grunt. He staggered, one foot dislodging the grate from the fire pit. His foot sank into the coals, and he howled.
Broken glass clinked onto the floor as Snow emptied her sack. She clapped her hands, and the glass rose into the air, spinning around her like a glittering whirlwind. “I’ll shred you both to ribbons before I let you leave this room. Please don’t make me kill you, Talia.”
There was a hint of genuine pain in Snow’s words, but not enough to suggest she wouldn’t do exactly what she threatened. A single cut, and Talia would be as much a slave as Frederic. Talia stepped to the right and threw her knife.
Snow’s wall of glass knocked the blade aside, but Talia was already moving. She grabbed the grate from the floor with both hands. The muscles in her back strained to toss the iron grate through the window. Talia followed an instant later, her arms held tight to her chest to keep from slashing herself open on the broken glass.
Talia twisted in the cold air, but she was falling too fast to completely control her landing. Tiled rooftop rushed toward her. She hit hard, her hip and shoulder slamming into the roof of the kitchen. She was too far away to catch the chimney, so she grabbed for the gutters, but they were frozen over. As she slid from the roof, she glimpsed people shouting and pointing from the courtyard below, and then she was falling again.
CHAPTER 5
Daniellepaced a circle around trit-tibar. “I know my husband, Tritt. This wasn’t him.”
“I agree,” said Trittibar. The former ambassador from Fairytown wore his usual cacophony of clothes, including a loose shirt that fountained rainbow ribbons for sleeves, knee-high trousers, and sandals the color of spring buds. He had braided tiny gold bells into his white beard for good measure.
Until recently, Trittibar had lived in a mouse-sized hollow in the southern wall of the palace. After his exile from Fairytown, he had been cut off from the fairy hill, the source of his magic. The loss of his magic trapped him in human form. Snow had been able to rescue some of his belongings, but she hadn’t been able to change their size.
Danielle looked past Trittibar, to where his entire library sat on a shelf no wider than a saucer. The large glass lens and tweezers he used to read the books hung from a peg beside the shelf.
“I’ve been friends with Armand since he was a child,” said Trittibar. “I’ve seen him at his best, and at his worst. Never have I known him to act the way he has today.”
“Maybe Father Isaac was right. Maybe this is just grief.”
Trittibar’s beard jingled as he cocked his head. “If you believed that, you wouldn’t be wearing your sword.”
Danielle touched the hilt with one hand. She had retrieved it after dinner. “We need Snow.” She hesitated. With her mirror destroyed, how much magic had Snow lost?
“If it’s magic, Father Isaac will find the source.” Trittibar combed his beard with his fingers. “Where is the prince now?”
“In his study. He wanted to be alone. I asked Aimee to let me know if he leaves.”
Someone rapped at Trittibar’s door. He jumped to his feet. “Still not used to having a real door,” he muttered. Outside stood a single guard.
“What is it, Stephan?” asked Danielle.
He gave a quick bow. “Talia asked that I find you, Your Highness. She said to meet her at the northeast tower. Snow was taking Prince Jakob there.”
“Why would Snow…?” If Stephan had known anything more, he would have said so. She saw Trittibar grab a slender rapier from the wall. Her own sword bounced against her hip as she ran past Stephan into the cold night air.
A small crowd had gathered in the corner of the courtyard. Danielle’s heart thudded in her chest, and she ran faster, jumping over the low stone wall around the garden.
“Move aside!” Her shouts cleared a path for herself and Trittibar. Two guards were holding Talia near the base of the tower. Her nose was bleeding, and she appeared dazed. Danielle spun, searching the crowd. “What happened here?”
Talia pointed toward a broken window in the tower. “Snow took the prince.” Her words were terse. She tried to wrench free. “I couldn’t get to him. She attacked me. The guards have already gone to check the room, but they didn’t find anyone except Frederic. They’re taking him to be checked by Father Isaac. I don’t know where Snow took Jakob.”
“Let her go,” Danielle commanded. The guards jumped back. Talia swayed, but kept her balance. “Get Tymalous.”
“I don’t need a healer.” Talia wiped her nose on her sleeve.
Danielle didn’t have time to argue. She ran inside, taking the steps two at a time. The door to the candlemaker’s workshop was open, the latch splintered. She stared at the empty room. Cold air gusted through the broken window. She spotted a shard of silvered glass half-buried in a candle on the wall.
“Whatever happened to Armand, it began with Snow and her mirror.” Talia moved to retrieve the candle with the broken shard. “She must have collected the rest of the pieces. Anyone who has been cut by one of her mirrors needs to be placed under guard at once.”
Danielle braced herself. “Was Jakob hurt?”
Talia hesitated. “Snow cut him twice that I know of. The magic didn’t appear to affect him.”
Shock and disbelief held Danielle in place. The wind played over her as she repeated Talia’s words in a whisper. “She cut him?”
“Small cuts only,” Talia said quickly.
Danielle spun to face the guards who had followed them up the stairs. “Seal the palace. Stephan, get to the king and tell him what’s happened. Take him someplace safe, and don’t let anyone else near him.”
Locking the gates wouldn’t stop Snow. She could be anywhere, or anything. Her magic could change her and Jakob into mice, or it could create an illusion to disguise them both. “We’ll need hunting dogs. Trittibar, get the hounds and give them something with Jakob’s scent. Nicolette can-”
“Nicolette was cut, too,” Talia said softly.
Danielle nodded, refusing to let the news affect her. “She’ll need to be watched as well.” She touched her bare wrist where her mirrored bracelet had rested. Yesterday, a single kiss to that mirror would have conjured an image of her son. “Get Armand to Father Isaac.”
Isaac’s magic wasn’t as powerful as Snow’s, but of everyone in the palace, he had the best chance of reversing whatever Snow had done. She waited until the others hurried from the room, leaving her alone with Talia. “Why would she take my son?”
“I think… I think she was curious.” Talia was staring at the overturned bench. “She wanted to know why her mirror didn’t affect him.”
“Do you think she’ll… what will she do to him?”
Talia looked away. “I don’t know.”
Danielle could feel the fear pushing up from her chest. She put one hand on her sword, but even the touch of her mother’s final gift couldn’t quell that terror. Snow had taken her son. “Tell me the truth. Are you well enough to fight?”
“Always,” said Talia. The blood trickling from her left nostril made her assurance less convincing, as did the obvious stiffness in her arm, but Danielle took her at her word.
“Search Snow’s library. I doubt she’d take Jakob there, but whatever happened started with the destruction of her mirror. Be careful.”
“What will you be doing?”
Danielle was already on the stairs. “My husband was one of the first to be cut. With Snow missing, perhaps he’ll hold some answers.”
