“And leave behind an untouched castle for the fire dragons to retake?” Vulott cried.
Yes! I cried silently. This was their home before you came here and stole it!
“Hell, no.” Michelle spoke up. “If we have to leave, let’s take what we can carry and regroup elsewhere.”
“We’ll take the weaponry,” Vulott announced.
Simultaneously, Michelle announced, “We’ll take the jewels.”
Lethe winced. “The fire will not wait for us to load our sacks,” he reminded the two of them. My heart went out to him. He had some qualities of an ice dragon, but he was less ice dragon than Michelle Ballinger herself. “If you must, then hurry.” His eyes were dark with judgment, but he didn’t have the spine to stand up to either of them. “Grab whatever you need and let’s go. I’ll be waiting along the northern parapet.”
“Nell!” Michelle snapped, her eyes setting on me. “Load your arms with whatever you can carry, and instruct the other women to do the same. Go now! To the servants’ quarters!”
As I stepped from the throne room, I was taken aback by the harried motion of the sentries and maids bustling down the corridor, some loading their arms with precious goods. My teeth tugged at my lower lip as I scanned the hall… Whatever you can carry. Would I have the time to make it all the way to the western tower? Would I be the only one who would think to grab the item—an item of priceless worth, even if it wasn’t encrusted in jewels?
But she’d told me to go to the servants’ quarters, too. Dammit!
I also needed to find Merulina and prepare to brave the cold, but those weren’t the only things. I had to think about Theon, and what he would want me to save most. So much to do. It didn’t help that the palace around me was churning in chaos. I almost wished that I was the queen. I would’ve ensured the safety of my people, not concerned myself with looting. The current of servants moved in the opposite direction, driving toward the castle’s main hall and exit, but I pushed back against them and forged toward the western tower first. I had some time. Just enough time to get one last thing…
The western tower was totally deserted—quiet enough to be disconcerting. The hallways tapered off into darkness… with the exception of a splash of golden light emanating from one particular doorway. The room which housed the mystical astrolabe. I crept onward, slipped into the room, and beheld the ancient device. Its interlocking discs gleamed with light. I was gentle as I removed the astrolabe from its platform, but I had no thick coat in which to hide it. If Michelle saw me, I’d have to pretend that I had collected it for her.
Moving through the western tower and back toward the center of the castle was like stepping from one world—dark, quiet, and lonely—into another—bright, noisy, and crowded. The walls had been stripped of their tapestries and crests. The floors were littered in sprays of broken baubles and discarded coins. I wasn’t even sure what I could grab for Michelle anymore, but then I also assumed she’d packed up everything she could carry.
In all the commotion, the dungeon was forgotten. Its door hung open, but the guard station just beyond was dim and empty. Of course; the ice dragons were by and large cowards, weren’t they? No wonder they had lost the land twice now. If they couldn’t steal it without much effort, they wouldn’t bother.
War against a nation of cowards and thieves was understandably difficult. Without respect for the land, for families, for heritage, there was much for a people to lose in war. But on the other hand, it was easy to regain a foothold against such an enemy. They were so weak, they made it easy.
I glanced to the right and to the left, then advanced toward the prison. Before I passed the empty guard station, I hesitated and scanned the interior of the small room for any keys. At first, I thought that someone had had the foresight to remove them—the foresight as well as the spitefulness. But the guard had not seen fit to remove every item of use, for leaned in one corner were several tools, including a long, metallic scissor which resembled bolt cutters.
I snatched them up, heavy though they were—the bolt cutters wedged beneath one arm, while both hands continued to brace the astrolabe—and trundled down, down, down the twisting stone stairwell to the dungeon beyond.
I could hear them crying out for me—for anyone—before I even turned the last corner and was spilled out amid the prison cells and dangling chains. “What’s going on out there?” a woman in a cell demanded. She was an older fire dragoness, starved down to the bone… and an idea bloomed in my brain. Of course. The prisoners could help the soldiers! No one would ever need to know that it had been me…
“The king has come to save us,” I informed her breathlessly, placing the lock on the cell door between the scissors and closing them tightly. The lock groaned and gave, twisting and falling to the floor. “Let’s go. Take a coat and boots from any closet and join them!”
