James nodded. “Very well.”
“As for the others who’ve named themselves my royal guards, I’ll find out what Melanie, Ronald, and Oscar think of them before I accept any oaths. I’d like to know your opinions, too, if you happen to spend time with them.”
“Of course.” He wouldn’t forget, either. That was one of James’s best qualities: complete reliability. “As for the wraith boy, his wardrobe has been moved to the wagon following yours.”
The wraith boy gasped. “No! I want to be close to my queen.”
“It’s only a wagon away.” I leveled a glare on him, though the expression didn’t feel as menacing as I intended; I was too exhausted. “That’s close enough, and I will visit you in the morning.”
The hardness of his face softened. “You trusted me tonight. I wanted to make you proud.”
I forced my voice neutral and chose my words carefully. “You did well tonight. I was pleased with your work, and the way you obeyed my instructions.”
A smile lit his face as we continued toward his wagon. The mirrors had been moved, too, though at the moment they were covered with sheets. He hesitated at a sliver of glass showing near the floor; I stepped in front of it.
“In you go.”
His smile returned as he went inside his wardrobe. “Do I need to hum again?”
“Only if you want. Just behave. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“I cannot wait. Good night, my queen.” He remained grinning even when I closed the doors and pulled the sheets off the mirrors. The glass reflected his wardrobe from every angle, making it impossible for him to escape.
How secure was it really, though? He avoided mirrors. He acted like they hurt him. But he’d destroyed the mirrors as wraith mist. Perhaps he couldn’t anymore, now that he was a boy.
What about the rest of the wraith?
“Wil?” James touched my elbow.
I blinked and stepped back from the glass I’d been glaring into. My face was ashen with cold and exhaustion, and my eyes rimmed with red. “Sorry,” I muttered. “I was thinking about mirrors again.”
“It happens to all of us.”
The wagon guards were eyeing me, too. I drew myself up and straightened my cloak. “Don’t open the wardrobe doors for any reason. And don’t taunt him.”
Without another word, I swept out of the wagon, James at my heels.
“Do you think he can ever be useful?” James asked. “Can he learn to be more human?”
“Meredith thought so. And you saw what he did to her. There’s nothing human about him.” At James’s flinch, I softened the edge in my tone. “He’s just wraith and magic and destruction. A mistake I mean to correct. Tobiah said I can’t just bring things to life without consequences, and he was right.”
“Can you destroy them without consequences?” James shook his head as we approached my wagon. “Tobiah said that because he’s made mistakes, too. And he’s tried to correct them without thinking, and the results were even more undesirable than the original problem.”
I lifted an eyebrow.
He shrugged. “It’s not my story to tell. But I’ve said before that you two are a lot alike.”
How strange that anyone besides an Osprey might know me well enough to make a statement like that.
Oscar and Ronald stood guard at my wagon door, their red jackets buttoned tight against the cold. Black caps hid their dark hair.
“Look, it’s Wil,” said Oscar, smiling.
“That’s Queen Wil.” Ronald elbowed his brother, but didn’t smile. “There were about ten people here earlier. We told them to shove off for now.”
“Thank you.” Quickly, I gave them the same orders I had James, concerning a guard. “I need one of you to watch Patrick, too. I’m sure there are a lot of people loyal to him and I can’t risk his escape. He needs to be tried for his crimes.”
“I’ll go.” Ronald offered a quick bow before heading toward Patrick’s wagon.
“He feels bad about Quinn and Ezra still,” said Oscar, though I hadn’t asked. “He’s afraid you think it’s his fault.”
Their names stung. “It’s Patrick’s fault for sending them. Ronald did all he could.”
Oscar nodded. “I’ll tell him you said that.” He opened the wagon door to let James and me inside. The lamps were already lit, and Melanie stood on the other side, near a small bedroll where the wraith boy’s wardrobe used to be. She offered a quick greeting as James shut the door behind us.
“It’s so unsettling to see you trusting anyone,” James said.
