She cut a glance to Roderick, who still stood next to her. He gave her an encouraging nod.
“When I was eight, the queen banished me from the castle. She told me I wasn’t old enough to rule and that everyone hated me anyway. I ran into the forest—”
“The Wyldwood?” a woman in the back asked on a gasp.
“Yes,” she said.
“But that forest is haunted,” a man said.
“It is not,” she said. “It is inhabited by elves who protect it with their light magic. Seraphina managed to invade that light magic with her darkness. She attacked me there and nearly killed me.”
“That’s why we need your help,” Roderick said, taking up the story. “We intend to return to the castle and get back her throne, but we cannot do it alone.”
“You want us to fight for you,” the large man said, his gaze pinpointing on Snow.
It wasn’t a question but she nodded anyway.
“It is the only way to stop the queen from raising taxes even more and starving you out of your own kingdom,” Roderick said.
A man from the back of the tavern dressed as a ranger moved forward. He had his hand on the hilt of his sword. Roderick wrapped his fingers around the dagger at his waist and stiffened eyeing the man as he approached. He shoved off his hood and dropped to a knee in front of Snow and bowed his head.
“I will protect you with my life and my sword, my queen,” the ranger said. “You only need to tell me when the fight.”
Her heart skipped a beat. Next to her, she sensed Roderick relax and release his hand on the hilt of his dagger.
“I will fight for you, too, princess,” the man with the tankard announced.
“As will I!” Another next to him stood up.
More volunteers shouted their support until finally a host of cheers went up in the tavern. Roderick took over, then, telling them the strategy for the planned attack. It was something they hadn’t discussed yet. She watched as he worked the room, telling them to meet in the field of the castle in less than a week’s time.
She wondered, then, if that would be enough time to gather more forces from the other villages. But Roderick seemed to know what he was doing. She was grateful, but also feeling a bit left out.
As she sat watching him, the dream returned to her, haunting her. It was as though someone watched her and she wondered then if Seraphina saw her through the Magic Mirror. Was it truly a dream or a premonition?
The tavern wench bustled up to the table and dropped a heaping plate of food in front of her and then on the other side where Roderick was sitting. She flashed a bright smile.
“On the house, your majesty!” She dipped a curtsy and hurried away.
Snow peered down at the plate of food with a large round golden-brown pastry that had a grid-like surface impression. Despite her rumbling stomach, she had lost her appetite. She couldn’t shake the sense of foreboding hanging over her.
Chapter 29
Roderickreturnedtothetable moments later, a broad smile on his face as he sat in front of his heaping plate of food. He held up the grid-like pastry.
“Waffles!” he announced. “They’re delicious. Trust me.”
She peered down at it as though it were a foreign object. “I seem to have lost my appetite.”
That made him stop buttering his waffle and look at her. “Why?”
“Something feels…off,” she said. “I can’t explain it.”
He glanced around the tavern looking for an imminent threat. “We’re safe here.”
Her gaze flickered up to his. “Are we?”
He dropped his fork and reached for her hand across the table. “What’s wrong? I thought you would be happy we managed to recruit the first soldiers to help us in the fight against Seraphina.”
