“What is that?” shewhispered.
The animal was sniffing his way around the bright aqua lake that spread out just outside the palace’s west side. It appeared to be making its way closer and closer to the palace, though Angelique, Stil, and Pegasus stayed among the trees that shouldered the lake, keeping out ofsight.
Pegasus peered in the direction of the creature, then impatiently pawed the ground and shifted closer in an obvious command for her to resumebrushing.
“What’s what?” Stil sounded distracted as he wrote in the snow somemore.
“That dog…thing.” Angelique pointed to the animal, but hurriedly returned to brushing Pegasus when he clacked his teethtogether.
Stil finally looked up. “Oh—that’s the hellhound. Or what it transformed into after Gemma slipped a starfire down itsthroat.”
Angelique gawked at it, watching as it sniffed up and down the shore, occasionally pausing to study the palace with almost the same amount of scrutiny as Stil.This is certainly something I’ll have to tell Clovicus—and research! I didn’t think Stil could be correctly recalling transforming hellhounds. I’ve never heard of such a thingbefore.
“I have a plan,” Stilannounced.
Angelique carefully brushed Pegasus’ glossy coat, making the stars that shone on him shimmer and blast a little more gem-like light. “Yes?”
“We have to stop King Torgen,” he announced. “He’s gone completely mad. He’s been a danger to his country for a while, and we can’t leave him on the throneanymore.”
Angelique stared at Stil—for such a declaration went againsteverythingmages stood for. “You mean to killhim?”
Stil grimaced. “Idon’t mean to kill him. Even I must admit the Conclave’s rule for us to keep out of politics is a wise one, or people would come to fear us, and we’d lose all sense ofresponsibility.”
“But you do mean for him todie?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
“And how will you accomplishthat?”
Still blew out a puff of air that turned silvery in the cold and ruffled his bangs. “I’m hoping we can incite the Snow Queen’s magic to doit.”
Angelique pressed the soft bristles of the horse brush into her palm until they tickled. “The Snow Queen’s magic adversely affects dark magesonly. It’s a safeguard, not a built-in judicialsystem.”
“Yes, of course,” Stil agreed. “But I’m hoping that because Torgen is King, the magic will make anexception.”
“What do youmean?”
“In a way, when the Snow Queen embedded her magic in Verglas, she turned the entire country into a charm, much the way a craftmage can spell a gem or cape to hold spells—but instead of specific spells, she used her raw magic.” Stil wiped away his drawings in the snow and stared at the palace. “While she might have done it with the intention of protecting her people from evil mages and believed she was merely emptying her magic into the ground, at its heart, she created a defense spell. Her magic reacts only to dark mages—it doesn’t go creating sudden blizzards or anything like that. All it does is keep evil outside theborders.”
Angelique watched the white dog-creature trot off to the north side of the palace. “But how can you exploit that? Torgen isn’t a darkmage.”
“No, but heisa descendant of her family line—specifically her brother’s,” Stil said. “The Snow Queen always held herself to a high standard, so with some prompting, IthinkI can get her magic to move against the king, given that he is of her family’sbloodline.”
Angelique frowned. “Are you certain that’s evenpossible? It’s magic. It behaves in set rules. Spells have to be performed correctly because magic cannot be reasoned or pleaded with. It’s atool.”
“Perhaps,” Stil said carefully. “But it’s been long known that magic takes on some of the properties of its owner. You use magic from your soul, after all. How could you do so, without the very core ofyouaffecting magic in some way? Craftmages have long theorized about it.” He glanced up at Angelique. “And it’s why I’ve always found other magic users’ fear of your magic particularly stupid. You aren’t just loyal and compassionate, you’re dedicated to doing what’s right. Your magic will never slip becauseyouwould neverfalter.”
Angelique bit her cheek.It’s because they don’t believe in me as you do, and they think the allure of my magic will pull me in the opposite direction.After experiencing the heady and powerful feeling of her war magic on occasion over the past few years, Angelique was not convinced they werewrong.
But Stil had apoint.
If the Snow Queen’s magic retained any sort of imprint of its wielder, it was possible it would react given that the Snow Queen would never have tolerated the kind of abuse Torgen heaped upon hispeople.
Angelique sighed. “Very well, I can see your line of reasoning. What, then, do you plan todo?”
“I’d like to see how potent the Snow Queen’s magic is around Ostfold—specifically the palace and the cathedral,” Stil said. “I assume most of the Snow Queen’s magic pools around the borders. But I don’t rightly know how much magic rests here in the city, and I need to confirm that it’s strong enough to end the king,” Stilsaid.
“You’ll be doing reconnaissance?” Angelique tapped her fingers against her skirt as she mentally shifted through all the spells she could use. “It will be tricky given how the soldiers areswarming.”
