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“Selma doesn’t need that one,” Alma said with a smile over her shoulder. “She’s got that in abundance.”

The next was for silence, the fourth for strength while the fifth was for quickness of thought and the sixth for invisibility. They only worked against elves, Lilja explained, and then not the most powerful ones like Alfrun.

She put her fingertip on the last one, a green so dark it was almost black. “This one…” she said. “Well, this one’s not for defense. It’s for love.”

“Does… does it make someone fall in love?” My voice had lost all its surety because again I wondered if there was something unnatural about my emotions for Lilja. I loved her madly. More than I had ever thought possible.

“No,” she said. “It’s not like that. It keeps the ones you love close in your heart. It makes them feel as if they’re always near, even when they’re not.”

“That’s the best one of them all, then,” Helena said, and Alma reached over and squeezed her hand.

My throat filled with tears at the thought that Lilja had added this bead. Whatever happened, as long as I wore her bracelet, the memory of her would stay strong within me.

She saw how my eyes shone and wrapped her arms around my middle, burying her face in my coat. When she looked up at me, she blinked, and tears fell down her cheek. “I don’t know if I could endure it again, being a captive. Not when I’ve known you.”

Helena twisted on the bench to face us. “Well, that won’t happen so no reason for bawling.” She patted the rifle in her lap. “We’re going to find that bastard queen, and she’s going to let you go. Simple as that.”

Lilja’s laugh was half a sob. Alma smiled. I did too. And for a moment I did believe it—that we would simply march into that mountain—and that Alfrun would let me walk out with Lilja’s hand in mine.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Afew hours of daylight remained when Lilja stiffened next to me. “We’re getting close,” she said. “I can feel her near.”

“Alfrun?”

“Yes.”

“What does it feel like?” I asked.

“Like an ache and a fever.”

I pulled her close to my side.

Alma pointed ahead, at the peaks that rose above the treetops. “Which one is it?”

Lilja, craning her neck, studied the horizon. “I need a better look.”

“From up there,” Helena said, pointing toward the crest of a hill to our right. Alma reined in the horses, and soon we were trudging through the snow. The land no longer had that close feel of a forest. The trees grew in clusters here and a river, partly frozen, snaked its way around them. Another solitary crow squawked above us as we passed a lone fir. Helena eyed it with a frown. “I never liked crows.”

“Me neither,” Lilja said, and I thought I saw her shiver.

I took her arm, and together we labored to the top. The view was breathtaking. Before us lay a valley and behind it rose the mountains.

“It’s that one,” Lilja said, pointing at the peak that rose above the others—and that seemed perfectly right. Alfrun did appear the sort who preferred the highest seat. The mountain was covered in snow, but jagged outcrops had left some areas bare, and the dark stone was a stark contrast to the white.

“How do we get in?” Helena asked. Perhaps it was the bead on her bracelet, but she seemed to be the only one of us anticipating the obstacles we might face. My own mind felt like too full and too empty at the same time, like my thoughts were buried under a snowdrift.

“We don’t,” Lilja said. “The only way in is for Alfrun or one of her most powerful men to bring us inside.”

“How many of those does she have?” I asked.

“Three. There’s Vemund. He’s her closest advisor, her second-in-command. Then there’s Hrafn. He oversees her court. The last one is Stali, her master artisan.”

Helena glanced down the way we had come. “Are they as cruel as her?”

“Mostly. Vemund especially. I suppose that’s why he’s so close to her. Stali has no love for anything but his workshop. Hrafn’s a mystery. He never spoke much in front of me.”

Alma pointed to a gray speck at the base of the mountains. “That’s a village. We’ll seek shelter there tonight. Then tomorrow… well, I suppose we’ll have to see what happens once we go up Alfrun’s mountain.”