As she slipped away, my smile disappeared. The next part was the hardest. With a grim nod to the coachman, I led him forward through the shadows. I had returned my dagger to my boot while helping with the horses, but I gripped it in my hand again now. The coachman held a short wooden club—from Cassandra or the carriage I didn’t know. We didn’t want to kill anyone if we could possibly avoid it. I still believed Lord Treestone that our own people were safe, and even that he didn’t intend us any immediate harm. But that didn’t mean harm wouldn’t come to us—and possibly a great many other people—if we remained as captives. I just hoped the harm didn’t start now.
Stepping forward into the light, I called softly to the guards. They both swung around, their expressions shifting to surprise and then suspicion.
“What are you doing here?” asked one, at the same moment as the second asked, “Who are you?”
But their questions had given me the chance to close the remaining distance between us, and my dagger flashed out from where I had hidden it in my skirts. The guard in front of me didn’t even have time to draw his sword before my hilt found his head. As he crumpled to the ground, his companion dropped beside him, thanks to the ministrations of the coachman.
Well, not too great a harm, at any rate.
I stooped to check their pulses. Both beat steadily.
I picked the smaller one and lifted his head and torso off the ground, gripping him beneath his arms. The coachman took the other, and we dragged them back toward the shadows next to the gate. Cassandra had promised we would find gags and rope there. With any luck, we would be well gone before any alarm could be raised.
I had nearly reached the darkness when a gasp of surprise split the night. I looked up and into the eyes of a third guard, frozen mid-stride halfway across the courtyard.
Chapter 5
I froze as well, and for an endless-seeming second we both stood there in silence, our eyes locked. My back was still bowed from the weight of the unconscious guard, and I noticed the new guard’s hands were also occupied—with cups and a flagon. What terrible timing for refreshments to arrive!
The man was too far for me to have any hope of reaching him before he called an alarm. Only his shock had prevented him doing so already. Plus I had nothing but my daggers against his sword, and this time I wouldn’t have the element of surprise.
I remained in place as I tried desperately to produce an unnatural warmth inside me that I might be able to send across the impossible distance between us. But the cold air had leached into every part of me. My gift—if that’s what it had been—remained far from reach.
While I watched, still motionless, the guard shook off his paralysis and opened his mouth to call for reinforcements. I closed my eyes. We were so close!
When I opened them a second later, I barely registered a blur racing across the courtyard. For a brief moment I imagined my mind was playing tricks on me, conjuring up the shadow I had seen earlier.
But this time the dark figure didn’t disappear. The guard swung to face him, his cry lost as the newcomer’s fist connected with his middle, violently expelling the air from his lungs. A moment later a second blow to the head felled him. The cups and flagon hit the ground with a thud and rolled against his motionless body.
The shadow stooped to lift the man, dragging him across the courtyard toward me. I shook off my own surprise and resumed pulling at my load. But it was slow going, and when the coachman appeared to assist me, I let him take the guard, preferring to feel the solid hilt of a dagger in my hand once again.
It looked as if the shadow was on our side, but I didn’t intend to let down my guard until I knew who he was. Or she. Although their build and gait gave me the strong impression of a male. Still, my sister had taught me not to trust to appearances.
As soon as the coachman had deposited the second of the gate guards in the shadows, he disappeared. Reluctantly I knelt, feeling around for the promised rope. My hand fell on it quickly, tucked up against the wall, and I set to work, starting with the gags. The coachman would be back with the carriage at any moment, and I didn’t want any more delays.
The shadow had reached me now with the third man, and I was grateful Cassandra had left an abundance of supplies. I shifted to keep my front toward the newcomer as he followed my lead, binding the man he had knocked down. At least that must mean the man was still alive.
We worked in silence, the shadow not looking up once to meet my constant wary glances. Only once we had finished did he stand and offer a hand to help me to my feet.
I ignored it.
His eyes, the only part of his face I could see given the dark material wrapped around his head, flashed to the dagger nestled back into my palm. When they returned to my face, I could have sworn they looked quizzical. But any words were interrupted by the sound of carriage wheels against cobblestones.
“Quick!” I gasped, realizing my mistake. I’d been distracted by our unknown assistant and forgotten my next task. “We need to get the gates open.”
Together we wrestled with them, pushing them wide enough for the carriage to pass through. The coachman led the horses through at a slow walk, shushing them with quiet murmurs. As soon as the back of the carriage had passed through, he swung up onto the front box, gripping the reins.
I began to tug the gates back closed. We wouldn’t be able to latch them, but at least we could keep from drawing immediate attention to the situation by leaving them open. But the shadow gestured for me to get into the carriage. I hesitated for a moment, but he began pulling at the gates himself, so I rushed over and threw myself into the carriage.
“Go!” I hissed at the coachman, leaning out of the window to peer up at him. He twisted and glanced back at me, his eyes flicking toward our unknown accomplice. But when I glared at him, he shrugged once and straightened, the carriage lurching and beginning to move.