“I’ve known them most of my life.” I’d known Patrick most of my life, too.
He took the desk chair and pulled out the blue notebook he used to communicate with Tobiah. “I need to report what happened tonight. It will give him time to prepare for the official news.”
Prince Colin’s riders would be at least two days behind James’s letter, more if snow impeded their travel.
“No doubt he’ll appreciate the warning.” I shed my cloak and hung it on a hook by the door. My hands drifted down the smooth fabric, cold and damp with bits of snow. “Tell him—”
James uncapped a jar of ink and waited.
I unhooked my sword and its sheath. My daggers. I placed all my weapons in a trunk and straightened. “Tell him I had no choice. That I haven’t forgotten what he said about authority and my status, but I had to do something.” Then, softer: “A declaration like that is hardly official. It doesn’t make it real.”
“It was real enough for Patrick,” Melanie said. “After everything, you gave him exactly what he wanted.”
“Doubtful he wanted to go to prison.”
“Wanted? Probably not. Was willing? Definitely.” She crossed the wagon and linked our arms together. “You know Patrick. Everything is part of some elaborate plan. I don’t know how being arrested figures into it, but I’m not ready to say he’s no longer a problem.”
James opened his notebook to the first blank page and dipped his pen in ink. “You’re sure you don’t know his plans?”
Melanie shook her head. “He wanted to take Prince Colin prisoner and execute him in the courtyard.” She squeezed my arm. “And on the off chance Prince Colin’s forces overwhelmed us, Aecor City was prepared to resist. Known loyalists have been . . . dealt with.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“Imprisoned until they’re sufficiently encouraged to support you.”
“We’ll have to free them at once.” Saints, the things Patrick had done—and was willing to do—in my name. “And whatever he gains by being in prison himself, we’ll have to wait to find out. Prince Colin looks ready to murder me, and I don’t think Tobiah will have a much more positive reaction.”
“Oh, I can’t imagine His Royal Sullenness being happy about anything.” Melanie pulled away and sat on my bed. “Sorry, James. I know you like him. For some reason.”
James smirked and bent over his notebook. “Wilhelmina likes him, too.”
“Wil?” Melanie lifted an eyebrow, but I was not going to get into that right now.
Time to change the subject. “Where is Paige?” She’d been the other Osprey to side with Patrick. So far I’d seen three out of four of them. “Is she—”
“She’s fine. Waiting at the castle. We took it almost two weeks ago, while most of the regiment was still in Skyvale.”
“And the soldiers who had to stay in Aecor?” I asked, though I could guess. A pit of dread pulled in my stomach.
“Dead. Or imprisoned, if they had military knowledge he wanted. Same conditions as the loyalists.” Melanie sighed and ran her fingers through her short, choppy locks. “It’s been hard. Ugly. I’ve seen more death than I ever thought I would. But we’ve held Aecor City, which is more than I thought would happen.”
I tried to imagine Aecor City now. My memories of my childhood home were foggy with time, and charred black after watching the city burn during the One-Night War. I hardly knew it. Not like I knew S
kyvale. Just closing my eyes, I could see the peaked roofs, the mirrors aglow in the light of the setting sun, and the blue mountains that surrounded everything.
But Aecor City as it stood now was a blank. Some queen I was.
Nevertheless, it was home. And it was right across the bay.
For a moment, we listened to the scratching sounds of James writing.
“Paige has made herself into quite the steward,” Melanie said. “Patrick told her to make the castle ready for your return. She’ll be so panicked when she realizes you’re here already.”
“We’ve lived in poor conditions before. I’m sure everything is more than adequate.” I pulled the tie off the end of my braid and threaded my fingers into my hair, unbraiding section by section. “Besides, Prince Colin and his regiment were living there, and the crown prince requires a certain level of luxury.”
“That he does. He—” She hesitated and shook off whatever she’d been about to say. “We have a lot to discuss. I want to know all about the other Ospreys, and how you ended up traveling with Tobiah’s bodyguard. And that boy who could be your brother.”
