Fisher, Andres, and Lisette stay behind with the ship. While Lisette works on inventorying supplies, Andres and Fisher asses the yacht. There is more damage than Mina thought which includes damage to the hull. Andres patched it in a hurry during the storm but it needs a real repair. Mina wonders how much this expedition is going to cost her once everything is said and done.
Somehow Rodrigo finds a horse and carriage and stands on the dock holding the reins while he pets the horse’s head. It’s an old-looking horse, run-down, tired and shivering. Mina scrunches her nose at the sight of it. Old scars run down its brown back and its black hair is matted as if its owner was too busy to run a brush through it.
The carriage isn’t much of a carriage but more like a collection of wood planks nailed together haphazardly to create a passable crate of some sort. Mina wonders where such an animal and contraption came from. They both look way past their prime and reasonable use. Rodrigo is whispering something to the horse when Mina and Yvette approach. He looks their way as he pats the horse on the head one last time.
But the horse isn’t the most peculiar-looking being here, it’s Rodrigo. Dressed like he’s going to a medieval party, Mina almost doesn't recognize him. A red, long-sleeved coat came down to his knees with gold embellishments throughout in a vertical pattern like stripes. Dark brown, form-fitting pants resembling leggings showed off the muscles of his calves.
“I see you found us a ride. Or something like that,” Mina says. She glances over the horse again, unsure that it can even pull its own weight, let alone a loaded cart.
“It probably belongs to a farmer not too far from here.” Rodrigo takes Mina’s suitcase and with one hand, places it into the cart with ease. It’s as light as a feather in his grip. He does the same with Yvette’s luggage.
“They won’t mind us borrowing it and the horse?” Yvette asks. She looks as unsure as Mina does about the situation and glances at her sister.
“Nah,” he says, “looks like the horse might have gotten away. If anything, I’d say they’d be happy to have it back and that we found it.”
Marcel arrives and places his backpack in the back of the cart. “Horse and cart, now that’s a way to travel.” He winks at Mina and all she can do is playfully roll her eyes.
“All aboard,” Rodrigo says as he goes back to the horse and pulls out a few baby carrots from his pocket. The horse takes them slowly from his hand, munching away. His back hair is no longer standing on end and Mina swears he looks calmer now, more at ease.
Marcel helps Mina and Yvette into the back first before climbing in. Rodrigo sits in the driver's seat with reins in hand. “Nice tights,” Yvette says as she gets in but Rodrigo doesn’t seem to hear her. She glances at Mina with a mischievous grin and chuckles as she says, “I didn’t know you knew anything about horses.”
He looks over at her and says, “And I am a master rider. I used to train Griffins when I was a lad.”
Yvette looks perplexed and says, “Is that some kind of horse?”
But Rodrigo doesn’t answer her. Instead, he jerks the reins and the horse moves at a steady gallup. The big wood-like wheels creek and the ride isn’t nearly as pleasant as Mina expected it to be. It’s extremely uncomfortable sitting on the hard surface of the cart. It’s a bumpy ride in which they each hold onto the sides to keep from bouncing out or into each other.
The countryside path is a narrow dirt road that seems to be well-worn and traveled. It winds past mounds of grasses and thick bushes. Tall trees block the sun’s warmth and often times in the shade is a slight chill that passes over Mina suddenly. She doesn’t like the chill and in these times she wishes for the cardigan she left back on the yacht.
The trees are vibrant, the leaves glow, and the grass stands tall and thick. The wind dances with the branches in the sun’s glow and bites at Mina's exposed skin in the shade. Even the worn out horse holds a faint glimmer. It’s as if each strand, each petal of a wildflower holds an essence, a delicious secret they share. Mina can’t see it but she can feel it, sense it. She frowns at the absurd thought that there's a hidden energy that emanates from the forest.
Then without warning, Rodrigo stops the horse. “Whoah,” he says. The horse snorts and nods its head up and down. Mina grabs the side for fear of toppling out as the momentum nearly took her over the side.
“What is it?” Marcel asks but there are no words to answer him only the shock in everyone’s eyes. The village is on fire. Black smoke fills the air in a large cloud.
Smoke rises from the roof of some buildings while the fire is blazing in others. As they near the village, a woman is crying near the corner of the grand archway; a stone entrance with iron doors flung wide open. Screams, cries, panic. Sounds are everywhere that Mina can’t decipher, can’t determine who or what they are from.
A bell rings from somewhere. People are running everywhere. Some are trying to put out small fires with buckets of water. A mother runs past with a small child clutched in her arms. The horse seems disturbed and doesn’t want to go towards the burning buildings so Rodrigo steers it towards the upturned street market. Fruit and vegetables litter the dirt, tapestry lay in ruins alongside broken wood and glass. Merchants try to salvage what little they may have left.
Rodrigo stops the horse again and calls down to one of the merchants, “You there, sir.”
The tall man looks wearily at him with a long face of defeat. He wears a long brown robe that falls to his feet. Pointy shoes stick out from under the hem. “My apologies good sir, I have just now arrived and,” his eyes dart around, “what happened here?”
The man picks up a crate of dirty cabbage and tosses it on the table next to him. The bells toll in the distance. He nods in the direction of the ringing, “Why don’t you go ask them?”
