Iron Heinrich

by A. B. Keuser

  She swallowed, realizing they waited for her to finish her thought. “It’s probably a family heirloom.”

  “What makes you think that?” Mina’s eyes were narrowed as she moved a box to the pile of items that had been inspected and were ready for placement.

  They shared a glance and Silvia shrugged.

  “Regardless, he is not a prisoner, and I’ll be very upset if you don’t let him search for this lost item that brought him across our border.”

  Her mother studied her face and for a moment Silvia thought she would argue.

  “That is fine. I will make it clear that he is welcome to search our forest, and we will be more than happy to have him as our guest for however long his search takes.”

  It was a concession that felt as though it would come with strings attached. Silvia considered arguing.

  “I’ll ask him to stay until the party, if he can. After all, he may have friends already coming. There are a few members of the Ferrian family already invited.”

  An overwhelming dread washed over her and Silvia dropped the decoration in her hand. “You invited Hagnesofia? You hate her.”

  “She’s not going to show up, but it was required by general etiquette. If I snub her it will be the end of our feigned peace. She will send some minor delegate; they will make unimportant small talk, and that will be the end of it.”

  Disquieted, Silvia got back to work.

  Hours later, as the monotony threatened to drive her insane, the doors to the room opened and Julia entered. The knight looked as though she’d swallowed a lemon as she approached. A quick bow and she whispered quickly into Miranichelle’s ear.

  “Bring him in,” she said, turning to look at the door with a raised brow.

  A man pushed through the doors before the maid could fully open them, and gave her a cold glare before moving through the room as though he was lord of the manor. He was striking in a way that radiated magical changes to his appearance. It was an ugly sight even with his apparent beauty.

  “Druan Kimmler, emissary from Ferrian.” Julia introduced him in an irritated monotone.

  “Syr Druan Kimmler,” He said, pushing past Julia and closing the distance between himself and the Queen. He didn’t bother to bow and reached for her unoffered hand.

  She looked down at him, her eyes narrowed. “You will take two steps back.”

  Magic rolled over them, but he bore the brunt of it.

  He looked like he might vomit but took the two steps back. When her magic didn’t recede, he dropped to a knee and steadied himself with a hand to the floor.

  “What does Hagne’s toady want in my court?” Her mother’s voice was rarely cruel. It sent a shiver down her spine as she watched the interaction.

  “I am here to see about making preparations for her attendance of your upcoming fete.”

  Miranichelle’s face was a mask of impassivity, but Silvia knew her mother was as skeptical of the man’s motives as she was. He was here to spy, not to ease their tenuous interactions.

  Turning to Julia, she said, “Take him to the blue sitting room. I’ll send Norton to sort through the particulars when he has a chance. He is not to be left alone.”

  A flash of a smile crossed Julia’s lips and she dragged the man to his feet.

  He shook her off of him as they left the room. But even as the minutes passed, the irritation of magic remained.

  In the end, Silvia stayed silent, fought through it and set to work on her pile of inspections.

  Three hours later, her mother told them to leave—they were distracting her—and she let Mina lead her through the palace, unsurprised when she dragged open the door to her room.

  Mina kept her fire burning day and night. A golden contraption—brought from her homeland—sat in front of it, clattering away as gears turned and water boiled. The room was sweltering, but as soon as they stepped inside, Mina stripped off the heavy layers she lived in and dropped them on the chair beside the door. The dress she wore underneath was half gold chains, and half gossamer fabric. The cut showed off every one of the patterned tattoos that covered her skin.

  The fainting couch stationed by the balcony doors was one of the few places Silvia could sit and not sweat herself to death. She opened them and enjoyed the burst of cold air.

  “I selectively forget how hot your homeland is. Remind me never to visit.”

  “You know I never suggest that except in the winter. I don’t want you to die.”

  Mina dropped onto the long, pillow covered lounger that sat a good fifteen feet away from the balcony doors, propped her head on her hand and said, “So… tell me about the latest male your mother has found for you.”

  Shrugging, Silvia plucked at her skirt. “He looked like he’d die from exhaustion.”

  “ But what did he look like?”

  “Tall, red hair… his build said manual labor, but his clothing suggested something in Ferrian’s upper class. I’m not sure he’s smiled in the last few days.”

  “You liked him.”

  “I won’t lie… he is delicious. But if I sleep with him and mother finds out, that will be the end of things.” Silvia shook her head and flopped down on the sofa. “Because sex is an admission of desire and if I want him, she’ll see to it that I have him.”

  Mina smiled too widely. “So, find a way to keep it a secret, or find someone else to deal with that particular urge. I told you the week after I got here, you need to get laid. That fact hasn’t changed in the last two months.”

  “If only it was that easy. Half the men available make me want to vomit, the other half are divided into two categories: those who’d use sex to get them favors, and those who would never shut up about it after the fact.”

  “You are very picky,” Mina said. “And rightfully so. It’s too bad you don’t have a taste for women. I tried to talk Julia into a tussle, but she only has eyes for you. What is it that makes your knights so tempting? Even the straight women make me weak in the knees. Danae teases me too, even though we both know she’s straighter than her sword.”

