by Jim C. Hines
Knowing Snow, she would have retreated from the cold, choosing the most luxurious cabin for herself. That meant one of the cabins at the back of the ship, almost directly below where Talia now stood. There was a good chance Jakob would be with her.
She counted at least twenty crewmen. A snarl began to build, deep within her chest. She could move through the ship, killing them one by one before they even realized she was on board.
Talia gritted her teeth. Those were the wolf’s urges, not her own. These were victims, not villains, no more responsible for their actions than Prince Armand had been when he insulted Danielle.
Talia had wanted to pummel him, too.
She needed a distraction, something to lure Snow from her cabin long enough for Talia to sneak in and find the prince. Talia switched her knife to her left hand and slid a belaying pin from the rail. She hefted it once, testing the balance, then sat back to watch the man working the foreyard. He moved out from the mast, adjusting the sails.
Talia gauged the wind, then threw. The wooden pin flew the length of the ship, striking the man on the shoulder. He toppled forward, dropping soundlessly into the ocean.
Talia crouched behind the mast. Had this been a normal ship, the man would have cried out, and half the crew would now be working to rescue him. Instead, the crew carried on, oblivious. But if he had been poisoned with a sliver of Snow’s mirror, she should have sensed his fall.
The cabin door below opened, and Snow hurried across the deck. Now the crew moved to save their companion, responding to unspoken orders as they trimmed the sails and tossed a line over the port rail.
Talia lowered herself to the main deck and slipped into the cabin. A single lamp burned on the small desk bolted to the floor. The cot was made, blankets folded neatly at the base. Either Snow had made up her bed, or else she hadn’t slept recently. Knowing Snow, Talia guessed the latter.
It took little time to search the cabin. There was no sign of Jakob. Talia returned to the door and peeked through the crack. Even with the cape enhancing her senses, it took a moment to pick Snow out in the darkness. She and the other crewmen stood with their backs to Talia, peering into the water.
Talia snuck out and strode toward the nearest hatch. She barely touched the ladder as she jumped down into the main hold. A ship like this was unlikely to have a proper brig. Where else would Snow have put Jakob? Assuming the prince was still alive.
No, Talia refused to believe that. Demon or not, Snow wouldn’t kill Jakob.
Two covered lanterns cast weak light through this deck, illuminating heavy beams and wooden walls to partition off the cargo. Barrels and crates were lashed to the walls, but the hold was mostly empty.
She sniffed the air. Down here, away from the waves, she could just make out the sweaty, frightened scent of Prince Jakob.
Movement in the shadows froze her in place. Shadows she had mistaken for cargo rose and stepped toward her. Talia counted six men. They appeared to have been sleeping on the bare decks, without blankets or hammocks. She glanced around and spied two more coming up behind her.
“Jakob?” She kept her voice low, in a likely futile attempt to avoid alerting the men above deck. She pulled a knife with her left hand and readied her whip with her right. The zaraq whip was an assassin’s weapon, a thin line with a lead weight at the end. She twitched the whip, readying the weight and a short length of line.
“Aunt Tala?”
Talia spun, snapping the whip out at one of the men behind her. The weight struck the center of his forehead. He staggered, and Talia leaped close, looping the whip around his neck. She pulled hard, sending him headfirst into one of his companion. “Can you get to me?”
The rattle of chains answered her question. Talia kicked both of her downed foes, making sure they stayed down, then yanked her whip free. She stepped sideways, putting one of the support pillars at her back.
There were tricks to fighting a group. Normally Talia would have singled out the most dangerous of her opponents, hoping to demoralize the rest. But as they approached, the lantern illuminated identical expressions of hate and anger, as though she were a plague to be eradicated from this world. And Jakob was chained somewhere beyond them.
Talia pushed off from the pillar, reversing her grip on her knife and slamming the butt into the exposed elbow of the man on the left. She heard bone crack, but the man didn’t even cry out. He swung his other fist. Talia twisted, taking the punch as a glancing blow to the cheek. She continued to spin, trying to keep him between herself and the others.