I knelt on the seat and peered out of the tiny back window. The arrival of that third guard had put me on edge, and I didn’t want to waste a second putting distance between us and any pursuit. Certainly not for the sake of someone who wore a mask and had yet to identify himself.
The gates had closed enough now to cut off the dim glow from inside the castle walls, and it was hard to make out much with only the moonlight. But I did see the second gate close into position, and then a moment later I made out a dark figure sprinting after us.
We had only just begun to gather any speed, and reluctantly I stuck my head back out of the carriage to call quietly for the coachman to slow for a moment. The shadow had helped us, after all.
As our momentum fell away, the figure reached us, and I swung the door open. The shadow gripped the frame, still running to keep pace with us, and swung himself in.
I was still half-crouched in the doorway, so he collided with me, and we both fell back against the seat.
“Oof.” I struggled to push him off as the door swung wide again, banging against the outside of the carriage as we regained the speed we had momentarily lost. For a moment the carriage seemed full of flailing limbs, and then I got my hands firmly against his chest and pushed him away. A small part of my mind noted that it was definitely a ‘him’ as I scrambled forward, leaning precariously out of the open door to pull it closed.
Strong hands gripped my waist, steadying me as I hung half out of the moving vehicle. As soon as I had slammed the door closed, I wrenched myself out of his grip, throwing myself onto one of the seats. He paused briefly and then sat across from me.
I took a deep breath and looked over at Emmeline and Giselle. I had nearly forgotten about them in all the chaos and could only be glad they had flattened themselves against the far side of the carriage, out of our way.
But neither of them were looking at me, both of their gazes fixed on the man wrapped head-to-toe in black who sat across from me instead. I could hardly blame them.
I opened my mouth to demand an explanation, along with his identity, but Giselle spoke before I could. And
she had transferred her gaze to me.
“I told you he would rescue us.”
“Thanks for your faith, little sis,” said a familiar voice, as he unwound the strip of material from his head. “Although here I was thinking my disguise was rather good.”
The fair hair and handsome face of Prince Oliver appeared. He wore a wry smile—an expression I had never seen on his usually impassive face before. And the blue eyes that swept from his sisters to me retained the animation I had thought I glimpsed in them in the moment before his escape.
I sat back. Prince Oliver. I should have guessed. But then I hadn’t expected anything so daring, or…well…active from him. And I rather resented Giselle’s comment about our rescue.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I raised an eyebrow at him. “You don’t look like a thirteen-year-old girl to me.”
“Excuse me?” He looked confused, but I hadn’t really been aiming my comment at him.
I looked over at the other two princesses. “We were rescued by a thirteen-year-old girl, remember?”
Oliver looked intrigued, although he also shook his head at me. “I could have sworn you were in need of some rescuing when I intervened. My mistake.” A small grin twitched across his face, and I relented.
“I will allow you credit for a partial rescue,” I said in my most gracious voice, accompanying it with a regal nod.
He snorted. “Very generous.” Then the grin returned. “Although you did seem to do rather well with those gate guards. I thought you must be mad when you called to them.”
I shrugged. “Don’t worry, I’m used to being underestimated. Why do you think my tactic was so successful?” I glanced at him consideringly. “So you were already there watching us at that point? In that case, I’m guessing it was you I saw in the shadows by the wall when we first came outside.”
I thought I caught a gleam of admiration in his eyes. “You saw me then? When you paused, I wondered. I’d come over the wall as soon as it got dark, but I hadn’t worked out a way into the castle yet when you all appeared. And then I thought I should watch and see what was happening. I didn’t want to upset any carefully laid plan.”
“A good idea as things turned out,” I said, a little begrudgingly. It seemed Prince Oliver wasn’t the only one among us who had done some underestimating. I had never expected such sense and initiative from him, but he had well and truly proved me wrong.
“I look forward to arriving home,” said Emmeline. “Cassandra seems to have supplied the carriage with blankets, and even warming pans, but a hot bath would not go astray.”
I shivered as her words reminded me of the cold. A blanket appeared in front of me, held out by Oliver, and I took it gratefully, wrapping myself in it.
“I wouldn’t say no to a hot bath myself,” I said. “But I want to hear your story first, Oliver.”
“I have nothing exciting to tell, I assure you.” He lounged back against the seat. “After I managed to escape the attack, I thought it best to follow the abductors before returning to the palace for reinforcements. I didn’t want the trail to go cold. When I realized where you had been taken, I decided it should be safe enough to conduct a scouting trip before returning. The place wasn’t exactly teeming with guards. And then I found you all.”
His story was simple enough, but a shadow in his eyes suggested he was holding something back. I opened my mouth to ask what he was hiding, but his eyes flicked to his sisters. A crease appeared on his forehead as he watched the way they sat calmly on the seats, Emmeline watching the dark forest move past the window.
I shut my mouth again but determined I would find a chance to talk to the mysterious prince in private. Soon.
“And now it’s your turn,” he said, returning his attention to me. “I want to hear about this thirteen-year-old.”
