mine. Gerta’s fear was still very much present, but the edge was gone. As for Talia, she was hurting, though she tried to hide it. The clipped tone of her words, the tension in her body… she meant to save Snow, no matter the cost. Danielle could see it in the way she moved, deliberate and purposeful.
Danielle prayed for the same, but if Bellum and Veleris were right and there was only one way to stop this demon… She prayed that it wouldn’t come to that, for all their sakes.
Talia scowled when she saw Danielle watching her. “Come on. The sooner we leave these damned fairies behind, the happier I’ll be.”
“Damned fairies?” Danielle repeated. “Does that include me as well?” The words sounded strange. In her mind, she was as human as Talia… though perhaps that wasn’t the best comparison, given the magic flowing through Talia’s blood.
“Don’t be stupid,” Talia snapped.
Danielle knew Talia well enough to know her barbs weren’t personal, her anger not directed at Danielle. “It changes things,” she said. “The people were wary enough when their prince married an ash-covered servant girl. What will they say to the revelation that their future ruler is less than fully human?”
Talia scowled. “Your lives-Jakob’s life-might be easier if certain things were kept secret.”
As they rode, Danielle found herself thinking of the bargain the Duchess had reached with the fairies of Speas Elan. The fairies of Allesandria had been hunted down, nearly driven into extinction, but was Lorindar any better? Their own war with fairykind had ended with Malindar’s Treaty, which confined fairykind to a single walled city. Was that treaty so different from the Duchess’ terms?
Every history she had read described conflict between human and fairy. In Arathea, the fairies had used Talia’s curse to wipe out the ruling line, plunging the nobles into chaos. In Allesandria and Lorindar, the humans had triumphed. But they were all variations of the same basic war, played out again and again. “Do you know of any land where humans and fairies live in peace, as equals?”
Talia raised an eyebrow. Gerta shook her head and said, “Not for very long.”
“Fairy magic could have fought this demon,” Danielle said, “but Allesandria slaughtered its fairies.” The most powerful fairies would have been the first to be destroyed. Had the demon recognized its vulnerabilities? Was that another reason it had fled to Allesandria?
Jakob was both human and fairy. Danielle would have sooner died than give her son into the Duchess’ hands, and yet… he would be king of Lorindar when he was older. What could he accomplish, with connections to both worlds?
She closed her eyes, imagining Jakob as a man. A leader, trained to navigate human politics as well as fairy. He could change things. Humans and fairies, no longer enemies bound by a treaty, but true allies.
Noble families had been known to send their children to serve in foreign courts. The King and Queen of Fairytown rarely spoke to one another, but it would make sense for Jakob to visit both… when he was old enough.
Instead, the Duchess had claimed him. Her bargain with Bellum and Veleris was proof of her hunger for power, a hunger which would doubtless twist Jakob as well, poisoning that future. Instead of bringing human and fairy together, the Duchess would use Jakob against her enemies on all sides.
Danielle refused to consider the possibility that they might be unable to save her son, that both he and Armand would be lost to her forever.
“You’re still thinking about Jakob,” Talia guessed. “We will find a way to destroy this demon. As for the Duchess-”
Danielle raised a hand, cutting her off. The darkling served them by the Duchess’ order, but Danielle had no doubt the creature was listening to their every word, and would report back to its master.
“I made a bargain.” To rescue Jakob from the demon, only to lose him again. She closed her eyes, waiting for the pain to recede enough for her to reclaim those images of her son grown to adulthood. Taking his place as King of Lorindar. Reaching out to Fairytown and rewriting the treaty. Taking a wife. Having children of his own.
“We’ll get him back,” said Talia. “We’ll get them all back.”
Danielle managed a smile, but said nothing. Talia sounded much like Danielle had several years ago, always insisting everything would work out. Danielle remembered well what Talia had said to her at the time.
“Just because your story had a happy ending doesn’t mean everyone else’s will.”
They discovered Veleris’ message on the second day, printed upon one of the dried fish. Tiny black marks, slightly smeared, covered the yellowed meat like an old tattoo.
“It’s a spell,” Gerta said.
Danielle peered closer. The letters appeared to have been written in haste. “On a fish?”
“To hide it from Bellum,” Talia guessed.
“She writes that it’s an old charm used by giants before battle, to toughen the skin,” Gerta read. “She says it should protect us from Snow’s ice wasps. It’s fairy magic, but she believes the spell can be adjusted for human use.”
“Can it?” Danielle asked. Snow had been able to cast fairy spells before, but she wasn’t certain about Gerta.
“I think so. I’ll need time…”
“You can read while we ride,” Talia said, snatching another fish from their supplies.
Gerta didn’t appear to hear. She muttered to herself as she studied the spell, brows furrowed in a way that made her look like her sister.
“Those wasps won’t be the demon’s only protection,” Talia said.
“I know.” Danielle finished packing snow into a small pot and handed it to Gerta, who barely even looked up as she used her magic to melt it into drinking water. “I’ve been thinking about that.”
“And?” Talia asked.
Danielle rubbed her shoulders, where the straps of her pack had dug into the muscle. “I’m still thinking,” she admitted.
“Think harder.”
She did, testing one plan after another in her mind and discarding them all. By the time they reached Snow’s palace toward evening of the second day, Danielle could see only one way to get them inside. But the cost made her ill.
The woods ended at the shore of a vast, frozen lake, covered in ankle-deep snow. Toward the center of the lake stood the palace Danielle had seen in her vision, like a miniature mountain range of ice. Crystalline towers stretched skyward, illuminated from within by green and blue lights. Drifts of snow buried much of the lower part of the palace.
They waited while Gerta read the protective spell Veleris had prepared. Gerta clutched the dried fish in her hands, mumbling to herself and touching her forehead. She repeated the gesture with the others, chanting in a language Danielle didn’t recognize.
“If you turn me into a troll, I swear to the gods I’ll eat you,” said Talia.
Gerta’s lips quirked as she continued her spell, reaching for Danielle. Danielle’s face tightened at Gerta’s touch. Her skin felt warm and dry, as if she had spent too much time in the sun. When she flexed her arms, there was a stiffness in her skin that reminded her of the heavily starched gowns that had been so popular last season.
Talia pulled out her knife and dragged the edge over her thumb. The blade failed to break the skin. “Not bad.”
“It’s no substitute for armor,” Gerta warned. “A strong sword thrust will kill you, but we should be protected from glancing blows and smaller stings.” She rubbed a thumb over the writing on the dried fish, then shrugged and took a bite. “Tastes like magic.”
The lake offered no cover. Danielle saw neither guards nor windows, but she had no doubt Snow was watching. “Night should help-”
“Not against Snow. The entire lake serves as her mirror. The moment we step out…” Gerta pointed toward the palace. “There are creatures in the drifts. So cold they’re barely alive.”
“Prisoners?” asked Talia.
