Cinderella vs. Happily Ever After

Chapter 12

            The next morning, amid birdsong and grey skies, they parted with Sora. Neither the maid nor Miette were suited for camping in rough terrain and walking as far as they were going to have to, but they needed Miette to introduce them to Enax. And Sora was more suited to gathering information in the city so they’d left her to do just that though part of Valerie worried they were abandoning her.

            Despite the overcast skies, they made good progress south, encountering nothing larger than a fox all day. Though she struggled to keep up, Miette never once made a noise of complaint about their pace. Valerie kept an eye on her friend and every so often she caught a look of ice covered steel in her eyes. She had a feeling that Miette was nearly as angry at Lyel as she was at Darren and probably for some of the same reasons. Anger was much more useful than despair and endless worry.

            They stopped early, in part to allow Miette more time to rest and in part because they found a good campsite. A narrow clearing not far from a trickle of a stream was thicketed by pine trees all around. They only found it because Valerie’s water bottle rolled into it. The clearing was so heavily surrounded by trees that Isaac decided they could risk a campfire. Valerie inwardly cheered the news. Outwardly she tried to remain unfazed but from the little smirk Isaac was wearing she wasn’t sure she’d been entirely successful.

            After a dinner of instant noodles, Valerie knew she was going to be very sick of them very soon, all three of them all but passed out in their sleeping bags. A niggling doubt bore its way into Valerie’s mind before sleep claimed her, using the time she was unconscious to cement its position.

Over breakfast, she looked at the other two, both surprisingly cheerful despite the rough conditions. Then she looked up at the sky, the grey sky promising rain like the day before but none of it falling on them. Yesterday they’d come across places where it had rained but not a drop had touched them. She looked around the clearing, noting how perfect a place it was, invisible from outside and only if you knew it was there would you be able to find it. She thought back to her dropped water bottle and how it had just seemed to shoot out of her grip. She put everything together and glared at the remains of her bread.

“What’s the matter Val?” Isaac asked, noting the angry flush that was rising on her face.

“What’s the matter? I’ll tell you what’s the frigging matter, someone is interfering again. And if I’m not mistaken, it’s a bunch of dead someones.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

She met Isaac’s eyes, her chin up and her eyes narrowed. “Haven’t you noticed how easy things have been? How when we’re about to stumble into a checkpoint Nateza just happens to recognize you. And how her mother just happens to work in the bar where the invading officers drink? Or that we just happen to find good campsites every night? Or that we just happened to come across Sora and Miette in the middle of a forest that’s probably several hundreds of kilometres wide? It’s not natural.”

“Valerie,” Miette sighed.

Isaac held up his hand as he thought it over. “It has been easier than I thought.”

She nodded. “And last night, we didn’t set a watch but nothing bothered us. Not even any mosquitoes. And Miette, forgive me, but you’re holding up under this way better than I think you should be.”

The other woman frowned slightly as she considered that. “I had thought the riding and hunting I have done was helping but…certainly I am handling myself better than I had thought I would. Sora and I did not set such a fast pace.”

“You see? We’re being interfered with. And I bet you anything it’s that damn Assemblage,” she said crossing her arms over her chest, jaw clenched and eyes still bright.

Now Isaac sighed. “Val sweetie, why are you complaining? If a bunch of dead fairies want to make our lives easier for the moment, let’s leave them to it. Think of it as their way of apologizing for screwing with your life before now.”

“That’s exactly why I don’t like it. It’s like if I accept this I’ll have to accept their meddling for the rest of my life,” she muttered.

He rolled her eyes at her stubbornness. “It’ll be fine. It’s not like you’d take their interfering laying down. And anyway, at this point we need all the help we can get. All they seem to be doing is arranging things to happen to suit us. It’s not like they’re forcing us to do anything or stopping us. They’re just making things run more smoothly. Besides, I bet you they’re keeping that crazy bitch from being able to find you.”

Valerie met the eyes of the other two and dropped her arms. “You’re right. I’ll relax. It just…it unnerves me. Because for them to be doing stuff like this means they’re watching us. I don’t like the idea of being watched. And if they can do that, what’s to stop the crazy one from doing the same?”

“One of the reasons we must hurry to Enax. I am certain he will have a way to hide you from the godmother’s sight. He is a very powerful wizard.”

She felt a spark of hope ignite in her chest where only anger had burned since the news their army was almost useless. “Do you think he’ll join us?”

Miette cocked her head. “He may. He is very fond of me. But he is also very set in his idea of not interfering in things he considers minor. He has a…unique world view. But if he will not help us, he will at least send us to someone who will. And as I said, my brother will most likely lend us some of his troops. Perhaps some of the border lords will do the same. If only to protect themselves from invasion.”

“So we continue on then,” she said, slowly getting to her feet.

“I don’t think we have much of a choice. Not if we want to win,” Isaac replied soberly.