The Plan

“You ok?” Cynder came into my room. I was one of the few people not required to share with one or more people. I’d protested of course, but it seemed that no one was quite prepared to share a room with a queen.

“I’ve been better,” I admitted. “Jenny practically raised me.”

“I know.” His arm rested on my shoulder and I sank into him. There were no tears. If anything I felt too numb, too scared for crying. Crying might have helped me feel something, but I’d gotten to the point I didn’t really know how to feel anymore. My life had spiraled out of control so fast, and no matter what I did to make things better, every day brought more heartache, more trauma.

“I’ve been thinking about tomorrow. What is the plan?” I must have sounded muffled, buried as I was in his warm sweater, but he heard me.

“Tomorrow, the people in the house will finish packing the essentials. There are a lot of us, so it should be an easy task. Those of you not going back to the capital will be traveling after dark. Of course, the MDS will expect that, but it’s still safer than going in broad daylight when anyone could see them. We will use all the protective and stealth spells we know to get there safely. You’ll be traveling in the second carriage. I’m going to stagger them to make it less conspicuous. One carriage per hour once night descends.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll take Daniel, Leo, and a couple of others out to the capital tomorrow morning. There’s no point waiting until nightfall. The MDS will be waiting for us no matter what time of day. They’ll already expect our visit.”

“So what are you going to do?” I asked, trying to keep the doubt from my voice. “I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”

Cynder hugged me more tightly. “Neither do I. I don’t know what we are going to do,” he admitted.

None of it sounded hopeful. All I could see in my mind was destruction and death. The death of someone I loved.

Cynder’s hands weaved their way through my hair, comforting me. I’d been shivering and not even noticed, but it wasn’t the cold I was feeling, just the adrenaline rushing through me with no way to dissipate.

Cynder gently laid me down on the bed, but he didn’t let go. In the morning when I woke up, I was still wrapped in his arms.

The noise of people clattering around in the kitchen woke me. Leaving my room hand in hand with Cynder raised a few eyebrows and elicited a few smirks from the crowd of people squashed in there. I ignored them and grabbed a slice of toast from a huge pile. Alannah had completely given up at trying to have a system in place and, instead, had piled hundreds of pieces of toast on a platter and put some pots of jam and some knives next to it. Cynder found Daniel and Leo and broke away to talk to them, leaving me feeling completely alone in the middle of the crowded room.

There was no organization at all. People bustled in and out. Boxes were being packed and then knocked over causing them to have to be repacked. It was so noisy that I suspected the MDS would be able to hear us all the way in the capital. So much for trying to be inconspicuous. Thank goodness, we were already in the middle of nowhere.

I managed to pour myself a pot of the freshly brewed coffee and took it, along with my toast, outside where it was much quieter. I watched the people loading boxes onto a procession of carts and carriages, each one looking fuller than the last. It beat me how they expected to fit people in them too.

As I took my first sip of coffee, Cynder came out and sat beside me.

“Leo’s not coming,” he stated plainly. “It’s a blow. We could have used his help and expertise. Plus he was going to get Chief Inspector Copper and some of his task force to help us.”

“Why is Leo not going with you?” I sat up, feeling alarmed. It was not like Leo to back out of something so important.

“He doesn’t want to be away from Elise while she is so sick. I can understand it, but it’s going to make our job much more difficult without him. I was counting on the support.”

Elise would be fine without him, but I could understand why he was so worried. She’d not been too bad before the race across Silverwood, and here we were, days later, planning to do it all again. She was really too sick to travel, but we had no choice.

“What if I told Leo that I’d be with her the whole time? I’d look after her.”

Cynder shook his head. “You won’t be though. I’m separating you all up. The whole of the royal family cannot travel together. I hope nothing will happen, but if any one of the carriages is attacked, it makes sense that you and Elise don’t travel together. Your mother is going in a different carriage too.”

It was morbid to think about, but it made sense. If one of us was killed, the other would have to survive to carry on the royal bloodline.

I sighed and rested my coffee cup on the wooden deck. Rubbing my eyes, I tried to make sense of all of it. How could I when there was no sense to what was happening?

“Alannah will be traveling with Elise, correct?”

Cynder thought for a second before he spoke. “Yes, but that won’t stop Leo from worrying. I can’t force him to leave her. It wouldn’t be fair.”

He was right. I hated the thought of leaving her, of traveling with complete strangers in a carriage, knowing she was an hour behind and anything could happen to her. Suddenly, the thought of Leo traveling with her calmed me. Ok, he couldn’t do anything about her illness, but if the MDS were to attack, I trusted Leo to do everything in his power to save her.

“Leo should go with Elise,” I conceded.

Cynder wrapped his arms around me and nodded his head.

I swallowed, not sure how he’d take what I was going to say next. I took a deep breath. “I’m going to go with you.”

It was something I’d been thinking about at the back of my mind, and now that Leo wasn’t going, they’d need someone else to take his place—someone who would be able to get access to Jason Copper.

