I really hoped the village was still there. I had no idea what was going to happen if we stepped through the forest and only found a lake. It didn’t change anything. Clearly the Village of Prestile had been there. Bran and I did not hallucinate such a place, and the kids waiting for us at the palace made that clear, but getting Coral to see the abandoned village with her own eyes was paramount to discovering how we had stumbled upon it in the first place.
“We need to follow your steps exactly.” Fritz adjusted the pack on his back. “In case it was one small thing you did that set everything in motion.”
“We know.” I adjusted my own satchel. Although we didn’t plan to be gone for long, it never hurt to be prepared. I was glad we were moving, but getting frustrated with the slow pace. It wasn’t one person slowing us down, just a general lethargy among the five of us.
Preston was still exhausted. I watched him carefully, trying to figure out what exactly was wrong. Had he been given a sleeping potion or poison? Was he injured in a way we hadn’t noticed? Or maybe it was still the emotional toll. “You making it, Preston?” I asked.
“Yes.” He made a thumbs up sign. “I am completely fine.”
He was lying, but I would gain nothing by calling that out. “Okay. I was only checking.”
“If you need to rest at any point, please let us know.” Coral looked up at the sky and then over to Preston. “But it does look like the afternoon storm is rolling in. If everyone is feeling well, it would be in our interest to move faster.”
“I don’t need to rest.” Preston started taking much larger strides. “I assure you. Let’s move.”
Bran shot me a look. He was worried too. I understood why Coral wanted to bring him along, but if the kid wasn’t well and fell ill it would be bad for all of us. But Coral was in charge. She was the heir, and this was her land and her mission.
We fell into silence as we trudged on. We passed no one directly as we moved, but we saw some herders in the distance once or twice. They always crossed over the river a distance away.
“Remind me why we couldn’t take horses.” Fritz broke the silence.
“Because we want to stay under the radar.” Coral looked up at the sky again. “As much as that’s possible.”
“Lets try not to get struck by lightning then.” Fritz smirked. “It might be a bit difficult to stay under the radar if that happens.”
“You are such a comedian.” Coral rolled her eyes. “Let’s go.”
“Wait.” Bran stopped. “We need to stop under that tree first. It’s where I rescued a baby bird. That is if we are going with idea that we need to retrace our steps completely.” He pointed to a large tree. He was the first to reach the tree. “Strange.” He looked over the tree and then knelt down. “There’s no nest and no baby bird on the ground.”
“Are you sure it was this tree?” Coral asked.
“Yes.” Bran reached out to touch the bark and then stopped himself just in time. If we were really following our steps completely neither of us should touch anything extra.
“He’s right.” I stepped back and took a look at the strand of trees. “I remember how it jutted out more than the others.”
“Uh oh. This doesn’t bode well.” Preston sighed.
“No, it doesn’t. It’s a different time.” Coral leaned a hand on the tree. I didn’t try to stop her. She hadn’t been there last time, so there was no way to know whether touching the tree or not touching the tree was going to make any kind of difference.
“A different time?” Fritz raised an eyebrow.
“Just forget I said anything.”
“Yes, because that is possible.” I understood she was under a lot of pressure, but we all needed answers.
“Why isn’t it possible?” She removed her hand from the tree.
“Because one cannot forget what they have already heard.”
“It’s a figure of speech. I need to move further along before I can say more.” She stepped away from the tree and started walking. “And I suggest the rest of you do the same.”
“You said time.” I matched her pace and walked right beside her. “Are you talking about time travel?”
She groaned. “I didn’t say that.”
“No. Because you aren’t saying anything.” Which was very frustrating.
“Enough.” She threw her hands off to the sides. “Why don’t we just continue on and see what we find?”
“Fine, if that’s what you direct.” I was ready to find out what was going on, but I wasn’t the one in charge, like it or not. No matter what she had to say, we needed to find out if the village was there or not. Arguing was a waste of time and energy.
We continued on and entered the forest. I was stressed, and I wasn’t one who got stressed. I kept thinking I heard something, a rustle a little ways off, but then it would disappear. The forest seemed to go on forever. I kept waiting for us to come out the other side.
“Shouldn’t we be there by now?” Bran asked. “I am positive it didn’t take half this long last time.”
“Yes.” There was no sense pretending. This was very odd.
“So we just keep walking?” Bran who had taken the lead fell back to walk alongside me. “I’m not complaining about the walking, just asking when we call it quits.”
