by K. M. Shea
Gerta looked down. “We’re sorry,” she whispered.
Rakel placed her hand on Gerta’s chin. “I know. Next time will you do as I ask?”
Gerta and Kai nodded mutely.
“Good. Thank you.” Rakel hugged both of the children to her, smiling when they burrowed closer like puppies.
Phile rubbed her forehead. “King’s nose hairs, I can’t wait to get to Tana.”
“You miss looking at Halvor?” Rakel guessed tartly.
“That too, but I was thinking that when we arrive, Snorri will be free of guard duty. The moment Handsome Halvor releases him, I’m going to drag him over to the nearest Chosen camp, and we are going to steal ourselves some information. All of this not-knowing is driving me crazy.” Phile snorted.
“Perhaps you should take Crow with you. He could tell you the ins and outs of the camp,” Rakel said, only half-serious as she shifted so the children weren’t sprawled on the snow.
Phile tapped Foedus against her chin. “That’s not a bad idea.”
Rakel kept from rolling her eyes, but she was relieved to hear Phile’s plans. The mirror can’t be broken, the Chosen army continues to attack, and Farrin has disappeared. Will none of our problems end?
Rakel sat just outside the ice walls she had built for Tana and watched tiny snowflakes—natural, not hers—fall and cover the ground in a soft, powdery layer. The silver moon hung high, making the snowflakes glitter like gems.
She raised a hand and studied the snowflakes that landed on her bare skin. Instead of melting, they trembled and swirled with her breath. She could hear murmurs from the guards posted at the gates, and the flickering yellow of their torches stretched past her, clashing with the silver moonlight. Snow crunched under boots, and Rakel smiled up at Knut when he stopped at her side. “Yes?”
“Beggin’ your pardon for bothering you, Princess, but General Halvor would like to hold another war council,” Knut said.
Rakel started to rise, but Knut shook his hands in front of him. “Not right now, but soon. He wanted you to know, but you can still stand out here for a bit.”
“If he needs my help…”
“King Steinar is with him,” Knut said.
“Ahh. It would be good if Steinar would talk to him.” She rearranged her gray cape so it flowed around her like snow on a mountain.
“Yes. And you seem like you need this.” Knut gestured to the falling snow and the gorgeous night sky. He cringed. “I mean that with no disrespect.”
“No, you are right. I am enjoying the weather,” Rakel admitted.
Knut nodded and gave her his charming smile. “Then you should enjoy it, Princess.” He saluted and backed away.
“Thank you,” Rakel called after him as he hurried for the icy walls. She exhaled from deep within her soul, and for a moment she forgot about the Chosen, the mirror, and all of the worries and burdens that clung to her shoulders.
Instead, she listened to the familiar song of the wind dancing through evergreens and the hushed falling of snow. The wind swirled oddly, and Rakel blinked. When she opened her eyes, Farrin stood nearby.
She let a small smile ease onto her lips. “Farrin, you—what’s wrong?” she asked, concern nibbling at her.
Farrin appeared to be normal. He still wore his black and crimson Chosen uniform, his black-tea-colored hair was neat and orderly as always, and he had a sword belted to his side. But the way he stood… He still had perfect posture and square shoulders, but his breathing was a little off—as if it pained him to stand.
He gave Rakel a thin smile and bowed stiffly at the waist. “Princess.”
Rakel stood and snapped her cloak, sending snowflakes flying into the air. “Is that why you weren’t with the attack on my traveling party today—because you were hurt?”
“I am fine, but thank you for the concern.” Though the corners of his lips curled up, his gray eyes were bleak. “I have been told your magic can resist Tenebris’s?”
Reluctant to share, Rakel bought herself a moment by pushing the braid of her white hair over her shoulder. He is still the enemy. I need to be careful what I tell him, for it will surely get back to Tenebris. “I blocked one of his curses with an ice wall.”
Farrin’s eyes finally held a flicker of their usual light. “That is good news for you. I have never heard of anyone fending off Tenebris’s magic.”
Rakel nodded. “I see.”
