“What?”
“All my men are here as your personal guard and Skylar requested to be amongst them. For this, their presence will be ceremonial only therefore I agreed.”
At this, my heart jumped.
“He wanted –?”
“Yes.”
I blinked then whispered, “Really?”
“I would ask why you find that so intensely surprising, my love, considering the fact he thinks the sun shines through you and you hang the moon but the longer we delay, the longer it takes for this to be done, for you and for them.”
Ho boy. He was so right.
Still, it was totally awesome Frey thought Skylar thought the sun shone through me and I hung the moon.
“Right,” I said on a nod, taking myself back to the (not so great) task at hand, Frey returned my nod back then looked over my head and nodded to someone else.
Then Tyr was brought to him, Frey lifted me up in the saddle then mounted behind me.
“Drakkar,” Atticus called from the back of a sleigh, “a sleigh has been prepared for you and Finnie.”
“She rides with me,” Frey called back.
“But, she’s the Winter –” Father started but Frey interrupted him.
“She is indeed. She is also my wife whose life is in danger. She rides close to my protection and on transport that will provide a much quicker getaway should it be required,” Frey returned and I sighed deeply at the reminder of another of the many things that had been weighing my thoughts since I left Mother to go with my girls and be prepared for this grisly event.
Father considered this then nodded.
And I reconsidered Frey’s long ago suggestion that we not leave his big, soft bed in his big, fancy-ass chateau in the sun-drenched fantasyland of Hawkvale.
But, alas, it was way too late for that.
Then Father commanded his driver, “Onward,” their sleigh moved forward, Frey steered Tyr behind it and the guard and Frey’s men surrounded us.
This, I found shortly after we rounded the fountain, was not going to be a stately, sedate royal procession. All the horses were prompted to a fast canter and it would become apparent why. This was because where we were going was not close to the city but far away.
At our pace, Snowdon was quickly left behind, we climbed and rounded the low swell of a mountain and came out on another valley, this one dotted liberally with dark tents that had open fires but the tent city was a ghost town for beyond that there was a sea of people edged by horses and sleighs all spread in front of a wooden platform. This was all lit against the falling night by an abundance of torches, especially around the platform. As we drew nearer then started to ride through an avenue of onlookers that was being forged by Father’s guard as well as members of the guard who met them who had already been there patrolling the crowds on horseback, I saw the platform was a scaffold and behind it an elevated dais on which there were three thrones that were only mildly ornate compared to King Baldur’s and if the events that were going to occur weren’t going to occur I would have thought they were way cool. Obviously, dreading what was to come, I didn’t give it a thought.
Then my thoughts were turned from the thrones (but mostly the scaffold with its three, dangling rope nooses) as a cheer started to ring the air which escalated to a shout which heightened to a deafening chant of, “The Dragon and The Ice!”
I started to look around as we rode through the mass of people and I saw a great number of salutes aimed Frey’s way, arms thrown in the air, huge beaming smiles and bigger shouting mouths as eyes stayed glued to Frey and I and the chant kept rising as we rode.
It was like we were rock stars arriving at a concert and it would be, I suspected, disconcerting normally. Considering that evening’s events, it was ghoulish.
To take my mind off of it, I twisted, looked up to Frey and asked, “The Ice?”
His eyes, which were pointed over my head, alert and scanning, came down to me. “I do not know, wee one. I’ve never heard it before but it would seem you’ve earned a nickname.”
“Great,” I muttered, looking ahead again.
I mean, “The Ice” was pretty cool, I suppose. I just didn’t feel it was fitting.
I didn’t have a chance to consider my new handle because it didn’t take long to make it to the platform and then no one hesitated to move swiftly to it including Atticus and Aurora who exited their sleigh almost the instant it stopped, Father not even waiting for someone to approach to open the little sleigh door. Frey swung down nearly before Tyr came to a halt then immediately reached up to pull me down. What made me feel a whole lot better was when the entirety of his men, including Kell and Skylar, also dismounted and ascended the platform with us to line up at the back of our thrones with Frey standing at my right side, Thad at my left, Skylar in front of Thad and Kell at my back.
