Chapter Forty Six
Not all Black and White
MELODY
Melody watched Deirdre cross the floor to where her younger sister lay in a most unflattering angle.
"Get up." Deirdre prodded her with her bare foot.
Eleanor mumbled something incoherent - probably something vulgar - and rolled over lethargically. Typical.
Deirdre crouched beside her and shook her more violently. "I said get your ass up."
Groaning loudly, Eleanor propped herself up on her elbows. "Oh, it's just you," She drawled as she stared bleary-eyed at her sister. "What d'you want?"
"You want to get to the temple, or not?" Deirdre hauled her to her feet.
"Wait, wait." Eleanor bent down and snatched the glass of unfinished brandy. Downing it in one swig, she handed the empty glass to Deirdre and yawned. "Alright. Where were we?"
"We routed the company yesterday." Melody told her. She felt a lot calmer now that the after images of the nightmare were beginning to fade. That didn't mean she didn't still feel horrible. "The locals think we're heroes."
"Heroes," Eleanor scoffed. "Gah. I'm not a hero."
"Didn't say you were one." Deirdre put the glass on a round table that stood nearby. "You remember the woman you were drinking with yesterday at the counter?"
"Yeah, of course." Eleanor scoffed again. "What, did you think I was dead drunk? She said she sells climbing supplies to tourists stupid enough to want to climb the mountains around here."
"So you can hold your liquor. Good for you," Deirdre said sarcastically.
"Sis, I can drink you under the table," Eleanor barked a laugh and looked around. "Did we leave anything else to drink?"
Melody rolled her eyes. "No. You better go wash up. You stink of alcohol."
"You don't smell that great either." Eleanor slurred and shuffled to the other room.
"The woman said to be at the Multayvak shop at ten, right?" Deirdre asked.
Melody nodded. "Let's hope she's grateful enough to give us a free pass on the gear. We don't have any of their local currency."
"Here's hoping." Deirdre agreed.
"Hey!" Eleanor squawked from the other room. "Make a stop by the tavern first. Gotta pick up something good for the climb."
###
So maybe Eleanor isn't such a prick after all, Melody found herself wondering. After all, she'd come through for them, hadn't she? For someone who said she would never dream of putting her life on the line for anyone other than herself, she'd been a team player yesterday.
Melody hadn't really thought of it that way, especially not last night when she was tipsy and breaking down. But now, she was beginning to wonder about Eleanor. She remembered how the ex-Empress had actually saved her skin, not once but twice. Would the tyrant they'd been fighting all through the season have done that?
She stared at Eleanor as the girl bargained with the tavern owner to give them something good that would last them the days-long climb to the Hoffensol temple. But then there was no forgetting the fact that this was the same witch who'd invaded her kingdom, held her parents hostage and sent her and her allies to a whole different reality.
How could she just forget that? But yet there was also no denying what Eleanor had done. She'd saved her life twice last night. Maybe people really could change, given the right push. Melody remembered the elderly villager's words about learning to overlook grievances and giving transgressors a chance to change. Hell, maybe even someone as horrible as Eleanor really could change.
"That was a pretty nasty dream you had back there," Maui mused as he too watched Eleanor bargain fiercely for a bottle of booze.
"Nightmare," Melody corrected him. "You should know. You were in it."
"Yeah. Got to say, I think you could've done a better impression of me. That was a little offensive," Maui deadpanned. "So, about last night?"
"I'm sorry," Melody apologised. "I wasn't thinking straight."
"And you are now?"
"I don't know. But I shouldn't have said those things. I take it all back," Melody admitted. "I don't want you gone. I need you here with me. I can't go through this alone."
"Alright, alright. I'll stay," Maui grinned like his normal boisterous self. "So what do we have here?"
"We're going up the mountain today. But first we need to get ourselves some climbing gear."
"Seems to me like you're both getting pretty chummy with Eleanor," Maui noted. "Things working out well between the three of you, huh?"
"I don't know," She'd been saying that a lot lately. "She did save me last night, so there's that I guess."
"That's something," Maui sounded surprised. "I wouldn't have pegged her for a team player. Guess your little beatdown knocked some sense into her," He guffawed at his own joke. "You think it'll last?"
