Hans rushed to Louise as soon as he and Rosalind walked through the layer of Roslav's magic. He pulled her close and kissed her on top of her head, surprising her.
"What's wrong?" the girl asked when he did not say anything as she searched his green eyes, which tried to avoid hers, for answers to his unexpected behaviour.
Louise looked across the small crowd gathered outside the tents towards Rosalind then, but found her deep in conversation with Roslav. The fairy did not look her way even though Louise was sure that she must have heard her confused thoughts and unspoken questions.
So he knows, Louise concluded, and finally noticed Rosalind nodding her head slightly, in response either to her thoughts or to whatever Roslav was saying to her at the moment.
"Hans..." the girl whispered, looking back at her friend.
"Look," he said, not feeling ready to hear what she was about to tell him.
Taking her hand in his, Hans pulled her against the stream of butterflies and moths escorting their patients back inside the tent. They stopped by the shimmering veil of softly buzzing light protecting their camp from the coldness and wind reigning outside, and Hans pointed towards the far horizon.
The Wild Swans just appeared above the sea that rolled and stretched noiselessly in front of them-- their curtain of magic seemed to have smothered all its sounds like a huge, thick, but transparent blanket. The approaching birds looked like eleven tiny black dots against the backdrop of the restless, pinkish-grey clouds.
"It will take them a good while yet, but they are coming," Roslav spoke from behind them, making them turn around.
"Do you think you have enough room, Celeste?" Rosalind asked the Butterfly Fairy, standing next to Roslav.
"We do. Would you two mind giving me a hand to make a few more beds and a place to rest for the swans?" Celeste asked, looking between Louise and Hans, sensing their unusual seriousness.
"We will all help you," Rosalind said before either of the two could reply, trying to keep her own anxious thoughts at bay in order to distract and cheer up her friends.
It was getting dark and starting to snow, the snowflakes melting a long while before they could touch the protective layer of spells, when the Wild Swans finally landed on the beach.
Hans was among the first creatures who walked outside to help the swans and their passengers enter their warm and safe camp.
Blue was not among the ailing creatures whom the white birds carried on their wide backs, Rosalind, who ran out of the tent the moment she heard their unusual, smooth, and velvety voices, noticed. She stopped in her tracks and looked to the tips of her shoes as she took a few deep, calming breaths before she spoke to the swans. The Rose Fairy Princess welcomed them heartily and thanked them for their help, hiding her feelings bravely.
What Rosalind was feeling Hans could only guess. He was sure that she wouldn't want her Blue to be brought back here by the Wild Swans, starved and injured like all those poor creatures... But if he had been, then at least they would be together now, and she would know for sure what had happened to him...
"Hans, I beg you, stop. That's not helpful." Rosalind sighed in response to his thoughts. "Go inside, please, and tell Louise to prepare the bed next to her dragonfly. Here's another one, we can put them close to each other..." she trailed off, pointing at a large, unconscious dragonfly which one of the swans layed on the sandy beach.
Hans looked at the fairy apologetically before he ran inside the tent to deliver her message to Louise.
Once all the new patients were cared for in the main tent and the swans, too big to fit inside, settled contentedly around it, the fairies and Rose Elves conjured up their dinner.
"This is amazing," one of the swans said, stretching its large wings as it basked in the warmth created by their curtain of light buzzing softly all around them. "How do you do this? I have never seen anything of the sort."
"That's because we have never had a reason to use it. Until now," Rosalind said, smiling at the swan sadly. "It's one of our spells. But we can't keep it up for too long, it's very tiring," she added, making Celeste giggle as she conjured up a pillow with one swift movement of her wand for dozing Roslav, mere moments before his drooping head would hit the sand of the beach. She added a blanket on second thought-- there was no need to wake him up and make him go to bed, it was warm enough for any of them to sleep outside tonight.
"You are right, Princess Rosalind. The Snow Queen has never been this strong before."
"Why is she suddenly so strong? It can't be all due to the shards of one broken mirror," Rosalind mused.
"We think it is, Princess. It's the magic contained in those shards. It makes most of those who find them follow her blindly and their... adoration and love give her her strength."
"Is it true then? Do they really fall in love with her, forgetting everything and everyone else, the moment a piece of that cursed glass..." Rosalind's breath hitched at the words, she could not finish her sentence.
"We do believe it, Princess. They follow her to her realm, where most of them perish from the cold eventually."
"How can we stop her?" Celeste asked, her worried eyes resting on Rosalind.
"We have to keep doing what we have been doing until now. You must try to find and destroy as many pieces of that mirror as you can, and we will keep bringing back those who found them before you, hoping that sooner or later this battle will be over," the swan said.
"But it won't end the war. She will attack our kingdom with some evil charm again, and again..." Rosalind said, after she looked around cautiously to make sure that Blue's parents were not present and could not hear her. "We need to do something more. Something that would weaken the Snow Queen's powers, and stop her harming all these creatures if not forever, then at least for longer... And not only that. Please, take me with you the next time when you fly back to her realm. I need to find someone dear, someone I'm sure she took away from me, please!" Rosalind begged, her eyes swimming with tears as she glanced from one huge bird to another.
As on cue, all the swans shifted uncomfortably, their shiny white feathers reflecting the pinkish light cast by their magical refuge.
"That's brave of you, Princess, but also craz..."