Truth be told, it didn’t make me feel better… it made me feel great; their show of support was awesome.
That was until the crowd took this in, The Drakkar and his men flanking his bride, and they went totally freaking berserk.
Shit.
Sitting in my throne, I reached out to grab Frey’s hand, tugged on it and he bent so his ear was at my mouth which also caused a crushing wave of sound.
“Maybe the guys being here –” I started and Frey turned his head to catch my eyes.
“They stand with you,” he stated implacably.
“But, all those people are –” I began again and Frey cut me off again.
“All those people are a mob of unknowns with unknown intents. You are exposed. My men stand with you.”
Oh. Right. That made sense.
So it wasn’t a show of support so much as protection.
That worked too.
“Okay,” I whispered, Frey’s lips twitched then he straightened, faced the crowd, squeezed my hand reassuringly once then let it go to cross his arms on his chest.
I took the hint, time to be a princess, so I put both hands in my lap, clutching them tight.
It was then a ripple filtered through the crowd, changing the euphoric excitement to something else that didn’t feel very good and my eyes shifted to back of the sea of people. There I saw a black, covered sleigh led by four black horses that had entered the avenue we’d left behind and this was guarded by a large phalanx of my father’s armed soldiers.
The condemned had arrived and almost immediately the crowd, already having started to whip themselves into a frenzy at seeing Frey and I, didn’t delay in shouting jeers and throwing snowballs that hit the side of the covered sleigh, the horses and even the guard who, luckily, carried large shields at their sides.
“Oh no,” I whispered as my body tensed and I felt, in two places, reassuring squeezes. One was my right shoulder and that was from Frey. The other was my left and that, to my surprise, was Kell reaching over the back of my throne to do it swiftly then removing his hand.
Father stood and strode purposefully across the platform and down the steps to the scaffold where he spoke with a guard there then he strode back, face stony, the guard peeling off and I understood his intent but it was too late. The sleigh was now being rocked back and forth by the number of snowballs hitting it and the jeers had escalated to the point the air felt laced with acid. Once the sleigh stopped at the gallows, more guards rode forward to form a shield of horses around it as well as further guards on foot marching down to stand in front of the horses, the men unsheathing their swords in warning.
But it was too late.
Much too late.
And the guards knew it so they wasted even less time.
The prisoners were led out of the sleigh and quickly moved across the scaffold to stand at their noose. The two men first with Viola, looking thin, pale and terrified, bringing up the rear.
It was Viola and perhaps the violent and public way her scheme had been carried out that caught the sheer force of the biting fervor of the crowd and the minute she became visible to onlookers, snowballs were hurled with such vio
lence and quantity, her frame jerked with every missile that landed and it became clear very quickly that these projectiles had been prepared in advance and embedded with rocks or maybe worse as only snow would not rip through her coarse clothing or tear open her skin.
And it was when she slipped on the snow at her feet and fell to her hands and knees, her hair sodden and dripping, her clothing in tatters within seconds, the icy missiles coming fast even as guards stood in front of her, holding up shields attempting to shelter her and getting pelted in their attempt, the crowd going wild at her fall and a new wave of sound hit me that I lost it.
Without thinking, I shot out of my throne, shrieked, “Stop!” and dashed to the stairs that led to the scaffold.
I didn’t make it. Stephan caught me first and then I felt myself transferred to Frey’s arms but I continued to screech, “Stop! Stop right now! Stop right now!” as I struggled against his hold.
“Finnie, wee one,” he growled in my ear with a rough squeeze, “calm yourself.”
I totally ignored him, kept struggling and kept shouting, “Stop right now!”
And that was when I noticed it and Frey did as well for he stopped trying to pull me back to my throne. He stood still and stared as those closest to the platform heard me, saw me and stopped throwing their snowballs and started staring up at me in shock. This, too, shifted through the crowd with amazing speed and they all quickly become motionless and silent as I kept screaming, “Stop!”
