Mabel travels with the army disguised as Linickel

Mabel travels with the army disguised as Linickel in an effort to reach the world beyond her town, find a chance of seeing her exiled brother, and act on a promise made to her father. The deception turns a private longing into a dangerous act of self-determination: Mabel takes the place of a summoned soldier and sets out with the troops, only to reveal herself before Navi Spyridaki and his men when her disguise can no longer be maintained.

Motive and decision

Mabel’s stated dissatisfaction with her life in town is not the whole reason she wants to leave. She has not seen her older brother since she was too young to understand his permanent exile, and so much time has passed that she fears she might scarcely recognize him. Under ordinary circumstances, the siblings could never meet again; leaving Navon is the only possibility she can see. She also feels bound by a promise to her father. These motives make her departure more than an impulsive bid for adventure: it is an attempt to pursue family ties that the kingdom’s punishment has severed, while honoring an obligation she cannot simply set aside.

Her resolve has a more immediate edge, too. Mabel tells Aury that she wants to be part of something and that the general needs to learn a lesson. The plan she proposes is direct: Liniquer has been summoned, so she will draw him somewhere, confine him, and go in his place. Aury warns that the soldiers are not foolish, and Mabel continues to believe the scheme may work. The contrast is characteristic of the undertaking: she understands that the deception is risky, but treats the risk as a problem to solve rather than a reason to abandon her purpose.

The expedition takes place against Navon’s vulnerability. Tzara has threatened the kingdom, whose earlier wars were fought on behalf of other realms; the burden of those alliances helped drive men to desertion, and Navon now lacks soldiers as well as dependable allies. Its leaders are negotiating political protection under unfavorable conditions. Mabel’s personal journey unfolds within that larger military crisis, though her immediate purpose is not to negotiate for the kingdom: she is acting because waiting at home cannot reunite her with her brother or fulfill her promise.

The substitution and journey

Aury initially refuses to be Mabel’s accomplice, but he helps carry out the plan. They send Liniquer a note asking him to meet Mabel at her house. While Liniquer waits inside, Aury stays outside the door, ready to shut and lock him in; the intention is to keep him there until the troops are far away. This practical division of labor gives Mabel’s scheme its opening: she does not simply borrow a uniform but removes the soldier she is replacing from the expedition’s reach.

Her camouflage depends on equipment and timing. Soldiers on the expedition wear armor strong enough to protect them from the cold on the roads and from an ambush. Mabel expects to keep her head covered, concealing her identity beneath the helmet. The armor therefore serves both as protection and as the material basis of her impersonation. The hardest part is not putting it on, but sustaining the disguise until the troops are far enough away that she cannot simply be sent home.

The soldiers leave before sunset and do not stop to rest. Their pace means they would reach a nearby lodge when the sun was more intense, without having to interrupt the journey. Mabel had not expected the substitution to proceed so easily. She thinks the commander, positioned ahead of the troops and familiar with his army, may be the one person capable of recognizing that Liniquer is missing; to the others, she remains concealed among the soldiers. Yet she knows the concealment cannot last forever. The departure is thus both a successful crossing of the first threshold and a temporary reprieve, not a secure transformation into someone the army has accepted.

Recognition before Navi

The disguise reaches its limit when Mabel is seated among the men. Her helmet has hidden who she is, and the others have treated her as a soldier. She takes it off slowly with both hands and sets it on the table. The gesture is ordinary for someone disarming, but its consequence is not: Yelsew is the one who notices, staring at her with his mouth open as she uncovers herself. The identity the helmet concealed becomes impossible to ignore.

Navi Spyridaki rises so abruptly that his chair falls behind him. His question about what Mabel is doing there comes out weakly, almost under his breath. The room falls silent; Mabel stands to explain herself but cannot initially meet his eyes, made to feel foolish by his reaction and the stillness of everyone present. The reveal is not a triumphant announcement. Its awkward quiet makes the cost of her choice visible: she has achieved her way into the expedition, but must now face the people whose trust and authority her deception has bypassed.

Mabel answers by returning the confrontation to the promise that prompted her. She says she needs to find her brother. Navi replies that he said he would help her; she counters that he did not, and that she is there because he failed to do so. When he asks whether she followed them because she did not get what she wanted, she accepts that description with mock boldness, even though it is not quite the truth. Her answer exposes a breach between the prince’s assurance and Mabel’s experience: from her perspective, a promise that produced no help left her to make her own way.

Significance of the action

The deception gives physical form to Mabel’s refusal to remain confined by circumstances she cannot accept. Her father’s promise, her brother’s exile, and her frustrated reliance on Navi converge in a choice she carries out with a borrowed identity, a covered head, and Aury’s assistance. The disguise does not erase who she is; it delays recognition long enough for her to leave with the army.

Its ending also complicates any simple victory. Mabel gets onto the road, but the helmet comes off before the journey has made her hidden purpose attainable. In the presence of Navi and the soldiers, she must claim the reasons the disguise had concealed. The episode therefore marks both her initiative and its limit: she can cross the boundary into military company, but she cannot make that crossing without confronting the broken promise and the risks her choice has created.