“So much has changed. Including this.” I touched her hair. “What happened?”
Her face darkened. “Oh—”
“Sorry to interrupt.” James turned from his notebook. “Melanie, I need to ask you a few questions.” He glanced at me. “Apparently he’s awake. He keeps writing where I’m trying to write. He says congratulations.”
“He doesn’t mean it.” I’d probably ruined a hundred of his plans I didn’t even know about.
“What is this?” Melanie grabbed the notebook and turned it over and around. “Both of you write in here? How does it work?”
“Magic.” I plucked the notebook from her hands. “I’ll explain later.”
More words appeared on the page—mostly questions with underlines and multiple pieces of punctuation—as I handed the notebook back to James.
“Thank you.” He started writing on the next page, as Tobiah’s questions continued appearing on the previous. “Let’s start with the goal of the ambush. Patrick’s force wasn’t big enough to invade, though you said you managed to take and hold Snowhaven Bridge for a matter of days.”
Melanie glanced at me, eyebrow raised.
“Answer all of his questions honestly.”
She gave a quick nod and faced James. “That is correct. Patrick had no desire to invade the Indigo Kingdom. He wanted Aecor as it had been. The ambush was on the Indigo side of the bridge for two reasons: to prove to the Indigo Army that we were truly a force, and to keep them out of Aecor.”
“I see.” James’s pen scraped paper. “And you took the bridge. How?”
While James and Melanie discussed, I slipped behind the partition and changed into my nightclothes. Once my dressing gown covered me, I stepped out to find James pushing back the desk chair.
“I’ve already sent a list of the Indigo Kingdom dead I know,” he told me. “We’ll have a more complete list once the dead are moved and on a wagon home.”
“All right.” For a moment, I wasn’t sure why he was telling me that, but then I realized it was because I should have someone do the same thing for the Aecorians. See to the dead. Ensure the families were told. Figure out how to transport the bodies.
All things queens should remember to do on their own.
“In addition to my account of what happened tonight, Tobiah would like to hear it from you. He’d also like to know your plans for the prisoners in Aecor City and whether you plan to free them. What you intend to do with Prince Colin now. And the wraith boy . . . Well, you’ll see the questions. I circled the ones you need to answer.” James offered the pen to me.
“Thank you.” So much for catching up with Melanie tonight, let alone getting any rest. Once James left, I dipped my pen into the ink and wrote.
Hello, Tobiah. It probably won’t help to know that I didn’t intend any of this. . . .
TWENTY-SEVEN
IN THE MORNING, I visited the wraith boy as promised, and then announced to James that we would be riding across the bridge.
“It’s warm out,” I said. A lie. The winter air was just as cold as it had been last night, but the sky was clear and bright.
And I was coming home a queen.
“Fine.” The groggy cant of his voice indicated he’d slept as little as I had. “As long as you know I think it’s unwise.”
“Your protest is noted.”
Ferguson was saddled for me—apparently queens didn’t saddle their own horses—and I climbed atop, the Ospreys and James flanking me.
Night wind had swept clean Snowhaven Bridge, leaving patches of white in the frothing gray water below. As the first wagons rumbled onto the bridge ahead of us, horse hooves rang and gulls cried long and loud. The birds perched atop the passageway, and all along the bridge on posts. A few dove toward the convoy, looking for food.
Finally, we passed between the guard stations and stepped onto Snowhaven Bridge. For the first time since the war, I was off Indigo Kingdom land.
“Are you all right?” Melanie rode next to me, her eyebrows pushed together. Ronald and Oscar rode behind us, while James rode behind them; there wasn’t enough room for all of us to ride abreast.
“My chest hurts.” I glanced at Melanie. “My heart is pounding so hard.”
Her look of concern melted into a smile. “I know. Mine did, too, when we crossed to Northland. It still does. We’re going home, Wilhelmina.”
I lifted my face toward the rising sun as the sea wind whipped around me. Home. At last.
“Don’t get too eager,” Oscar said. “It will take all day to cross the bay.”