"I hope so. We've already come this far." Melody watched as the tavern owner finally relented and handed a tall bottle to Eleanor.
"Nice," Eleanor said in the foreign language and turned away from the counter and brandished a new bottle of whiskey, a wide grin on her face. "Got a pretty decent one."
Deirdre rolled her eyes. "Can we go? It's almost ten."
Melody checked the piece of paper for the hand-drawn directions that the tavern owner had given them a couple of minutes ago. "Head west past the farm with the light blue crops to the very end of the path. Second last hut on the left."
"Alright," Deirdre grabbed the bottle away from Eleanor. "Not now."
Eleanor hissed angrily but made no move to pursue an argument. Sourly, she followed both Melody and Deirdre as they tried to find the Multayvak shop that the stocky woman had told them about.
As Melody and her companions passed by the wooden houses belonging to the villagers, she took in their surroundings. Crops still grew in the heart of winter - somehow. The corpses that'd been left in the streets yesterday had already vanished. In their place, children were out playing in the cold, shouting and screaming happily. Farmers, carpenters and hunters went about their usual business, while others sewed tunics and carpets outside their houses where the light was brighter. It was as though an occupation had never occurred, judging by the way the locals were going about their daily lives.
"I think it's down this way," Deirdre pointed down a path between two rows of wooden houses.
Melody checked the drawing. "Yeah."
They went to the end of the path, just as the tavern owner had instructed, and came to the second last hut on the left. A signboard made out of wood - what else - hung from the roof by two ropes looped through holes punched in it.
"Multayvak." Deirdre's frown eased slightly. "It's the place."
Melody pushed open the door which creaked, announcing their entrance. The stocky woman from yesterday sat behind a tall counter, looking up when the trio entered.
"Ah," she spread her hands and rattled off a string of words in that deep, friendly voice.
Lost, Melody raised an eyebrow at Deirdre.
"She's saying we're later than she expected." Deirdre said.
The woman pointed at Eleanor and barked something else, then laughed.
"She said Eleanor shouldn't be standing after drinking that much yesterday." Deirdre relayed.
Eleanor snorted.
Melody shook her head and surveyed the shop. As the stocky woman promised, the shop she owned had all the climbing gear they would need. Shelves upon shelves of all sorts of equipment and garments filled the walls. Winter jackets, fur scarfs, hoods, thick pants, bear skins, woollen socks and winter boots lined one of the walls. The other two walls were stacked with climbing essentials of all assortments.
The stocky shop owner smiled and said something to Deirdre.
"She says that seeing as how we saved her village, we can take what we need free of charge."
"Well that's nice," Melody grinned. She'd been banking on that.
"While she's at it maybe she can offer us more drinks. She's gotta be keeping more around here." Eleanor remarked.
Ignoring her, Melody started pacing around the shop, her eyes studying the shelves for the essential items they would need, based on what she knew about climbing. She had to consider the possibility that they might run into an avalanche or a blizzard might hit them mid-climb. Did the shop have countermeasure equipment? Probably.
When they were done stocking up their inventory, the stocky woman cheerfully bade them farewell and good fortune for their climb. As they were exiting, the woman shouted something to them that made Deirdre stiffen at her words.
"What?" Melody demanded.
Deirdre hesitated before speaking. "She said to stay safe. Not many people make it back from the Hoffensol temple alive. Those that do all come down the mountain as raving lunatics."
ELSA
Peggy helped them get ready, and Elsa had to admit the maidservant was quite good at it. Janus more or less already looked like the Vodarian Eagle soldier he was meant to play owing to the fact that he'd been a mercenary and also that he was good at pulling off whatever role he played, so that just left Elsa and Tracy. Fetching clothes for both girls, Peggy set to work making them look like their roles; Elsa as a cook, and Tracy as a laundress. All the while, Peggy remained largely silent apart from asking them to lift their arms slightly, or to ask Elsa to close her eyes as Peggy dabbed on some powder to make it seem as though the cook had just come from the kitchen.
The official cover story was that the duke was headed into town for an important meeting in the cafe located right beside the merchants' square, and he was bringing one of his Vodarian Eagles with him. And since his carriage was headed to merchants' square, his head cook and the laundress were allowed to tag along so that they could pick up ingredients for tonight's dinner and to purchase new soap for washing clothes.