“Anytime I suppose.” Coral tied her long hair up. “We already have our answer.”
I tore my eyes away from her exposed neck. “This is Prestile, isn’t it? Before it was developed.” Bran was right. We had reached the village well before this last time, and the extra time went far beyond having a slower group.
“That’s my guess.” Coral slapped at a bug that landed on her arm.
“Are you ready to share your hunch?” I had originally planned to give her time to answer, but now that we knew for sure the village was absent, we needed to exchange information.
“I’ve heard about things like this.” Coral set the small sachet she wore down beside her. The rest of us followed her lead. “Ripples that are tied to a place. Time moves differently there and unexpectedly. I wish I could explain it better, but I’d never expected to experience one, so I haven’t taken the time to learn more. What I do remember is that they are usually set off by something big. A volcano eruption, an earthquake—”
“A chasm,” Fritz interrupted.
“Yes, this is likely caused by one of Wren’s chasms.” Coral frowned.
“We don’t know that.” Preston shook his head. “There is no reason to lay into Wren just because you don’t like her.”
“Yet you are the one who said she’s causing the chasms.” Coral crossed her arms. “You can’t have it both ways.”
“I didn’t say she was causing strange time travel ripples.” Preston seemed energized. The lethargy from earlier seemed to be wearing off.
“No.” Coral looked Preston right in the eye. “But we can’t ignore that the chasms started, which you admit she caused, and now we found a ripple.”
“Does this even matter?” Bran stepped to the side, offsetting his pack that was leaning against his leg. “We have a ripple here. Does it matter what caused it?”
“Were you not the one worried to call me by my given name, and now you are challenging me?” Coral eyed Bran. “My how things have changed.”
“I apologize if I am out of line. I am worried.”
“You aren’t out of line.” Coral sat down and leaned her back against a tree. “And you are right that the ripple is significant even aside from the cause, although the cause does matter.”
“Agreed, but first let’s get back to the ripple.” If that’s what this really was. I was trained not to make assumptions. “Even if the village is experiencing some sort of time ripple, how do you explain the kids? In no timeline should children from another world show up like that.”
“What are we going to do?” Coral hung her head. “Or really what am I going to do? None of the rest of you have this resting on your shoulders. If I can’t get them home…”
“We will get them home. I promise.” It was a promise I had no business making, but I made it anyway. The worry on Coral’s face was the most raw and real emotion I’d seen in a long time. “Besides, those kids deserved to get home.”
“And soon. Their poor parents…”
“That is if the parents know.” Fritz stretched his arm. “Maybe where they live is experiencing some ripple too, and the parents aren’t even aware?”
“That’s wishful thinking.” Coral pulled her knees up to her chest.
“I did tell you being optimistic is important.” Bran forced a smile.
“That you did.” Coral closed her eyes and leaned back against the tree. I watched her, wishing I could reach out and touch her face.
“So now what?” Fritz asked. “Do we turn around and head back? Do we press forward? What do we do when we get back? Keep with the plan, Coral?”
“Which plan is that?” Bran and I were definitely being kept out of the loop. It was time for us to know more.
Fritz and Coral exchanged a look. I waited. Hopefully they understood how important their answer was.
Coral nodded.
Fritz looked at each of us before beginning. “Coral had me contact an old friend at the university.”
“And?”
“This professor, she does a lot of research on other worlds. We are hoping it helps.”
“How soon can we meet with her?” Preston’s eyes were wide.
“Who said you were meeting with her?” Coral asked.
He frowned. “Were you planning to leave me out of this?”
“I assume we are talking of the university at Delvi?” It was the most prestigious academic institution around. “Absent this diversion into the forest, we were already heading in the right direction.”
“I had planned on doing more preparations.” Coral eyed her small bag. “But I have what I need.”
“Leaving straight from here makes it simpler. No one will know where you have gone. No need for a cover story after all.” Fritz lifted his pack and put it on.
“What was the cover story going to be?” I was far more curious than I probably should have been.
“That I had a meeting with a potential mate.” Coral looked up into the canopy of trees. “That’s the one thing my father wouldn’t disrupt even if he was suspicious.”
A mate. The thought of Coral with anyone else made my skin crawl, but I had to keep that jealousy at bay. It was ridiculous. I had no claim to her, and there was no real potential mate. Instead I focused on other issues. “Still no word of your father?”
