It had been transformed. The lush plants were disappearing under rapidly falling snow. There was a thin sheen of ice on the surface of the pond, and the red flowers she had grown to love had curled up at the abrupt change in theweather.
It was colder than it had been since she arrivedhere.
Indeed, the weather seemed to be the same as that outside the palacewalls.
What did thismean?
Annelise’s heart began to pound with the conviction that her spouse had abandoned her and his palace. She would have no chance to apologize orexplain.
She rushed to the stables to be sure. Relief made her knees weak when she spied all of the horses still in theirstalls.
“Good morning, Mephistopheles,” she said. “Have you seen your lord thismorn?”
The stallion fixed her with an accusing eye, his breath making a white plume in the chilly air. Annelise saw horse blankets with the rest of her spouse’s equipment and hastily covered thehorses.
Her spouse’s equipment. Annelise eyed his armor, wishing she knew more about all the various bits and pieces. There was nothing missing, as far as she could determine. Did this mean that her husband had not abandoned her? Why would it snow,then?
Annelise resolved to check every inch of the palace to findout.
“It is time for our daily ride, Mephistopheles,” she informed the destrier, and reached for his saddle. If her husband was still here, Annelise would find him within the palacewalls.
And if he were not, she would somehow find a way to open that gate and pursuehim.
She would not be condemned without a chance to defendherself.
* * *
Annelise quickly confirmedwhat she had suspected allalong.
She wasalone.
And she was trapped inside thepalace.
If the palace reflected her husband’s will, then the weather was an echo of his feelings for her. She had offended him, and Annelise was determined to make matters right. Her husband had left, so she had to seek him beyond thewalls.
Where exactly she would seek him once she did manage to leave the palace was a problem to solvelater.
First, she had to discover how to open thegates.
As she had noted before, they had no visible means of being opened or closed. There were no handles or bars, no latches or hooks. Annelise knew that the gates opened in the middle, swinging into the courtyard. Each individual portal was both higher than she could reach and wider than she couldstretch.
Annelise propped her hands on her hips. This was a djinn’s palace, which meant there was sorcery at work. Or there had been, before her husband’s departure. She would not consider that she might be trapped forever in hisabsence.
Words might be hersalvation.
“I command the gates to open immediately,” she said, summoning as much authority as shecould.
There was not so much as a rustle in response. Annelise tried again, with no result. She changed her tone and her wording, but nothingworked.
She knocked on one door and raised her voice. “Let me out!” she cried. “I wedded your lord, as I promised, and now wouldleave!”
Nothinghappened.
“Open that I might follow my lord husband!” she tried, with nosuccess.
Snow continued to settle over the ground and along the top of the wall, burying the palace and garden in a blanket ofwhite.
Annelise kicked the heavy door, cursing whoever had seen fit to design such a solid gate. “I demand to bereleased!”
