“Snorri…”
“The empty water towers for watering produce in the eastern gardens. Liv is seeing them filled right now and will begin purifying immediately.”
“Is everyone else in place?”
“Yes.”
“Excellent. Thank you, Snorri. Good luck.”
“To you as well, Princess.” He left, disappearing into the shadows.
Rakel nudged Frigid, but the reindeer didn’t move, so she kicked him. He lurched into motion, carrying her so she could continue her inspection of the northern side of the palace.
Rakel had three roles assigned to her by General Halvor: Get the troops in; distract the enemy mages, drawing them away from the regular soldiers; and take out Farrin.
With the first task finished, and Liv preparing for Farrin, the next step was to lure out the Chosen magic users. Oskar had warned her to complete this while doing as little damage to the palace as possible. It wouldn’t do to win the battle by razing it to the ground. Although the Chosen army had practically demolished it already, Steinar was somewhere in the building.
Such a plan might have made Rakel’s attention-gathering mission more difficult, but while she knew next to nothing of the capital, there wasonefeature of the palace grounds with which she was intimately acquainted. And she knew it would be considered expendable.
A crow cawed as Rakel set her sights on a lone tower built behind the palace—her childhood prison. It would be empty, as no one would dare use it for anything with all the deeply held suspicions about magic.
Rakel’s throat almost closed at the sight of the structure, but she slid off Frigid’s back—barely noticing when the reindeer wandered towards the forest, digging at buried grasses.I’m going to enjoy this.
Rakel coated the tower with ice, searching for cracks and structural weaknesses to exploit. She had only just started inspecting it when a fox sounded its hoarse bark of alarm.
That would be the shapeshifter.
She pulled at the ice on the tower, trying to collapse it. It shook but held, possessing a solid structure and base. Rakel was tempted to pour more power into it—she wanted ittoppled. Her attention was diverted, however, by the snow bear that came pelting out of the woods, running straight for her.
Rakel heaved up the snow and ice under the snow bear as fast as she could. The snow bear jumped off as the ice shot up like a pillar, but it was thrown off balance enough that it almost landed on its head and rolled a few times.
The girl with the strength magic burst out of the palace, the weather boy on her heels. “You!” the girl declared, thrusting her finger at Rakel. “I won’t be beaten this time!”
Rakel formed a hefty snowball weighted with an ice core and struck the weather boy in the back. He yelped and smacked into the strength girl. She didn’t buckle, but she turned bright red as the weather boy grasped her cloak.
“A little help, please?” the weather boy called.
Eight additional men and women ran out of the palace.
The snow bear shook snow off its body and grinned. It stood upright, transforming into a sharp-eyed woman. “Eleven against one—I like those odds,” she said in a husky voice.
Frodi darted out of the forest and hurled a fist-sized ball of fire at her back, setting her sleeveless tunic on fire. She yelped and threw herself onto the snow-covered ground, smothering the flames.
One of the new enemy magic users raised his arms, but rope climbed up him like a snake, binding his limbs together. The weather boy yelped as rope snatched him by the wrists and dragged him to the ground.
The strength girl grabbed him and pulled, snapping the ropes—although the weather boy winced in pain. “What’s going on?” she shouted.
The rest of the Verglas magic users, led by Snorri, emerged from their hiding spots in the forest, their dark cloaks blending in with the shadows of the trees.
“We apologize for throwing off your count. The battle will be seven verses eleven,” Frodi said with a wolfish smile. His assigned partner—a female merchant who had an extensive and clever ability to manipulate ropes—stood at his side and cut off a length of twine.
“Eight, if you count the elf,” she said.
One of the enemy’s unknown magic users frowned. “Elf?”
In the shadows, Ragnar finished his spell, bringing Genovefa to their location.
The otherworldly being brushed her hair out of her face as the light enveloping her faded. “Elf-friend Ragnar, it is my joy to answer your call. Am I to fight the honorable foe again?”
