***

  “Don’t hesitate to call us,” said Hattie.

  Rowena nodded, resisting the urge to push Hattie’s hands away from fiddling with her dress. “I won’t. I’ll still need your help with all my visions.”

  Morgan dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief. “Don’t worry too much if you can’t do all the practice exercises I wrote down for you. I know you’ll be busy. But if you can—”

  “Morgan, I’ll make sure she’ll have the time to practice her magic,” said Ginger, smiling meaningfully at the harpy.

  The Royal Party was assembling in a large convoy with a heavy escort. They weren’t going to take any chances with this. In front of their carriage, Rowena was saying her farewells to her friends.

  “I’ll make sure to call,” said Rowena, now hugging Gwen.

  The Alavari wiped her eyes. “You better!”

  “Don’t worry if you forget anything. I can have it mailed to you,” said Tiamara, beaming brightly.

  Rowena nodded, trying her best to hold back her own tears as she faced the final one of her best friends. Without another word, she embraced Jessalise, not minding the tears that soaked her shoulder.

  “I’m going to miss you so much,” said Rowena.

  “I’m going to miss you,” said Jess, managing to croak that out between sobs. “I’ll have a mirror installed so I can call you.”

  Rowena giggled. “About that.” She let go of Jess and rummaged into her waist pouch. Pulling out an oval, silver-engraved folding mirror, she placed it in Jess’ hands. “Morgan and Hattie helped me make this.”

  “Oh. It’s beautiful,” Jess whispered, examining the mirror. “Did you…did you engrave them yourself?”

  “With the help of my magic and Morgan and Hattie,” said Rowena, smiling.

  Jess pressed the mirror to her chest briefly, before putting it carefully in her belt pocket. “We made something for you as well.”

  She pulled out a silver bracelet. The coiled wire design closely matched the one that she wore on her own wrist, but instead of rubies, it was embedded with sapphires.

  “Gwen and Tiamara helped me enchant it with protective spells. To keep you safe, until we meet again,” said Jess. She wiped her eyes, and Rowena did too, unable to hold back her tears.

  “Thank you, Jess, Tiamara, Gwen. Thank you everybody,” Rowena croaked, slipping the bracelet on.

  Hugging for one final time, Rowena let go of her friends to rejoin her mother and brother. She kept waving to them even as she mounted the carriage, closed the door behind her and watched them grow distant.

  “You’re going to see them again,” said Ginger, smiling.

  “I know, mom. It’s just… this is a big deal,” said Rowena, facing her mother.

  Ginger nodded. “I know, but we will be here for you, and they will also be there to help you.” Reaching forward, the queen gently brushed a hair that had fallen across Rowena’s blind eye. “Just believe in yourself. You’re going to do great.”

  Rowena nodded, smiling at her mother and then her grinning brother.

  Because yes, she was pretty sure that she was going to be fine.

  ***

  From a vantage point at the balcony of a nearby inn Forlana watched as the princess’ procession rode into Erisdale. Rowena, dressed in a fairly plain dress rode by her mother’s right. Ginger wore a golden crown with sapphires on her head, Rowena wore one of gold with rubies.

  The pretender queen waved to the cheering crowd, held back barely by a line of guards as she rode toward Erisdale castle. Even her sightless left eye seemed crinkled with joy as she and the rest of the group reached the dais set up in front of the drawbridge.

  Rowena dismounted and followed her mother up the steps. Before she reached the top, she curtseyed, bowing her head before her standing mother and father.

  Martin, the usurper king, only grabbed Rowena and pulled her into a tight hug. Forlana could see him whispering something into her ear that made the princess laugh, before they parted. The four, watched by many guards and mages, turned to face the crowd, hand in hand.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Tearing her eyes from the scene, Forlana patted her longtime maidservant Annie on the shoulder and marched back into the room. There would be no interrupting that ceremony.

  “Are you certain that’s her, Benjamin?” asked Elswith, the woman tightening Benjamin’s new bandage.

  The portly mage growled. “Blind in her left eye, magically gifted and the spitting image of Queen Ginger. You just need to take a look out of a gods cursed window.”

  Winston, the man guarding the door, snorted at Benjamin’s comment as Forlana took a seat on the bed. Taking off her boots, she undid the belts to the wooden prosthetic foot that had followed her in some fashion for her life. Slipping off the anti-chafing sock, she shook out the stump of her right leg, which ended just above her ankle, and looked up at her remaining four guards. Gritting her teeth, she remembered how full the room had been.

  Annie closed the window behind her, brushing blonde hair out of her eye. “Even if she was actually an imposter, she’s been legitimised.”

  “And rather spectacularly at that,” said Forlana. “Thwarting our assassination attempt and saving her mother will make her quite popular.”

  Annie, being a fairly young woman, marched up to Forlana, “Speaking of the attempt, Your Majesty, why did you tell them who you were? You were trained better than to do that!”

  Forlana bowed her head, her jaw clenched, but her gaze on the ground.

