A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. She hid a sigh. Everyone leaned on Edmund, and he in turn leaned on her, coming to her to provide the hopefulness that he couldn’t quite seem to find.
She wished he’d be able to find it on his own. Wished she could be a normal eighteen-year-old for a day, not one helping with many of the burdens of state. Wished she could be a normal princess for once—have no bigger concern than parties, courtiers, and who she’d marry.
Maybe for just a day. That all does sound a mite stuffy.
“Wishing for miracles again, my lady?” Matilde extended a cup of tea to her.
Diane took it with a smile and inhaled the sweet fragrance of mint leaves. “Making my face again, am I?”
Matilde patted her shoulder and tucked another blanket around her before moving over to give Edmund a blanket as well. Diane sipped at her tea, watching with some amusement as Edmund didn’t bother fighting Matilde.
The woman had been their mother’s lady-in-waiting and had refused to be anything other than Diane’s attendant as she grew older.
Her smile faded. Their mother had passed a few years before their father died in battle. In some ways, Matilde had filled that role over the last six years.
Warmth crept down to her toes with every sip of tea. She took a moment to forget all her current troubles while she drank. Her mother had once said that you couldn’t possibly be worried with a cup of tea in hand. It just wasn’t allowed.
It seemed like a good philosophy to adopt.
A pounding at the door interrupted the moment of calm. Edmund tossed away his blanket with a muttered curse. Diane took one last fortifying drink and slipped her feet back into her boots before she stood.
A guard entered, a look of bewilderment on his face.
“Sire, he just appeared out of nowhere and says he wants an audience with you.”
“Who?” Edmund buckled his sword back on, shifting back into a hardened warrior with the action.
“He says his name is August.” The guard shrugged almost helplessly. “I think he’s a faery, sire.”
Chapter Five
Edmund recovered first. “A faery?”
Diane still stared, her jaw dropping open. Equal parts eager anticipation and apprehension rushed through her.
The guard only shrugged again.
“Show him in,” Edmund ordered. The guard bowed and withdrew.
Silence lingered behind him. Diane attempted to compose herself into something more dignified than a staring, bemused princess. What’s a faery doing here? They hadn’t been seen since the war ended three years ago. Did they have something to do with this?
A minute later, the guard returned with the stranger behind him.
The man in front of her stood a fingers-breadth shorter than her. He wore a simple tunic and trousers made of green and brown fabrics. He regarded them with calm hazel eyes, and seemed ignorant of the unruly wave to his brown hair. He didn’t look too much older than Edmund, though that didn’t mean anything when faeries lived for hundreds of years.
He seems nice. Diane remembered faeries being taller, more ferocious, and awe-inspiringly terrifying. Something about the faery calmed her. Edmund, however, didn’t seem to share her opinion.
He stood with arms crossed, glaring at the newcomer.
“Come to take responsibility for this?” Hardness edged Edmund’s voice.
A slight twitch of humor moved along the faery’s cheek.
“No, as a matter of fact.” He spoke in a pleasant tenor voice. “I came on behalf of my king to see if your township survived the initial blast.”
“Or if something here caused it?” Edmund caught the part left unsaid in the faery’s reply.
Diane resisted the urge to smack his arm. Despite the human Myrnians being on fair terms with the faeries of Celedon Forest during and after the war, it still wouldn’t do them any favors to anger them. Especially given the current predicament.
But the faery didn’t seem to take any offense. “No, we’ve determined the origin came from somewhere south of here.”
Edmund relaxed a fraction. Diane decided to step in.
“August, is it?” She came to stand with Edmund.
The faery’s face melted into a pleasant smile. Another wave of calm washed over her.
“Yes. Pleasure to finally meet you, Princess Diane.”
She came up short. “How do you know my name?”
“Your guards used it while I was waiting.” August lifted an eyebrow.
Diane rolled her eyes. Obviously.
He grinned again. “My parents also happen to be your and your brother’s godparents. So, I did hear a fair bit about you since they do check in occasionally.”
“They—Who—what?” Diane stammered. It can’t be. I know faeries live a long time, but it can’t be them!
“Damian and Adela.” August confirmed her wildest imaginings and the ramblings of her pen from only earlier that afternoon. Even Edmund raised an eyebrow.
“But…” Diane fought the sudden urge to sit down. “But they helped our ancestor! Hundreds of years ago! I thought it might just be a myth that they continued to bless King Stefan’s descendants. Do I have a faery blessing?” Childish eagerness sent her leaning towards the faery.
Edmund cleared his throat and she knew a rebuke to contain herself was coming. But August only chuckled.
“Both of you do. And they’d have come themselves, but as you mentioned, they’re getting on in years, and the king thought sending their over-eager son to check out a frigidly-cold magical spell was a better idea.”
Diane flashed a smile. Edmund shifted forward and she swallowed her reply.
“So you’re here to help?”
August hesitated. “In a way.”
Edmund scoffed as if to say, “I knew it.”
Since the time of King Stefan, the faeries had gradually become more open. Then the war happened.
