Welcome to Briteland, the lost British Isle, last known country of magic.
Chosen at birth as one of five members of the Queen's Guard, the young knight Galavere has spent all seventeen years of her life training to protect the kingdom's reigning mo...
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"Galavere! GALAVERE!"
The shouting and knocking forced Galavere's eyes open. Imogen, she thought, turning only to see that the bed was empty. The night before came crashing through her head as she tried to remember everything that had happened. Images like flashes: sweat, clothes on the floor, the fading fire, Imogen's lips on her ear, neck, everywhere. Where was Imogen now? When had she left?
"Galavere!" the voice shouted again. Winny. Galavere slid out of the bed, stepping on her shift that was still on the floor. She pulled it on slowly before answering the door, not wanting to relinquish the memory of the night before, confusing though it had been.
"What?" She pulled on the handle and let in the frantic Winny.
"Is she here?" Winny looked around the room.
"Who?" Galavere asked, though she knew exactly who Winny was talking about.
"If the Queen isn't here, where is she?" The hat that Winny was so attached to, the one Cressida refused not make fun of every time she saw it, was on the brink of falling off, and Winny looked almost as bedraggled as Galavere felt.
"Is she not in her bedchamber?" Galavere asked. Why couldn't she remember Imogen leaving? She could remember the way her face looked in the moonlight, how her eyes had shone.
Winny began to speak using her usual hailstorm of run on sentences that plagued her in times of crisis. "No. Lumina told me that you told her that Imogen told you she was spending the night in the temple to ask for the guidance of the prophets regarding the proposal but she isn't there!" Winny took a deep breath. "That's where the rest of the Guard is right now. We've already searched the castle and grounds, but there's no sign of her, and we were hoping she told you more, or that you might know where she might have gone, or that she might be with you? But if she isn't here..." Winny's eyes drifted towards the window as she gasped for air again. Galavere tried to work through everything the healer was telling her.
"Galavere. You slept very late this morning," Winny noted.
"What time is it?"
"Nearly ten. The English have gone. They left under the cover of darkness. Not so much as a horseshoe left."
"Darkness? The moon was full last night."
"Oh my Blue Heavens, Galavere, learn your moon cycles! There was no moon last night!"
Galavere blinked.
No moon.
Imogen was gone.
The English were gone.
"Get dressed. We have to go meet the Guard." Winny bustled around the room as comfortable as if it was her own, throwing some clothes at Galavere as she continued speaking so quickly she was starting to sweat.
