Tara flushed, looking a little scared. “Oh, no, Your Highness! Only, I couldn’t sit around at the castle, not knowing what had happened to the princess.”
“Ignore him.” I told her. “That was extremely sweet of you, although probably foolhardy. It could have been dangerous.”
She shrugged. “That Cole made it through, didn’t he? And I didn’t ride here alone, or anything. Lottie’s Samuel has turned out to be far more resourceful than I would have imagined. He was on duty in the entrance hall and overheard His Highness talking about riding to the capital because he had seen Cole there in the mirror and also your carriage heading in that direction. So, Samuel convinced one of the coachmen to bring us here in one of the unused carriages.” She looked a little guilty. “We may have given poor Thomas the impression that you were expecting your maids to follow you.”
“You mean Lottie’s here, too? Where?” I looked around, eager to see if my mental image of her had been equally accurate. My eyes fell on Lily who appeared to be suppressing a laugh.
I gave her a glare. These are my friends!
She grinned back at me. I’m only laughing because she’s so exactly like you described her. You have to let me come and meet Lottie, too.
Tara had already started leading me away, and Lily ran to catch up without waiting for my response. Tara apologized profusely for mistaking her for me, but Lily waved away her apology and had soon entirely ingratiated herself with my maid.
We found Lottie with a tall man, dressed as a footman, who hovered over her protectively. I immediately recognized the truth of the assessment Tara had made of him months ago. Samuel looked trust-worthy and easily approachable. And I also realized that Tara had been right about Lottie.
My image of her had been quite wrong, although her basic features and coloring were as I expected. I had allowed her general attitude and her lack of confidence in herself to override Tara’s description, but it turned out she was indeed willowy and graceful. I couldn’t be surprised at the way Samuel looked at her.
All of the introductions were quickly made, and Lily was soon winning over Lottie as well. I watched her with amusement, somehow suspecting that I would now be expected to share their services. But in truth, I was merely glad to be so quickly reunited with my friends from the castle. With so many new people to meet, I appreciated the familiar voices.
All three were full of thanks to me for breaking the curse, although I tried to deflect their praise onto Dominic, since he had really been the one to free them.
“But he couldn’t have done it without you,” said Tara. “He hadn’t broken it in all the years before you came.”
I considered telling her the details of the double curse but hesitated. I didn’t know if Dominic would want it widely known, and I wasn’t sure I had the energy for such a complicated explanation, anyway.
“Of course, we don’t really know what the curse involved,” said Lottie, “and we weren’t supposed to talk about it. Except you can’t stop rumors, not completely. We were all sure you must have come to break it, and at least half the servants were convinced that if you couldn’t break it before the coronation window closed, we would all be stuck forever.”
I shuddered to think of the truth to that guess. Now that I knew the truth of the curse, I knew that it would never have been broken with Cole as king. Would the wilderness have returned once Dominic had no longer been heir and regent?
I shook myself from such gloomy thoughts to ask after the rest of the castle servants.
Tara told me that Gordon had begged to come, claiming that his work helping Matthew with Chestnut qualified him to assist our coachman. When Gilda roundly refused his demand, he had even attempted to stowaway in the carriage. Lily exclaimed that she wished he had succeeded since she was dying to meet him, but I couldn’t help feeling relieved he had failed.
There would be enough going on over the next few days without my feeling responsible for whatever unintended mischief he would have been sure to land himself in. I told Lottie she should write to them all, though, and let them know that I would visit the castle as soon as possible to meet them properly at last.
Chapter 33
There turned out to be a great deal to be done to return Palinar to order and prosperity again. I forced Dominic to go to his bed before he had even finished making a list of the tasks which needed to be completed immediately. The servants had somehow managed to dust four chambers for us, but Lily and I insisted on sharing a room. We weren’t ready to be parted after our long separation.
We both slept deeply, far beyond normal levels of exhaustion. But we awoke early, excited to finally be able to talk in person again.
“You know, I’ve been thinking,” said Lily. “About the Tourney.”
I nodded. “Me too. We knew that each Tourney was shaped by the prince who called it, so we assumed Dominic must be evil and twisted. Only then we learned that the darkness of the curse had corrupted the Tourney through him. Looking back, I can’t understand why it never occurred to me that it was the darkness that made the Tourney so awful, and not Dominic himself. I suppose it was because I thought he was responsible for bringing the darkness in the first place. It never occurred to me that he might be trapped, as well.”
Lily shook her head. “How could you have foreseen any of this? We knew nothing about Palinar or Dominic.” She looked across at me. “And don’t bite my nose off, but I think he must have been responsible for at least some of the difficulty of the Tourney events. Because think how perfectly it’s worked out. You were exactly the right person to come here. In fact, you might be the only person who could have broken both curses.” She bit her lip. “We knew that some of the original magic of the Tourney remained, enough to keep us all alive at least. But I think there must have been enough to ensure the right winner, too. The whole time we thought we were cheating using our projections to give us an advantage. And yet, it’s only because of that ability that you were able to communicate with Dominic. In the end, all those horrible events ensured the right bride won.”
I couldn’t deny the truth of her words, or that there had been at least a little darkness lurking in Dominic when we first met. “I guess I wasn’t ready to believe that Dominic and I could be a perfect match until now.”
Lily spoke in my mind. And you’re completely sure he is? You didn’t agree to marry him out of pity or…or a sense of responsibility or something?
I grimaced at the concerned look she gave me. I understand why you’re concerned. You haven’t had the chance to get to know him like I have. But you saw the way he saved me, the way he sacrificed himself for me. I just wish you could see some of the other things he’s done…I broke off, my eyes going wide as an idea occurred to me.
What is it?
When Dominic was too weak to speak, I managed to connect with him in my mind, like we do.