Reluctantly I sat back against the seat, watching her through narrowed eyes.
“So I am to play the role of your servant? In that case, I’m giving you advanced notice of my resignation.”
Sierra raised her eyebrows. “Are you sure? I have no doubt the Arcadian royal family will be more than happy to provide a replacement maid after the trauma of our attack rendered my previous maid unfit for service. For you, however, the future might not look so rosy. Where do you suppose a commoner girl without resources, friends, or references will find food and shelter in a strange kingdom?”
I glared at her. “And what will the Arcadian royal family think of you when you cast off this traumatized maid to fend for herself?” Every word out of Sierra’s mouth only proved how little she understood what it meant to be a princess.
Sierra looked disappointed. “Perhaps you are right, and a different solution is needed. Never fear, I will find one. I have overcome every obstacle thus far, and you shall soon see that nothing is going to stand in my way.”
I bit my lip and looked determinedly away from her, my blank eyes barely absorbing the countryside passing by the window. It seemed an age ago that I had stood on the deck of our ship, surrounded by friends and family. I chewed on the inside of my cheek. Celine and Oliver would recognize Sierra the moment they saw her, of course. And their testimony would be believed. But I could well imagine Sierra would employ every possible excuse to put off leaving Arcadia for the next stage of our trip. And she certainly wouldn’t travel to Lanover when the time came. Celine and Oliver would eventually travel to us if we deferred our trip to Lanover, but how long until Celine was well enough for such a journey?
Should I attempt to travel to Lanover myself? If Sierra was right about the enchantment, I wouldn’t be able to explain the situation when I got there. They would protect me, of course, but it was a long way to go. I might starve or encounter some accident before I ever made it there. I knew how to safely travel through snow, but I knew nothing of the Arcadian or Lanoverian countryside. I had never considered that I might find myself alone and friendless here.
For all my fear, a hard knot of rebellion formed inside me. I didn’t want to run, cowering to Celine for shelter, unable to explain my predicament, while Sierra caused my kingdom and its reputation unknown harm in this strange land. I had faced seemingly impossible situations before. I wouldn’t turn away from this one. Enchantments could always be broken, that was the way they worked. I had been a small part of breaking a much bigger enchantment than this—one that kept a whole kingdom in thrall. I just had to find out how to break this one.
Thinking about enchantments inevitably brought to mind my own godmother, and without looking away from the window, I opened my mouth to call for her. No sound emerged from my throat.
I glanced briefly at Sierra but looked away again when I saw the amused expression she had trained on me. Apparently the enchantment was clever enough to block such a simple stratagem. It seemed calling my godmother was akin to speaking my true identity.
Silence fell between us, and I began to look a little more closely at the fields which still lined the road. Were the other girls fleeing through such fields now, or had they found a place to hole up and hide in the woods? I refused to consider any other possibilities. I had to believe they would all be found safe—and not just because that would free me from my current predicament.
Sierra eventually broke the silence, her tone petulant. “I don’t understand why Arvin wouldn’t listen to me.”
I snorted. “Arvin doesn’t listen to anyone.”
Her mouth pursed. “But why can’t I hear him? You still seemed able to do so. And now that I’m also linked to the object, I should be able to hear him as well.”
“What?” I stared at her. “You thought I could hear Arvin because of that object?”
The idea gave me some hope. She didn’t know as much about the object as she thought she did, which meant there might be a weakness somewhere in the enchantment that she hadn’t considered.
“Of course.” She frowned. “Horses can’t talk. It must be the enchantment. It must be telling you the truth of his thoughts. And now I am the princess with the connection to the enchanted horse. Arvin is no good to me if I can’t understand him.”
A vague feeling of foreboding filled me.
“Words or not, he’s still the most elegant mount anyone has ever seen,” I said. “He’s obviously special, a horse fit for a princess.” Arvin wasn’t a prop to serve my royalty, but if that was what Sierra needed to hear, I was willing to play along—for his sake.
Her brow lightened at that, but after a moment it creased again, her eyes resting heavily on me.
“Yes, he is special. That much is obvious. And he has a connection with you. A maid.”
The sensation of fear blossomed into full flower, and it must have shown on my face because the determination on Sierra’s hardened.
“You don’t intend to cooperate with me, so I think you need a demonstration of just who holds the power in this situation. I shall have the animal destroyed, and it can stand as a reminder of what will happen to you if you try to cross me.”
“What?” I gaped at her, appalled. “You can’t kill him just because I can hear him talk and you can’t.”
She raised a single eyebrow. “Why ever not? I’m a princess. I can do what I like.”
“That is not what it means to be a princess. Being a princess means you sacrifice for your people and kingdom, not that you hand out death on a whim.”
“It’s a horse. I’m hardly slaughtering babies.” She drummed her fingers on her leg, staring out the window. “Besides, I’ve been a maid in your palace for over a year now and working for you for most of that time. I know everything I need to know about princesses.”
Responses flooded my mind, but I held them all in. She wasn’t meeting my eyes which told me some part of her knew it was wrong to pronounce a death sentence on an innocent animal, but her tone communicated she was beyond argument. The more I tried, the more determined she would become. I had to place my hope in that small seed of discomfort and doubt—and in the possibility that the Arcadian guards might discover Daria, Cassie, or Daisy before she could carry out her threat.
Time passed, although my mind was in such a state that it was hard to say how much. My efforts to prove my capability could hardly be going worse. And I was starting to question them myself. Sierra claimed she knew all about being a princess—while clearly knowing nothing of the qualities my family had raised me to uphold. And yet, at the end of the day, it was only an accident of birth that gave me royal status, not Sierra. I had spent years increasingly bound by an enchantment, only to be loosed from it and hailed as a hero, despite not deserving the title. What had I ever done to deserve the role I now found myself so angry at being forced to relinquish?
My mind churned around and around in circles, and the drive seemed never-ending. Eventually, however, the road began to slope slightly upward as we approached the low hill that held the Arcadian capital city.
The afternoon sun shone too brightly for my black mood as we reached the outskirts of Arcadie, joining a wide, main road which cut through the city. Staring out the window, I saw that the city had been arranged in layers, each circular district distinct from its neighbors. I had enough experience with large cities to recognize the small, connected houses of the commoners, the bright, elaborate shops and homes of the merchants, and finally the spacious estates of the nobles, these homes built in elegant, embellished stone and surrounded by gardens.