The cart had started moving about halfway through the rest of their groups gossip session. Ratface had watched the world go by from the window while they waited for meals. The small man had come by to inform them that the first day people would be brought meals. Apparently there had been an issue with the runes in the restaurant.

  “It was as if the runes had just been completely drained,” he said before moving on. Ratface grimaced. The other glamour.

  That night she slipped out of her apartment once everyone else was asleep. She slipped through the cart closer to where the restaurant cart was but stopped when she came across one room still lit up.

  It was Lily and her squire. The two of them were playing a card game of all things. Lily laughed and handed the squire a drink which the squire took readily. It was the first time she’d seen the two of them calm. Ratface shrank further into the shadows and flit past them, trying not to intrude any more than she had. She couldn’t help seeing the parallels between those two and her and Abigail. Were Lily and Abigail like that before the fields? It was hard to imagine.

  She opened the door between her cart and the restaurant one. She was nearly yanked out as she did so. The cart was whizzing past the land, and she was buffeted by wind as she held on. She grabbed onto the next door and tumbled through it. The winds stopped as the door was pulled shut behind her and an amused chuckle met her.

  “Not very stealthy, what if someone else had been here?” asked the glamour. He held his hand out to help her up which Ratface ignored.

  “There’s only one way in or out, if someone else was here, they’re not about to miss a door being opened, are they?” said Ratface. She stood up and dusted herself off. The glamour pulled back his hand looking oddly hurt. Ratface tilted her head, and the expression disappeared.

  “So, what do you want? No story this time?”

  The glamour gave snorted as he walked away from her.

  “So, like a rat to bear it fangs,” he muttered. Ratface shivered at how goblin he sounded.

  “No story tonight. Instead, I have information about your goblin friend.”

  Ratface straightened at that and took a step closer. The glamour laughed a grim laugh.

  “Don’t be so eager, he’s being kept in your next trial,” said the glamour. Ratface frowned.

  “How do you know about the trial?”

  “There are few who can notice me when I truly try. That champion of theirs has quite the final trial for you all.”

  “Care to share?” Ratface asked.

  “That would be telling,” he said, “no. Instead you’ll be helping me with finding something in the final cart.”

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   thought Kryssa. Ratface eyes widened as the glamour revealed herself hiding in the armour and projected her thoughts out.

  “Ah, the glamour,” said the glamour.

  

  “I don’t believe it went down like that,” said the glamour. He tilted his head and Ratface’s eyes narrowed. That was confusion.

  

  Immediately Ratface’s armour turned on and she whipped her crossbow out. She didn’t like her chances against an elf, but what choice did she have here?

  The glamour grinned and stepped away. Where once only one of them had stood now the goblin glamour and elf stood facing them.

  “How could you tell?” asked the elf.

  

  The actual glamour sneered and took a step closer before the elf stopped him. With the two next to each other Ratface could see the difference. The glamour was more aggressive.

  “I don’t understand, I thought you said you couldn’t get into the city?” she asked.

  The elf shrugged.

  “Partly true. You getting in made it easier. Since then, the champion has been so focused on you and your knight that it’s made my own movements easier. Elves aren’t restricted from coming to human lands you know.”

  Ratface frowned beneath her helmet. She hadn’t seen an elf but she also hadn’t really looked. It wasn’t like he couldn’t change his form at will either.

  “What was it you wanted here?” Ratface asked.

  “That serpent we took from is in the next cart. I need to feed it something, but it doesn’t trust me. You however have a live serpent core in you.” He held her gaze, “It’s something that will keep the serpent alive.”

  She was missing something here, but Ratface wasn’t sure what it was. There was another problem of course. Krysa may have got that information out of him but now she and the glamour were seen as a threat not a tool. She could see it flicker through the elf and glamour’s eyes. If she refused she wouldn’t be leaving the cart.

   she told Krysa privately.

  

  

  Krysa said nothing but the face Ratface’s armour didn’t light up she took as agreement. She kept her crossbow facing the elf, her eyes had never left him. She’d have to trust Krysa to watch the glamour.

  “I’ll still help you, but it’ll cost you.”

  “Are you really in a position to-” began the glamour but his elf cut in.

  “Name your price,” he said.

  “First things first, you leave these carts.”

  “It’s called a train, and it’ll make meeting you in the capital much harder,” said the elf.

  “Well, you should have thought about that before you needed my help, shouldn’t you? Leave the ‘train’ or I don’t feed it a thing.”

  The elf watched her for a while. Some emotion was warring on his face. Ratface didn’t like that it looked like pride.

  “I assume you have another price?” he asked. He was grinning now and Ratface very nearly pulled the trigger.

  “I want the ability to make glamours on my armour. I assume you’re an authority.”

  He snorted.

  “Close enough.” He waved his hand and a small bird flitted from it and into her armour where it was absorbed. Ratface could already feel Kryssa examining the new ability.

  “Done. You know you could’ve just taken that power if you’d learn the skill I showed you.”

  “Leave what you need fed on the table and get out of here,” said Ratface.

  The elf tried to say something else but held his hands up when Ratface’s finger pressed began to squeeze the trigger. Not enough to fire, but enough that she could with a twitch. He walked over to a window and opened it before falling out of the cart. A moment later his glamour switched into a bird and chased after him leaving Kryssa and Ratface alone in the cart. She eased her finger of the trigger with a shaky breath.

  Within the armour she could feel Kryssa seething.

  Well, she’d managed not to get kidnapped. Now she just had to feed a giant snake while being yelled at by a glamour.