The Stepsister Scheme

around. “Shouldn’t we be getting ready? We can catch them before—”
    “Catch them and do what?” Talia tossed their bags onto the ground. “We still don’t know where the Duchess lives. If we fight your stepsisters here, they might be able to summon reinforcements. Or they could escape again. No, we wait and let them lead us to the Duchess’ front door. Then we follow them down and do a bit of snooping.”
    “What were you thinking?” Snow asked. “Does Danielle look like she’s up for your brand of torture?”
    “She did better than you did your first time,” Talia shot back. “If she’s going to travel with us, she needs to be able to defend herself. Besides, I made sure to take it easy on her.”
    “I remember your idea of taking it easy,” Snow said.
    Talia ignored her, tossing a hunk of cheese and smoked herring into Danielle’s lap. “Eat quickly, Princess.”
    Danielle tossed the herring right back for the sake of her stomach, but she devoured the cheese. She finished off a large hunk of bread dipped in honey as well, along with the lamb from last night. Then Snow offered her a leftover muffin, and memories of her nightmare nearly cost her everything she had eaten.
    “I’ll get the aviars ready,” Talia said.
    Snow began bundling up the blankets while Talia fed the remainder of the apples to the aviars. Danielle ate as fast as she could, but by the time she crammed the last of the cheese into her mouth, the others were already finished. “I’m sorry,” Danielle said. “I didn’t mean to oversleep. I would have—”
    “Don’t worry,” Snow said. “I needed time to contact Queen Bea anyway. Besides, it’s normal for pregnant women to sleep more. Especially when Talia spends the whole night working them to exhaustion.”
    “It wasn’t the whole night,” Talia said. “And the stretches should have helped her legs after all that riding.”
    Snow rolled her eyes. She took Midnight by the reins and led her to the edge of the maze. Danielle followed, her hand on Wind’s neck for support.
    The great beast was clearly restless, shifting back and forth and ruffling her wings. Whether she was eager to get back to the open air or simply picking up on Danielle’s own tension was impossible to say.
    “Here they come,” Snow said. She closed her eyes. “They’ve transformed from rats to birds. Two hawks and a crow, skimming the treetops.”
    “Wait for them,” said Talia.
    Danielle nodded. A part of her wanted to fly out of the maze and swoop down on her stepsisters, driving them to the ground so she could force them to free Armand.
    Between her own exhaustion and her poor riding skills, she would be lucky if she didn’t fall off her aviar.
    “They’re flying hard,” Snow said. “They must have rested during the night. There’s no way they could have kept up that pace for so long.”
    Talia climbed onto Socks’ back. Snow mounted Midnight, never opening her eyes.
    Danielle put one hand on her aviar’s wing, the other on the long neck. The last time, Quink had lifted her onto Wind. “I don’t want to hurt you,” she whispered.
    Wind snorted and dropped carefully to her knees, holding perfectly still as Danielle dragged herself onto the aviar’s back. She bit her lip as yesterday’s bruises announced their presence.
    “There they go,” Snow said. “They’re skimming down the cliff, toward the river. Looks like they’re planning to dive right into the—Hey, that’s neat.”
    “What is it?” asked Danielle.
    “At the bottom of the cliff, there’s a shallow cave. I think it’s covered by some kind of seaweed or vines.” She opened her eyes and beamed. “That’s why they waited until morning. Even if they had gotten here last night, the river is really just a branch of the ocean, which means the tides would have covered the cave.”
    “Couldn’t they transform into fish?” Talia asked.
    “Stacia can’t swim,” Danielle said. “She’s terrified of water. Charlotte used to torment her about it. Once, before their mother married my father, Charlotte nearly drowned her in the bath. She said she was going to wash the ugly off of Stacia’s face.”
    “Should have scrubbed harder,” Talia said. Before Danielle could respond, Talia twitched her reins, nudging Socks forward. “Are they gone?”
    Snow nodded. “They just flew into the cave.”
    “Keep an eye out,” said Talia. “I can’t imagine the Duchess appreciates guests, but there shouldn’t