“I have heard you have a Chosen defector now among your ranks,” Farrin said.
“He was a mercenary, yes.” She turned to look back at Tana. She had built the ice walls to be taller than the village buildings, so she could only see orange light and plumes of smoke, but several soldiers stationed on the walkway were watching her. She waved to them, signaling she was fine.
“I’m surprised you allowed him to join you,” Farrin said. He shifted his gaze to the falling snow.
“Why?” Rakel asked. Crow is not a spy or plant. He has been too helpful, and the pain in his eyes when he spoke of the Battle of Gaula was too real. He is not one of Tenebris’s men.
“Because he’s a Chosen soldier. He has killed and fought Verglas citizens.”
Rakel put her back to Tana and also watched the snow. “The mercenary…he is not evil. His heart is good.”
“You are strong…to forgive the people who despised and feared you, and then to forgive a soldier who killed those people.” Farrin looked as if he wanted to say more. His expression was hesitant, and there was an extra depth to it that Rakel couldn’t interpret.
“If not for Phile, Oskar, and General Halvor, I might have let bitterness eat me alive. When I was exiled, I consoled myself that those who kept me on the mountain were wrong and evil. But although I have magic, I should not presume to know why people act as they do.”
“You are thinking of Steinar, and how he kept you on Ensom.”
Rakel blinked in surprise.
“Try asking him why,” Farrin advised.
“He said it was because he was afraid I might retaliate.”
“That is a partial truth.”
“How do you know?” Rakel asked.
Farrin avoided her gaze. “I spoke with him on several occasions. I didn’t see much use for him, but I know freeing him has been your ambition.”
Rakel caught the edge of her flapping cloak and pulled it closer to her body. “Yes.”
“And you forgive him as well?”
“I do…but forgiving him isn’t enough. I want a second chance—a new beginning. I want to know him, without holding our past against each other.” Farrin shifted, refocusing Rakel’s attention. “But I assume you did not come here to listen to me wax on about my younger brother. How can I help you, Farrin?”
The soft light in Farrin’s eyes was snuffed out. “I came to warn you. Now that Tenebris knows you can resist him, he will be more intent on killing you.”
“That is hardly a change in my expectations.”
“But it is. Previously he would have wanted to destroy you himself. That will no longer be so. Now he will pour any resource he can into ending your life. He will send assassins, spies, and will use every dark trick he can. You will no longer face danger on the battlefield, but in every moment of your life.”
Perfect. After I had just gotten the best of my paranoia. But no. I will not allow Tenebris to steal my happiness. Rakel knit her fingers together—simultaneously frightened and angered by the thought of Tenebris attacking her. “Thank you for the warning.”
Farrin nodded and raised his eyes to the sky. “Also, I will not be able to meet with you anymore.”
Rakel nodded; she had been expecting that. With Tenebris present, Farrin is probably being watched. Even if he has feelings for me, his first loyalty is to his leader.
“I wanted to tell you…. Next time on the battlefield, I will have to fight you seriously, Rakel.”
Rakel frowned as she internally repeated his words. She snuck a glance up at him, but the colonel didn’t seem any mor
e deadly or intimidating than he had been a moment ago. His stance was relaxed, but his eyes were troubled.
“Could you clarify that?” she asked, fishing for information. If he meant we are once again enemies, he wouldn’t have come here tonight.
Farrin finally tore his eyes from the sky and faced her. “Tenebris will be watching me. I cannot afford to displease him, so I will have to fight you with everything I have.”
He can’t mean he will kill me. He still has…feelings for me. At least, I think he does. Rakel frowned thoughtfully. She reached out and placed her hand on his cheek.
Farrin set his gloved hand on top of hers, holding her hand there. “I won’t hurt you.” He was as quiet as the falling snow and leaned into her hand. “But you must fight back as if you fear for your life. Stay away from your troops to limit damage to bystanders.” He hesitated. “If I am injured, or worse, by you or your magic users, I will understand.”
The comment unexpectedly stung. “No.” She stepped back and withdrew her hand.
