by Tom Hansen
“I didn’t know if you were lying about being the only one who could cure her and I wasn’t willing to risk her life to find out.”
The Queen’s demeanor changed in a heartbeat. Her sharp-edged tongue fell right back into place. “I’m glad you understand that fact. I am the only one in the north who can cure her. I was not lying about that.”
If the Queen had noticed what Ynya was about to do to her while time had been frozen, she hadn’t let on. That was good. Ynya hoped she had no memories of that moment.
Ynya stood, holding the heartbeat of her older sister still with her mother’s magic. It turned out to be surprisingly easy to do so. Ynya wondered if she could only hold one thing in stasis, or if she could do multiple. She still hadn’t gotten much of a test, but at least she handled the basics of the magic. Having it inside of her for the last couple months helped her understand the feel of it better. It was almost like intuition, similar to the way she held her fire magic in her hair or hands.
She needed to maintain the magic until Synol was healed.
“You promised that if we obeyed and helped you break the barrier, then you would release us and allow us to go back home?”
The Queen folded her arms and squinted. “I did say that, yes.”
Ynya knelt on the cold, stone ground before the Queen. “Then I willingly submit to your assistance and will promise not to fight against you, but only if you promise that you will remove the poison from Synol. Do you accept my submission?”
The Queen pursed her lips, the corner of her mouth curling up in a sinister smile. “Ynya, darling, you pain me in your request. Of course I do. I promise, as the Frost Queen of the North herself, that once the Feond is down, I will cure your sister of the poison and allow all of you to return home unharmed.”
That was about as much of a promise that Ynya was going to get from the Queen. She wanted to push for an immediate resolution, but the risk to Synol was too great. The Queen had already demonstrated she was willing to risk lives to get what she wanted.
For a moment, Ynya considered freeing time once again and attempting to kill the Queen.
Maybe I can find someone else who can cure Synol.
Regardless, she didn’t believe a word from the bitch’s mouth and would still do everything she could to figure out a means of escape.
“One more thing,” Ynya stated. “You cannot ask any of us to do anything that would put Synol’s life in jeopardy. If you force me to release my hold on her heart to stop time on something else, then you have to cure her in order for me to do so.”
The Queen snarled, showing off her teeth. “I could just kill her now so you don’t have the distraction.”
Ynya drew her lips to a line as the rage she was so familiar with bubbled to the surface once again. “Then it will be the last spell you cast.” Ynya took a threatening step toward the woman, hands balled into overheated fists. “You need us alive for your plans to work, don’t you? You have a choice. Honor your commitments and keep us safe, or turn us against you. If you try to take it all from us by force, we will fight against you to our last breath.”
Ynya pointed at her youngest sister. “I know Meki is more powerful than you, I feel it every time you draw magic from her. I also know how you control Finny’s magic, but you need both of them for whatever you have planned. Synol might not have been absolutely necessary for your plan, but now that you know what magic I have within me, you won’t risk losing it.”
Ynya balled her hands, pouring heat into them so hard that her fingernails glowed with red heat. “So I ask once more, do you agree or not?”
Ynya was done playing around with the woman. She knew she could stop time again at any point and put the earring on the Queen while keeping Synol in stasis, so she still had that in case the Queen decided to go back on her promises.
The Queen snapped her fingers. Released from their icy prisons, Finny, Meki, and Nora crumpled to the ground.
Ynya looked at each of them.
Nora glared back with a small nod of thanks, but darted her concerned gaze back to Synol.
Meki sat on the ground, her face buried in her hands, crying.
Finny never took her eyes off the Frost Queen, wearing an unbridled angry scowl only a young girl could muster.
Ynya frowned. The Queen hadn’t exactly relented, but she had complied. It would have to be good enough for now.
Ynya sat down at the table to get back enough power to keep Synol alive.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Again!”
Ynya closed her eyes as she breathed in the cold mid-day air. It wasn’t fair forcing her to have to practice sparring against Nora so soon after Synol had almost died.
But the Queen doesn’t seem to care about Synol living or dying.
Of course she didn’t. All the Queen cared about was obtaining more power. She would do anything for that power, would sacrifice anything to get it.
The Queen insisted the sparring session take place out in the open air in front of the castle in the rock.
Ynya didn’t care, as long as nothing hurt Synol. In fact, it was kind of nice to be out under the sky once again. Ynya spent most of her life out in the open, given her ability to withstand even the most frigid of temperatures. Being inside meant she overheated too easily, and she missed the freedom of being out in the open.
Not that being forced to fight your aunt was much of a freedom.
At least the sky was relatively clear this afternoon.
Nora stood above her, holding out a hand.
Ynya hesitated before taking it. There was no sense worrying if the Skarmyord was going to hurt her anymore. The way Nora had looked on in terror at Synol was telling. Whatever had happened in that room had clearly affected her long-lost aunt. Ynya didn’t know why Nora suddenly had concern for their well-being, but Ynya would take any sympathy she could get at this point.
Nora yanked hard, pulling Ynya to her feet in a jolt. Ynya slammed into Nora’s chest with a leathery thump, her head bumping into Nora’s shoulder. The action knocked the wind out of her lungs.