It took only moments for the entirety of the crowd to stop and stare and I stood there, in the curve of Frey’s arm, my chest rising and falling and I returned their stare.
Then, I don’t know what came over me, I started yelling.
Or, more accurately, lecturing my subjects like I was an honest to God princess.
“It is a measure of a nation their cunning! It is a measure of a nation their strength! And it is a measure of a nation,” I leaned forward and screeched, “their mercy!” I leaned back and surveyed the crowd and for some bizarre reason kept right on shouting. “The condemned you see before you have been tried justly and meet their sentence fairly. They have done wrong and they will pay for it. But I am not the Winter Princess of a nation who does not see that even the condemned deserve to be treated with respect as they face death. You may think they do not deserve it but it is your duty as Lunwynians to rise above their actions not fall to their depths. They will hang for their crimes and you will watch this sentence carried out. How could that not be enough for you?”
I tore my eyes away from the now whispering crowd as those close sent my words far, feeling Frey’s arm still tight around my middle but I ignored it and looked down at the scaffold.
“Bring her to her feet,” I ordered the guard standing around Viola and they shifted and stared up at me in stupefaction so I snapped, “Bring her to her feet!”
They jumped toward Viola who I avoided looking at as they helped her up and moved her to her noose. Instead, I looked back to the crowd and, yep, you guessed it, kept right on shouting.
“Today, you witness something infinitely sad. Three people who have gone wrong somewhere in their lives, done wrong because of it and therefore are paying the ultimate price. Do not stand there shouting and jeering, demonstrating that they were right to move against this great nation, those fortunate enough to inhabit her ice-bound earth and those privileged to wear her crowns. Stand there and, as the Lunwynians I know you to be, stand strong, stand proud and stand filled with mercy.” Then I turned in Frey’s arm, looked up to him and snapped, “I’m done.”
He was staring down at me with an expression I wasn’t in any mood to read and luckily he didn’t give me time to do it. Swiftly, he guided me back to my throne and I went, sat and looked back out at the now silent crowd, hands clasped in my lap, trying to deep breathe.
“Commence without delay,” Atticus barked from my left side and I watched silently (as did the crowd) as each of the condemned were allowed their last words. Berg Enger and Viola Milstrom both declined, Enger clearly shaken by the events and Viola obviously so. Hernod Grieg strangely lifted a fist and shouted, “Unite Lunwyn!” and that was it from him.
Their heads were covered with black cloth sacks, the nooses were pulled over their heads and tightened around their necks, a man in a white robe with the band displaying all the gods’ colors dangling said a few words in the ancient tongue and then Father shouted, “Lunwyn!” and the hangman walked down the length of them kicking a high wooden lever behind each of the damned and down went Enger, down went Grieg and I couldn’t help it, I closed my eyes but it was bad enough just hearing her short, sharp, heartbreaking scream that stilled abruptly when down went Viola.
Then the hangman turned and shouted, “It is done, my king!” and Frey had me out of my throne so fast, I got lightheaded. Then we were down the platform, the soles of his men’s boots sounding behind us. Then I was on Tyr, Frey was behind me, his arm tight around my ribs, he leaned us to Tyr’s back, dug his heels into Tyr’s flank and shouted, “Yah!”
There was no avenue anymore and before us the crowd jumped away, parting on their own as Frey, me, Tyr and his men all galloped straight through them and away to Rimée Keep.
* * * * *
It took half the time to get back to the Keep than it did to get to the platform because Frey rode Tyr hard all the way there. Once we arrived, he dismounted and, while doing it, dragged me down right along with him.
Then he dragged me up the steps.
Then he dragged me through the doors that were opened by a footman before we arrived.
Then he dragged me right by my hovering girls who all rushed forward at the sight of me.
Then he dragged me down the hall and into the room we’d been in earlier with my parents.