Human sorcerers and witches, together with rogue faeries from Myrnius, Calvyrn, and Durne, turned on faeries and humans alike. War erupted as alliances and battle lines were drawn across all three countries. In the wake of magic, the humans suffered the most.
Ten long years later, the war ended. The faeries from each country went into deep hiding once again to sort out their own problems. Humans were left scrambling for aid against the magic still running rampant through the countries.
A bit of regret crossed August’s face. “My parents and I didn’t agree with the decision to withdraw. My entire family fought on the side of your people. We, too, knew suffering from the war.”
A bit of shared respect passed between them for the war and those lost. That, at least, they could agree on.
Diane spoke again. “What are you offering us?”
“We’re sending out scouts to the south to track the origin. From what we know already, this has extended east into Calvyrn, and north into Durne all the way to the Sandur Strait. After that?” August shrugged. “That’s the boundary line of the far north. Even we don’t know much about our kind past the Strait.”
Diane shivered. The far north was said to be a place where wild and untamed magic abounded. Where strange creatures roamed, and reclusive faeries with the power over frost and snow lived in palaces of ice.
“So you don’t think they did it?” She rubbed at her arm to bring some warmth back.
“We’ve never known of an ice faery to come this far south, so there’s no reason for one to be out in the middle of the ocean,” August said. “We’ve sent out messengers to the faeries of Calvyrn and Durne. We’re hoping that we’ll be able to put aside differences and figure out a way to undo this. All we ask is that you allow us to meet here, somewhere in your lands. Your family is still widely known among our folk to be friends of the faeries, and it is a neutral ground that we can all agree to.”
Edmund crossed his arms tighter across his chest at this request. Diane didn’t offer any advice. The uprisings had begun a few years after
she was born, and she’d been brought up in war. She hadn’t seen the battlefields, so her mistrust of magic did not run as deep as Edmund’s. Perhaps because some part of her wished for a return to the old ways.
Finally, Edmund spoke. “When would this happen?”
“Four days from now. This strange ice affects everyone and our way of life,” August said.
“Strange, how?” Diane interjected again.
“You’ve noticed it’s not melting?” A divot appeared on August’s cheek as he bit the inside in concern.
Diane and Edmund nodded.
“It reeks of magic, but it’s like nothing we’ve ever seen. We have no idea what caused it.”
“Wonderful,” Edmund muttered. “Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse.”
Diane pressed her arms across her chest as even her optimism began to vanish. This was something new, something strange. Something even the faeries didn’t know about. And that just might make it worse.
Chapter Six
Tonya sat on the ocean floor. Her black hair swayed about her to the gentle beat of the ocean. Despite the ice that still remained two days later, life went on in the ocean. The faeries were kept busier than ever trying to counter the effects of the ice on the ocean life.
She sighed and swirled a pattern in the sand with her finger. Even if she hadn’t been kept under guard all lengths of tides, there was nothing she could do to help anyway. She just sat and tried to ignore the yearning to break free and see the ice again. It settled her in some way.
The guards were no help to try to pass the time. They just floated in stoic silence, not even facing her. The only time they acknowledged her presence was when it was time for her to go to the surface, or for announcing the arrival of the faeries appointed by the king to try to draw out her ice magic again.
The high walls of coral around her loomed closer at the memories of those encounters. Their magic of currents and ocean breezes and whispering tides only made the icy magic inside her wind tighter until it threatened to suffocate her.
She drew her knees up to her chest, flicking her fingers at an inquisitive fish that swam closer to investigate the tips of her hair. Some part of her wished that she was viewed more as a threat. Then maybe someone would at least look at her instead of just ignoring her.
A sigh escaped in a stream of bubbles. She tracked their path to the surface. They wouldn’t pop. Just bump against the sheen of ice, then freeze. Most stuck, but sometimes the frozen bubbles would sink before the undercurrents, kept warm by magic, would melt them.
A pebble floated down in front of her face. She frowned and glanced up. Sophie floated a safe distance away. She dropped another pebble. Tonya made an irritated shooing motion. Sophie stuck her tongue out, then began waving her arms erratically.
What’s she doing? She looks like she’s fighting off damselfish after wandering into their home.
Sophie slowed down her motions, over-exaggerating what Tonya eventually decided was a query as to how she was doing. She lifted her arms in a shrug.
I’d be better if I knew what was going to happen to me.
Sophie’s wings rippled as they kept her in place above the coral prison. She began trying to sign something else, then shook her head. A look crossed her face that meant trouble and Tonya tried to wave her off as she began to swim down.
Tonya’s motions attracted the attention of the guard captain. He turned his gaze up, and an exasperated expression creased his broad features. He trilled a whistle to alert his fellow guards, but they stood relaxed as she approached.
“Can I please just talk to her?” Sophie asked.
“Do your parents know you’re here?” Captain Kostis frowned at her.
A stubborn expression crossed Sophie’s face. “No, but I’m old enough to make my own decisions, thank you very much.”
“Sophie, you shouldn’t be here,” Tonya protested as she stood. It would just hurt Sophie.
