"Aren't we all?" Merrigan muttered, thinking of Bryan. She found it wryly amusing, in a sad sort of way, that she and Belinda had the same sort of experience with the royal brothers. Those who knew better didn't think the boys who loved them were worthy.
"Besides," the other princess continued, "you have a magical book—that has to mean you're a princess, at the very least."
"Yes." Merrigan felt that queasy-yet-light sensation wash through her. How long since she had told anyone her real name, besides Bib? "I used to be Princess Merrigan of Avylyn. I was married to the king of Carlion, but when he ... well, honestly, my late husband was an idiot, one of the most selfish ... well, I thought I loved him. He hung himself in his own lies. Only a fool believes his own lies, don't you think? When Leffisand died, he left me in such a mess and this is what happened when I tried to fix it." She gestured at herself, from head to foot.
"Oh, and here I've been dripping all over you. I'm sorry, Merrigan." Belinda flung her arms around her and rocked them both back and forth for several moments. "I'm so sorry. I swear, no matter what happens, I shall be here for you, and we will find a cure for your curse as well as mine. Let us be friends, shall we?"
She sat back, gripping Merrigan's shoulders, holding her out at arm's length with such a charming, pleading smile on her glistening wet face. How could Merrigan deny her?
Shouting erupted at the far end of the warehouse, where the children were gathering for story time. Merrigan and Belinda held hands as they ran to see what had happened. She wasn't surprised to see Aubrey come running, shouting for everyone to come with him.
"It's happening tonight. Any minute now. We have to be there. I need the children," he shouted, as he turned back to the doorway. "Mistress Mara, please, you have to come with me."
"What's happening tonight?" Merrigan demanded.
"The managers caught the weavers leaving the inn and accused them of leaving the city, and now they're pretending to be hurt, insulted, falsely accused—" Aubrey's handsome, stern, princely face showed through the bony illusion for a moment.
"They're going to unveil the clothes tonight?" she guessed.
In the end, they gathered up all the children over the age of five and under the age of twelve, and left them in their nightshirts and robes. The orphanage had two wagons. They crammed as many children as they could into the wagons, and for good measure tethered them in long lines, anchored to the foster parents, to ensure they didn't lose anyone. Merrigan concentrated on Gilda and the mortal embarrassment that would shatter her young friend, every time she considered this was too much work, useless, a waste of effort.
Their wagons pulled into the courtyard in front of the warehouses and drove into the loading area inside the one on the far right. Moments later, massive freight wagons pulled out from the far left warehouse. In the time it took to unload the children, three freight wagons became a platform, with planks thrown across them and then carpets. Merrigan and Belinda clung to each other as they stared at the streams of people flowing into the open area in front of Gilbrick's warehouses. Guardsmen wearing the livery of several noble houses forced their way through the rapidly growing crowd, making them give way for the nobles to come in and stand on the back side of the platform on the wagons.
"This is awful." Merrigan turned to look for Aubrey. He had to be in a panic over the massive audience gathered for the mortal embarrassment of both Gilda and Gilbrick.
The young man was nowhere to be seen. Then she was busy keeping the children together, stopping the milling crowd from stepping between the children and breaking the tethers. Merrigan held back a rising urge to shriek her frustration, simply because she knew no one would hear her in the rising clamor. Finally, they had to retreat back to the orphanage wagons inside the warehouse. There was no room to stand without being pressed from every side. The children were constantly under threat of being trampled.
Merrigan realized with a bubble of relieved laughter that climbing up into the wagons gave them all a vantage point. The only better place where they could see what was about to happen was to stand on the platform.
The crowd's noise grew louder, then suddenly dropped to a murmur. Belinda let out a cry and pointed, and Merrigan turned, nearly falling off the wagon, to see. Aubrey stood a head taller than many of the people around him, and he led a cloaked figure with his arm wrapped around her. Merrigan knew that had to be Gilda. They edged their way around the perimeter of the crowd, their progress made easier as the surging current of onlookers turned toward movement coming from the first warehouse. Four apprentices came forward, dragging a loading ramp covered in several carpet runners, and leaned it against the far end of the wagon platform. Four more
