Chapter 6: Khiona
Was it possible? I’d only heard legends of the great—
A twanging plunk clanked through the air. Amador flicked a string on his lute, and it snapped, making another twanging screech. “She froze my lute,” he hissed at Aakil. “I can’t play.”
They started muttering about not having time or ice magic. Andar reached for a dagger on his leg. I raised a hand at him and strode toward the great bear. If this was the reclusive creature I suspected, only I had enough ice magic to hope I might stop him.
A moment later, he reached me, leaned his massive head over mine, and sniffed. His mouth was big enough for me to curl up inside it, and my hair flew haphazardly in the breeze he created by sniffing. I lifted both hands at him, pouring magic into the air to be sure he smelled it.
He stepped back and bent his head down to rest the tip of his horn against the top of my head. Excitement coursed through my body like a frothing wave in a frigid river. I was touching a dyrakongur. Had anyone ever done such a thing before?!
A soft growl reverberated through the creature’s body as images flooded my mind. Images of the three singers damaging winter magic as they wove their summer strength into a shield, tied it with music, anddragged it through the soil and air while they danced their way through my kingdom.
Anger replaced my excitement. They had attacked the magic of Kalshana, which meant they had attacked me. I spun to face them, breaking the connection with the great dyrakongur.
“How dare you?” I hissed, marching toward them.
Their confused faces twisted in fear. “Your Majesty?” Amador sputtered.
I pulled the moisture in the air into my hand and formed it into an icy dagger. “You think you can parade into my kingdom and attack it because nobody has heard of me in forty years?”
Amador dropped his lute and shook his head. “We’re not here to attack, Your Majesty! We’re only traveling through Kalshana to get to Kerebos so we can perform for the queen’s wedding there! We haven’t hurt anyone—”
“Lies!” I hissed, pointing my dagger at Amador. “The truth or none of you will leave this meadow alive!”
He paled, all his bright, flirty color fleeing his face and his voice trembling. “We are fae. I cannot lie.”
I paused. This was true. I replayed his words. Not here to attack. Only traveling through. Haven’t hurt anyone.
But I saw their magic tear through Kalshana in the dyrakongur’s memory. His heavy presence hovered a mere ten feet behind me, probably scaring the singers more than me. But how could both be true?
Andar stepped closer to me. “Your Majesty, I have a possible explanation.”
I raised a brow.
He waved at them. “Perhaps their purpose in Kalshana is only to reach Kerebos. It is the most direct path from the summer courts. If they heard the ice dragons’ drums, as we did, I suspect they made a shield. But their magic is sourced through the summer lands, which I have expert knowledge of. Here, their magic would not be as strong as normal, so they threaded it through their music. But the summer and winter magics do not mix easily, so the shield might have cut through Kalshana’s magic like a knife, injuring the land and…”
He glanced at the dyrakongur. “Injuring any creatures tied closely to the land’s magic.”
“My magic is tied to the land.” I pointed my ice dagger at Aakil. He was the most rational of the group. “I can’t have you tearing it up because you want to trespass.”
His eyes landed on my dagger tipped at his chest, and he bowed his head as much as he could without nudging the knife. “My deepest apologies, Your Majesty. We did use magic as your companion suggested to deter the dragons’ attention. We had no idea that it was hurting anything else.”
The dyrakongur roared, and Aakil flinched. “Well, we knew it was also keeping the bear away, but he seemed as problematic as the dragons.”
Amador had said the music helped with the wildlife. I should have known he meant it hurt them. My eyes narrowed.
Aakil started talking faster. “We knew ice magic was necessary to reason with the bear, but none of us have that. We didn’t think we were hurting anything, only keeping him away, like a shield. We’re from the summer courts—we could have started fires or thrown flames if we’d wanted to attack or hurt him, but we didn’t. We thought a shield wrapped in music hurt nothing and kept us safe…”
He kept rambling, but I turned to Andar. “They are annoying.”
A smirk played along the corner of one of his lips. “Yes, they were blissfully silent when you froze them.”
Aakil stopped speaking abruptly and turned to Amador as if the other fae could come up with something to save them from being frozen again.
I dropped my arm to my side, and Aakil gulped in a deep lungful of air.
“Though perhaps you were right,” I said to Andar. “I’m beginning to think of several uses for three summer fae who owe me their lives.”