“All day?” I looked at him aghast. “I don’t remember Snowhaven Bridge being so long.” The only thing I could see ahead was the smooth line of stone and steel, a scattering of islands, and water all around. Patches of ice still glimmered on the bridge, evident where riders ahead slowed and directed their mounts around.
“All day,” Melanie said.
“What I wonder,” Ronald mused, “is how this thing was even built. It’s amazing the ocean hasn’t eaten it away by now.”
“This water isn’t as salty as the real ocean,” I said. “The rivers that feed the bay are all fresh.”
“Flashers built the bridge.” Melanie glanced back. “Centuries ago, flashers—radiants, then—raised the support islands from the bottom of the bay. They struck the towers into the seabed, and caused the steel frame to snake across the span of the water. They made the stone unfurl, and the cables hold fast. This bridge has stood through hurricanes, battles, and things you and I can’t even dream of. And it will stand for centuries more.”
I lifted an eyebrow at Melanie. “Did you read a book about the bridge?”
She laughed and ducked her head. “Yes. The library in Sandcliff Castle has several. Snowhaven Bridge: a Modern Wonder of Aecor is the best, in case you were wondering. It was written four hundred years ago, so very modern indeed.”
My heart warmed. Even during the chaos of war, Melanie had managed to sneak moments with books. That, I hoped, would never change.
“Seems incredible, given all the advantages flashers have offered, that the world turned against them.” Oscar nodded toward me. “You, I hear.”
“You’ve seen the wraith boy. You know about the wraithland.” I clenched my jaw. “I hate what happened to flashers as much as anyone else, but I understand why the world reacted like that. It’s fear.”
“Fear doesn’t excuse a hundred years of oppression and abuse,” Oscar said.
“No. But I understand the fear.” I reached forward to pet Ferguson’s mane and neck. “When I saw the way wraith twisted everything, how it killed and changed the world, I was horrified by my own magic. I hadn’t told the wraith to mutate the animals or give trees teeth, but I felt responsible. I didn’t want to use my own magic ever again.”
Though I had. Almost right away. And a dozen times since.
“But—”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to talk about wraith and magic now. I’m going home. That’s all I want to think about.”
“Then you’ll be thinking the same thoughts for a long time, Your Highness.” Prince Colin’s voice came from behind us. Everyone turned. “We won’t reach Aecor City until tonight.”
“So I’ve heard.” I nudged Ferguson to one side as Prince Colin rode even with me. “And the proper honorific is Your Majesty now, in case you’d forgotten how to address a queen.”
“That is actually what I wanted to speak to you about.” He looked better than one might expect, given his brush with death just last night. His cheeks were flushed with cold, but he was as immaculately dressed as ever, his chin high. The cut Patrick left had been cleaned and stitched. “You have no idea what you did last night, do you?”
“Give me some credit, Your Highness.” I forced my voice to stay calm, but tension knotted in my shoulders and neck. “I did what was necessary to stop the fighting and save lives.”
“You told the Aecorian people that you’re their queen. You undermined my authority as overlord, which I’ve worked to build for almost ten years. You acted rashly—”
I lifted a hand. “Patrick already undermined your authority.” My throat was tight, roughening my words. “While you were in Skyvale, he led a revolution in Aecor. If I hadn’t joined you on this journey, the Red Militia would have overwhelmed your forces, and you would have been brought to the courtyard in Sandcliff Castle to be executed. Even if your troops had managed to get through to Aecor City, the whole city would have fought your return, and they’d have won.”
“No. They would not have. Aecor Territory is filled with my soldiers.” Prince Colin thrust a finger at me. “This was you. You gave in to his demands and declared yourself queen. Maybe that was your intention all along.”
I kept my voice low and cool. “I did it to save your life.”
The crown prince leveled a long, threatening glare at me. But unlike in my bedroom and the other day by my wagon, this one didn’t feel like a slimy touch and grope. This one felt . . . stronger. Deadlier. A hand around my throat, maybe.