Cynder stood up quickly.

“No!” His voice had risen, causing those around us to look over.

He pulled me up by my hand and walked me to the edge of the nearby field, away from everyone. I absent-mindedly picked a stem of the long barley and pulled the seeds from the end, sending them scattering to the ground.

I tried to think of a way to reason with Cynder that he’d accept. Getting him to agree with taking me was going to be difficult. “You said you wanted the chief of police involved. I know Jason Copper. I’ve had occasion to speak to him a few times.”

“I don’t care who you know,” Cynder rasped, “You can’t go!”

“That’s not a valid argument,” I pointed out, “It’s just you telling me what I can and can’t do.”

Cynder stamped his foot in the dirt and huffed. “Ok, how’s this for an argument? You are the most wanted person in the whole kingdom right now. You are also the most famous person in the whole kingdom. How do you expect to simply walk into the capital without anyone noticing? You’ve been on the front cover of every newspaper for the past year. Everyone knows you.”

“I’ve done it before,” I retorted. “I’ve done it twice, the first time with Leo and the second time with you.”

Cynder looked at me incredulously. “When?”

“Our date. I walked through the capital, and no one batted an eyelid. Everyone has seen me on the front of the papers looking regal, with expensive ball gowns and perfect hair and make-up. Look at me now! I look normal. No one would know who I was if I walked right up to them and asked them for directions to the palace.”

“Our date was different. No one was looking for you then. People see what they want to see.”

“My point exactly. People are looking for the beautiful queen. No one is looking for a girl dressed in a brown tunic. Can you imagine Queen Charmaine going out looking like this? I’ve hated having to dress up every single day for the past year, but I’m now beginning to see that it was a good idea. A bit of dirt on my face, my hair tied back. No one would recognize me.”

“The MDS would. A bit of dirt on your face wouldn’t stop them from noticing you.”

I stood my ground. I hated arguing with him, and I didn’t want to play my ‘Queen’ card, but at the same time, I was done with being useless. If I had to override him based on my title then so be it. “So I wear a hood too. It’s your only way to get in to speak to Chief Inspector Copper.”

“I see what you are saying, but it’s too dangerous.”

“You just told me that it wouldn’t be fair to separate Leo and Elise, and yet you are asking me to be separated from you.”

I saw Cynder’s shoulders' sag as he realized he was losing the fight.

“I don’t want to lose you, Charm.”

“I don’t want to lose you either. That’s why we should always stick together. Besides, it isn’t just me they are looking for. You’ve been on the front cover of all the newspapers recently too.”

Cynder sighed, knowing that I wasn’t going to change my mind.

“Besides, I have an idea that might put a stop to all this, but I’ll need to be in the capital to do it.”

I told him my idea, and by the end of it, he knew he’d have to let me go.

He wasn’t the only one who argued with me about going to the capital. When I went in to see Elise and told everyone there what I was planning to do, both Leo and Mother told me I couldn’t go. It was amazing. I was the head of the entire kingdom, and still, people tried telling me what to do.

“Leo, I’m going to the capital so you can stay with Elise. She needs you right now.”

Elise opened her eyes slowly when she heard her name. She looked so sick. She cast her eyes towards her husband. “I’ll be fine without you, Leo. I’ll see you again in a few days.”

It was apparent she would not be fine whether Leo came with her or not, but I could hardly say that. Alannah’s green sludge was not working, and if anything, she looked paler and more gaunt than she had the day before. She needed a hospital with proper medical care, but it was impossible to take her to one. The second she stepped foot in any medical establishment in the whole of Silverwood, the press would be there like a shot, followed swiftly by the MDS.

“I’m not leaving you, baby,” replied Leo, mopping her damp brow.

“I don’t want you to leave her,” I said. “That’s exactly why I’m going. I’ll be fine. I’ll have Cynder and Daniel with me.”

Leo massaged his temples, clearly torn between his duty to his queen and the love of his wife. I didn’t want him to feel like he had to choose between us.

“I’m going, Leo. I’m the queen, and that means that sometimes, you all have to do as I say. This is one of those times. I’m ordering you to keep my sister safe. She needs you more than I do.” I walked out of the room without giving anyone the chance to argue with me. Seconds later, Leo followed me out, and instead of shouting as I expected, he wrapped me in a bear hug.

“Thank you,” he said, the tears freefalling down his face. It was the first time I’d ever seen him cry, but it reinforced the feeling that I was doing the right thing.

Later, I found Cynder and Daniel outside, getting three horses saddled up.

“I was half-expecting you to go without telling me,” I said to Cynder.

“I was half-planning to, but knowing you, you’d just tack up your own horse and follow me anyway.”

I grinned despite the situation. He wasn’t wrong.

“Go inside and look for a guy called Matty,” Cynder ordered as he pulled the last strap on the horse.

“Why?”

“He’s going to give you a makeover,” he replied, cryptically.

Just what I needed. Another makeover. I couldn’t escape them no matter what I did.