It was a believable story, but Elsa still felt jumpy about the whole thing. All it took was a spot of bad luck for someone to recognise them, and then it would all be over. But how would the public even know what the three of them looked like? Would Hans have issued out professional sketches of them to the news publishers? Had news of their presence in the city already spread so quickly?
Focus. You wanted this, she told herself firmly as they all sat in the back of the duke's spacious carriage. The duke's horses were aged and mature, moving at a relatively lax pace and slowly towing the carriage into town. Very soon, the upper class estates were left behind and crowded streets came into view.
As the carriage trundled along slowly, Elsa surveyed the town through the large, well polished glass window. In their frenzy to escape the day before, she hadn't had the luxury of taking in the sights of the city or survey the terrain and layout of the enemy's territory. But now, under the guise of the head cook of House Voda, she could.
They passed by one of many busy streets, where houses were crammed side by side, running parallel to the road. The road itself was relatively narrow, with hackney cabs waiting on both sides for customers who needed to get to somewhere else in the city. On the next street, a couple of men were shovelling a thick layer of snow off the road in order to allow carriages to pass through, while a woman was walking her dog as she chatted with her friends.
These Exonians look so ordinary, Elsa found herself musing. But of course they did. What else would they have looked like? Feeling rather ridiculous, she stifled a scoff at herself. In her mind's eye, even as far back as when the Empire first became a threat to her home, she had always pictured the Exonians as barbarians clubbing one another to death, living in a cruel city where the skies were red, the buildings were continually on fire and the air was clouded by thick, dark smoke.
It was only now that she thought about it that she felt ashamed of how preposterous her preconceived notions were. The capital of Exon was just like any other city or civilisation, and the citizens were just regular folks. No one was tearing their neighbour apart, or skewering each other with long staves. Despite the fact that they were Exonians living in the Empire which was spearheaded by a mad tyrant, these people still went about with their daily lives the same way Arendellians did.
"You alright?" Janus' baritone voice played softly in her ear.
She turned away from the window and looked at him. "Yeah. I was just…thinking."
"Anything I should be worried about?"
She shook her head and dropped her voice. "No. It's stupid, really. I always imagined the Exonian people living here as horrible barbarians. Murderers. Thieves. But they're just as regular as anyone else. I always thought we were vastly different from them. I couldn't be more wrong."
Janus put a hand on her thigh and squeezed tenderly. "Not everything is black and white. And neither are we. We're flawed too, even though we're standing on the right side of the war."
"I'm not sure there is a right side anymore," Elsa murmured under her breath. Would the Coalition be justified in storming the capital at the points of bayonets, sending innocent civilians scattering through the streets as soldiers laid siege to the city? Once, she would've thought it necessary to end the war and to stop the reign of the evil Empress - and now emperor. But now, looking at the Exonian locals, she realised that it was as Janus just said. It's not all black and white.
"We are arriving," Ludwig told them. The duke sat opposite them in the carriage, dressed impeccably in a dark grey suit. Beside him was Tracy, who looked laughably uncomfortable.
She wore a maroon dress with frills at the edges, and her dreadlocks had been tied back into a neat, black ponytail under a pretty bonnet. Suffice to say, Tracy looked nothing like the scrappy refugee that she was.
On the other hand, Janus was dressed in the red and white-striped uniform of the Vodarian Eagles. But it didn't really matter what he wore, since he could always blend in with the ease of an everyman. His stealth and mercenary training gave him an edge compared to everyone else when it came to spying or cloak and dagger stuff.
As for herself, she wore an all white dress - albeit very different from her Snow Queen one - and a chef's jacket, complete with apron and gloves. Her thick, long wavy hair had been tied into an immaculate bun, much like the one she used to keep as an uptight teenager. Peggy had powdered her face unevenly to make it seem as though she'd just come from a kitchen full of flour, and Elsa had to admit, it was good attention to detail. She wouldn't have thought of that.
The carriage rolled to a stop, and Janus opened the door for the two girls and Duke Voda to climb down. Ever the noble gentleman, Ludwig disembarked and offered his hand to both Tracy and Elsa, who took it and climbed down gingerly.