  Rolling her eyes, Silvia sat up on her elbows. “Enough of this, we agree that I need to get laid and we agree that it’s not going to happen, so let’s move on.”

  “Move on to what? The party? Did you know your mother wants me to wear one of my family’s traditional dresses? I have to put a stop to that right away. They make this look modest.” She swept a hand down her body. “I will literally freeze to death.”

  Murmuring her agreement, Silvia stood and walked to where Mina stood. “But if you keep yourself covered up all the time, no one gets to see these gorgeous tattoos.”

  She slid a finger down Mina’s side, and her friend looked at her as though she was a petulant child. “If I didn’t know you better, I’d say you were flirting.”

  Laughing, Silvia stood. “If you’re not going to keep my mind off things, I’m going to go get lost in an invention. They may not be as good of company, but they’re more distracting than you are.”

  Mina smiled slyly. “You only say that because you’ve never slept with me.”

  Laughing, Silvia left Mina’s room and walked through the halls, nodding to those she passed and avoiding the part of the palace she knew where Heinrich would be cloistered in. Mina was right. She needed to get laid, but one whisper of attraction—even if he was Ferrian—and her mother would descend like a bird of prey. Laughing at the absurdity of her thoughts, Silvia had to concede, at least, that flying was not among her mother’s skill set.

  *

  Heinrich woke to a sky stained purple.

  Blinking his eyes open, he stared out the window he thought he had closed and felt the ache in his chest.

  He threw back the bed’s covers, dropped his legs over the side, and sat up stiffly. His chest was a giant raw nerve, but the pain dulled with every breath.

  As long as he didn’t twist….

  The corset clicked and a moment later his world turned red. The metal around his stomach tig
htened, cinching him further.

  There was blood on his shirt and sweat on his brow. The queen had promised to kill him slowly… and it looked like she had kept her word. He didn’t know how long he had before it crushed him completely, but he couldn’t waste any more time. He needed to search for Max. And if that meant disobeying the silver fairy, he would do it and damn the consequences. He was already dying. There wasn’t much else she could do. His bags were stacked in the chair beside an unlit fire.

  He dressed in silence, wincing as he shrugged on his coat and opened the door to find a man in the castle livery standing with his fist raised to knock.

  “Dinner is served, my lord. Your presence is requested.”

  Following the man through the maze of corridors, he paused when the door to the dining hall opened. The tables were few, members of the court present content to ignore him. A blessing if he’d ever seen one.

  “Her royal highness will dine with you at the front table.” The man spoke and turned on his heel, leaving Heinrich to make the last of his way by himself.

  The table was a decently sized oval, its six chairs spaced evenly, and the queen motioned for him to sit in the chair beside Ivy.

  His first course had already been set for him.

  Picking up his silver spoon, he glanced down the table. The queen in all her terrifying beauty, the king who looked too much like his daughter. Beside his majesty Ivy sat smirking at him. To the queen’s right, a beautiful woman whose skin spoke of Aurona and whose clothing spoke of a room far colder than the one in which they currently sat.

  But the seat between the king and Mina was vacant.

  “Where is Silvia?”

  Ivy smiled too brightly at the question and he worried he was playing into her hand.

  But the Queen studied him without any form of emotion. “My daughter has pursuits that occasionally make her lose track of time. She’ll find her way downstairs eventually.”

  Heinrich glanced at her. A fairy’s daughter—one generation removed from full fairy blood—her distraction would be an invention. Max was four generations removed and he would still get lost in plans or creation. They might get along. If Heinrich was able to find him.

  “Have you considered my request?”

  “I have, and while I might have turned you back to Ferrian and sent you on your way, it seems your plight has found a champion in my daughter. You may search the forest. And you may continue to stay here as our guest until such time as you find whatever it is you lost. If you’re still here at the full moon, you should join us. We are sending our dear Mina back to her home in Aurona and we want to make sure she doesn’t forget that we prefer when she’s here.”

  “I will be back, Silvia needs me around or else she gets complacent.”

  Ivy snorted and shook her head at her food. “I wish I had a best friend who would attack me at every opportunity.”

  “How about we spar tonight and you tell me if you still think you’d be a better teacher.”

  The queen smiled and shook her head at them both. “Stop flirting, Mina. One day, Ivy will take you up on your offer and you’ll be worse off for it.”

  Mina snorted a laugh and covered her mouth immediately. “Ivy can’t bear the thought of losing. She’s afraid she will.”

  The way the other woman blanched, Heinrich had a feeling Mina was right.

  “If I have your permission to search the forest, I’ll want to leave now.”

  “But it’s dark?” Ivy said, glancing from him to the queen. “And you haven’t eaten.”

  The queen shrugged one shoulder. “Do you want Herr Krohnna to go with you as a guide? The forest is tame and should not react to you, though you would do better if you leave any iron you have on you within the palace walls.”

  Heinrich forced himself not to grimace as he nodded. If he could take the corset off, he would have left it in the tower cell and never looked back.

  “I don’t think I need any help, but thank you.”

