by Tom Hansen
Ynya ventured another question. “How does that involve us?”
The Queen stared at Ynya for a long time before answering. “Your magic will help me take down the Feond.”
“How are we going to use our magic to help you?”
“I will give instructions once I need your help, but for now you don’t need to worry about that portion.”
Synol spoke up, brushing some frost off her forearms. “What about after that? Are you going to let us go after we help you take down the Feond?”
The Queen picked back up her chicken leg, looked at it a second, then threw it down on the table and grabbed her wine goblet. She took a sip, her eyes closed as she drained the liquid.
She slammed the goblet down on the table and looked back at Synol. “I don’t care what you do. You can do whatever you want.”
“Wait.” Ynya started to stand but caught herself. She didn’t want to seem like she was threatening the Queen. “Once we help you through the barrier, you will allow us, all four of us, to go home?”
The Queen looked to Nora for a second before turning back to the table. “I am not an unreasonable woman. I have my needs, like anyone else, and once those have been met, I have no reason to keep you here. So yes. Once you four have helped me across the barrier, then I will release you from my servitude. You can do whatever you wish after that. Go back to your little fishing village for all I care, for the North will not be of my concern anymore.”
Ynya’s chest swelled with hope and joy. She looked at her three sisters in turn. Synol’s hopeful eyes seemed to match her joy. Meki looked pained, but hopeful. Finny, as usual, didn’t seem to share in any expressions of joy any longer.
Still, this was great news.
“When do we leave?” Synol asked.
“Leave?”
Yes, don’t we need to travel to this location? The Feond?”
The Queen shook her head. “Oh, no. You won’t need to worry about that. All the work is to take place here, at my castle. Everything I need is here, or will be here very soon. In the meantime, I will train your magic to increase your capacity for casting, and you can enjoy the time until you are called upon to help me.
Chapter Twenty-One
After dinner, the four girls were shown to a room one floor down from the Queen’s study.
Captain Nora stood in the doorway, a stern look on her face. “I will be outside here all night. You are not allowed to leave.”
“That’s fine,” Ynya replied. “I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep anyway.”
Nora eyed her for a long time, her eyebrows twitching. She then looked to Synol and frowned before closing the door.
Synol replied by mimicking the same glare that been on Nora’s face, then she chuckled. Ynya couldn’t help herself and finally joined Synol in laughing at the ridiculous look the Skarmyord wore.
Even Meki grimaced, which was an improvement.
We’re finally together and alone!
Ynya felt so relieved.
Ynya eyed a couple of the tapestries and a large mirror on one of the walls. Most likely one or two of those were listening spots for the Queen’s henchmen, but at least they didn’t have a babysitter follow them into their actual bed.
More importantly, they were finally together.
Ynya basked in the knowledge that, regardless of the trials and pain they had gone through, things were looking up for them.
“The Queen is not telling the truth.” Finny said.
All the elation Ynya experienced deflated in an instant as Finny’s matter-of-fact statement brought it all crashing down to reality.
Ynya closed her eyes to center herself. Part of her wanted to snap at her sister for ruining the mood of the room, but Finny was probably the only one not being distracted by the moment and was staying vigilant. It wasn’t fair or right of Ynya to snap at Finny in this situation.
“What do you mean?”
Finny frowned before sitting down on one of the chairs to the side. “I don’t know, but there was something about her.”
“Like her mood?”
Finny shook her head. “Her smell. Something was wrong with her smell. She was very careful with the words she used, but there was something big she didn’t tell us.”
“What do you think it could be?”
Finny shrugged. “I don’t know, but something about the way she commands my magic chilled when she said she would release us. It was like she tightened her grip on my magic when she spoke.”
Meki drew in a sharp breath. “I felt the same.”
Synol embraced her youngest sister. “Meki, I know this is hard for you, but I want you to know that we are all here for you.”
Meki stared blankly at her big sister, her lip trembling below softened eyes. “She knows everything that happens in this castle.”
Synol gave her a pained smile in return, tucking Meki’s tight curls behind her right ear. “We know, sweetie. We have nothing to hide from her, even if she is listening to us right now, she doesn’t scare us. We have gone through a lot to get here to see you, and nothing she does to us is going to take that away. We came here for you, not her.”
Meki turned to Ynya. “What you told me earlier, about my Mama, about our home…that is all true?”
Ynya nodded. “Now that we are here, we are going to find a way to get you home. I know Mama and Papa aren’t there anymore, but we are going to do whatever we can to try to put your life back together in Marsfjord.”
Meki’s face lit up at the mention of her hometown, but then she turned sad, and looked at the hallway door. “She says I have to go with her to Megean Fields.”
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” Synol replied. “We are here now and we will protect you. I know she controls your magic, just like she does Finny.”
Meki shook her head. “She doesn’t really control my magic, but she did link our magics together as soon as she helped me Bloom. Our magics are now linked and she can pull from my frost magic whenever she wants.”
