The smallest girl held up her new grass bracelet. “Wook, Pav.”
Her brother smiled and tapped the gleaming silver ring on the end, then let the girl snuggle close to his side with her damp blanket.
Once the littles were tucked close, I began to read the first fable. A tale of a poor farmer who stumbled upon the three Norns at the base of the tree of the gods. To keep him from telling other mortals how to find them, the Norns offered the traveler a gift—the opportunity to rule overevery land, to have every eye turned to him until the final war of the gods.
“What the traveler forgot,” I said, a low, eerie timbre to my tone, “was the Norns are often the trickiest of the gods.”
The littles forgot to weep, they forgot to be afraid. All three had scooted closer, eyes rapt with intrigue.
“Can you guess what the truth of his reward became?”
“A king?”
“A god?”
I shook my head. “Those Norns wove their threads, changing his fate, until he became a gleaming star in the heavens. For they kept their word—every eye turned to behold him in the night sky, and he was above all the lands. It is a lesson to us all, to never think we can outsmart our own fate. The Norns do not take kindly to those who think they know better.”
I tickled the smallest girl’s chin until she giggled.
Even Pavva smiled.
“Fire.”
I startled and wheeled around. My weary husband stood five paces away. The linen mask was tugged off his chin, his hair was damp with sweat, and there was a heaviness in his gaze.
The littles greeted the prince. Jonas winked at them, but faced me again in the next breath.
“Pavva, your turn to read.”
The boy seemed to understand and took the book from my hands, ruffling through the various tales until he and his sisters settled on one.
I hugged my middle and stepped beside the prince. “Is it well now?”
Jonas dropped his chin. “No. They’ve been forced into a mesmer sleep with elixirs. It will slow the spread of whatever this disease is, but I don’t know if they will wake before we find a cure.”
One palm covered my mouth, a new ache in my heart for three young ones who did not know their world teetered on the edge of pain.
“I’ve known Teodor and Annetta since I was ten turns.”
“I am sorry.” Without thought, I slipped my fingers around his andsqueezed. “They sound honorable, and I pray the gods bring them healing.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“What about the littles?”
Jonas lifted his eyes, darkened with his frightening mesmer. “Annetta’s sister lives in the province of Furen, a township on the other side of the kingdom. Word has been sent and I’ve no doubt she’ll be here by the afternoon. She and her husband are good folk; they’ll take the young ones while we care for Teo and Nettie.”
We were not a love match, but there was a sharp pain in my chest seeing the prince without the gleam of taunts in his eyes. I wanted to ease it from him, and I did not understand it.
“What do you need me to do?”
Jonas forced a smile and tilted my chin with his thumb. “Return to the palace, get some rest. There is nothing more to do.”
“I . . . if I can help you . . . I would like to.”
“Your generosity is stunning, Fire, but there is nothing. We do not know what took them, so until we do, I want you nowhere near here. Dorsan.” The prince turned away from me. “Take your lady back to the palace, please.”
My guard stepped to my side without a word.