He grabbed her arm, and she growled, letting the wolf surge through her. She stabbed her knife into his shoulder and flung him back. Her whip lashed out, catching the leg of another man and pulling him to the ground.
“So you’ve turned against me as well.” The inflection was Snow’s, though the words were low and gruff, coming from a bearded man to her right. “So much for love. Tell me, do you plan to help Danielle lock me away, or will you simply try to kill me?”
“Not you.” Talia punched the man in the nose, but Snow simply continued talking from another body. “The demon who’s taken you.”
“You Aratheans once called my people demons,” the man said. “Whatever my mother enslaved in the mirror, it’s helping me. You don’t understand what they did, Talia. None of you know.”
“So come back to Lorindar and tell us all about it.” Talia’s words came in tight gasps between blows. She dropped low, kicking her heel back and up into someone’s groin. It was getting harder and harder to keep them away.
A hand grabbed her hair. Talia seized the wrist in both hands and spun. She had to dislocate the man’s thumb to get him to release her.
“It’s not too late, Talia. I can help you to see.”
No matter how hard she struck, how many bones she broke, they kept coming. They had spread out, backing her toward the wall. And there were more above deck.
“Aunt Tala!”
She tried one last time to reach him, striking the next man in the throat so hard he dropped to the deck and didn’t move. She could break through this group, but it would take time to free Jakob from his chains. They would never get past the rest of the crew on deck.
Tears blurred her eyes. “I’m sorry, Jakobena.”
Jakob’s voice rose. “Aunt Tala, please!”
Talia snarled, letting the spirit of the wolfskin take her. Her knife was a fang, ripping flesh wherever it touched. Hot blood splashed over her, but it wasn’t enough. She couldn’t fight the entire crew. She kicked a man in front of her hard enough to crack his ribs, and then she was running toward the ladder. “I’m sorry! Be strong. I promise I’ll save you.”
Another man was already climbing down, with more waiting above. With a shout, Talia ripped him from the rungs and slammed him to the deck. She snapped her whip upward, clearing space at the top. An ax descended toward her head as she climbed. She swung to one side, and the blade thudded into the ladder. She grabbed her attacker and pulled him off-balance, using his weight to open a path through the circle.
Something slammed her hip, and a blade slashed her arm, but she made it to the rail. She turned to see Snow watching from the bow, her arms folded. The moonlight exaggerated both the sorrow on her face and the red scars from her mirror.
“I’ll save you both,” Talia whispered, and leaped overboard.
Danielle sang softly as she stood at the rail, waiting for Talia to return. The song was an old one, a lullaby Jakob demanded most every night before bed. The familiar words loosened the knots in her stomach, even as her eyes watered at the thought of her son.
“You’ll get him back,” Gerta said, coming up beside her. “You’ll be singing him to sleep soon.”
Danielle nodded, but continued her song to the end, just as she had the prior night. Some part of her believed Jakob could hear her, that her voice might help him to feel less afraid.
Talia should have reached Snow’s ship by now. If anyone could sneak on board and find
Jakob, it was her.
Gerta stared out at the water. She had left the deck only once since Talia’s departure, and that was to try to scry on Snow and the Lynn’s Luck. Her efforts had failed, leaving her with pain she described as icicles stabbing the base of her skull.
A speck of cold landed on the back of Danielle’s hand. A tiny snowflake melted on her skin. Clouds had drifted to block the moon. Scattered flakes of snow shone in the lamplight as they fell.
Hephyra climbed onto the forecastle, Stub curled in the crook of her arm. She scratched absently at the cat’s chin. “The snow could be a problem if it gets worse. Even light snowfall will slick the rigging and the yards.”
The Phillipa was already at half sail to make sure they didn’t overtake Snow White before Talia could complete her mission. If luck were with them, Talia would return with Jakob before Snow even realized he was gone. Danielle had ordered blankets brought to the deck, and the small oven in the galley had been lit. The galley wasn’t as comfortable as a cabin, but it would help to warm them both.
“Princess?” Gerta leaned out over the rail.
Danielle’s heart pounded. “You see something?”
