And you think when she did that, she also cursed him to look like a beast and took away his voice. Oh, and trapped him in the castle grounds. So, there are possibly two different curses—or, at least, pseudo-curses—to find a solution for.
I shrugged again. Yet another guess. There are just too many guesses. Not least of which is why the snow melted at the castle and the wilderness disappeared. In fact, for that one I don’t even have a guess.
Lily was silent for a moment. I do.
Really? What?
She hesitated again. I don’t want to say, I might be wrong.
I snorted. When have you ever worried about being embarrassed in front of me?
She sent another image of her shaking head. It’s not that. I just don’t want to give you a false idea. It might lead you down the wrong track.
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t be bothered arguing with her. Not when we had more important things to discuss. But none of that matters until we can get you and Jon free from Cole. We need to come up with a plan.
We talked about it for two days straight. Lily wanted to incite the invisible people of the capital to fight against Cole and his men. Only, there were several problems with her plan, as I kept reminding her.
One was that despite trying over and over again, Lily couldn’t hear anything. If there were invisible people anywhere around her, they were either silent, or too separated from us to be heard. And she and Jon couldn’t try speaking aloud to them, because there was a guard in the room where they were being imprisoned at all times.
Another problem was that the invisible people of Palinar were completely separated from us physically. I explained my experiments with my maids to Lily. If I’m right, the whole point of the reverse curse was to ensure no one in the normal world could hurt them. But the same seems to apply in reverse as well. The servants couldn’t actually touch me. I suppose it’s possible that they could still wield a weapon of some sort, but it’s also possible that any attempt would simply slide away, like happened in our experiments. And that’s all assuming you could actually communicate with them. Let’s just say it’s not a solution I want to be relying on.
Eventually I succeeded in moving her attention to other strategies, and we came up with several tentative plans. It was difficult to decide anything for certain, however, when we didn’t know what Cole would do when I arrived in the capital.
The one thing we did know was that he could not act immediately. Dominic’s window to claim the throne would remain open for at least a day after I arrived in the capital, and Cole would not act before that. He didn’t know that Dominic had dissolved our betrothal, and he still feared the ancient laws enough not to risk breaking it himself. Which meant I couldn’t marry anyone else while Dominic remained the heir to Palinar.
However, he would surely be poised ready for the ceremony as soon as the window closed. He wouldn’t want to waste any time making me Palinaran, as well as royal. Which meant I needed to find a way to rescue us all before Dominic ceased to be the heir.
I asked if a squad of guards from Marin might show up at some point, but her reply wasn’t very hopeful.
If the duke does decide to send out a search party, they would surely head to Dominic’s castle. Everyone knew I was trying to go after you, and they have no reason to think we would have diverted to the capital.
Perhaps they would bring trackers with them, I suggested hopefully.
Cole went to fairly extreme lengths to hide our tracks on the way here, unfortunately. I don’t think we should be holding out hope for rescue from Marin.
Eventually we had come up with every variation of plan we could think of, and there was nothing left to do but wait.
Chapter 27
It took the full two days the coachmen had predicted to reach the capital. Eventually the city appeared on the horizon, and not long afterwards we acquired two silent outriders. I could only assume they were Cole’s men, sent to ensure I entered alone and proceeded straight to him. Their presence destroyed several of the tentative plans we had made.
The capital was the largest I had ever seen, dwarfed only by the city-state of Marin. Even the buildings were built on a grander scale, with elegant arches and fountains every few streets. I could see why people in Marin talked about the magnificence of Palinar before the curse.
But now it felt eerie, the streets unnaturally deserted. To make the sensation worse, I kept thinking I saw flashes of movement down alleys and behind windows. But whenever I focused on it, I could see nothing. It reminded me of my first few days in the castle and the terrifying whispers that had followed me around. But for all I strained, making myself as receptive as possible, the only conversation I could hear came from the two coachmen.
Still, I couldn’t deny the prickling at the back of my neck. And the memory of the terror, loneliness, and insecurity that had accompanied my first encounters with the whispers came flooding back. But I realized I had grown stronger in the last few months. The threat I faced now was even greater, but I successfully resisted the helplessness and the fear. I was here with a purpose, and I didn’t have time for doubt to slow me down.
It helped that if ever it became too much, Lily was there, her comforting presence a mere thought away. Surprisingly I found myself glad of the time apart—it had allowed me to find my individual strength. But I also rejoiced at being reunited now; we had always been stronger together. And we would need all our combined strength to defeat this threat, just as it had taken our combined strength to defeat the Tourney.
When we entered the city, our outriders pulled in front of us, and I leaned my head out the window to instruct the coachmen to follow them. I didn’t want to cause trouble yet. Thankfully, it soon became apparent they were heading for the palace. I breathed a sigh of relief. Lily had told me they were being held in one of the rooms there.
When we pulled through the great castle gates and into the courtyard, I alighted from the carriage and spoke quickly to the coachmen, keeping my voice low, unsure how much time I had. “Tell me, can you see people here, in the capital?”
Certainly, Your Highness. Although none here in the palace grounds. I suspect no one lives here now. We will have to find a stable for the horses elsewhere.