Sophie swiped an irritated hand through the water, stirring it with a fresh current that coiled with her anger.
“Tonya, this is ridiculous. You’re about as harmless as a hermit crab. No offense.”
Tonya propped her hands on her hips. “That is a little offensive, you know.”
Sophie had more magic in her little finger than Tonya could conjure on a good day, but she didn’t have to shout it.
A faint grin touched Kostis’s mouth and he lowered his spear. “Five minutes.”
Tonya shot him a grateful look. Sophie darted forward and touched down on the sand beside Tonya. She wrapped her arms around Tonya, nearly squeezing all her air from her.
“You’re all right? They haven’t done anything horrible to you, have they?” Sophie spun to glare at the guards.
“The worst they’ve done is ignore me.” Tonya tugged Sophie back. The captain’s smile softened in a bit of apology. Tonya ignored it. “Anything interesting been happening? Have they figured out how to get rid of the ice?”
Sophie shook her head. “No, but I heard some rumors that some land faeries made their way out here to try to find us.”
“What?” Tonya stared. “Did I freeze the land too?”
Sophie bit her lip and slowly nodded.
Tonya sank to the ground and stared at the puffs of sand as it settled.
“I ruined everything,” she whispered.
Sophie plopped down beside her, stirring more sand. “You did not. Someone attacked you. This could be their magic.”
Tonya didn’t have the heart to remind her that the faeries sent by the king had found nothing but threads of her magics in the ice. Albeit in wide swaths that entwined one another in a complex pattern they couldn’t explain. It defied logical explanation that it could have come from her, but the evidence was there.
“What are the land faeries here for?” Tonya hoped it wasn’t something dramatic like retribution against the incompetent faery who had somehow frozen the entire world.
“How am I supposed to know?” Sophie tossed her hands up in a swirl of water.
“Sophie.” Tonya fixed her with a look. Sophie had always been notorious for eavesdropping and sticking her nose into other faeries’ business.
Sophie rolled her eyes. “Fine. They did come to see what happened since they pinpointed the origin of the ice from here. And I heard that they’re calling a meeting among all the land faeries to figure out a way to undo it.”
Hope sprang in Tonya’s heart. “Do they know how?”
In the extra second Sophie took to reply, Tonya knew there was no solution.
“They want you to go—to see if they can figure it out.”
Hope sprang back up to shove at the despair. She’d be able to set foot on a different part of the land. She could see different faeries. Maybe someone would know something about her parents. It died with Sophie’s next words.
“The king is deciding what to do right now.”
She’d forgotten that someone else currently decided her fate. “Do you think he’ll let me go?”
“He’d be stupid not to,” Sophie declared, earning a faint look of disapproval from Kostis. “His advisors obviously can’t figure it out.”
Captain Kostis cleared his throat. “Your time is up.”
Sophie scowled at him, daring him to make her take back her words.
Tonya nudged her. “You should go. And figure out what’s going to happen and then come back and tell me.”
Sophie smiled. “You know I will.” Her wings appeared again, translucent and ruffling around the edges. She waved as she rose above the edges of the coral and swam away with the aid of a small current.
“There’s a good chance he’ll probably let you go,” Kostis spoke.
Tonya floated a little closer to him, wrapping her arms around herself. “You think so?”
He cast a sidelong glance at her through the openings in his helmet. “As you said, our people haven’t been able to figure out a way to undo it yet. Maybe we need some help.”
> Tonya raised an eyebrow. Ocean faeries were as wild and independent as the water itself. Help was not a word often used in their vocabulary.
“I’m just as surprised as you.” A hint of a smile entered his voice, drawing a slight chuckle from her. “And I hope that you can figure something out.”
She offered a wry smile. “I think you might be hoping for too much from me.”
He turned to regard her more fully. “I don’t think so. You remind me of Thalia. She never let anything stop her.”
Tonya perked up at the mention of her mother. Kostis had been one of the soldiers who had gone to search for her mother after she disappeared. And the one to bring Tonya back to the ocean. He’d been friendly enough her entire life, but they’d never talked about her parents before.
“Did—did you ever meet my father?”
A brief frown creased Kostis’s face. “I did.”
Longing welled up inside Tonya. Part of her wished not to ask the question, since most believed the rumor concerning her.
“My mother and father—did they…”
“In the short time I spent with them, it was obvious they loved each other very much.”
Relief crashed over her like a storm-powered wave. Maybe they did want her after all.
“How did you meet them?”
“I was on patrol when I caught a trace of her magic for the first time in almost two years. Hardly believing it, I headed inland to find her and your father on the Durnean coast, farther south than his kind had ever come. You were only a few months old. All she said was that they were fleeing from something and needed help to cover their trail. I escorted her farther south while your father backtracked.”
Kostis paused and turned his gaze to a stingray swooping low above a bed of gently-waving sea grass. “He never came back.”
Tonya blinked away the pressure that built behind her eyes. She’d never heard this and somehow it hurt even more than not knowing.
“What did my mother do?”
Kostis sighed and dug his spear into the sand, creating a small maelstrom of dirt around it.
Winter Spell Page 3