Page 33 of The Abandoned Princess

Xander grinned. “I can imagine what Celeste will think of that. I gather Celine has never been the most circumspect.”

I laughed. “Celine is amazing.”

“Of course you would think so,” Lori muttered, and Xander grinned again, making me glare at him.

“The important question is where is Eulalie now?” I asked, getting us back on track. “If she left the clearing early in the night, she might be anywhere by now!”

“Not quite anywhere, I shouldn’t think,” Xander said thoughtfully. “Traveling at night isn’t comfortable, and while her fear of me sent her scurrying out of the clearing, I don’t think she was scared enough to go fleeing across the kingdom in the middle of the night.”

“What if she’s searching the forest for you right now?” I looked around in sudden alarm.

“She was definitely moving toward the village,” Lori said confidently.

“You’ve said all along that she has some other objective than just your test,” Xander said. “Something that she’s searching for. I could hear your conversation from inside the chest, and she was saying something about how long she’d waited and about only having one chance.”

“Yes,” I said slowly, remembering the words I’d barely noticed at the time. “She’s mentioned the end of the test several times—that’s how I knew she was waiting for my birthday. But she said it differently this time. It was less like waiting for something to finish and more like a deadline.”

“Did she specifically mention your birthday?” Lori asked. “On any of those past occasions, I mean.”

I frowned, dismay spreading through me like spilled tea. “Nooo,” I drew out the word, embarrassed to admit the truth. “It just seemed obvious from the timing. At the very beginning she mentioned finding out what happened when I became an adult, and then she kept mentioning an end point to the test that aligned perfectly with my birthday, so I assumed…” I broke off and bit my lip, flushing.

“But now we have more information,” Xander said, making it sound like my crucial mistake was completely reasonable. “She’s not waiting for the end of something but for a specific event. She must have planned everything around this event, and if that one perfect moment is finally approaching and she still doesn’t have all the elements she needs, then she’ll be growing desperate. She didn’t come to the tower because she had everything ready, she rushed there in response to the ring cracking.”

“So what was she doing in the area, then?” I asked. “Lori’s certain she usually leaves the region entirely on her searches, but she got here quickly after you were enchanted.”

“Why, indeed…” Xander said slowly, his brow creased in thought. “Unless…” He looked up, his eyes wide. “I think I might have an idea about that. It would explain the timing of this mysterious opportunity as well.”

He fell silent, and I looked at him impatiently. “Well?”

He hesitated. “I want to check something before I say anything. If I’m wrong…Let’s just say, I hope I’m wrong.”

“What do you need to check? Not anything here in the forest, I’m guessing.” Lori produced a proper bag and started transferring my bundle of belongings into it.

“We need to go to the village,” Xander said. “And if I’m right, we’ll likely find Eulalie there as well as what I need to check.”

“That sounds ominous.” I took the bag from Lori, and she picked up another one of her own. Her bag was already packed, a saucepan and frying pan hanging from the outside.

“Going to the town makes sense,” Lori said. “We need to find Eulalie as soon as possible.”

Xander and I nodded agreement, so Lori took off into the forest. We followed behind her, in silence. She didn’t hesitate at any point, so I guessed she had walked this route many times. Unlike me, she had never been bound to the clearing.

With each step I took away from the tower, a sense of elation rose inside me. I had longed for so many years to be free, and now I was finally leaving my clearing forever. I now knew the hard reality of my old foolish dreams, but it didn’t stop a familiar thrill from creeping through me. It felt good to take action again.

When we reached the outskirts of the village, I stopped instinctively. There were so many people! Lori strode on without checking, however, walking straight down the middle of the main street.

Shaking myself, I followed her. She didn’t even bother to avoid the other pedestrians, letting the enchantment prompt a strange dance as it pushed both her and the villagers’ steps away from each other. I tried to move with the same confidence although it felt unnatural to walk straight at another person without flinching.

Seeing her operate in the village environment made me realize my earlier impression of Lori’s freedom had been an illusion. She had been free to wander a much larger prison than me, but she was still cut off from the rest of the world just as surely as I was. How strange it must have been for her every time she came to the village.

Xander, who was new to the enchantment and didn’t have the same emotional scars as Lori and me, regarded the situation with wonder. He laughed as he strode into a small knot of people and watched them scatter outward away from him before coming back together. None of them gave the appearance of having noticed their odd movement.

“This is the strangest thing!” he exclaimed. “It would be very handy in a large crowd!”

“Let’s hope we’re not enchanted long enough to encounter such a situation,” Lori said prosaically.

I nodded fervently but couldn’t help taking a sideways step to place myself in the path of an oncoming cart. I might be hiding it better, but I felt some of the same excitement as Xander. I had never had the freedom to experiment with the enchantment in a crowded place before.

The horse veered sideways, just avoiding me, while the driver called cheery greetings to some people in the doorway of a building opposite.

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