  “Nonsense,” Ivy said, grabbing hold of his shoulder and forcing him to sit back down. “You’ll be lost before midnight. I’ll come along and make sure you don’t fall into a crag or something equally foolish. Eat up, you’ll need your strength if you want to find what’s of yours.

  Heinrich sat through five courses, eating a little of everything that was set in front of him. He didn’t doubt that his position in this kingdom was tenuous. And he had no intention of doing something offensive that would result in the retraction of his permissions.

  The food was almost familiar. Variations on things they ate in Ferrian. He skipped the wine—a clear head was important.

  The Queen and Mina spoke at length about the party the queen had planned. It was clear that they disagreed on several things, but the woman from Aurona was adamant on her clothing.

  “Those dresses were made to allow for agility and speed. You only want me to wear it because it will show more skin than I’ve exposed in weeks.”

  “It’s tradition to wear it for special events. This fete is special.”

  “And if I freeze to death, my father will have every reason to go to war.”

  “He’ll have to go through Ilmenia or Ozmerea first. I’m not worried.” The fairy smiled, so he didn’t think it was truly a threat, but it solidified his earlier suspicion.

  Silvia’s friend was the Aurona princess who had become a sort of legend. It was no wonder Ivy didn’t want to fight her. If the lore was true, Mina al Hebet could defeat a man three times her size… and had done so in a fight where she was outnumbered seven to one.

  He waited patiently, though fully aware of the darkness outside the windows, and tapped a thumb on his leg to keep from showing any other signs of the anxious energy that coursed through him.

  They were burning moonlight and it didn’t look as though he was going anywhere soon.

  Ivy dropped her napkin on the table and stood, startling him.

  “I think we’ve enjoyed enough of this meal to keep from dropping in the middle of the woods out of hunger.” She bowed to the king and queen and turned to him. “You and I have a date with a forest.”

  Bowing as well, albeit less gracefully, he followed after her.

  “We’ve got to make a quick stop—I don’t wear my tracking gear to the dinner table.”

  Of course she didn’t, though he’d only just noticed. He followed her through the palace, out a side entrance and across a graveled expanse to the stables.

  Vilis snorted and stamped his hoof as a stable boy brushed him down. “Next time, I’ll take you with me.”

  The longer this took, the further he would have to push into the forest. He only hoped Max wouldn’t do something foolish… like try to go back to Ferrian.

  Bow strapped to her back and legs glittering with daggers, Ivy joined him, a smile on her face as she fitted a green and silver cloak around her shoulders. “Danae has asked to join us, she usually makes nightly rounds with another of our order, but she was too curious about you.”

  The other knight smiled at him with something like malice in her eyes.

  She said nothing, and Ivy looked him over with a frown. “Let’s get going, we’re burning moonlight.”

  He followed them toward step one in a too-long plan.

  Even after he found Max, he had no idea how to reverse the fairy’s spell. There was little chance Miranichelle would undo the magic if she could. No fairy queen would help the descendant of a rival.

  On top of that, he wouldn’t be much help to Max when his ribcage was finally crushed.

  The forest engulfed them and he searched all around, eyes scanning the moonlit tree lines.

  “What exactly are we looking for?” Danae asked.

  When he hesitated, she stopped walking and he turned back to her even though he knew what he would see.

  Her face was scrunched in disapproval. “We can’t help you unless you tell us what we’re looking for.”

  Jaw twitching, he knew she was right. “We are l
ooking for a man or an iron ornament. The Ferrian queen has gone insane and has cursed someone very important to me. He was an iron frog the last time I saw him. But according to the men she gave him to to dispose of, he came back to human form last night. I hope he will be a man again in the moonlight… As I said, he will be easier to find if that is the case.”

  Ivy crossed her arms over her chest, adjusting her weight so that she leaned away from him. “And what did she do to you that makes you wince every time you turn?”

  “It doesn’t matter.” He turned away and pushed on through the forest. If she came with him, she did. If she didn’t, he would look for Max on his own.

  “Is he why you’ve done the one thing our queen never expected?”

  “What’s that?”

  Shrugging, Ivy held a branch to the side and let him pass. “Most of the men she’s picked out in the hopes they would catch Silvia’s eye have been… overly eager to win her favor.”

  “I owe this man my life. Besides that, Silvia seemed more interested in getting me out of her hair than in considering me for a prospective suitor. Add on top of that the fact that my last interaction with a queen ended poorly…. And you can imagine my reticence when it comes to spending much time with yet another royal family.”

  Danae arched a brow when he said “another” but didn’t question him.

  Ivy was clearly fishing for information, and for the moment there were only three things he did not plan to tell her.

  She glanced at him and then back at the forest. “After you find him and right whatever wrong was done… you should stay. Get to know Silvia.”

  Heinrich didn’t bother to hide the contempt in his tone. “Does the queen have a bonus structure set in place for the person who gets Silvia married off?”

  “Nothing like that. I’ve known her since we were children. She deserves that happiness,” Ivy said.

  “Then maybe you should let her find it herself.”

  “She’s overly distracted. I’m pretty sure she’d spend every moment of the day locked away in her secret lab, tinkering away. She gets lost in thought. I think it would be healthy for her to have something that keeps her grounded.”