I told the story as succinctly as I could. Oliver seemed as unconcerned with the news that our entourage was likely alive and relatively unharmed as his sisters had been, and my rapidly rising opinion of him dropped sharply. He seemed a little more interested in Lord Treestone and in his niece’s desperate assertions that something was very wrong in Eldon.
But he said nothing more than, “Hmmm…”, making no effort to discuss it with me. When his eyes again flicked over to his sisters, I refrained from pushing the matter. At least he didn’t seem intent on punishing Lord Treestone for the abduction. Despite being one of the main victims, I empathized with the noble’s desperation and had no desire to see him stripped of his land and titles, or executed, or something. Now that we were free, it was actually somewhat reassuring to me to know that at least one other person in this kingdom had an interest in finding out the truth of what was going on. And that person had access to at least some resources—even if he’d misused them in this instance.
The exchange of stories had distracted me, but I now found myself straining to hear any sound of pursuit. But I could hear nothing beyond the sound of our own progress through the forest. We just needed to get far enough away before the new shift arrived at dawn for the change of guards. I checked the sky for any signs of lightening, but everything looked black outside the windows.
Giselle was the first to fall asleep, tipping slowly sideways until she rested on the shoulder of her brother beside her. When Emmeline began to nod off, I resigned myself to the same fate. And, sure enough, I soon had the weight of her head pressing against me. I remained upright, too alert to sleep, as did Oliver across from me. We refrained from talking in deference to the sleepers, but the prince watched me, off and on, as the night stretched out.
I tried to read the messages in his eyes, but his contradictions foiled me. I could have sworn he regarded me as curiously as I regarded him. But he had never shown much interest in me before. And I kept remembering the disregard he’d shown for the fate of his own people, left bound on the cold road. And even his lack of interest in the crimes of Lord Treestone—against his own sisters, too. Was I fooling myself to imagine that something had changed in this cold prince?
A whisper of warmth stirred inside me and crept down my arms to warm my fingertips. And was it even greater foolishness to think that the change could have had anything to do with me?
The puzzle of Prince Oliver occupied my mind until we reached the royal palace of Eldon. And then I could think of nothing else.
Chapter 6
I’d seen plenty of royal palaces before—I had grown up in one, after all. But I had never seen anything like this one. At first glance it seemed to be made entirely of towers, rising in sleek shards of differing heights. It nestled against gray rock at the base of a mountain, crafted from a sleek marble that shone almost blue-green in the rising sun. I had never seen that exact color of rock before, and for a heart-stopping moment, I wondered if the entire building was carved from ice.
“Welcome to Eldon,” said Oliver, his voice a quiet rumble.
I looked across to find his eyes fixed on me. I snapped my mouth shut.
“It’s incredible.”
His smile looked a little twisted as he turned his head to regard his home. “One of a kind—or so they say.”
“Well, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Emmeline stirred and pulled herself upright, mumbling sleepily, and I immediately scooted over to peer out the window. Where was the city? I had expected to reach the capital before I saw the palace. But I could see no city wall, other than the wall of the palace itself, crafted from the same stone as the building. Something on the mountain behind the palace sparked, reflecting a ray of sunlight. I blinked and then blinked again.
Instead of spreading out around the palace, like in other capitals, the buildings all sheltered behind it, climbing up the face of the mountain. As I looked closer I made out steep roads, and in some places even steps, carving various paths up the slope.
Oliver was still watching me. “It’s a bigger city than it looks. Most of what you can see are the fronts of buildings, with the bulk of the rooms carved back into th
e mountain.”
I shook my head and repeated myself. “It’s incredible.”
A slow smile spread across his face, and for the first time his expression looked truly warm. “I’m glad you like it.”
The coachman slowed as we approached the gate but didn’t actually come to a stop. To my surprise, the gate was open with a small trickle of early morning activity. I had expected the palace to be on lock down after the attack on our party. Instead we were waved through without the coachman even needing to identify his passengers.
I glanced at Oliver, my brows lowered, and caught a look of faint concern on his face. Emmeline and Giselle, on the other hand, showed no response to the manner of our arrival. Both were still waking up and had begun to murmur about hot baths.
I examined the stone as we passed through the palace walls. The impression of ice hardly abated with closer inspection—it was truly an incredible material. The courtyard was one of the largest I had ever seen. I supposed any carriages or wagons which couldn’t make it up the steep mountain roads would have to be unloaded here, their burdens transferred into smaller loads.
Oliver jumped out first, turning to offer each of us a hand. I ignored his offered help, jumping down on my own and turning to take it all in. A small stir rippled out around us among the various grooms, guards, and palace messengers who were outside at this early hour. But the response was nothing to the commotion I would have normally anticipated. Except I was fast learning to expect nothing normal in this strange kingdom.
The other three had already begun to mount the steps to the front doors, so I hurried after them. The grand entrance had been carved with a series of intricate scenes, but the doors were swinging open before I had time to take any of them in. The servants in the entrance hall paused to bow and curtsy but seemed otherwise unaffected by our sudden arrival.
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