I headed to the door outside, but stopped when I saw a wet, sleety snowfall. “Oh.” I wrinkled my nose. “I think I’d rather walk around the castle halls for a bit than go out in that.”
Rat squawked and flew out into the snow.
Ivodar stepped into the doorframe. “Should I follow him?”
I laughed, a warm, giddy happiness filling me. I knew Ivodar was assigned to me, but the fact that he’d go after my bird made him feel more like a friend than a soldier. I turned away from the snow and saw Kusan, Zorion, Shrevia, and Monspen all bustling around the kitchen. I never expected to find friends in this frigid kingdom, but here were five that I loved. And I had friends amongst the nobles too. And it was all because of Bylur. I wanted to go hug him, but he was in the hedge maze.
And I was not walking out in that weather. “No,” I said. “He’s fine. He’s smart enough to come inside if he decides he doesn’t like the snow.”
“Why would he go outside?” Zorion called as he carried a pile of clean plates to a cupboard.
I shook my head. “No idea. Sometimes he flies away from me for hours at a time. He comes back when he’s ready. I never know what he does while he’s gone.” I crossed to the hall door and waved to everyone.
I’d already explored most of the ground floor halls, so I turned toward one that I’d planned to revisit for a while. It was a long corridor with four or five empty rooms and a dozen tapestries lining the walls. The first tapestry showed another war scene—it was the most common theme in the castle’s decor—but the second weaving depicted a crowning event. A tall, broad-shouldered, muscular fae with several scars on his bare arms wore a breastplate and stood behind a young fae woman. Her white hair shimmered like her blue dress, and her face was stoic, completely devoid of any emotion. He held a sparkling crown just above her head, the crowning moment frozen forever in an elaborate weaving.
I turned behind me and asked Ivodar, “Who is she?”
He stepped closer. “Her Majesty, The Snow Queen, crowned at the end of the Battle of Brothers by her own soldiers. She was Kalshana’s last queen.”
“What happened to her?”
“She disappeared about forty years ago, when a human beat the queen’s challenge.”
“A human beat a fae queen?” I liked how that sounded since I intended to break another queen’s curse.
Ivodar nodded. “I don’t know any more details than that. Only that her disappearance left Kalshana in chaos, and Lord Bylur has spent the last year trying to bring order and strength back to our kingdom before someone else, most likely Queen Daneira, takes control.”
I moved on from The Snow Queen, my thoughts shifting to Bylur’s council and if it would get set up in time to keep Kalshana away from Queen Daneira. Every meeting I’d attended had three or four nobles with complaints so severe to them that they could not possibly join the movement. But by the next meeting, they were back to supporting the idea. It was always three or four different people every time. Never Dearan, Brielle, Dedalus, or Orla, the four fae who always sat closest to Bylur, but everyone else would rotate through being a staunch supporter and a vocal opponent.
We walked past a room with the door cracked open and two fae discussing something in intense tones.
“Did you give it to Ephaltes?” one voice asked.
“No,” another answered, “he has to know it is essential to his success, and if I just gave it to him, he wouldn’t think it was worth his attention.”
I stopped on the other side of the door, my curiosity piqued. I liked Ephaltes, and it sounded like someone was trying to trick him. I leaned closer to the crackeddoor, making sure my body was out of sight. Ivodar raised a brow but stood behind me anyway, also out of sight.
“Itisessential to his success,” the first voice snarled, “which is why the queen wanted you to give it to him.”
“Relax,” the second voice growled back. His tone was annoyed, but his words were confident. “Isoldit to him. Now he knows it is the only way for him to affect more than the three or four people closest to him. If we’re lucky, he’ll use it tonight, and we can take…”
His voice lowered so I couldn’t understand anything else. Ivodar tipped his head down the hall, suggesting we leave, but I couldn’t walk away now. I needed to know what they were talking about.
I shook my head at Ivodar, and he shifted a hand to his sword hilt. Was he threatening me?
But that didn’t make sense. And I knew him too well now to be scared of an intimidating gesture.
Just as I decided not to be scared, the door flew open to reveal one of the fae with a sword high in the air. He brought it crashing down toward my head.
I gasped, dropped to the floor, and rolled away from my attacker. The clang of swords meeting rang through the air before I had time to stand back up. I spun around. Ivodar had caught the sword that had been aimed at me. The attacker pressed down against Ivodar, but they were well matched.
Before the fight could progress, the other fae lifted a medallion off his chest and pointed it at Ivodar. Something invisible struck my soldier so hard that he flewacross the corridor, slammed into the far wall, and then collapsed on the ground. I rushed toward him, but the fae with the sword grabbed my arm.
“No,” he snarled. “Who sent you to spy on us?”
Spy? I shook my head. “No one.” My voice trembled, but words had never failed me before. “We just came to this hall to look at the tapestries—”
I cut off when he tugged my back to his chest, draped an arm across my chest so I couldn’t move, and slid his sword up to my throat. “I don’t believe you.”