Rodrigo says no more, he signals for the horse to move. It lifts its head, still munching on a half-eaten apple it scavenged from the ground. “Shame on you, Pidopo, there’s a catastrophe afoot and all you can think about is filling your belly.”
The horse snorts and walks at a steady, slow pace through the ruined market. The smells of burnt wood and sulfur hangs in the air, carried on the wind with coughs and cries. The lofty buildings look like a series of medieval castles of stone with round towers and steepled rooftops.
“Are you thinking, what I’m thinking?” Yvette whispers in Mina’s ear.
“Hogwarts,” Mina whispers back, “we’ve landed in Hogwarts.”
“Really, Mina, do you have to make a joke?” Yvette looks cross at her.
“I’m not joking, it just looks like something out of Universal Studios. Like this is one big set or something and someone’s going to yell, ‘cut’ any second.”
Yvette flashes a look at Marcel and doesn’t say anything more to Mina. Mina says loud enough for Yvette to hear, “I feel underdressed. No one gave me the memo to buy a Halloween costume before coming.”
The toll of the bell ceases as they approach the square. Rodrigo stops the horse again and this time he dismounts. He gestures for them to follow. Yvette hesitates and says, “What about our stuff and the horse?”
“It’ll be fine,” is all he says as he continues walking.
They hurry to catch up to him as they approach the building at the center of the action which Mina isn’t sure is a church or a banquet hall. The outside lacks a cross or signage that labels it a church, yet it has the vaulted ceilings and high steeple of what classifies as one. Inside, large wood beams run along the ceiling and it’s drafty, a little muggy, and packed with people.
They stand near the entrance. Every seat is filled and people are lining the walls, all waiting for someone to take the stage. A tall man with long blond hair stands beside Mina. She tries not to stare for she has never seen someone with such beautiful skin and pointed ears. She wants to ask him what he uses as a moisturizer but stops herself because maybe it’s not an appropriate thing to ask after his town has just burned down.
She looks around the room and sees the faces of tired people. Tired, confused, maybe angry but all with beautiful skin and tall, slender forms wearing long cloaks. They resemble each other like an extended family despite the varying differences in hair and eye color.
Then someone does take the stage and the voices subside to whispers, then quiet. Those standing, start to kneel but she puts her hand up in protest and they go back to standing. She is tall, with thick locks of black hair and rosy cheeks. She glides like a ghost. Her long green dress and deep purple cape sway a little at the hem which brushes against the wood floor. Her skin reminds Mina of what a dewy morning looks like when millions of delicate droplets cover a lawn. Her voice is like a distant song through the woodlands and there’s a pain that laces her words.
“Family,” she says, “I have met with the counsel in the lower chambers. While we assess the damages to our homes and our land, it is not without a heavy heart that I deliver the decisions made.” She bows her head for a moment. Everyone in the room does the same except for Yvette, Mina, and Marcel. Even Rodrigo seems to know how this all works because his head is bowed too.
It could be a moment of silence. It makes sense and Mina moves to bow her head when the speaker looks back at the crowd with a resilience that wasn’t there moments before. Everyone looks up at her and the fire in her crystalline eyes.
“Our loss is great. Our pain is vicious. The fury unleashed upon us will not be ignored. We will mobilize the legions of the high elves and rain down terror.” The crowd erupts with cheering and chants of praise.
“Wait, what?” Mina says, taken aback as Marcel gives her an equally confused shake of his head.
Then the speaker raises her arms high and her wide sleeves fall back revealing slender arms. “God help us, if Briar Rose wants war, then war she shall have.” The cheering rises again. “My countrymen, my family, we will show the Court of Aurora what Eden Island is made of and they will tremble before us.”
Mina takes a step back and says, “I think we should go now. Maybe this trip was a bad idea after all.”
“I think you’re right,” Yvette says and makes for the exit. Outside the air is dry and the smell of burning wood lingers.
“What the hell is going on here?” Mina says. Rodrigo looks like he wants to say something then stops himself as if he’s not sure of his own words right now.
Marcel puts a finger to his lip in thought and says, “Maybe we’ll find more answers once we find Ardan. Worse-case scenario we go back home and try this again at a later date when the island isn’t at war.”
Mina nods, “Good idea, let-”
“Hey look,” Yvette says holding out her hand. A small white flurry lands in her palm and quickly disintegrates. “It’s snowing now. That’s odd because it isn’t even cold out. It isn’t even winter here. Is it?”
More snowflakes fall in a slow progression from a cloudless sky. Mina looks up and sees nothing but a blue backdrop behind white flurries. “That is odd,” she says.
“The snow is being summoned,” Rodrigo says. “Let's get to the horse. I know where Ardan’s workshop is. I’ll take you there and then I must leave to gather supplies. There will be no going back if we don’t get the hull fixed properly.”
They follow him to where the horse and cart are still standing. He takes the reigns in his hands and says, “Good boy, Pidopo.”
Yvette chuckles, “Did you name a horse that isn’t yours?”
Rodrigo pats Pidopo’s head, “no, that is his name. He said so himself when we met earlier.”
“Rodrigo,” Mina says walking up to him, “who was that woman in the town hall? The woman calling for war in there?”
He grits his teeth and says, “She is Snow White, queen of the seven tribes of elves. She’s summoned the snow to cover the land and she’s declared war on Perceforest, the kingdom to the north.”