A chime rang through the room, and all chatter died abruptly.
The Queen stood, her ladies scattering at a wave of her ring-laden hand. Her face was marble, cold and unyielding, a beautiful mask of ice.
Until, abruptly, that mask flickered, like a torch set alight behind her pale eyes - and she turned a rather saccharine smile on all those gathered.
Two smiles in one night; Adeline swallowed hard.
“Friends,” the Queen said, in some borrowed, honey-coated voice. “I have happy news to share, and there’s no greater night than New Winter’s Eve. A time of new beginnings.”
Adeline felt her spine tense, straightening so fast that Imogen wordlessly leaned over to pry the sloshing wine cup from her hand. She looked around, feeling the room for her sister’s gaze, and found it.
The last time their mother had shared happy news had been after the war against Caldbon; peace terms agreed, and baby Iseult growing in her belly.
Holding Mareda’s eye, Adeline raised a brow and discreetly passed a hand over her own stomach.
Mareda shook her head minutely, then took a slow, deliberate sip of wine and turned her eyes back to the Queen.
Adeline followed her gaze and –ah.The Queen, too, was toasting the room with a glass of wine. Not a baby, then.
She nodded her understanding, and their silent conversation passed by unnoticed by those around them.
Their mother savoured the tension, letting the silence stretch to the point of discomfort before she continued.
“It has been a happy and prosperous twenty-six years, for us all. Many an enemy has come to our door with a jealous face - wanting for our magic, for my crown. Or simply burning at my audacity. A Queen unwed! A woman, bearing the might of the Silver Kingdom,refusingto take a King!”
She laughed then, and Adeline almost flinched at the hollow sound. Indeed, around her there was a slight scuffle as though a few startled courtiers had done just that. Then a nervous chuckle from someone by the door, that rose and died on a breath.
Adeline could not imagine where she was going with all this talk of crowns and prosperity, this song of her successful reign, unless –
She shot her eyes at Mareda again, and saw that her sister was so very, very still. Her porcelain cheeks blazed, though, and Adeline knew that she was wondering the same thing. Was the Queen about to step down, with Mareda her one and only declared contender for the throne?
Adeline’s stomach gave a sick swoop. A rush of relief, perhaps.
Saves me a conversation,she thought.
Yet for some reason, her stomach hadn’t quite recovered from that sudden, nauseating drop. Before her thoughts could spiral further, the Queen went on.
“But Eisalaan is thriving, and I have quite proven my worth to the world. So, why not give them what they want? WhatIwant. Friends,” she paused again, relishing another beat of captivated silence. “This is to be the Winter that I finally invite a King to share my throne.”
Nobody spoke, or moved, or even breathed, and even as Iseult’s father stood and took the Queen’s outstretched hand, Adeline hadn’t caught up with the meaning of it all.
A King, in Eisalaan?
“Sebastian and I are to be married.”
Silence. Silence, as they all scrambled to make sense of it. The infamous Snow Queen, rumoured to have taken a vow to the Goddess herself never to wed. Through spite or sheer bald nerve, Selma had always seemed determined that Eisalaan would thrive by her hand and her hand alone. And now…
Still nobody reacted, not a soul brave enough to break the too-long silence. Adeline was sure she wasn’t the only one bracing against a cold thrill of panic, because surely this wasn’t the reaction the Queen had hoped for.
But then Selma threw her head back, baring the pale, ice studded column of her neck andlaughed.Laughed, knowingly, until her court stuttered into laughter too, and then clapped and cheered.
Imogen’s elbow to the ribs startled Adeline out of her seat, and she caught sight of Mareda weaving through the well-wishers and walking into their mother’s open arms.
“Go,” Imogen hissed, and Adeline stumbled after her sister.
Selma regarded her without a single shift in her expression; just opened a second arm and waited. Adeline stepped into her embrace. She smelled of bitter pine and her cheek against Adeline’s was cool, despite the hearth at her back.
“Congratulations, mother.”
