For the first time, Ursula looked uncomfortable. “I would rather not say quite yet, Your Highness.”
The queen made a grumbling sound before nodding and waving Ursula off the stage. Demelza watched Ursula join the antechamber holding the contestants who had already performed and were now watching from the shadows.
“Next!” called out Queen Yzara.
Only Talvi and Demelza remained. Talvi took a deep breath and grinned at Demelza.
“May we meet happily on the other side of this,” she said.
By now, the royal family looked rather exhausted. QueenYzara stifled a yawn and Yvlle did not bother hiding how she had slumped in her chair, her black cape tumbling decadently around her. Only Arris remained bright-eyed. Hopeful.
When Talvi took the stage, Yvlle gave her a sharp look.
“And what is your talent, child?” asked Queen Yzara.
Talvi bowed her head. “I leave that for you to decide, Your Majesties. But I have always thought it a talent for listening.”
And then Talvi began to sing.
Demelza recognized the lyrics instantly. It was “The Lamentation of Enzo the Fool,” but in Talvi’s crystalline voice, the song changed form. It was no longer about the clever Enzo who tricked a witch for power and ended up with a curse… it was the song of the sea witch. The heartbreak of a woman who realized her love had never been returned.
Despite possessing no talent for singing, Demelza knew when music transcended into magic, and this was one of those moments. Talvi’s voice seemed to scrub centuries off a legend and reveal the witch for who she really was—a woman, wronged and wounded. It was a bold choice to sing such a tale before the descendants of the witch and Enzo, but when Talvi finished, Arris was standing and clapping. Queen Yzara wiped a tear from her eye. Yvlle could not stop staring.
Somewhere between the thunderous applause and Talvi’s modest acknowledgment, Demelza found herself on the stage, her heart hammering. Her palms were sweaty. Her voice gummed up in her throat.
Demelza had not realized how the royal family loomed over the stage, how they would be looking down at her, how huge the cavern would seem, how far away the stalactites—
“Is this part of her talent?” asked Queen Yzara loudly.
Too late, Demelza realized the queen was speaking to her.
“Sorry?” she said, and then wished she could kick herself.
“I said what talent do you bring us, girl?” said Queen Yzara, annoyed.
“I…”
Above her, the stalactites looked an awful lot like convenient daggers that might drop down and impale her at any moment. Demelza tried to look into the prince’s face, but his expression was draped in shadows. Beside him, the princess was just as inscrutable.
“I have none,” said Demelza.
Queen Yzara sighed. “Take her away!”
Before Demelza could try to redeem herself, let alone speak, Arris stood up and shouted:
“Wait!”
15Yvlle and the Ice Doll
As usual, Arris had no idea what he was doing. His best hope was that wisdom would rush to his side for the sake of novelty, but until that moment arrived it was just him and the cacophony of his thoughts.
On the stage below, Demelza was struggling against the cave itself. The castle grounds had interpreted Queen Yzara’s dismissal as a command and was in the process of trying to pull Demelza through the ground before spitting her out the gates of Rathe Castle.
“Wait!”
The word echoed through the caverns. Beside him, Yvlle remained with her chin resting in her palm. She looked up at him, raising a single eyebrow. Beside her, his mother looked even more bewildered.
“You can’t be serious, my love—she has not completed the first trial!” said Queen Yzara. She glanced disdainfully at the mud-splattered Demelza in her dress of weeds. “And I can see nothing of note to otherwise recommend the girl. Unless there is something else about her?”
