.”
“It’s insane, I know. But if she wants me, then I should go to her alone.”
Valerian advanced on me, the outrage on his face serving only to emphasize how much he cared about me. “She’ll kill you, Amara.”
I shook my head. “She won’t. Not if she needs me.”
“If?”
“I think I’m right about this, Valerian. And you’re right, too.”
“What exactly am I right about?”
“We can’t do this on our own. We can’t take Malys down.”
He shook his head. “You aren’t making sense… and you are starting to worry me.”
I placed a hand on his cheek. “If we all go in there, and we all get caught, there’s no hope for Windhelm or the rest of the Winter Kingdom. She’ll have us, and she’ll make me give her what she wants by threatening to hurt any of you.”
“And you think she wouldn’t do terrible things to you to make you give her what she wants?”
“Maybe, but by then, you’ll have gathered all the support you need.”
“Support?” Valerian frowned. “For what?”
“I need you to gather what support you can… find anyone who could help us bring the fight to Windhelm. I can keep her busy enough that she won’t realize what’s happening. Then, when you arrive with all the help you’ve been able to muster, you lay siege to the castle, and I’ll be in a position to take her down from inside.”
“Are you seriously suggesting I try to find an army out there?”
“There has to be someone.”
“With due respect,” said Balahil, “And begging your pardon… there are many, many of us out there who would be willing to lay down their lives in service of the true Princess of Windhelm.” He paused, wiping tears from his eyes again. “It isn’t just the royals… it’s the city itself. It pains us to see it like this, the oppressiveness of it all… the corruption. We all want it to go back to the way it was, whatever it takes.”
There goes my conversation with Gullie,I thought, remembering how we had talked about people being none the wiser about everything that had happened. They knew, and that means there was a chance they’d know after we put things right. Gullie would probably tell me they didn’t have to know I caused all this, but I wasn’t sure if I would be able to live peacefully knowing I had taken something away from them, if that was how things actually played out.
“Amara…” Valerian trailed off, “Youdon’tknow what she’ll do to you.”
“She can do whatever she wants to me,” I said. “I won’t give her what she needs.I won’t.”
Valerian’s eyes fluttered from left to right. He was scanning my face, trying to find cracks in my composure—a way to convince me against this course of action, a way in. He sighed, in the end. It was pointless. We both know I was stubborn.
“Dammit,” he cursed, then shook his head.
“We’ll take Colbolt,” said Melina. “He can get us to Lysa by tomorrow afternoon, if we make good pace.”
Colbolt snorted and padded the ground, only when I looked over at him, he seemed startled. When he reared and roared, I knew something was wrong. The hairs on the nape of my neck stood on their ends, the sky darkened, and as I turned around again to face the source of what I was feeling, I saw something that made my blood run cold.