“No.” Coral sighed. “Not a word.”
“Is this typical for him?” I knew very little about our king. I’d never been very concerned with the workings of the royal family. They certainly had never been concerned with me.
“No.” She met my eye. “Not at all.”
“Do you think it’s voluntary?” I didn’t really want to ask, but I had to. Something had to be said.
“I assumed it. But even blinded by lust or whatever it is, this is odd. He at least usually pretends to care about his role as king.” Coral crossed her arms over her chest. Once again I wanted to reach out and touch her. I wanted to give her comfort, and to take what I needed as well. Because I needed her in ways I had no business worrying about with so much on the line.
“If his absence wasn’t voluntary... “ Bran looked down. I was surprised he was being so forward. “What do you think might be the cause?”
“I’m afraid to even guess.” Coral’s arms tightened over her chest. “Because it would mean he was involved in even more than I know.”
“Coral.” Bran said her name quietly. “I need to ask something.”
“Yes.” She gestured with her hand for him to go ahead.
“Is the stuff about the baby true?”
Coral groaned. “Even you’ve heard?”
“I’m sorry, but yes. The news has spread.”
“I want to be angry at Gala, but I know it is as much his fault.” Coral buried her face in her hands. “Such a mess.”
“Gala?” The name hit me hard in the gut. It couldn’t be that Gala. Not my Gala. No, I refused to think of her that way anymore. “You don’t mean Gala DeSotto?”
“Yes, she is the only Gala I know. Do you know of her?” Coral looked right at me.
“Oh, he knows of her.” There was absolutely no humor in Bran’s voice.
“You’ve slept with her?” Cora’s expression darkened. Her body stiffened. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought she were jealous.
“We were engaged to be married.” I didn’t want to tell this story. I didn’t want to think about how bad the betrayal hurt, but I couldn’t expect Coral and Fritz to be open if I wouldn’t share.
“She chose to carry on with another. She left me for him.” I looked down. Shame filled me even though I knew I wasn’t the one who should have felt it. “Nothing much else to share.”
“I’m sorry.” Coral spoke in barely a whisper. “I can’t imagine how that must have felt.”
“At least she didn’t wait too long to show her true colors and interest.” I finally allowed myself to look at Coral. “I couldn’t offer her the same opportunities as her new partner. But evidently she kept searching for more if what you say is true.”
“You think Gala could be behind the king’s absence?” Fritz put his chin in his hand. “And I don’t mean because she’s distracting him.”
I knew exactly what he meant. “At one time I would have said no. And although I can’t really believe she’d go to those crazy lengths, she did carry on an affair with the king.” I didn’t know what to say. I had never really known Gala. Everything we’d shared had been a lie. “That wasn’t something I’d have believed of her when I first knew her.”
“Is there anyone you think she’d be working with?” Fritz pressed.
“She wasn’t one for friends,” Bran supplied. “We knew her even as children… she was always standoffish.”
“Yet you fell for her?” Coral turned to me. “Because of her beauty?”
“I think I fell for the story she painted. I fell for her loneliness, and the way she made me feel. Yes, she does have beauty, but as I’ve said before beauty is subjective. Once you know the inside is dark and ugly, any beauty on the outside disappears.”
“We can’t let this derail us. My father is an adult. He can take care of himself. Right now we have children at the palace who are relying on us.” Coral stood up. “It is even more important now that we find Questa and see if she can help.”
“So now you remember her name.” Fritz wiped some leaves from Coral’s arm. I didn’t like him touching her. But he was her cousin. There was no reason for my wolf to be getting bent out of shape.
“I told you I was only giving you a hard time.”
“We should go.” Bran picked up his satchel. “I don’t believe we are alone here.”
I strained my ears and heard the faintest sound of rustling. “He’s right. Let’s go.”
Without another word we started back through the forest the way we’d come. There was no telling how much longer the woods might go on if we continued forward. We hadn’t found the village we were looking for, but we had some semblance of a plan and a method for getting information.
An idle thought of Henderson being unable to contact us flitted through my head, but he’d reassigned us to the Royal Guard. We could not deny Coral’s orders, so there was nothing Henderson could possibly do. Not that a fear of punishment would have had me staying back. With so many dangers lurking, I was staying close to Coral’s side. Like it or not, the two of us were connected in some way, and I knew that wasn’t going to change anytime soon.