“Phile stands the best chance. I suspect her dagger is a magical artifact,” Farrin continued, his voice calm and nonchalant.
Rakel shook her head. “Why would you accept this?”
“Because killing you isn’t an option.” Farrin slowly reached for her hand and held it in his, then caressed the back of her hand with his fingers. “And I have always known one day I would pay for what I have done.”
“Whatever you have done cannot possibly require opening yourself up to death,” Rakel scolded.
Farrin stared down at their joined hands, then raised his gray eyes, impaling her with their intensity. “I have slain hundreds—perhaps thousands—of innocents. As a child, I was auctioned off in a Ringsted slave trade, and I was bought by a gladiator trainer from Sarthe. I made my first kill when I was twelve, and I slaughtered countless men and women every week. I became the champion gladiator of Sarthe and held that title for years.”
Rakel was so surprised she couldn’t find any words to say. She involuntarily tightened her grip on his hand.
“I only know blood and battles. I was trained and conditioned to kill. You believe Tenebris is bad? I am just as twisted and dark as he.” Though Farrin’s words sounded threatening, he spoke softly and briefly closed his eyes—as if he could blot out his words. “When he broke me out of the gladiator pits, I was little more than an animal used to hunt and kill. I still am that animal.”
Farrin let go of her hand, which dropped hard.
What do I say—to learn he went through that kind of pain? And I have complained of being exiled? No words would come to her lips. She felt guilty for ever considering her childhood a trial.
Farrin exhaled a puff of laughter that she recognized as his controlled chuckle. “I see I have shocked you. I apologize, but I thought you should know. There is no need to mourn me, Your Highness—though I never gave you a reason to from the start.” His lips were slanted in a bitter sort of smile, and his eyes were filled with yearning. “I only…” his unspoken words trailed off. “Never mind.” He turned his back to her and adjusted one of his gloves. “I will see you at the next battle. Until then.”
He tapped his speed magic, and he was gone.
Rakel pressed her lips into a thin line. Why does he feel that he has no other options? He said he cannot afford to displease Tenebris, but why?
Rakel slowly trekked back into Tana, tilting her head so snowflakes fell on her bare neck as she thought. I do not think it is a ploy or a trap. If it was, he wouldn’t have warned me that Tenebris will use alternative tactics to kill me. Tenebris doesn’t have his wretched sword…does he? Rakel hurried into Tana. Instead of making her way to the cottage in which Halvor had set up headquarters, she moved to the center of the village. The large block of ice that contained Farrin’s sword was there, glittering in the moonlight and covered with a thin veil of snow.
The ice was flawless, even after the long sleigh ride to Tana, but she wasn’t convinced. She placed her bare hand on the ice and tested it with her powers. There, she could feel the tang of his sword ping against her powers and reverberate in her bones. “No, it is here.” Tenebris was twisted enough to sacrifice his soldiers at the Battle of Gaula, so I doubt he’d think twice of abusing his officers. What does Farrin hold close besides his sword? His regiment? Rakel dragged her hand across the ice block. She felt unsettled and unsatisfied with their parting.
I do not wish to see him in pain—physical or emotional. Rakel’s fingers curled into fists as she recalled Farrin’s odd posture. Tenebris has injured him. She knew it with baffling clarity. The Chosen leader had wounded his own man in his fury—probably because of her.
She angrily turned from the ice block and stalked through the flickering torchlight, the hem of her blue skirts dusting snow from the ground. Tenebris is at the root of all of this. Farrin is not the evil one; he is! Unfortunately, if he is as strong as Crow claims, it will take everything I have to match him.
She could do it. Rakel loved her magic, but she was starkly realistic about it. She suspected she could match Tenebris stroke for stroke. The problem would be what would happen after. I could counter him, but what then? Using so much of my magic would have me asleep for days—if not weeks. With magic users like Farrin, the Chosen could strike while I was sleeping. I am not the only magic user Verglas has—or even the most talented, she thought, remembering Ragnar and Genovefa. But I have the best crowd-control and mass-effect magic.