Synol glanced at Finny, then at Ynya. “That doesn’t matter. She said that once she is done with us, we are free to go. I think all we have to do is wait and help her with her spell, then we can go home.”
Ynya spoke up. “But what about the lying? What about her smell?”
Finny shook her head. “I could be wrong. Ever since I got here, I’ve been confused and not thinking straight. Pain calls to me constantly, wanting to be let out and trying to get me to change to be more like him.”
Synol stared at Ynya, her eyes wide, then cocked her head toward Finny a couple times.
It took a second, but Ynya finally understood Synol’s message.
Oh!
Ynya walked over to sit on the arm of the chair that Finny occupied.
“Finny, just like Synol told Meki, we are here for you, no matter what. You are our kin, you are our sister, and family is the most important thing. I don’t care what they did to you, I only care that you are safe and loved. No matter what you look like or who you are now, you are still my sister and I love you unconditionally.”
Finny looked up at Ynya, her mouth cocked to one side in an almost half-smile. It was probably the happiest Finny had looked in a long time. “Thank you. I just worry about Pain. He was the first experimented on back…there…and he has no one else. He must obey the Queen, like she is his leader.”
Ynya thought about telling the girls about the three earrings she had in her pocket. Maybe temporarily disconnecting Finny’s magic would mean that the Queen couldn’t control her?
But Ynya only had one of the removable types, and one of the explosive types. If only she had retrieved more of the first type, they might have come in handy for them to escape. But at the time she’d been so pre-occupied with destroying them for the pain they’d caused countless individuals over the years, she hadn’t thought that they might come in useful later on.
Once again, her short-sighted thinking had long-term cons
equences.
Ynya wished she knew exactly what the third golden type did. She hadn’t gotten a straight answer out of the Warden before killing him.
She decided now wasn’t the right time to bring up her secret. None of the others knew she had the earrings, and that meant the secret wouldn’t be revealed to the Queen. It was probably best to keep it under wraps for now.
“Enough worry for tonight. I think we all should go to bed, and get a good night’s sleep. We have time to spend together and be a family once again. As long as we are together, then nothing can stop us.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The next three days were a blur of activity, with the Queen keeping Ynya incredibly busy with early morning sparring sessions against all of her sisters. Every single time she sparred, she ran into the same issues she had from past sessions.
They were all faster than her.
They were all more powerful than her.
But most of all, they had ranged attacks that Ynya simply couldn’t match.
Ynya finally had enough, and lay on her back, the cold seeping in through the white marble flooring of the indoor arena.
“Have you given up already?” The Frost Queen loomed over her, her right foot tapping an irritated rhythm on the stone beside Ynya’s head. The pace doubled, but still matched the constant beat of the air and pulse of life that surrounded the Frost Queen’s castle.
“I can’t do it. Unless I can close the distance between any of them, I just can’t do anything.”
The Queen stopped tapping, a frown forming on her face.
All around them, Ynya felt magic swelling as the Queen’s face turned in on itself, scrunching up tighter and tighter as rage overtook her normal stern look.
She was going to unleash on Ynya, and Ynya didn’t rightly care right now. She was too tired and just wanted to rest.
Finny stepped forward, bowing to the Queen. “My Lady, perhaps it is time for a break? I can take Ynya down to meet Pain.”
There was a hitch in the frost magic being pulled into the Queen, then, after an agonizing long wait, she released the magic, allowing it all to dissipate back into the Void.
The Queen was back to her normally stern, pointed face. She studied Finny for a long while before pursing her lips. “You grow closer. I see your affection for him. Do not fight it, for it will make things easier for you in the future.”
The Queen raised her foot, holding it over Ynya’s head.
Ynya flinched, thinking the Queen was going to kick her in the head, but she didn’t move her whole body. There was no point fighting against the Queen. If she wanted to squash Ynya’s head right now with her foot, she could.
Instead, the Queen pressed the cold sole of her shoe against Ynya’s forehead. The frigid metal sapped her warmth faster than anything she’d ever experienced before, but released when the Queen retracted her foot.
“Go with your sister. See how obedience is earned around this place, then come back well-rested because I am growing tired of your inability to win against your sisters. I want you to think really hard about how you can possibly overtake them. My patience is thin and you have already been a massive thorn in my ass for long enough.”
The Queen turned. “Synol and Meki! Time for training!”
Finny held out a hand, which Ynya stared at for a couple seconds before taking.
Her forehead hurt, despite the Queen not jabbing her with her foot, something about whatever she did left an indelible pain on her forehead. The cold spread through her skull and created a sharp throbbing ache.
She took Finny’s hand and together, they walked toward the stairs that led down into the place with the animals.
By the time they arrived at the iron door, Ynya’s head was down to a dull throb. She was also exhausted – from the early-morning activities, the lack of a breakfast, and pouring an immense amount of heat into her forehead to counteract the bizarre cold the Frost Queen had used on her.