"I have already heard that. I still want to try."
"She won't be alone," Hans said, looking at Louise, who nodded before he went on, "we are coming with her."
"We, too," Roza and Rolo said in unison.
"And we," Orangebeak spoke for the birds.
"Wait, wait, wait!" the largest of the swans, who kept quiet until now, protested. "All right. Seeing that you have made up your mind already, and I don't think we could dissuade you, Princess... This is for you," it said, taking a large, dry leaf folded in half from under its wing.
"What is it?" Rosalind asked as she approached the bird, looking perplexed.
"A letter from Berenice the sorceress," said another swan.
"Her messenger reached us on the other shore just before we took off..."
"Apparently, she knows about your plans..." the next one added.
"... and we were told to give this to you unless you have changed your mind," another bird concluded.
Rosalind nodded thoughtfully as she unfolded the leaf and read it before she spoke again.
"You are to take me with you. Only me and my two human friends," she glanced at Hans and Louise, her eyes filled with surprise. "Once you leave us on the other shore, she will send someone to meet us and take us to her castle."
Suddenly, the place erupted in excited whispers, morphing fast into noisy conversations. The creatures' protests were so loud that they woke up Roslav, and Rosalind had to raise her voice to silence them all before they woke the patients sleeping inside the tent too.
"There's nothing to discuss," the fairy said decisively. "We will leave as soon as you feel ready to make the journey back," she added, looking at the Wild Swans.
"The day after tomorrow, Princess," the largest swan announced, bending its long, gracious neck and hiding its head under its enormous white wing, thus putting an end to their discussion.
Roslav, Celeste, the Rose Elves, and their four birds decided to sleep outside, like the swans. While Roza produced pillows and blankets for everyone, the rest of the inhabitants of the butterfly camp, still whispering excitedly, followed Rosalind, Hans, and Louise towards the tents.
"We have one day to rest and get ready," Rosalind whispered as they entered their tent quietly, not wanting to disturb the Blue Swallowtails.
"I wonder how Berenice knows about your intentions," Louise whispered back after they had washed quickly and taken off their winter clothes. It was much warmer inside the tent tonight.
"I wonder why she picked us to accompany you..." Hans mused, climbing in his bed.
"She told me that in that letter, Hans. The Snow Owl has never seen a human before. Somehow, she knows that I brought you two in Terra Sonalis, and she is curious."
"It makes sense, I would be curious as well... " Hans replied, yawning.
It had been another long day, packed with events and adventures. Exactly like every single day since the one when they followed Rosalind through that lake... How many days have passed since then? He couldn't remember. But now that he knew that once this adventure would be over, he would have to go home... alone... without Louise, he hoped it would never end.
"Hans... Just... sleep, please!" Rosalind whisper-shouted.
"Hmm...? What did you say?" Louise, startled back to consciousness from her first dreams, asked.
"Nothing..." the fairy sighed. "I just hope that Berenice's curiosity won't put you two in danger." This worried her more than anything else at the moment.
"Don't worry, Rosalind," Hans and Louise said at the same time.
The three friends looked at each other through the darkness of their tent stirred by the faint, pulsating lights of Roslav's magic.
"We wouldn't have it any other way," Hans spoke for both of them, as he watched Louise nod in agreement silently. "We will help you find Blue and bring him back. And then..."
"Let us talk about that later, Hans, please," Louise spoke softly. "There is still time... let's not spoil it by..."
"Sleep, you two. Stop overthinking everything, it won't help," Rosalind interrupted her, and suddenly, both Hans and Louise could feel their eyes closing, as if by magic.
The following day flew by in preparations for their upcoming journey across the sea. Rosalind and Louise helped the butterflies to care for the newly arrived patients, while Hans did most of the work assigned to him and Roslav, as the Wild Rose Fairy boy was too exhausted by maintaining the protective spell to be able to do anything else properly.
Late in the evening, Roza made them fill their pouches with all the things she considered necessary for their travel. The little Rose Elf claimed that carrying all these things with them was better than letting Rosalind conjure them up later, as it would tire her unnecessarily when she might need to use her magic for something more important.
Louise, who had spent most of this day, like the previous one, with the old dragonfly, cried herself to sleep after the very forthright Celeste warned her that she might not see the creature again when they come back. The poor dragonfly was too old and too ill to be cured completely.
Hans, who had stayed with the upset girl until she fell asleep, then joined their friends who gathered in front of the tents to say goodbye to the travellers, thinking that this was just the first in the long row of goodbyes awaiting both himself and Louise.
"I'm all right," he told Rosalind when he noticed her concerned look. "And Louise will be fine too, eventually."
The Rose Fairy nodded and after she and Hans talked to the swans, planning everything for the next day, and then took their leave from all their friends, the two of them went to bed without another word.
In the morning, when the first light of the day pierced the black canopy of the night and the pinkish curtain of their shelter, there were only Celeste with Roslav, and Rosalind's elves with the birds waiting outside to see the travellers off.
Hans, Louise, and Rosalind mounted the biggest one of the eleven Wild Swans and settled comfortably among its soft, warm feathers. As the bird took flight, they looked back towards the butterfly camp and waved to their friends, until they, along with the white tents huddled at the foot of the tall cliff, and the wide, sandy beach separating them from the restless sea, vanished from their view.