“It isnotalright,attendant,” Captain Halvor snarled, catching Oskar by his cape and yanking him backwards. “I will not have a member of the royal family—exiled or not—waltzing into the middle of an enemy stronghold with only you and me to protect her.”
A frown as thin as a snowflake settled on Rakel’s lips. “While I appreciate the esteem, Captain, I’m afraid I will not agree to your demands this time.”
“Then you do not enter Vefsna,” he said.
“You would sacrifice a village because I refuse to take a guard with me?”
“Yes.”
“And you think you can stop me from entering Vefsna?”
“No.”
Rakel blinked. If he knew all of that, why was he making such a fuss?
“Halvor, buckle on this one,” Oskar said. “It will pay off. I promise.”
The captain scowled at him and puffed his chest up with a big inhale. “Stand down, men,” he finally ordered.
The soldiers saluted him and took up positions behind bushes and other cover. The mumbling soldier—Snorri, Oskar had called him—scurried up a tree.
With only the captain and attendant as her audience, Rakel glided across the snow, following the captain’s hushed directions to Vefsna.
Vefsna was larger than Fyran, and Rakel could see hints of the idyllic villages often drawn in the few storybooks she had in her library—it was in the wooden carvings that adorned doorways, support beams, and roofs—but besides the hints, the village was a ramshackle. The invaders had done a great deal of damage, judging by the ruined shutters, broken doors, and buildings blackened from fire.
It was also unnaturally quiet. No animals bleated; no one puffed laughter or shouted in indignation. The invaders, ugly puddles on the white snow in their black and crimson uniforms, filled the streets like a murder of carrion crows.
Most of the villagers were out of sight, but there were a few out, wearing bruises and fright as they carried food and drinks to the invaders.
One of the laborers was an older woman. When she slipped and dropped a plate of ham, a soldier kicked her in the ribs.
Rakel rubbed the tips of her fingers together, igniting the cold spark of her magic. Snow began to swirl in the middle of the road that ambled through the village. Ice grew up from the ground, forming and shaping under Rakel’s magic. Glancing at the invaders, she molded the sculpture until it grew into a life-sized replica of an invader—perfectly detailed, down to the insignias on their uniforms.
The invaders exchanged glances and moved towards the statue with reluctance, as if it would come to life and brandish its icy pike at them.
“Um, Princess?” Oskar asked. “You are quite talented, but is this really?—”
Rakel snapped her fingers. A giant sword of ice dropped from the sky, impaling the sculpture in the neck. The ice statue’s head slid off, hitting the ground with an ominous thud.
One of the invaders yelped, and the rest of them gripped their weapons, turning to scowl at the villagers.
“Who did that?” an invader roared, his voice harsh like a metal dagger shaving ice from a block. “Show yourself!”
Rakel glanced at Oskar and Captain Halvor, worry creasing her forehead.I suppose it doesn’t matter if they end up fearing me,she thought with regret.Vefsna needs?—
Rakel’s thoughts stopped when an invader grabbed a man by the throat. “Was it you?” he demanded. The man struggled, pulling on the invader’s wrist as his life was strangled out of him.
With a roar, Rakel’s magic flared to life. She extended her hand, and spears of ice thrust up from the ground, almost impaling the invader.
He dropped the villager and scrambled backwards. “To arms!” he shouted.
“Too late,” Rakel said as she approached Vefsna, the wind flapping her cape and wildly flinging her hair.
When the invaders ran at her, their weapons raised, Rakel attacked them with pin-point precision, covering their arms and torsos with armor-like ice at least a finger-length thick. Unable to move their arms, wrists, or weapons, they toddled, knocked off balance.
She raised a wall of ice behind them, formed thick blocks of ice and slid them across the iced ground, knocking the men into the wall. She didn’t release her magic but instead kept pushing. When they groaned and yelped, Rakel weakened the ice they were pinned against, so they smashed straight through it.
If an invader raised a weapon, Rakel formed a block of ice around his hands so he could not rotate his wrists or change his grasp. Then, she encircled the blades with massive chunks of ice that weighed them down so heavily, it yanked their owners to the ground.