"We're in Merchants' Square now." Ludwig said in a low voice, and Elsa had to strain to hear him over the din and ruckus in the square. "I need you three to wait out here while I duck into the cafe and pre-empt my Equalitar associates of your presence."
Still somewhat wary, Elsa nodded in understanding. "We'll wait here." She watched as Ludwig nodded and headed for the cafe located at the edge of two streets. The merchants' square bustled around them, with businessmen trading, arguing, and making deals. Locals bargained with the merchants, while other merchants tried to get the attention of others. If anything, it was a rowdy, crowded marketplace like any other. All sorts of goods were on display. Home supplies, clothing, footwear, wood for carpentry, ropes for sailors, mess tins for soldiers, the list went on. Mothers went about their morning shopping while their children played on the sidewalks.
Elsa's attention was caught by a particular group of kids nearby, or more accurately, what they were doing. Glancing at Janus and Tracy, she inched nearer to the children while being careful not to look too conspicuous. She strained her ears as she watched them swinging sticks at one another, shouting in Exonite.
"Form up on me!" The boy shouted in a high pitched voice as he clutched a dry tree branch in his hand like a musket. He didn't look older than ten.
Another two boys rushed up behind the first and knelt, also with sticks in their hands. They wore red caps on their heads which were probably supposed to pass off as military berets. Serious expressions on their faces, the three kids imitated the sound of muskets going off and even jerked backwards from the recoil of their "weapons".
Slightly further down the sidewalk, two more boys were taking cover behind a "brick wall", crouching and springing up periodically to level their tree branches to their shoulders and imitate firing noises. These two boys wore green caps instead of red ones, and Elsa could only guess that it meant they were supposed to be the enemy.
"Charge!" The first boy yelled, and the three of them charged at the two others a short distance away. Another spray of fire erupted and the two boys in green caps pretended to collapse, lying motionless in the snow.
"We did it!" One of the boys in a red cap shouted triumphantly. "The Empire is safe!"
"The evil Coalition is defeated!" The other boy raised his tree branch above his head and whooped in joy.
"So is the fate of all enemies who try to invade our home," The first boy said with a stoic, cold expression on his face. "No soldier or witch will destroy the Empire. Long live the emperor!"
"Long live the emperor!" The kids chorused in unison, and the two boys who'd been lying in the snow clambered to their feet.
"It's our turn to be the Imperial Horde!" One of them removed his green cap with disgust. "Let's switch!"
"I don't want to be the bad guy!" One of the boys reluctantly removed his red cap.
"It's something, ain't it?" Tracy was the first one to speak among them as they watched the kids switch roles and continue their game. "Seeing the war from their eyes."
Janus remained silent but nodded.
"To them, we're the villains." Elsa whispered back. "And the Empire is the hero of their story."
"Don't forget the emperor," Tracy added, disgust evident in her voice. "If only they know the truth."
"This is their truth," Janus said quietly. "The only truth they've ever known."
Elsa watched as the scene repeated itself and the "Exonian soldiers" defeated the "Coalition" ones. Janus was right. This was the only truth they knew. And it wasn't just the kids. To the Exonians, the Coalition was the villain, attempting to march right up to their doorstep and storm the capital and destroy their lives.
"It's bloody disgusting," Tracy turned away. "I can't watch anymore."
"Can you really blame them?" Elsa met Tracy's eyes. "To us, the Empire is the enemy. But to them…"
"It's just a matter of being born in the wrong place at the wrong time." Janus grimaced. "They're all just regular people born on the wrong side of the war."
"You say that like you're sure we're gonna win this one," Tracy glanced at him. "Not that I don't hope we win."
"And what happens to all these people if we do win?" Janus looked back at the kids.
"That's why we need to make sure this works." Elsa set her jaw. "Dethrone the emperor, topple the system, and hope the Equalitar can pave the way for a new republic."
As if on cue, Ludwig emerged from the cafe at the corner of two streets and signalled for them to join him. The trio walked briskly across the street and met the duke by the door.
"It took some convincing but the Equalitar will see you," Ludwig told them.
"How do we know we can trust that no one will sell us out?" Janus said.
"You don't, but I do. These men and women are ready to do anything it takes to dethrone the new emperor and do away with the imperial system," Ludwig held the door open. "Now come on."