“Please do,” I said to my friend. “We’d appreciate it.”
“Of course.” Saga looped her arm through Marit’s. The latter still looked thunderstruck to have walked in on Thyra and me using shadow magic. “Well, I suppose we’ll let you get back to practicing.”
“Uh, yes. Good luck,” Marit said, as though she barely believed the words coming out of her own mouth.
I laughed dryly. “Thanks. We’re going to need it.”
Alone again, Thyra turned to me. “There’s something I must tell you. Something few people know but might be useful knowing what we now know about the Frør Crown.”
“What’s that?”
“I’m a dreamer.”
Having grown up alongside humans, I hadn’t known many fae, and some magics were more common than others. Like elemental magic.
“What is that?” I asked.
“I see visions, but only when I am asleep.”
I gasped. “A seer.”
“Not in a very useful way, though. I bet I have weaker control over my magic than Saga.”
I did not doubt that. Seer magic was unpredictable and often took many decades to learn how to manage.
“Still, this means the power could run in our family to this day. Have you worn the Crown to bed?”
She laughed. “It’s uncomfortable, and why would I think to do that?” An elbow hit my side. “I’m not that full of myself.”
“Debatable.”
My twin stuck out her tongue. “Faetia forbid a lady like herself.”
“You should try it tonight,” I said, ready to get to the meat of the matter. “With what Saga told us, it makes some sense.”
Thyra stared at me, and after a few seconds, nodded. “I’ll give it a try.”
Interlude
LADY SAYYIDA VIRTORIS, HOUSE OF THE SEA SERPENT
The eastern winds blew her curls around her eyes as Sayyida Virtoris strode through the throngs of dockworkers, gaze downcast to draw minimal attention.
Sayyida and Vidar had traveled to the small eastern port with a skeleton crew on one ship, their smallest, least adorned vessel,Slynkr.
She wasn’t a war vessel, but a smuggler’s ship, owned by the family boasting the most robust armada in Winter’s Realm. And today,Slynkrhad done her job and smuggled Sayyida and Vidar into an unfamiliar city. A city that, through a letter from Saga, Lord Riis has told them to journey to.
The rest of their fleet had continued south, to anchor among the small islands closer to Grindavik. While not an ideal scenario for the Virtoris siblings to stray so far from the fleet, among those remote islands, their ships would not draw the attention of anyone loyal to House Ithamai.
“I see the flag.”
Sayyida glanced up, found it too. “Should we scout the area first?”
Even if she was certain Saga would never betray her, Sayyida held no such assurances for Lord Riis. She did not know him well enough, and hewasa spymaster, after all. House Skuld, the lesser house that ruled Vantalia, was another issue. They remained loyal to the king.
“I think so,” Vidar said.
They climbed up the final ramp, feet finding the cobbles, free of snow and packed ice. As she entered the shelter of the city’s buildings and the maritime winds were dampened, she realized Winter’s Realm was nearly warm enough to walk about without a cloak.