“And who are you but an ice dragon slave, to give the proud people of this land your orders?” the woman demanded, glaring at me hotly.
I wrenched the prison cell’s door open and extended my hand toward her, so that she could see the thin band of gold gleaming on my finger—and the Aena crest thereon. Her eyes—a dark gold much like Theon’s—flashed from my ring to my face. “My slavery is nothing but a ruse,” I assured her. “I will be queen of The Hearthlands when the throne has been restored to its rightful king, Theon.” I didn’t have the time to explain any further than that, though I saw from the largeness of her eyes that she believed me. I jerked my head to the side, signaling for her to pass and pass quickly. “Go now, there is no time to lose,” I commanded her. She hurried past, and so did several other fire dragons in her cell. They all scurried up the stairs, into the madness beyond, and were gone. I continued to scavenge for Altair. Where…?
“Sister!” a familiar voice called to me from the shadows. I twisted and scanned the darkness… and there he was, on the fringes of a torch’s dying light, forgotten by the sentries, bound in chains.
I hurried to unfasten his manacles with the heavy scissors in my hands, using the astrolabe as a meager illumination in the shadow. The manacles clattered away from the wall, still attached to his wrists but freed from the stone. He rubbed at where his skin had begun to go raw. It was a pain I remembered all too vividly.
Altair’s eyes fixed on me intently.
“The astrolabe,” he breathed. “You were the one. The one who met Merulina and brought her to me.”
“Always been a sucker for romance,” I answered, leaning down to scoop up the astrolabe again. “Have you seen Merulina since the attacks began?”
Altair took the bolt-cutting contraption without missing a beat. “Sadly, no,” he replied, strangely upbeat in spite of the words. “But if I know Merulina—and I think that I do—she is safe, wherever she is. I believe we all have some people in our lives who will never be made into fools, and who will ensure their own survival above all else.” My mind shifted to Michelle. Yes, in a way, I could see how an admirer might tout her strength, even if I couldn’t particularly understand it. “I will free the rest of the prisoners. Unless you think there is no time?”
“The guards and servants are no longer employees of the castle so much as they are mercenaries, concerned primarily with looting the palace. I doubt anyone would stop you, as it would divert valuable time… literally… from their acquisitions.”
“Then free the fire people I shall!” Altair cheered. He’d struck me as an optimist during our past encounters, but I’d never seen him happy until now. He practically skipped to the next cell, severing its latch with the scissors. “And then we will join our brothers in the fight.” He nodded at me, still illuminated by the astrolabe in an embankment of darkness. “You remind me of my mother. I should’ve seen it earlier. Naturally, Theon would be drawn to you.” He bowed, then wrenched open the next cell door, allowing the waiting prisoners inside to be released. “I forgive you for whatever ruse you must engage in to restore the kingdom to its former self, Queen Penelope!” he
bellowed, skipping to the next cell and dismantling its lock.
Clutching the astrolabe to my chest, I forged my way up the stairs, pushed along now with a throng of escaped prisoners, uncertain. Altair raised a good question in my mind. Should I continue the illusion of servitude in order to stay near to the royal family, ensuring that an insider remained with them, but risking that the astrolabe be taken? Or should I go, dress myself in a coat, hunt Theon down in the snow, and present to him the astrolabe?
Nell
The question ended up being a moot one, and my decision had probably been poor. I wanted to find Theon, not because it was strategically wise, but because I felt better being with him. But… he wasn’t quite ready for a reunion yet. He still stood at the front line with his men, and I believed—with all the pride and faith that made a woman into a fire dragon—that this would be the first, and hopefully only, historic battle of his reign.
In any case, I’d gone upstairs and was hunting for a coat closet when Michelle found me.
