Prologue
My dearest friend,
It’s beenlong months since I’ve felt the warmth of the sun. Many would envy my position—a queen, and one who will soon bear the heir to a throne. But this place...it is desolate. The baby leeches the strength from me. My consolation is I no longer have to suffer the king’s touch. You know my heart. I want to go home but cannot. I implore you, Castil, travel north. You are the sister of my heart, and now, more than ever, I need you and your laughter. Don’t wait to reply. The last ships leave for Helenrisia at autumn’s waning. I’ve sent coin to speed your journey. I await you withhope.
Kareena
1
The wind spunhard off the sea as the ship neared the jagged coastline, buffeting Castil il Veras as she huddled within her cloak’s meager warmth. In the distance, a small village clung like lichen to the sloping face of the cliffs. Beyond the quays lay the white lands and the fabled fortress of the snow kings. And there Kareena resided, a lonelyqueen.
Sails flapped hard above Castil’s head, giant wings beating restlessly from the wind gusting off the water. It was much more comfortable in her tiny cabin, but at the first sighting of Helenrisia’s far shores, she tossed her cloak around her shoulders and ran up to the deck. Weeks of endless sailing, its monotony broken only by periodic bouts of sea sickness, had finally come to anend.
Kareena’s letter, tattered at the corners from multiple readings, lay safely within the depths of Castil’s satchel. A messenger had delivered it and a letter of credit to her father, who frowned at the sight of the Helenese royal seal. Castil, fearing the worst, breathed an audible sigh of relief when she saw Kareena’s sweeping scrawl. That relief quickly evaporated as she read the missive, the despair and loneliness in the words. There had been little to mull over. They had been best friends since childhood despite their difference in rank, and Kareena neededher.
Devilos Veras read the letter and turned a troubled a gaze on his daughter. “If you go now, you’ll be trapped there for months, and they say Helenrisia is an inhospitable place inwinter.”
She shrugged. “I would stay that long regardless, Father. It’s a long trip, and Kareena will want me with her for more than a fewdays.”
He said no more about it, only made arrangements with the captain of theEstartato transport his daughter safelynorth.
The ship sailed ever closer, and it seemed to Castil as if the lay of the land remained obscured. Shore met sky in an endless expanse of snow-ladened gray, the icy water reflecting the color of a dulled sword blade. No wonder Kareena, always a lover of the long Caskadanian summers, called her new homedesolate.
Castil missed her despondent friend, alone in a strange land and bound to a man many considered cursed. The marriage between Kareena il Marcam and Doranis of House Alisdane had been arranged since before Kareena was released from her nanny’s leadstrings.
Sons and daughters of the greater boyars were regularly married off to royalty and aristocracy of other countries. Kareena was no exception. Marital ties to the Helenese royal family promised profitable returns in trade as well as political influence in twocourts.
Castil recalled the wedding and its subsequent celebrations. Kareena, raised to understand her duty as the only child of a powerful nobleman, had been stoic regarding her fate. Only as the time neared for the wedding and her first meeting with her future husband did she voice any concerns toCastil.
“They say he is cursed. Marked by the Wastelands and their magic.” She shuddered. “What if he is a hideous, misshapen creature? And I will have to bedhim.”
Castil patted her arm, offering whatever comfort she could. “No one has seen him, Kareena. You know how rumor starts. And if he is unhandsome but kind, will it be so bad?” The words sounded patronizing to her ears, for it wasn’t she who would soon be sold into the marriage. Yet her words soothed Kareena who smiled weakly andnodded.
“No, not so bad. And I can always close my eyes and imagine that it’s Farnoush Salbata who bedsme.”
“Kareena!” Castil laughed and soon they both forgot the upcoming nuptials and the arrival of the mysterious Heleneseking.
None of their conjectures prepared them for the reality of Doranis of Helenrisia. When the Caskadanian court assembled to greet the Helenese delegation, no one knew what to expect. The Great Hall settled into a waiting hush as the visitors filed in to stand next to Caskadan’s overlord. The Helenese delegation consisted of men of great height and slim stature, who wore their black hair long and loose. Their dark eyes scrutinized the staring crowd from pale faces showing noemotion.
Castil thought them a handsome people with their refined features and dignified demeanor. While regal in their bearing, none bore the stamp of sovereignty on either their somber clothing or theirfeatures.
Her assumption that Doranis had not yet entered the chamber was confirmed when the herald announced his name, and all bowed in respectful greeting. Wedged between her father and the sour-smelling Dame Nibs, Castil wasn’t able to move closer for a better look. What she did see took her breath away, and her eyes widened at the sight of the magus king from the farnorth.
Astonishingly pale, with hair so white it gleamed in the torchlight, he surveyed the gaping crowd in a measured silence, his nearly colorless eyes narrowed, measuring. He was tall like his kinsmen, with the long, muscled thighs of an experienced horseman. Latent power radiated from him, an aura of stately grace that emphasized his odd beauty and lent his sharp, elegant features a haughtycast.
Castil managed to drag her gaze away long enough to search out Kareena, who stood closer to the king. Her pallor matched his, only hers was of horror instead of birthright. No fantasy of the handsome Farnoush could possibly blot out the reality of the nuptial bed that awaited her with her soon-to-behusband.
The sudden notes of music played by the musicians who took their cue from a frantic minister broke the hall’s gravid silence. The crowd of boyars breathed a collective sigh, their surprise transforming into a morbid curiosity as they jostled each other for the first opportunity to present themselves to the visitingmonarch.
Castil knew it futile to try to reach Kareena in the milling crowd. She managed to catch her eye briefly, offering what encouragement she could with a smile. Kareena gave a grim nod before turningaway.
The evening passed in an endless line of introductions. As lesser boyars, Castil and her father were nearly the last of the families to be presented. She tried to still the butterflies that fluttered madly in her belly. Like everyone else, she had been unable to take her eyes off the king. Unlike them, she didn’t find him ugly or strange. He was, in all ways, a striking individual, the air of leadership resting heavily on his broadshoulders.
When they finally reached the dais where the king sat, the herald announced their names in a hoarsening voice. “Devilos Veras and his daughter, Castil ilVeras.”
Doranis’s bored expression shifted when he noticed Castil staring at the embroidered insignia on histunic.
“Blood of fey kings,” she translated and immediately clapped a hand over her mouth, mortified at speaking out of turn. The king’s pale blue gazesharpened.