“Not Talia. Something magic.”
Hephyra dropped Stub, who scampered away. “The girl’s right.” She pointed to a swirl of snow blowing toward the Phillipa. “It’s coming against the wind, from the direction of your friend.”
“A storm?” Danielle asked.
Gerta shook her head. “Captain, I think you should order your men down from the yards.”
Hephyra scowled and spun, barking orders to the crew.
Danielle took Gerta’s hand and pulled her to the ladder, sending her down to the main deck. Over the noise of the crew and the waves, Danielle began to hear a low humming. She leaned out, peering at the swirling snow to see a swarm of insectlike creatures flying purposefully toward them.
The first streak of white buzzed over the deck. An older sailor named Pemberton swore and slapped his neck. “Whatever they are, the buggers sting like wasps from hell.”
The insects were no bigger than bumblebees, and they blended into the snowfall. Danielle saw one man swinging wildly, only to curse when another of the creatures darted in to sting his hand. She drew her sword, but that wouldn’t be much use against such tiny foes.
“Get to the cabin,” Hephyra shouted.
The buzzing grew louder, and one of the creatures flew at Danielle’s face. She ducked, then ran to grab one of the blankets. When the thing returned, she flung the blanket into the air to intercept it. The creature thumped against the blanket, and a tiny needle of ice jabbed through the heavy wool. Danielle folded another layer of blanket over it, then smashed the flat of her blade onto the squirming lump. She was rewarded by a crunch like breaking glass. When she opened the blanket, bits of ice clung to the material.
“Don’t touch it,” Gerta warned. She pointed to the center of the ice. “That’s powdered glass from Snow’s mirror.”
“What are they?” Danielle yelled.
“Magical constructs of ice and glass.” Gerta ducked. “Like wasps or bees.”
Hephyra grabbed one of the oars from the boats, holding it like a quarterstaff. The oar’s blade would give her a better chance of hitting such small targets. Most of the crew were doing the same with whatever weapons they could find, but the wasps were too quick. Danielle grabbed Gerta and began pulling her back toward the cabins.
“How many?” Hephyra asked.
“Thirty? Maybe more.” Gerta twisted away and crawled over to study another of the wasps that had fallen to Hephyra’s oar.
“It’s still moving,” Danielle warned. One wing was gone, but the other flapped furiously against the deck. The body was made of ice, dusted with mirrored glass that tapered to a sliver at the end. “Can you stop them?”
Gerta shook her head. “If they’d hold still, I could probably melt them.”
Hephyra stepped closer, using her oar to knock another wasp away. “And maybe if you ask nicely, they’ll stop buzzing about and line up to be smashed.”
“Get me that lantern,” Gerta shouted, pointing to the mast.
Hephyra crossed the deck, ducking another wasp. The lantern hung from a wooden hook that grew from the mast like a thick branch. It turned supple as Hephyra approached, bending to drop the lantern into Hephyra’s hand.
Gerta stretched both hands around the lantern. Her fingers brushed the metal. “I cast a spell to give the lamp’s heat to Talia. I can use that heat against the wasps, but it means removing the spell from Talia. If she’s in the water—”
“Do it,” said Danielle. The wasps meant Snow knew about them. If Talia had been captured, she had no need of heat. If not . . . Gerta’s spell would do Talia little good if the Phillipa’s crew fell under Snow’s control.
Gerta’s brow furrowed as she mumbled her spell. Heat poured from her hands. She stepped back, and the heat went with her. The lantern itself was cold, despite the flame flickering within. She lowered her hands toward the injured wasp on the deck, which soon dissolved into a tiny sparkling puddle.
The next time one of the wasps swooped near, Gerta stretched out her hands as though trying to throw that heat. The wasp veered away, but didn’t melt. “They’re too fast. I can keep them back, but I can’t destroy them.”
Another man tumbled out of the yards, crashing to the deck with a scream.
“Can you protect another living thing from that heat?” Danielle asked.
“I think so,” said Gerta.
Danielle flung her blanket at a pair of wasps, which darted to the side to avoid it. She sent out a silent call as she gripped her sword with both hands, watching the wasps to see whether they would attack or seek another target.