“What are you doing? Where have you been?” the girl sneered, advancing on me. Her eyes flashed between the astrolabe and my face. Lethe and Vulott exited the throne room behind her. “That was all you got?” she cried, reeling back. The palm of her hand flashed out and caught me on the side of the face. My head snapped just slightly to the side, even though I could tell she had thrown the full force of several years of resentment into that slap. My eyes trained on her and simmered there, even as my head turned to face her again.
“Well done, girl,” Vulott praised, stepping forward and practically snatching the astrolabe from my hands. I almost fought him for it, but my fingers loosened and I let it go. Between the lot of them—surrounded by ice dragons as I was—there was no point. I would have to stay with them, and look for my next opportunity to seize it.
“And that was what took you so long, I suppose.” Michelle would not relent in her glower, nor in her suspicious tone. Of course, she knew me well enough to know that she wasn’t the only one who was not to be trusted between us. One thing we had in common was our steadfast refusal to follow anything but our hearts—the difference was that hers was firmly planted in self-interest, and Theon had mine. Anything I did outside of her direct supervision was suspect. Still, she was willing to take the risk and accept me as her servant girl, since that meant being able to humiliate me all day long.
“You see the condition the castle is in,” I explained, lifting my hand to make an example of the mayhem swirling around us. Even the sight of their own king and queen didn’t bring any of these ice dragons to a halt. “Everything I found was taken from me. The walls, the closets, the depositories, the windows, everything has been stripped of its valuables. Apparently everyone came to the same conclusion you did.”
Michelle grimaced. “You could at least go to my bedroom and get my gowns. Now.”
The crash of a window punctuated her sentence, and a stream of fire came pouring into the hallway below us. An ice dragon shrilled with horror and unleashed a ribbon of ice in combat. Someone in the great hall went to the front entrance and unlocked it. A powerful wind came gusting, causing the chandeliers to twist and tinkle. It was freezing out there. Damn, the fire dragons were probably not going to be able to fight much longer. It might have been long enough. The “royal family” was, after all, poised to depart. And the fire dragons were poised to enter. In every window, separate blazes filled the sky. The snow had come, but come too late.
“Now?” Lethe reiterated. His eyebrows settled over his blizzard-blue eyes. “The only ‘now’ which we must consider, queen, is that the fire is upon us.”
Another window downstairs exploded inward, a tongue of flame lashing into the castle. Meanwhile, out the front door, gusts of wind carried snow across the foyer… and ice dragons shifted and took to the sky in droves.
“We must not spare a single member of our court,” Lethe went on.
“She is not a member of our court,” Michelle insisted, jabbing a finger at me. “Lethe, don’t be an idiot—she’s Theon’s wife!”
“And yet you brought her up from the dungeons,” Lethe retorted.
Michelle spluttered and grasped for a new point. “I sent her for valuables and she returned with the astrolabe! The single tool in this castle which could ensure the victory of the fire dragons!”
I could definitely smell smoke downstairs. I pursed my lips and maintained my peace.
“The fire dragons are taking the castle,” Lethe replied. “If she had left it, they would soon acquire it. That she took it shows loyalty.”
“Oh, Lethe.” Michelle rolled her eyes and refused to look at him. “How can a king be so—?”
Another window crashed, shards of glass spewing in every direction, but this came from our own floor. I thought in horror that the fire dragons wouldn’t know, wouldn’t stop, and would accidentally kill their own queen… kill their own king’s brother… but no tongue of flame was exhaled through this broken window. Rather, an auburn, speckled harpy came tumbling through, slammed into the opposing wall, and collapsed on the rug.
As had become customary, a strong cocktail of relief and apprehension swelled in my chest at the sight of the harpy with whom I had stricken a fruitless exchange. Parnassia.
“King,” she huffed, straightening. “I arrived the second I heard that the fire dragons had risen again in your fair, frigid country. Come to Thundercliff. You will be welcome there, not only safe from Aena’s men but also comfortable.”
“Thundercliff,” Michelle noted. “Where in Maine was that, again?”