“I’ll help you escape,” Nora whispered. She let go and walked away like nothing had happened.
What was that?
Ynya watched the woman walk away, her thoughts swirling around her as she struggled to get her spasming lungs to respond.
She was impressed. That was a sneaky way of passing on a message.
Nora took her stance about twenty paces away, baring both hands with daggers. “You heard Her Highness. Are you ready?”
***
It was a long, frustrating, and exhausting day. Ynya felt like falling into the bed and sleeping everything off, but…What if my spell stops while I’m asleep?
Power from her magic seeped from Ynya into her immobile sister. It was significantly faster than her normal self-heating spells, so Ynya found she had to consume a significant amount of food to overcome the constant drain. Rest would help, but Ynya wasn’t willing to try that yet.
She tried to think back to the times when her mother had used the magic, but she couldn’t note anything specific. Synol had been the oldest, and might remember some times when Talia had used her time magic in front of the kids without worrying about them being old enough to remember.
Unfortunately, Synol was near to death, and Ynya wasn’t willing to wake her just to ask her to scour her memories in hopes that Ynya could glean a bit more information about their now-deceased mother.
The whole situation wore on her mind. It was all Ynya could do to keep from falling apart. Her mother and father were dead, Synol was seconds away from death, and Ynya was forced to spend her days training under the tutelage of a tyrant Queen.
She held onto the seething rage toward the Queen, keeping it close. Sometimes it was the only thing preventing her from bawling her eyes out.
The three sisters carefully placed Synol into the middle of the large bed.
Ynya was surprised how easy it had been for her to maintain the spell from ou
tside the castle while Synol stayed inside. She suspected that was another test from the Queen, checking to see if Ynya could do it. Again, driving home the fact that the Queen truly didn’t care about them, she only wanted their magic for her purposes. If Synol died as part of her test, then it wouldn’t be anything to worry over.
But it would be one she would regret.
A pall hung over the girls as they prepared for bed, one that Ynya couldn’t hold back anymore. She knew they were being watched, but things needed to be said, and since Synol wasn’t able to say them, Ynya needed to pick up the mantle.
“We will make it out of here, I promise.”
Meki, who had been silent all day looked up at her with her big eyes. “You think so?”
Finny huffed. “I’m telling you, the Queen is lying.”
“I know that, Finny,” Ynya replied, pushing down irritation at the callous way Finny spoke.
Ynya beckoned Meki over to her and held her tightly in her lap. It felt so good to have her little sister in her arms. She wished Finny would join, but Finny had changed. She wasn’t much of a hugger before, but definitely wasn’t now. She seemed more preoccupied with the monster in the basement than anything else in her life.
Stop. It’s not her fault.
Ynya knew it wasn’t her fault, but she had so much anger pent up in her now that she just needed a place to release it. The non-stop sparring had helped keep her mind off their plight most of the day, but ever since dinner, with nothing to punch, Ynya’s fists were getting antsy.
Ynya had to remind herself that Finny had been through more than any of them had. So young, yet so much pain, so much heartache. None of it was fair, and yet Finny seemed to be holding herself together as best she could.
Possibly better than me.
Mostly, Ynya wished they could all be hugged by Synol.
After calming her strained voice, Ynya replied to Finny. “I know the Queen lied to us, but until we know exactly why or how, there is little sense worrying about it. All we can do is keep each other close, and remain constantly vigilant about our own safety.”
“She intends for you to fight Pain and I tomorrow.” Finny said, sitting down on the bed. For a second she looked over to Synol’s time-stopped body and even extended her hand in a half-attempt to hold Synol’s, but Finny retracted it just as fast.
Ynya noticed, however, and it warmed her heart knowing that the sweet Finny she once knew was still in there somewhere.
“I was wondering where you had been all day.”
“She had me…training down in the kennels.” Finny pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs.
Ynya swallowed, remembering the overwhelming smell of animals last time she had been down there. “What sort of things do I need to know?”
Finny looked away. “We’re both…she made me change…and we ate…and…”
“Ate some of the animals? It’s okay, Finny. I know she forces you both to do certain things. Do you know what she intends for you to do, Finny? Why is she having you and Pain learn to fight?”
Finny’s stare seemed to linger on the door before snapping back to reality.
“She needs us to help fight through the Feond. It’s the same reason she linked herself to Meki’s frost magic, to boost her own abilities. I don’t know exactly, but once she’s made it through the other side of the barrier, I don’t think she’s letting any of us go.”
Ynya nodded. She had figured that. She knew the Queen hadn’t been truthful in her promises, but Ynya chose to hold onto that promise while also planning for the worst. Anything to keep up hope was a good thing, right?
Still, fighting meant death, and death meant they wouldn’t be able to go home. Helping the Queen get past the barrier, even assuming she followed through with her promise of letting them go, didn’t mean they were going to make it home safe.
Ynya needed more information. She needed to know exactly what the Queen had in store for them. She needed to find out more about the Feond. She needed to talk to Nora.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
After putting the others to bed, Ynya slowly opened the door from their room.