The girls followed as did, by the sounds of the hustle and bustle, every one of his men as Frey pulled me inside then turned on me.
I took one look at his face, knew he was pissed and did not care.
So I yanked my hand free, lifted it palm up toward him and shouted, “Don’t start!”
He looked beyond me (and my hand) and barked, “Go!”
I looked over my shoulder and shouted, “Stay!”
Both men and women looked between Frey and I and Frey repeated, “Go!” so I fired out, “Do not dare go! Stay!”
“Gods damn it, Finnie,” Frey growled and I looked back at him.
“They were pelting her with snowballs, Frey, right before she was to hang from the neck until dead!” I shouted. “She’d done wrong but wasn’t her sentence as it stood bad enough? Did she have to endure –?”
I stopped talking because suddenly I was crushed in Frey’s arms and his mouth had slammed down on mine whereupon he laid a hot and heavy one on me.
I was clutching his shoulders and blinking up at him dazedly when he lifted his head and started speaking, “It would have been nice to have privacy when I told you how gods damned proud I was of my wife this eve but since you seem to wish a continued audience for your night’s performance, so be it.” I blinked again, realizing vaguely that he wasn’t pissed, the intensity of emotion I read on his face was something else altogether. He gave me a squeeze and stated, “I’m proud of you, Finnie Drakkar. What you did took courage and showed compassion and if your people didn’t already love you, witnessing that, they will.”
I blinked again then asked, “You think?”
“Absolutely,” he answered.
I felt my body melt in his arms.
“What’d she do?” I heard Jocelyn whisper from behind me.
Then I heard Thad answer, “I’ll tell you but I’ll do it outside.”
Then I heard the shuffling of bodies moving right before both Frey and I were rocked to the side as arms came around both of our thighs. I looked down to see it was Skylar giving our legs a hug and I melted even deeper in Frey’s arm as I moved a hand to touch Skylar’s hair. But Skylar, being Skylar, didn’t wait around for that. Without a word or look, he l
et go and raced out of the room. I twisted in Frey’s arms to watch him as he did it and saw the only one left was Kell.
He was standing, feet planted, arms crossed on his chest, eyes glued to Frey.
“Don’t know if it’s the spirit she’s got,” he remarked. “Don’t know what the bloody hell it is. Never seen the like from a woman.” His eyes shifted to me before he finished brusquely. “Only know whatever the bloody hell it is, it’s good.”
Then he uncrossed his arms, stomped out of the room like coming to this conclusion was beyond annoying and indeed rocked his world to its very foundations and he didn’t like that all that much and he slammed the door behind him.
I turned back to Frey feeling warm inside and out.
“I think Kell likes me,” I whispered.
“You would think correctly.” Frey didn’t whisper.
My eyes went to his chest as my fingers went there to fiddle with the strap of his cloak. “So, uh… you’re not mad at me for losing it, you’re, um… proud of me?”
He gave me a gentle shake and my fingers quit fiddling as my eyes lifted to his.
Then he stated, “You weren’t born princess, Finnie Drakkar, but that does not mean you’re not one.”
I closed my eyes and dropped my forehead to his chest as his words washed over me. And when I did my crown dug into my forehead so I immediately pulled it right back.
“I need to get rid of my crown,” I whispered.
He nodded but didn’t move. Instead, he asked, “Are you all right?”
I answered honestly, “No, that was heinous and I hope no one else tries to kill me because that isn’t much fun at all and watching them hang for it isn’t much better.”
His mouth twitched and he agreed, “I hope so too.”
I leaned into him and stated, “Now I need food and after that I need my husband to take me to bed and hold me so I can forget all this and think about where Mother is going to take me shopping tomorrow.”
His arms tightened and he replied, “My wee Finnie, if we’re in bed I would hope you’re not thinking about where your Mother is going to take you shopping.”
I grinned at him then challenged, “Well then, it seems you have your work cut out for you because some of the shops we passed today…” I shrugged and finished, “just saying.”