Day Two-Twenty-Six: Pedal to the Settle... ment

On the road again, diary. STILL on the road again. I feel like that should be accompanied by a jaunty tune and friendship, but music is lacking and m'friends are all tense as hell.

I'M tense as hell. My house is in danger, man! I JUST GOT THAT THING!

We've been travelling all night. Queen Daena hasn't let up once in the last eight hours. Hence my almost total lack of sleep. I'm afraid to ask her to stop the Matriarch for a bit, 'cause the look on her face… let's just say I'm not gonna cross that look. It's one I've never seen on Daena before.

Determination. That might be the word for it. Also: pissed. I've seen pissed before, but now she can actually do something about her anger. Scary.

Because she's not even out of breath from pedalling the Matriarch (not difficult for a woman whose legs have been flailing non-stop for years), Daena called us all together for a meeting on what we would do when we reach Castle Bonvoyage. It was a short meeting, really, 'cause all we CAN do is plow towards the castle's secret entrance, get inside the walls, and hope for the best.

Or, okay, it WOULD have been a short meeting. 'cept I decided, given everything that's goin' on, to finally bring a few things to light. Namely the stuff I was doing with The Baron. Y'know, spying on Driscol the Count and Evangelina and so forth. Queen Daena looked pretty relieved to know that The Baron was on top of things, back home, though she wonders if he'll be enough to protect King Jeffrey.

(I've seen The Baron try to run before. Dude's reeeeeally out of shape. I bet protecting Jeffrey is a 'no.')

I left out one teensy thing: the hole. That might not seem so teensy to you, diary, but I fully remember that dream I had about Queen Daena dying if I told her about the hole. I'm sure it's pretty bloody important to all this, as I BET Driscol wants to take over so he can get at all the valuable goodies packed into the rocks under the castle, but… no. No, I just can't tell Queen Daena, 'cause I'm convinced dreams are a window into the future.

Like that dream about a polar bear. That came true.

And the werewolves. That REALLY came true.

And the castle on fire? If there is a siege, you bet your ass it's gonna come true.

And the… door?

…

Forget the door.

I'll take dreams as accurate any day, is my point. I'll take 'em seriously. Better to be prepped than not, eh? That's what I say, diary. So I'll keep the hole to myself, for now, 'cause who knows - maybe all that metal they're secretly mining will come in handy in a fight.

Enough about the hole. We chatted for a good forty-five minutes about Driscol, his plans, what I'd learned, and what it could mean for the siege. We didn't manage to come up with anything substantial, I'm sad to say, but it was really nice to get all that stuff out in the open. Ahhh, breath of fresh air.

Which is what I'm enjoying now. Libby's trying to cover one of the holes in the Matriarch's shell, and I'm sitting near her on the catwalks. The ride's surprisingly a lot smoother up here than it is down on the queen's grass mound, and I think Daena wanted to talk to her daughter alone anyway. As far as I can tell Celine's in the branches of the queen's tree, though you can never be sure with that girl.

Still. Better a kid who will talk to you creepily than no communication at all. Unless Eve actually IS communicating? She's jabbered a few more nonsense words at me since we left… but… fucked if I know what they mean.

Maybe she… has… indigestion…

…

Hm…

I feel like I should be helping Libby, but she said I'll just fuck things up more if I try to help. So here I am, utterly useless, writing away, staring at my daughter's armoured legs as they dangle from the Matriarch's sunroof. She loves sitting up there, though you'd never be able to tell it by the look on her face.

Eve. You can stop this siege before it even starts, can't you? With your insane combat skills? I hope so. I have so many friends back home… we need to save them all from that bastard who dares to call himself a lord.

We're coming for you, Driscol.

(Wow, I almost sounded badass there. Didn't I? Tell me I did.)

Sincerely,

Dragomir the Guard