What was all that for? Was she testing me?
Ynya didn’t want to dwell too much on the rationale of a hyper-sensitive and tyrannical leader. She was pure evil, and whatever she did was symptomatic of her condition.
Worrying about the why-ifs and how-fors was simply a waste of time.
Time.
Something about that word resonated at an intimate level with Ynya.
Finny opened the door.
The cacophonous creak of the hinges filled the small hallway, grating on Ynya’s nerves, pulling her from her thoughts.
Then the smell hit her nostrils.
Ynya recoiled, a normal reaction to the situation of being in a dark, damp basement of a tyrannical overlord, and having a rusty iron door hurt your ears.
The smell was just adding to an already untenable situation.
But Ynya glanced at Finny, noting the look on her face.
Suddenly, all the problems in Ynya’s life melted away. Her forehead, ears, and sinuses forgotten as she watched her younger sister don a face she hadn’t seen in ages.
Peace.
How? What? Who?
Ynya looked into the room, through the bars of the cage, and to the frightening beast within, and it all made sense. Even the Queen noticed, and seemed to encourage it.
Finny was falling in love.
Or at least she had a friend that understood her unique past and trauma-filled changes.
Either one was fine by Ynya.
Ynya didn’t move. She just stood there, watching her sister’s bouncy gate as she padded across the room and to the bars.
Ynya knew that Finny had been lost, adrift like an abandoned fishing boat, caught by the tide. She’d been through far too much in a short time.
Ripped from her mother’s arms, caged and tortured. She had been alone for so long, not knowing if any of her sisters were out there, trying to get to her.
Even Meki, forced to live with the Frost Queen, at least had someone who feigned to care for her.
But Finny had been through the most. Abandoned at every turn, then tortured by the Gods Below themselves.
Ynya couldn’t take any of this small amount of joy away from her sister. She just couldn’t.
A small smile graced Ynya’s lips as she watched the interact through the bars.
Of all the places to smile, it had to be this. I’ll take it.
Ynya let out a small prayer to the Gods Above to watch over her small family, and even take care of Pain, for he was the primary joy in her sister’s life.
From man to beast, he was the key to keeping Finny happy.
Ynya allowed her smile to broaden as she watched the two interact in their own odd way, and it was at that moment that she saw Firtze’s eyes once again through the beast’s milky gaze.
She had seen them before, she was sure of it.
Ynya was transported months before, a fiery spark between her and Firtze. His smile and his nod to her as she turned back to save Synol from the carriage.
At the time he had understood.
Ynya eyed the beast once more, a smile already on her lips.
She nodded back to the beast, who had caught her eye once again just like they had done so long ago in the snow.
Only this time it was Ynya’s turn to nod her acceptance. She knew he was the best bet to save her sister, and Ynya was proud to welcome him into the family.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Again!”
Ynya leaned against the pillar to take a quick breather while the Queen’s mages repaired the arena. She glanced across the arena toward Synol, who hadn’t broken a sweat.
The two eyed each other. Synol smiled.
Ynya frowned.
I think she’s liking this, trouncing me before I can move.
And all before the sun was even warming the eastern sky.
Despite their agreement to not harm each other, the Queen had other plans for them, and promised torture unless she felt each girl was giving her best.
Synol was incredibly powerful,
and Ynya got more and more frustrated with each match. Just like with Meki, Ynya couldn’t get close enough to strike, and more often than not, the entire match was over as soon as it began due to Synol’s ability to raise up pillars that trapped her.
Ynya had to admit that it was the easiest, most time-effective method of ending the match. But after six of those in a row, the Queen told Synol to come up with a new tactic.
The Queen wanted Ynya to fight. She didn’t just want her defeated over and over or even tortured with magic. When Ynya wasn’t able to counter a certain tactic, the Queen changed the rules to allow Ynya a way to stay competitive.
Despite her frustration with the exercises, Ynya’s mind was on alert the entire time. She sought to understand the reasons behind the Queen’s instructions.
Despite her tyrannical and erratic nature, the Queen seemed to want even fights between the girls. It was odd behavior for someone who lashed out at the slightest inference that she wasn’t the most powerful being on the planet.
Ynya also found it curious that the Queen herself administrated these matches. The Queen had to be a very busy woman, right? After all, she was preparing to take down the barrier that separated her from her father in the south. She had rounded up her entire army to infiltrate the lands.
So why, in the midst of the most important thing in her life, was she officiating sparring matches between two sisters? Why didn’t she get Nora to handle them?
And she wasn’t just casually watching at the front either, she studied the girls carefully. She watched Synol cast spells and sometimes asked for clarification on why she chose that specific spell or method. She even grilled Ynya on why she didn’t try something a certain way.
It was curious behavior, and that was why Ynya payed attention to it. The Queen wasn’t just watching them for fun, and she certainly had important things to do, but she chose to be here.