Following Odette, I look for anything that sticks out among the shelves.
This could all be a waste. The magic we’re looking for and the events we’re trying to understand might not have any relevance here, or maybe my mother destroyed them. This could be a fool’s mission.
But somewhere down here, surely, should be a book about the Icebound. If there is, I’ll have Ban hide it in the shadows for me so I can understand more of what Glacia told me.
By the time we make it to the lower level, Odette’s shivering again. I really don’t know how she’s survived the pastfive days. She casts me a look, this room even darker than the space above. “Where do we start?”
I point toward the far shelves. “Maps and records are that way.”
“Tucked into the corner?” Odette asks, jogging ahead. “That seems like a poor place to keep things of value.”
“It’s a great place to lose them.”
We start digging through the stacks, sticking close together for the light. Everything looks out of order, and I think whoever dug through in here last did so with a purpose in mind. Dates are out of order, or whole chunks are missing.
“Hey,” Odette says, interrupting my search, “didn’t you say something about someone called Davina?”
“Davina Hartsell,” I explain. “She was a Frostlands citizen from a noble family. She married into the Court of Cards.”
“Does that mean there would be a record on her?”
I stop my searching, intent on looking for something around the time I was frozen, to see if I can find a method to Mother’s madness. Odette’s holding a thin stack of papers wound together with a broken leather lace. “There shouldn’t be.”
“Let’s see,” Odette says, studying the first page. “It looks like a log of suitors for the King of Diamonds. Davina Hartsell is the only one who’s not crossed out.”
“Because she’s the one who married him.”
Her eyes dart to me. “One of the names on here… is yours.”
“So I’ve heard.” I sigh, holding out my hand. She passes the page over, and I quickly scan it. “I don’t know why someone tracked possible suitors. This isn’t the traditional process. My father supposedly wanted to broker a deal with the Court of Cards, so marriage was the obvious first choice. Technically,there were two marriage options, between King Jasper and Prince Hans.”
“Prince Hans?”
I hand the page back and keep looking. “The King’s brother. They were fraternal twins. King Jasper wanted a bride, and I was too young. Eventually, Lady Hartsell became the prime candidate. I never knew I was an option until recently. I don’t know what, if anything, ever happened to Prince Hans, but he’s long since passed.”
“King Jasper,” Odette echoes. “The… King of Diamonds?”
“Yes.”
“I never knew his real name,” she says, wonder lingering in her words. “My parents never addressed him as such. He died… more than a decade ago.”
“Well, he was alive. They were in the middle of getting married before my sleep,” I say, gesturing to the room. “Did you ever hear of an official death in the Court of Cards before Jasper? Perhaps that was the Sandman.”
“Sandman?”
“Yes.” I turn to her with a frown. “Hans Traum was Jasper Traum’s fraternal twin brother. Second in line for the throne. Hans was the Sandman, or Dreammaker, who lived in the Court of Cards. I’m sure there’s a picture in here somewhere if we dig deep enough. Maybe not of Hans individually, but certainly a record of both brothers.”
“The King of Diamonds had a twin brother,” she says in wonder. “Wow. If only we had you to fill in the blanks the last few months. There are a lot of things you seem to know despite being asleep.”
“And plenty that I’m missing,” I agree. “Come on, let’s keep looking. For any records of my mother’s, the people, or anystrange magic. And any political deals between the kingdoms. It sounds like Davina marrying Jasper was a match made in Hell.”
Chapter 29 Ban
We make quick work of the guards loitering outside Neve’s room. When I reach out and find only the weakest echo of my magic still trailing her, we press deeper into the castle.
The throne room is a disaster, just like I thought it would be. Zarev expresses surprise when we find Ronnie’s frozen remains. She’s not as solid as she was before, and I think the former queen is actually turning into the snow itself.
After making sure there are no spirits lingering in the throne room, we decide to split up, Zarev scouting through the upper streets while I roll through the lower. I thought I would be able to identify the dwelling that was my home a century ago, but everything has changed so much that I give up. When I meet with Zarev almost an hour later in the entranceway to the castle, he looks exhausted.
