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“I AM CAPTURED.”

I released my hold as quickly as possible. “And now you are free.”

The Freemartin paused for a moment before withdrawing. “YOU ARE OF MY KIND, TOO, LITTLE HUMAN,” she said. “DO NOT LET THEM CONSTRAIN YOU, EITHER.”

“Ah,” Sunbeam murmured. “Another set of horseshoes. A different one.”

Of her kind? A set of horseshoes? I had no idea what they meant. I wasn’t a talking animal. Or no more so than any human was.

The Freemartin was already walking away. Her huge strides took her across the meadow and into the trees more quickly than I would have guessed.

“Do you think the emperor will accept that?” I asked Ilyana while I waited for the transformation to take hold. It appeared to be taking its time. I wondered if it would hurt. “I guess you’re the one who gets to make the judgment.”

“Yes, I suppose I am.” She tilted her head and considered me. “You’re really not power-hungry, are you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You could have had a gargantuan magical creature at your beck and call. I’m pretty sure it never even crossed your mind to keep it enslaved.”

“Well, of course not.” The transformation still hadn’t happened. Or maybe it had, and I hadn’t noticed? Surely growing a penis would be difficult to miss. “That would have been cruel.”

“Hm,” was all she said.

I patted myself down, although it felt a little embarrassing. As far as I could tell, all the parts that used to be there were still there, and nothing new had been added.

“I don’t think anything’s happened,” I said.

“It hasn’t?” Ilyana said. “Huh.”

“Maybe the curse was a myth?”

“Or maybe you aren’t a woman or a man.”

“I…what?”

“Any man will turn into a woman, and any woman will turn into a man. You didn’t change. So maybe you’re neither.”

“That makes sense,” Sunbeam said, trotting up to us. “You never did strike me as either one, exactly.”

I was stunned into silence. Their words tumbled around in my head.

That felt right. I wasn’t entirely sure what it meant yet, but it felt right. Like a keystone sliding into place, making a wobbly arch solid and stable.

“But…” I said when I regained the power of speech. “If I’m not a he or a she, then what am I?”

“I don’t know,” Ilyana said. “A they, maybe?” A small smile lifted the corners of her lips. “No matter what, you’re definitely still a you.”

“They.” Like an eight-headed dragon? “I like that.” It didn’t give me the immediate sense of wrongness that other words did. It fit.

Sunbeam tapped my foot with his hoof. “Should we, uh, should we get going? Find the emperor’s army, save your sister, stop the war?”

“Yes.” I focused my attention back on the task at hand. “Yes, of course. How do we do that? Aren’t we still lost?”

“I’m pretty sure I could get us to Moersbad,” Ilyana offered. “Wherever we are in the swamp, we just have to travel northeast until I can spot the landmarks. If the emperor’s heading for the northern kingdoms by the quickest overland route, he has to pass through Moersbad on the way, right?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Sunbeam said.

I shaded my eyes and tried to gauge the direction by the sun. “I’m pretty sure northeast is that way,” I said, pointing toward a part of the swamp that was largely indistinguishable from the rest of it.