  “That was stupid of me. I though we could intimidate them into giving up. I didn’t expect that Rowena was the Lost Princess, or that they would confront us.”

  “It’s not all bad. Now that the knowledge of Forlana is public, we can accelerate our recruitment efforts,” said Winston.

  “Perhaps, but in Erisdale’s eyes, Martin and Ginger’s legitimacy is at an all time high. They have two heirs, one of whom is a mage, a heroine and have demonstrated herself to be highly capable. There are already ballads and songs about how Rowena saved Princess Jessalise as a child,” said Annie.

  Benjamin grunted and pulled himself up with Elswith’s help. “We spent a year planning this operation. Where did we go wrong?”

  Forlana narrowed her eyes as the silence in the room stretched on.

  “I don’t think we had an information leak. Morgan and Hattie teleported in shortly before Queen Ginger was ambushed. They cut it far too close,” said Annie.

  “I’m more concerned as to how they figured out we were impostors,” said Winston. The guard glanced at the group, his arms crossed. “Alaya had already waylaid the captain. We weren’t searched, and yet they figured out Benjamin?”

  “They might have recognized my magic in the contract,” said Benjamin.

  Forlana grimaced. “Then why didn’t they figure out the princess earlier? I’ve heard Rowena was a student at the school for years.”

  Elswith shrugged. “Maybe they had and were keeping her safe—”

  “No. Impossible. That girl revealed herself to me like it was the first time she’d declared it. For that matter, the king and queen look far too happy for that,” said Forlana.

  Suddenly, Forlana’s eyes widened. Her grip on her chin tightened, turning the tips of her fingers white.

  “Your Majesty?” Benjamin asked.

  Forlana, covering her mouth, looked up, her face draining of color. “Benjamin, how did she find out she was the princess?”

  The former Red Order mage arched an eyebrow. “How do you expect me to know that?”

  “Fair point. What I mean is how could she have known she was the Lost Princess?” Forlana asked.

  “Your Majesty, where are you going with this?” Annie asked.

  “There shouldn’t have been a way to definitely confirm that Rowena was the Lost Princess. Yet somehow she’s sure of it. I could tell when she declared it. It’s impossible. She couldn’t have known who she was. That and Rowena… she’s been involved in every failed operation for the last three years,” said Forlana.

  Elswith gasped. “You’re right. Sylva’s plan at Kwent failed, and Rowena was there as part of the reason. Then she stopped us from killing Jessamine and her mentors stopped our assassination attempt on Ginger. Then she was there to accuse Benjamin despite the disguise.”

  “What are you saying she can identify us somehow? But why can’t she just uncover us?” Winston asked.

  “There are stories, legends that some magic gifts have strange abilities. We know the normal ones like Edana Firehand’s affinity with fire magic, Frances’ Stormcallers ability to manipulate lightning.” Benjamin clasped his fingers, a gaunt look coming over his features. “Rowena may have a special ability of some kind. One that may give her the ability to scry us in some fashion.”

  “Scry? You mean see distant things? Isn’t that rather normal?” Elswith asked.

  “Not her ability. Hers is different,” said Benjamin, glancing at Forlana. “You’ve figured it out have you?”

  Forlana took a breath and nodded. “I think she must be able to look into the past to some extent. That’s how she figured out who she was and our plans.”

  Elswith shook her head, “Impossible.”

  “We do live in a world of magic. The impossible can always be made possible,” said Forlana.

  “There’s magic, and then there’s having perfect knowledge of our pasts. If she does have an ability like that she can doom us,” said Winston.

  Annie steepled her fingers. “We need to end her.”

  “With what? Our resources are spent and we’ve achieved nothing. We aren’t even sure if she has a scrying ability,” said Forlana. The pretender queen stood up, hands clasped in front of her stomach, she paced across the room, eyes straight ahead.

  “Then what should we do?” Elswith asked.

  Forlana took a breath. “You all go quiet. We need time to rebuild our resources, our funds and establish new contacts. No fancy, high-risk operations. I’m going to Lapanteria with a small entourage.”

  “Lapanteria? Why?” Annie asked.

  Benjamin started, his eyes narrowed, one hand clenching his bedsheets. “Wait, are you thinking about that plan?”

  Forlana closed her eyes. “Yes. It’s not ideal, but we’ve been cultivating that relationship for a while and I think we have no choice but to leverage it.”

  “For what it’s worth, I strongly disagree with that plan. Prince Alastor is a pig,” said Elswith.

  “I am fully aware, Elswith, just as I’m aware of how many people have given up their lives for me,” said Forlana, her tone sharp.

  Elswith stood up and curtsied. “My apologies, Your Majesty.”

  “Accepted. I will approach him carefully. I do not know if this will succeed, but know this, my comrades, I have not given up this fight. I will be Queen of Erisdale. It is my birthright.”

  The conspirators nodded and in one loud voice, proclaimed, “Aye!”

  ***

  The Lost Princess. We’re going into Arc 3, the endgame ??

  https://www.artstation.com/quietvictories. It’s a bit a ways off but it’s one of if not the best of the covers.