Chapter 60

Aicha

The days grew shorter and colder as we travelled, and more than once did we wake to find the ground covered in frost, but I tried not to complain. After all, it was I who had ditched all my gear along the way. Plus, the others seemed to have gone through much worse than just a bit of cold. They had told me some of their stories as we sat around the fire at night, and they weren’t nice ones.

The rebellion wasn’t as I had expected it to be. It had just been a silly dream, and whenever I looked back at all our planning, I was embarrassed by how naive I had been. There was no big army ready to liberate our valley, and the secrets our group had learnt in the summer were so obvious that even Kim knew about them from the soldiers gossiping at the Champion’s camp. In the end, I hadn’t been of any use at all, and I hadn’t even managed to warn them about the Queen’s trap.

But I couldn’t go back now, in the winter, so they had been kind enough to let me stay. They’d even asked me to use my magic to lead them through the wilderness so we could go to the north and stay safe from the Queen’s soldiers. At least that would be something to tell my friends. Sara trusted me. And the Queen’s Whip. Or Cat. She was quite kind. They would never believe I had travelled together with her.

I glanced at them following behind me.

“Did you sense something?”

Sara hurried up to me.

“N-no...”

I shook my head and stared at the ground.

“You’re doing well, Aicha.”

I dared to look at her, and she smiled at me. She was so different from what I had imagined her to be. She was a Unicorn, a Peace Bringer, but she didn’t behave as I thought they would. Although most of what I had imagined about her had turned out to be just a fantasy, so maybe that wasn’t so surprising. Maybe that’s why she rebelled? Because she was different from others?

“We’re safe for now,” she continued. “The soldiers will probably wait for us as we pass the mountains, but I believe you can find a way around.”

I had to stop myself from smiling. I couldn’t believe Sara thought I could find it. She really trusted me. I only worried I wasn’t as skilled as they hoped I was, but they believed in me, so I couldn’t let them down.