“Something will have to change if we want to eliminate the Chosen—not beat them,” Rakel sighed. And we have to eliminate them—or they’ll be back again for the mirror. She shivered at the thought for a moment. “No,” she decided, straightening. “We have Halvor, Phile, and others like Ragnar. We will win. I will not use my magic to kill.”
Tossing the dark thoughts aside, Rakel turned in the direction of Halvor’s headquarters. A sleepy goat baaed at her as she glided past a stable, and Phile’s horse snorted and stomped a hoof. She stopped to offer the horse her palm to sniff and heard two sets of footsteps.
She spun.
Kai. She willed the tension from her shoulders.
Kai and his mother hurried through the village. Kai carried a bundle of wood, his mother a pack.
“Set it by the door,” his mother said.
“Alright.” Kai stacked the wood by a cottage door. “Shall I go get more?”
“No,” his mother said. “You may go find Gerta.”
“Thank you, Mother!” Kai tried to hug her, but she backed away from him.
“Only for a few minutes. Mind your manners,” she said as she stepped inside the cottage and shut the door.
Kai stood there for a moment like a kicked puppy, his head hanging.
“Kai! Hurry,” Gerta called from deeper in the village.
Kai’s head came up. “Coming.”
Rakel watched the young boy trot away, and her heart ached with pain. The people have come so far…but it’s not enough, yet. Still, she is his mother. She loves him. She will come to accept him.
Rakel fixed her chin and started again for headquarters. Now, for the war…
And all the way there, she kept a watchful eye on the shadows.
CHAPTER 8
ON THE SUBJECT OF POACHING
“I simply cannot believe Tenebris Malus is human,” Phile announced. “Snorri and I snuck into the First Regiment—into his tent—and I couldn’t find anything that indicated anything about his past.”
Rakel pushed food around her wooden plate. “I don’t imagine he became the leader of an army of magic users by acting carelessly.”
“Bully for him, but that will have to change. I am the Robber Maiden! I steal whatever I want, and what I want is information on him!”
Rakel sipped her goblet of apple cider. “Don’t you think you should be satisfied that you were able to sneak around the camp? Based on Snorri’s model of the place, it is a feat that should be commended.”
Phile scoffed. “
With Snorri using his magic, it is child’s play. I have decided: when I open my guild, I shall poach Snorri from the Verglas army.”
“And how do you intend to do that?” Rakel nodded and offered a hint of a smile to a group of three villagers who bowed to her as they hurried past.
“I have no idea,” Phile admitted. Her pretty face was twisted with irritation as she adjusted the red kerchief covering the ponytail of her black hair.
The pair was sitting in the mess hall—what used to be an inn before the invasion. As it was the lunch hour, almost everyone was present. Gerta, Kai, and the other two children in the village were eating together under Hilda’s watchful eye. Oskar was seated with Knut, Topi, and a mixture of magic users and soldiers. His infectious smile and good humor had the entire table laughing.
“I am fairly confident I will be able to match Tenebris, particularly if Liv is there to support me.” Rakel smiled at Halvor and Steinar when they entered the mess hall side by side. “But that does raise a few problems.”
Phile nodded. “Your brother told General Halvor he wants your role reduced so you aren’t required to expend so much of your power.”
“General Halvor didn’t agree?” Rakel asked, slightly shocked. Halvor was her second biggest nursemaid after Oskar, and he was intent on keeping her as swaddled as possible. The only reason she didn’t have a guard—as Liv did—was because he knew she would dismiss them.
“Oh, no, he agreed. That is why they plan to keep you in the center of the army instead of on the front lines during the next attack,” Phile said. “But you didn’t hear that from me.”
“They what?” Rakel hissed, dropping her wooden spoon.
Phile raised her hands. “I’m not saying I support their decision; I just thought a fair warning was in place.”
“If I don’t match Tenebris, we’ll slowly be bled of resources, troops, and time. Spring will come, and then I’ll be almost completely incapacitated. And that doesn’t even begin to address the problem of Farrin. We have to strike now—keeping me coddled is not the answer!”