Page 99 of Midwinter Wiles & Valerian Dreams
Quickly, I smother her hand before she can spook the mule again. “It won’t be that easy. Melting the ice won’t be enough to break the curse, I’m sure.” From my pocket, Hugo chirps his opinion. “I know. We’re going to need the queen’s help.”
Tahto’s head tosses, but he calms quickly under Queen Taynia’s gentle pats and reassurances. Despite this strange new calm the enraptured queen has adopted, my own fire still burns at what she’s done. Somehow, I doubt shouting at her will get me anything but arrested, so I need to rein it in.Storms, it’s hard though.
“But how?” I mutter, eyes darting from the queen cooing at the mule to the guards still lurking nearby. “There doesn’t seem to be much point in reasoning with her in this state.”
Katja steps beside me. “The potion will wear off by morning. If you’re going to do something dumb, now’s the time.”
“That sounds like permission.” My grin is half-hearted.
“We’re coming with you,” Juani says. The others all nod.
There’s no point arguing; I can already tell. They’re all too invested, as captivated by Val as I have been. They care for her too.
“Fine, you can come with me. But there will be guards at the pond, so you stay back until I say it’s safe.”
We make a quick stop at the cottage to drop off props and change out of costumes, then hurry for the forest path, led by Aili. Near the pond, she guides us to the same bushes where she took cover before. From behind thick pine boughs, I whisper, “Hugo. Recon mission.”
The hedgehog pokes his nose from my pocket like I’ve announced a cheese festival.
“Go count the guards and report back.”
With achirrup, Hugo dives into the snow, nearly invisible as he scurries through the underbrush. What feels like an eternity later, the snowbank ahead wiggles, and he emerges, quills fluffed with triumph. He gives me two quick grunts.
“Only two?” I whisper. “I can handle two guards.”
Slipping through the trees, I craft a quick illusion of motion and sound to spook them. One guard yelps in alarm.
“Ow! What was that spiky rat thing? It bit me!”
That…wasn’t part of the illusion. I check my coat pocket.
Empty.
Drown it, Hugo!
The second guard grumbles, “It was just a hedgehog. Relax.”
“Are they poisonous?”
“Dunno, never ate one,” the second guard dismisses. Then, “What? You said poisonous. That means you eat it, and you die. Never ate a hedgehog on account of the quills.”
“You know what I meant!” The first guard curses.
“Ohhh. You mean venomous. They bite you, you die. Not the other way around.”
“Obviously!”
“Okay, fine! Sorry! And no, hedgehogs aren’t venomous. Pretty sure.”
By the time they stop bickering and turn back to their post, my new illusion is in place.
The first guard sputters. “Wha—Where is she?”
Water splashes as they rush to the pond.
“Drowning Deep, we’re so dead,” he breathes. “That was frozen solid. How did it melt?”
“The princess was under a sleeping curse,” the other mutters. “What, is she sleepwalking? She can’t have gone far. Let’s go!”