I rolled my eyes. “Beggar’s Hole,” I reminded her under my breath. It was painfully reminiscent of high school English, wherein she would never quite remember any of the books she’d sworn she’d read.
“I’m afraid your dwelling is too small for the likes of us,” Lethe replied. “As you can see, we have with us a court of four, and the women are human. They cannot withstand the cold and the altitude kept by your kind, fair harpy.”
“Thundercliff’s forest, then, may suffice,” the harpy tried again. How… accommodating she was being.
Downstairs, I could hear the sound of more glass breaking. Many of the servants had fled now, leaving precious few in the halls… and smoke was buffeting up toward the ceiling, dark and ominous. We would need to make a decision—and soon.
“But this is our castle,” Lethe insisted. I wanted to argue that point, but held my tongue.
“But Thundercliff Forest,” Michelle interjected, “is where my ‘castle’ is.” She used air-quotes to denote that her palatial lake house was only a castle in a manner of speaking.
“What is ‘this’?” Vulott asked, mimicking her.
“Nothing.”
“Means that it’s not a real castle,” I explained to Vulott, who immediately frowned.
“I don’t want to go to a castle that is no castle at all,” he denounced.
“Um, the place is gorgeous, and everyone would be psyched to see me,” Michelle argued, oblivious to the smoke and broken windows.
“We need to decide now!” Lethe insisted.
“Come with us to Thundercliff, and the harpies will be your allies in wartime,” the winged woman cooed. “Perhaps the young queen should not be so eagerly dismissed. Perhaps it would behoove you to maintain a satellite castle, rather than a castle on this disputed territory, so vulnerable to attack.”
“And it has a great security system,” Michelle interjected. “And my parents are never there.”
Lethe looked from the harpy and Michelle to Vulott and me, weighing his options. Parnassia and Michelle offered an easy exit to a foreign land, a retreat to regroup. Vulott and I, on the other hand—what did we represent to him? Some notion of family? Of honor—however misguided? Strange to think that he would ever look at me and see anything in common with his insane father… but I supposed I should have been flattered.
His eyes ticked between us and his jaw set. “No,” he decided. “I want to stay
. I want to fight. I want this castle—and I want this land. I want to give the ice dragons their own kingdom, finally. We cannot run again, or it will be another fifty years before we see another uprising. The fire dragons knew that. And this attack is just a play on our weaknesses! Let us prove them wrong!” he cried, looking to his father for support. “If we leave now, we will never return, except as second-class citizens again.”
I shielded my nose and coughed. My eyes were beginning to burn. What were they doing down there?
Vulott nodded thoughtfully, but then he opened his mouth. “Still, some portion of land on which to brood and plot is better than a charred husk; what have we won if we win this war? Nothing. They are willing to destroy even their own castle.”
“Because they banked on our superficiality and laziness driving us out!” Lethe said. “Let’s surprise them! Let’s—”
“I go with the bird-woman,” Vulott decided, interrupting his son. “The harpy is a like-minded creature. We will be safe among them. Besides.” Vulott brandished the astrolabe, giving it a disrespectful slap with his palm. “We have this. There is no true victory for the fire people. There never will be again. Even their queen is a slave.” He glanced over his shoulder at me and winked. Ugh.
“Yes, ‘Thundercliff’ is a great place,” Michelle piped. “I vote we go too! People will freak out that we are there. In a good way. But…” Her eyes shifted back to me and she coughed. “Let’s leave Nell behind,” she finished. “We’re not going to need her there. Trust me.”
Nell
I gaped at Michelle, strangely insulted. It seemed natural that, if there was going to be a sojourn to my hometown, I would be included in it. On the other hand, my husband would be here at this palace, and I wanted to be with him.
Voices filtered up to us from the ground floor. Male voices. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that the ruined corridors were now abandoned. The fire dragons were in the castle. They were probably looking for us now—and I wasn’t the only one of us who had heard them. A silent exchange of eye contact passed around the circle, and Lethe stepped forward. “We’re not leaving her here,” he announced.