Chapter 24

Cat

“Cat, are you coming?”

Silvi waved at me from the path ahead, and Kim halted next to her and waited for me. I pretended not to hear, and instead continued walking behind them. She had tried to make me befriend the Champion Camp girl ever since we left the river and took the road to the west, but I had mostly ignored them. I wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for my pledge to her and the fact that the stupid horse was right. The two of them turned back and continued walking, chatting about something I couldn’t hear. Stupid. I kicked a stone.

The Unicorn was nowhere to be seen; she was walking ahead of us, making plans she wouldn’t share with anyone else. I had asked her where we were heading, but she refused to tell me. She was just like the other horses, thinking she was better than everyone else.

Stupid, that’s what it was. I should have just continued alone with Silvi, taken her East and protected her from harm’s way, but the horse was right. The Queen must die, and she was my best chance to do it.

I glanced at Silvi walking ahead of me, giggling at something Kim had said. Gullible, she was. But still here… I looked away. I thought she would escape, run away, once she saw what I had done. But she hadn't. She had sung her song to me… I tore a leaf from a passing bush. Stupid. The elf was too naive for this world; she didn’t belong here. She should be back in her forest with the other elves, where she was safe. I would take her there when everything was over, and the Queen was dead. She could go home to her tribe…

I dropped the leaf. To her tribe… I stared at the trees becoming blurry. She had a tribe… I had spent my whole life in the castle. I could barely remember what it had been like before; I had been too young when the Queen took me in. Had she known where I came from? She had always told me my mother had abandoned me, and that’s why she had taken me in. Had she lied about that, too, just like she had lied about everything else? I had seen what she had done when Silvi sang her songs to me. She only used me for her war. It was only my magic she wanted. A liar, that’s what she was, only caring for her cause. She never told me if she knew my tribe. Whoever they were, they must have weather magic, just like me. But I had never heard of any tribe with such powers.

I quickly wiped my eyes when I saw the Unicorn waiting on the path ahead of us. She had halted and turned as we approached her, and I braced myself for the sermon she always gave when she had something to announce. She looked at us for a moment as we stopped before her, watching us with those haughty eyes that were the hallmark of all the horses.

“We are going to the Gnomes”, she declared.

Silvi looked at her and then turned to me with a frown. I shrugged. I didn’t know what the Unicorn was talking about; I had never heard about the Gnomes.

“We will arrive in a week.”

The Unicorn turned on the spot and continued walking. I stared at her. What was she talking about? Who were the Gnomes? And why were we going there? I knew she wouldn’t tell us; her genius mind was below sharing ideas with anyone inferior to her. Stupid horse. She thought I didn’t know about their past and pretended their race brought peace to this world. But I had heard the Queen speaking about what the Unicorns had done. Traitors. Almerious, Sara, they were all the same. Their race had failed this world, and now we paid the price of their betrayal.