Most treasured Zann,

We had a plan. But the first real challenge would be coming and going from the palace. “The way I got here isn’t really practical,” I had told Wryth. “You have to infiltrate Cas Crid and hope everything goes just right.”

“There must be a way. There are greenkind here in the palace who visit the world frequently,” she said.

“Then let’s get hold of one of them.”

She tapped her chin speculatively. I knew she was thinking what I was thinking. Abducting a lauran noble? They’d kill us. And probably go to war with Amaydya.

Of course, it would be easy to just physically walk out of the place. We could do that. But that wouldn’t put us in the normal world where all the people lived. That’s why, when I tried going to the palace recently on the coach, I found the place empty. The greenkind had removed their court to some kind of realm that wasn’t exactly the same one that we humans lived in. And that realm was where Wryth and I were now.

Our favourite idea was to just break the spell, or whatever it was, that was keeping the palace just outside of existence. It was going to have to happen eventually anyway. But I pointed out to Wryth that this would put us in conflict with the royal greenkind, the Valnelatars and all that, before we wanted to be. And she pointed out to me that if we did break the spell they’d probably just do something else instead and we’d be just as badly off. So we didn’t pursue it.

“One considers,” Wryth said, gazing into the air, “In Amaydya we have little knowledge of the greenkind. Just what we hear from Crideon and its surrounding lands. But we do have stories of, oh, the strange people of the forest. The pranks they play on one, and so forth.”

“That’s hard to imagine,” I said. “But go on.”

“Yes. In one such story, the lost children must find their way out of the mazes and webs of the forest people. Spells that keep them lost and entrapped. So they pull a trick on the magic spells. They wear their cloaks and caps backwards on their bodies, does one see, and then the mazes and webs think that they’re walking in the other direction, and does not keep them bound in the spells.”

I thought about it. I had never heard of anything like that. “Do you really think it’s that simple?”

“I don’t know. But one could attempt it quite easily.”

“I like it,” I said, and stood up. She collected an extra guard cap and shortcoat from her guardpost, and we went down to the main gate.

We were standing in the sun, putting the uniforms on backwards, when a greenkind man cleared his throat.

I looked over. He was looking at us skeptically, and the cords around his sword were hanging free. He was in uniform, like us, except that his was gleaming white from his shako to his slippers. It was, of course, one of the royal greenkind guards of the Immaculate Zone.

The Immaculate Zone were the personal guards of the Valnelatar family. They never cooperated with the Rosolla Guards, and in fact preferred to pretend that we didn’t exist. They were a burning pain in the pisser.

“A moment, goodfolk,” he said. Right away, putting us in our place. You call someone “goodfolk” if you want them to dig a hole in your lane. Or shine your boots. “You are Amaydyan guards?”

“I am an officer of the Amaydyan guards,” Wryth answered. “My colleague borrows our uniform because of the unseasonal chill in the air.” The weather, by the way, was sunny and warm.

He frowned at her and moved his hand around me, as though he was feeling the air near my body with the back of his hand. Then he poked my leg.

“Ow,” I said. “Don’t do that.”

“Who are you?” he asked.

“My name’s Srix,” I said. “Who are you?”

“I am Llyll of the Immaculate Zone. Do you know what that means?”

“That you wipe thoroughly?” Wryth tilted her head forward at an angle that didn’t suggest that she found anything amusing.

“It means that you cannot lie to me.”

I knew this, of course. They could determine the truth of anything you said to them. They had all kinds of annoying little tricks like that. “I’ve just been telling Wryth here that you fellows in the Immaculate Zone were all very handsome and pleasant and that I liked you very much.” This time Wryth did smile, just a little.

Llyll frowned again. I don’t think he was used to being the butt of the joke. “The Immaculate Zone is charged with keeping danger from threatening the royal family at all times. And you are redolent with forbidden magic. Who are you?”

I didn’t want to talk to him about the magic. It was probably the effect of tasting the Sauce back during the Nap that he was detecting, and that conversation couldn’t go anywhere good. Might as well give him some truth that he wouldn’t know what to do with. “I am a special operative of the Rosolla Guard, and I’m on a mission to resolve the current crisis. I’ve encountered many different kinds of magic on this mission and you aren’t authorized to know about any of it. But if you want to keep the Valnelatars safe, you should be helping me.”

Llyll didn’t like that, but it was all true, so he couldn’t object. “And your name?”

“My name is Srix,” I said, meeting his gaze, speaking carefully enough that he knew that I knew that he knew that I was lying. “We’re going now, and you can give us a nice little kiss to welcome us back when you see us again. Which you will.” And we strode off through the main gate.

And Wryth’s silly trick with the backwards clothing worked! I could see the old coach stop at the bottom of the hill.

“I see the rumours one hears of the good relations between the Rosollas and the Zone are true,” Wryth said. “Isn’t he authorized to hear about your experiences?”

“No. They’re my experiences, and I didn’t authorize him, so he’s not authorized. This was a good trick, by the way, with the caps and coats. I wonder if it works more than once.”

“One must roll dice on occasion,” she said, and took a sheaf of Amaydyan intelligence reports out of an inside pocket, so we could consult them about our destination.

I’m so sorry,

Ybel