And as he sat his horse and did his best to ignore the changing world around him, he also did his best to turn a deaf ear to the voice that repeated, over and over, a single line full of haunting possibility:
And what if you have to?
But slowly, as they walked along, all of them in the early morning silence that comes from hastily banished sleep, he felt a sense of resignation settle on him, and he knew he would never be able to do it. He wasn’t his brothers or sisters. He’d never be able to strike down Davydd in cold blood. He couldn’t say why… in fact, he didn’t know. Even a week earlier he might have, knowing that his safety depended on it. But that didn’t seem to matter anymore. Nothing, really, seemed to matter anymore. And with that thought, his mind fell silent.
They reached Vale some three or four hours later. The Prince knew that they were close because the world—which was currently a long corridor from the Fortress, the corridor that led to his Mother’s audience chambers—morphed into a forest that didn‘t shift or change. A forest full of tall trees that had… gold and red leaves?
“How are the leaves this color?” the Prince asked. The sight was… oddly beautiful.
“You can see them?” Tomaz asked, immediately interested.
“Yes. I think the illusions have stopped. Everything seems steady.”
“What’s over there?” Tomaz asked, flinging a hand out toward a shrub of some kind. The Prince said as much and was rewarded with a cry of praise.
“By all the gods,” Davydd said, sticking a finger in his ear as he looked back at Tomaz, “no wonder your throat is so thick. You’ve managed to stuff a full-grown bull down there.”
“What is it?” Leah asked, arriving from a short scouting trip up ahead in a flurry of leaves.
“He can see again,” Tomaz said, with the too-solemn air of a parent announcing that his son, blind from birth, had been granted the gift of sight.
Davydd sniggered and Lorna cracked a smile as well. The Prince was glad to see that the woman, who hadn’t spoken a single word to him since their initial meeting, at least had a sense of humor.
“Yes, thank you,” the Prince said, “but the leaves—how are they gold and orange and red? I thought all leaves were green?”
“Not as green as you,” Davydd said, and spurred his horse forward with a wicked smile. “I’m going home—catch up when you can!”
Lorna followed him on her identical, if larger, gray horse, and Leah and Tomaz motioned to the Prince to follow as they too took off with cries of excitement.
The Prince, somewhat irked that his question had been disregarded, nevertheless heeled his horse in the ribs and rode quickly after them. He lay low over the horse’s flowing mane, the long brown hair streaming back in the wind of their passing, leaves stirring around them, and a clean, crisp smell in the air that made the Prince feel awake and alert.
He caught up to the others easily enough: the forest road wasn’t made for speed, and as he wound around rocks and trees, heading upward on a slightincline, he was soon riding just behind Leah and Tomaz, with Davydd and Lorna a few yards beyond them.
When they burst out of the tree line, quite suddenly and dramatically, they found themselves looking out over a valley several miles long and wide.
A valley filled to the brim with a sprawling, white-stone city.
“Welcome to Vale,” Davydd said.
Row after row of tall buildings made of white stone spread out before them, those in the middle taller and grander. Trees grew between the houses, and there were no barriers to separate the buildings one from another. No cordoned off sections where lived the Rogues, or the Elders, no plot of land for the Commons to sleep on should they find no housing for the night. It all looked equally grand.
“Where do your Elders live? I see no area walled off for their use.”
“They live wherever they want,” Leah said, watching him with interest.
Slowly, what she was saying, and the meaning of it, sank into the Prince’s mind, and he didn’t know what to say. He simply stared out over the city, watching the people go from building to building, all walking down the same streets, all breathing the same air. How did they know who they were? How did they know their place?
“Well,” Davydd said loudly, interrupting the Prince’s thoughts. “Lorna and I are going to report to Captain Autmaran. He’s expecting us. Stay out of trouble while we’re gone.”
And with that, he kicked his horse into a gallop and rode down the side of the hill into the valley, soon lost to sight down one of the wide boulevards.
“So what’s the plan?” Tomaz asked, turning to Leah.
She looked at him, and then turned to contemplate the Prince, eyeing him critically.
“Well, I need to report toJensen. He needs to know we’ve returned, and I don’t doubt he’ll have a thing or two to say to me about being so late. Why don’tyou and… Raven… spend the night in your cabin, Tomaz? After Jensen, I’ll need to make an appearance with the General.”
“Very good,” Tomaz said. “That way you can tell Jensen we have sensitive information that needs to be heard by the Elders immediately. Likely they’ll see us within the next few days.”
