of the situation sank in, she pulled together my personal retainers. I guess they were
her
personal retainers now. I felt a great wave of relief when I saw that no one else had been injured as severely as Brock.
Although the verdict was still out on Sir Forsythe. No one had seen him after heâd leaped out the great windows after the dragon.
Lucille gathered them all around the splintered throne as the night air blew in through the shattered grand windows, a half-dozen handmaid-warriors; Grace, Mary, Laya, Thea, Krys, and Rabbit. Lucille looked out the window at the horizon, as if she was searching for the dragon.
For me.
The wind bit our face as she said, âYouâre here because, after Brock and Sir Forsythe, youâre the people Frank trusts most.â
âYour Highness?â I heard Krysâs voice from behind us. âWhy are you talking like Brock?â
Lucille sighed, and Mary said, âIt isnât Princess Frank anymore.â
â
What?
â said several voices at once.
Lucille turned around to face Mary. âYou didnât tell them?â
âToo much to explain,â Mary said. âAnd people could have overheard.â
Lucille nodded.
Grace, the nominal leader of the six, stepped forward hobbling as she leaned on a crutch that was made for someone about two inches taller. âWhat happened here?â
âBeyond what you saw?â Lucille gestured at the corpse of Prince Daemonlas, which still lay where it had fallen nearly two hours ago. âThe spell he cast threw me out of my body and back into this one.â
Grace waved at the remains of the great hall and said, âSo you didnât do all this?â
âNo.â
âThen who did?â Laya asked.
Lucille hesitated and Mary filled the silence by quietly saying, âYou donât
know
.â
âDonât know what?â Grace asked.
âFrank,â Lucille whispered.
Most everyone else responded by saying,
âWhat?â
except Mary, who looked disappointed, and Rabbit who made up for being mute by providing a you-must-be-crazy expression.
âItâs the only thing that makes sense. We swapped bodies. Again.â
Krys shook her head. âNo, it doesnât make sense. That would mean he tried to kill you, that he almost killed Brock.â
âThatâs better than the alternative.â
âWhat alternative?â Grace said.
âThat heâs gone.â
The only sound in the hall was the wind blowing from outside and the distant sound of chirping insects. I saw the girlsâ faces through Lucilleâs eyes and realized they all thought I was dead.
âNo! Iâm here! I havenât gone anywhere!â
I tried to shout through whatever barrier separated me and Lucille. We were in the same skull, she
had
to sense I was here on some level.
Or not.
For all my mental screaming, Lucille went on talking to the girls as if I wasnât there. So much that it became hard for
me
to believe I was still there.
âIâm going to need your help,â Lucille said to them.
Grace nodded. âIf we can help Frankââ
âWhatever happened to him,â Krys interjected.
âWeâre at your service, Your Highness,â Grace finished.
âGood. Thank you.â
âWhat do you need from us?â Grace said.
âFirst I need all of you sworn to secrecy. No one outside this room is to know Frank is missing.â
I am not missing! Iâm still here!
The response was three âWhatâs, two âWhyâs, and a puzzled expression from Rabbit.
Lucille sighed, and she explained, âFirst off, we donât know if the spell misfired when Sir Forsythe killed the elf. If this was an attack directed at me specifically, and the body-swapping is unintentional, we donât want the attacker to know what happened. It could invite another attack.â
âWith all due respect, Your Highness,â Grace