Another swing of Hephyra’s oar sent them away, toward the helmsman. The wasps had adopted a new tactic, joining together to attack in groups. Seven of them swarmed over the poor helmsman, stinging his hands and face. Other crewmen tried to help him, and the wasps flew up out of reach, gathering in a small cloud as they searched for another victim.
A blur of black fur streaked up from belowdecks. Claws scratched the deck as Stub raced toward Danielle. His fur was raised, making him appear twice his usual size. He hissed at one of the wasps that came too close.
“Cast your spell on him,” said Danielle, urging Stub to wait.
Stub’s tail lashed from side to side, but he sat patiently while Gerta worked another spell. He even began to purr.
“I think he likes the heat.” Gerta smiled as Stub rubbed his face against her hands. “It’s done.”
“Go,” said Danielle.
Stub tore away. His missing leg slowed him hardly at all as he crossed the deck and clawed his way onto one of the tarp-covered boats. From there, he jumped onto a crewman’s head. The man stumbled forward, hair smoking from the heat. Stub pounced. His distance was limited, but he managed to catch a wasp in his front paws. By the time he hit the ground, the wasp’s wings were gone, and he was already scrambling after another.
Gerta winced. “Be careful!”
“That cat is mad,” Hephyra said.
Danielle wasn’t sure which definition she meant, but she agreed regardless. Even from here she could hear Stub hissing and growling as he chased the next of these flying creatures who had dared invade his ship. His pounce missed, but the heat was enough to start to melt the wings. The wasp’s flight wobbled, and another sailor smashed it with an iron pan.
Down on the main deck, several of the men had gathered sailcloth to trap and crush the creatures. Stub continued his crazed hunt, bringing down the rest. He also set one of the sails on fire, but the crew managed to extinguish the flames before they spread too far.
Danielle caught Gerta’s arm. “Are you hurt? Did they cut you?”
“I don’t think so.”
Danielle searched the exposed skin of Gerta’s neck and face, then inspected her own. Neither of them appeared to have been cut. She hurried toward He
phyra. “Make sure none of your men touch the remains with their bare hands. A single cut from the broken glass is enough to enchant them.”
Hephyra nodded and called out, “Anyone bloodied by those damn things, fall in on the main deck. You’re relieved of duty until further notice. If you’re cut and try to hide it, I’ll feed you to the sharks myself.”
“You’ll have to confine them.” The warning came from Talia, who was shaking as she pulled herself over the rail to collapse on the deck. Gerta grabbed one of the blankets and wrapped it around her.
Danielle swallowed. “Jakob?”
“I tried.” Talia slammed a fist into the rail, hard enough to crack the wood. “He’s alive and safe for the moment. He was chained below deck. I dealt with the guards, but Snow . . . she can see through their eyes. She was controlling them, like puppets.”
Danielle sheathed her sword, forcing herself to accept the news. “Are you hurt?”
“Frozen and mad as hell, but nothing worse than some cuts and bruises.”
“Oh, damn.” Hephyra was staring at Stub. The cat favored his front left paw as he crossed the quarterdeck. Each step left a bloody print on the wood. “What will that curse do to him?”
“It depends.” Gerta was sitting cross-legged on the deck, studying the crushed remains of a wasp. “The magic in these creatures is beyond anything I could do. Even beyond what Snow should be able to do.”
“She’s sent her mirrors away before, animating them like insects of glass and wire,” Danielle protested.
“Not like this. Not so many.” Gerta leaned down until her nose nearly touched the deck, and Danielle worried she would cut herself. “I touched the splinter she left in Armand. This latest attack is different.”
Danielle’s stomach knotted. “Different how?”
“She’s getting stronger.”
CHAPTER 9
THREE MORE DAYS AT SEA BROUGHT SNOW to the border between Hilad and the nation of Allesandria. From there, it was another half a day’s ride on horseback to reach the city of Melavin, capital of the Allesandrian province of Yador and home of Ollear Curtana, Lord Mage Protector of the city.