Chapter 62

Sara

I watched Aicha scout ahead of us. The girl had led us through the wilderness with her magic, finding the hidden tracks that kept us out of sight, and it would not be long now until we arrived at the mountain pass. I could not see any other possibility than that the Queen’s soldiers would be waiting for us there.

Would Almerious be with them? I did not believe so. Not even Cat knew about his magic abilities, which meant the Queen must be unaware of them as well. Revealing them now, when he had no justification for why I would aim for my fellow companions as he had implied last time, would risk everything. No, he would try to stop us with whatever safe means he had, which meant he would send the Queen’s soldiers. It was true that they had an advantage in the narrow mountain passes, but none that would pose any real threat. Or so I hoped.

I had taken my time in the past week to assess what had happened, but the more I considered it, the less I understood. The race I had thought I knew had disintegrated before my eyes that day, and I was no longer certain about anything. Was someone among the Unicorns aware of Almerious’s powers? And was he the only one possessing them?

Ever since I was old enough to understand the role our race had taken in this world, I had learnt that we possessed wisdom beyond the comprehension of the tribes. Our role was to guide and protect. I could see now that it had gone to our heads, but even so, I had thought we were nothing more than well-intentioned caretakers. Most of my former Unicorns still believed it, but I was no longer certain the core of our tribe held the same convictions. There were many elders among our race, centuries old like him. Had they conspired with him, or was he alone in his undertaking?

There were too many questions, and not even Cat held the answers. He had been nothing but a loyal servant to the Queen, and even though she despised him, he must have played his game well to remain useful to her.

“We’re almost there.”

Aicha halted and turned to us. And so we had arrived.