The floor above them held the Queen’s study and that rune on the large stone. Ynya felt waves of magic surging up above her. Bigger and smaller, back and forth.
The Queen was definitely up to something.
Ynya wanted to sneak up and spy on the activities, perhaps find something in the room that would help her break the curse on Synol. Due to the thrum of magic through the frigid air, Ynya suspected the Queen prepared her spells for passage through the Feond.
The hallway was surprisingly devoid of any guards. Nora had told that she would be watching the door all night, so where was she?
Their extremely brief one-sided conversation from earlier ran over and over in her mind. Ynya still wasn’t sure what Nora meant by that.
Ynya hesitated before stepping out into the hallway. Had Nora cleared the hallways of any other guards so that she could run? Did Nora want her to make a run for it tonight, or was it all a test to see if Ynya and her sisters would try to take the opportunity to escape?
Thoughts swirled around in Ynya’s head while she went posited just how she was going to get away from the Queen and her army. She wasn’t going to leave anyone behind, so that meant they would have to carry Synol on their own.
Carrying Synol meant they would be slow, and being slow meant they needed to create plenty of distance between themselves and the Queen.
That meant they either needed to sneak out in the dead of night before anyone noticed, or Ynya would need to what…stop time?
For how long? For how large of an area? Am I supposed to halt time on the entire army while we trudge through the snow half-dead? How much power would that even use?
A shudder jolted through her shoulders at the thought. She wasn’t sure she could stop time for that long, for the entire castle or army. She managed to stop time effectively enough in the room with the Queen earlier, but had that stopped it all for the whole castle? It had also drained her quite a bit to do that, and that was just a handful of people in a single room.
She couldn’t handle three-thousand spread across a huge open plain.
Without more in-depth testing to this new magic, she didn’t know what she was capable of, but she wasn’t willing to do anything if it meant jeopardizing her sister’s life.
Still, leaving the castle and pissing off the Queen seemed like a bad idea if the Queen was the only one to be able to save Synol.
“Ynya! What are you doing out of the room?”
Ynya froze at Nora’s question. The Skarmyord seemed to appear out of nowhere!
Nora held the all-too-familiar silver dagger to Ynya’s back. “I told you not to leave the room. You are being watched at all times.”
Ynya noticed the emphasis on the word all. Nora had to be putting on a show for someone.
Ynya didn’t know if she could fully trust her aunt, but at this point, she didn’t have much of a choice. She needed answers, and Nora was the only one she could possibly get them from.
Worst-case, the Queen probably already knew that Ynya plotted escape, so even if word got back to the Queen, it wouldn’t put them in any worse of a situation.
Ynya chose her words carefully, in case other ears listened to their interaction. “I needed some food. I’m starving from all the fighting today and having to maintain the spell on my sister. I only opened the door looking for you but you weren’t here, so I waited.”
Nora huffed quietly. “Very well, I will escort you downstairs for some food, but someone will guard this door to ensure no one else leaves or comes in.”
Less than a second later, a burly guard materialized from the wall a few yards away.
Ynya shuddered at the notion that he had been so close that whole time but hadn’t been visible. She was right to “play the game” like Synol had told her to.
Nora dug the dagger into her back as she
directed Ynya down the hallway.
Instead of heading to the dining room or kitchen, Nora instead led Ynya down a series of hallways and back-stairs.
Before she knew it, they were out in the animal area.
Nora checked around the corner, then finally spoke.
“You could have gotten yourself killed. You have to be very careful.”
Ynya narrowed her eyes. Before she was going to engage in any conversation with this woman, she needed to know where her aunt’s loyalties lay.
“What you told me earlier, what did you mean by that? Are you helping us escape?”
Nora glanced around again, an angry look on her face. “We’re going to be caught, I should get you back. This was a mistake.”
Ynya grabbed her aunt’s hand, cupping it against her chest. The Skarmyord’s hands were cold and rough. “No. This is right. I have an aunt that I never knew until recently, and I just need to know if she’s looking out for me and my sisters. That’s all I want.”
Nora looked into Ynya’s eyes. Her face was frighteningly gaunt, and her eyes fierce, reminding Ynya of being scolded by her mother as a young girl.
The brief memory pained Ynya.
After a long stare, Nora softened her shoulders and looked away. “Seeing Synol stabbed like that was like reliving something similar with Talia. When you told me your mother had died by my soldier’s hand, memories I thought I’d long-since buried bubbled up, taking hold of my heart and not letting go. I’ve been fighting them ever since. It was why I let you go when you escaped back in the caravan, and allowed Synol to leave with her husband to find you.”
“You let us go back then? I thought I escaped?”
Ignoring the question, Nora placed her free hand on Ynya’s and squeezed. “Your mother was so determined, strong, but so sweet in everything she did. She was the one who escaped Reyoarfjell and she came back, but I betrayed her to the Warden and nearly got her killed. I abandoned her in her time of need and forced her to have to escape twice.
“Even with all my Enlightenment training, I never forgave my betrayal and I always hoped she had survived. It was…surprising when my family’s name came up on a list so many years later.