“Fearless requested a personal day. His mother is ill and he wanted to go see her. She lives in a village far out on one of the floes—Shinetown.” Check jerked his head toward Truce. “So Truce will be taking over for today if that’s all right with you, Your Majesty.”
“That’s fine.” Technically, he should have checked with me first, but Check knew that I was lenient, especially given family matters, and I had the feeling that when he said Fearless’s mother was ill, he meant gravely ill. Otherwise, he would have okayed it with me before letting the guard take time.
We headed toward the dining hall. “Check, Druise said the mood following the announcement of the ship sinking was restless and that rumors are going around about Myst?”
Check cleared his throat. “She’s correct. Unfortunately, people will talk and there’s not much we can do to stop it until you make some sort of official proclamation regarding the validity of the speculation.” He paused. “Your Majesty, I’m worried…”
His pause froze me in my tracks. “You don’t think she’s back, do you?” I kept my voice low. Grieve paused by my side, and Truce stood back, his jaw set as if he were deliberately keeping his ears to himself.
“No, I don’t, but there’s something out there. The guards returned from Whitecroft—the village of the Wilding Fae. Begging your pardon, Your Majesty, but we’re shit out of luck, as you would say. What they found was brutal and terrifying.”
“Why didn’t you wake us when they returned?”
“Because I knew you’d be up soon—they’ve only just returned this past hour.”
I glanced at Grieve, then back at Check. “Order breakfast to be brought to us in our council room. Send for Strict, and for Captain Shell. Also, I may need to visit Thorn, to see what he has to say. On the chance, prepare for a trip into the shamans’ lair.”
Once Strict and Shell—Captain of the Guard—arrived in the council chamber, we settled in around the table. Check was there, and Truce. We also asked Shell to bring Warring and Hezemie—his lieutenants. They worked directly beside him and were his right-hand men. Check would have had Shell’s job if he hadn’t been assigned as my personal guard. I’d asked him once if being passed over had bothered him. His only answer was, “Whatever pleases you most, Your Majesty, pleases me.”
After the food had been brought in, and the servants dismissed, Truce took his place outside the door. Check guarded the inside.
I spread butter and jam on fresh, hot bread and relaxed as the yeasty warmth exploded in my mouth. Even my taste buds had changed since I had undergone my initiation—food tasted stronger, more vibrant to me, and my hunger for meats and breads and fruits and cheese had strengthened, while my desire for all the junk I used to love had—not vanished, but lessened.
“So, tell us. What did they find?”
“About a mile outside of Whitecroft, there’s a stone ring the Wilding Fae use for ritual. A couple of the Fae were out there when something attacked them. Your Majesty, the attack was brutal. Whoever perpetrated it wasn’t focused on simply killing them, but on ripping them to shreds. I can see why rumors might be circulating that the Indigo Court has risen again… This does remind me of the Vampiric Fae’s attacks. But there was something else, something we never saw with Myst’s followers. There were scorch marks—ice burns.”
“Ice burns?” I wasn’t familiar with the term.
“Ice magic. The Elementals can cause ice burns, but they won’t, not unless they are provoked. These were on the trees, on the snow, on the remnants of the bodies that were left. Something blasted through there, something that either has an innate ability, or the knowledge of how to use the magic of ice. We questioned the Wilding Fae as best as we could. There were sightings of a fierce, large shadow of a wolf. This wolf stood as tall as man, and was a smoky black with glowing blue eyes.”
I frowned, sitting back. “That sounds nothing like what Myst had up her sleeve. Ice spiders, yes, though those abound through the realm on their own. She just harnessed them into her service. But a shadow of a wolf? Where did they see it?”
“On the outskirts of Whitecroft, at evensong. Never a clear view, but several sightings over the past few days.”
As we paused to eat—I was famished and Grieve was hungry, too—I thought over what they had said. Finally, after finishing my steak and eggs, I pushed away my plate.
“Could it be some strange Cambyra Fae? A wolf-shifter gone mad?” Truth was, not every member of the Fae race could be trusted. In fact, the ones who went bad, usually went very, very bad and caused far more damage than the average human sociopath.
Captain Shell shook his head. “Your Majesty perhaps forgets the nature of the Wilding Fae. For some creature to not only surprise two of them, but actually manage to kill both without being heard and stopped…”
“Good point.” Most of the Wilding Fae were strong enough to take on every person in this room. And most of the Wilding Fae would come out victorious. Two of them? Should have been able to handle any ordinary attacker.
“What about the Wilding Fae themselves? Anyone reporting a troublemaker in Whitecroft? Did anyone say anything that might point to this being one of their own?”
Again, Shell shot me down. “No, and you can be certain that if they thought it an internal incident, the killer would have been dispatched without coming to the Barrow. The Wilding Fae take care of their own. That they sought out Your Majesty’s help shows they’re frightened.”
“He’s right.” Strict shrugged. He had picked up the gesture from me. “The Wilding Fae fear very little, and they have no patience for anyone who disrupts the flow of their world. They couldn’t take on Myst and her entire army, so they worked with us. That they petitioned the Crown for help tells us they fear this is a problem beyond their scope to handle.”
“Not a good sign, then.” My heart sank. I didn’t want to deal with a sociopathic wolf, but it looked like we had one on our hands.
At that moment, there was a tap at the door. Check opened it while we fell silent. A whisper or two later, he quietly closed the door.
“Your Majesty, I do not wish to interrupt you, but Truce says that one of our men has news of The Wave Catcher. Shall I escort him in?”
I rubbed my head. Everything always seemed to happen at once. “Please do.”
Check opened the door and a young guardsman entered. I recognized his face, but couldn’t quite place his name. He dropped to one knee, then slowly rose and stood at attention.
“You have news for us?” I motioned for him to take a step closer. Check shadowed him to make certain that he behaved himself.
“Yes, Your Majesty. The Wave Catcher…I don’t know how to tell you this, but the ship is back on the water, sort of.”
“What do you mean? It sank.” The day was just getting better and better.
“That’s the thing. We know it sank, but I’m telling you—we can see it sitting next to the dock. The hole is in its side, and the whole galleon looks…misty. Translucent. Not only that, but the crew and passengers seem to be there. They are disembarking…then they walk up the snow field a ways and vanish. We can see through them, too. They’re spirits, Your Majesty.”
I stared at him, unable to comprehend what the hell was happening. “You saw the ship rise?”
“Yes, we were there. The ship rose out of the water as a great howling—like that of a hundred wolves—filled the air.”
Ghosts? We had a ghost ship full of spirits on our hands? I motioned for him to leave.
“Say nothing about this. Wait in the hall with Truce. If you’re hungry, ask for a tray.” After he left, I turned to the others. “Apparently the ship wasn’t happy staying beneath the waves. Let’s go. We need to find out what’s going on.”
Captain Shell, his lieutenants, five of the elite guard, Check, and Truce accompanied us as Grieve and I led the journey, setting out for the shore of the Crashing Sea.
As we hurried along, racing over the snows, I flashed back to
before my initiation, before my body had changed as the heartstone emerged from me. I had been weaker then, and much more vulnerable, but one thing this stint had taught me: nobody was immortal, without chance of dying. And as the saying went: no one here gets out alive. While I felt myself still transforming, changes came slowly, and probably with good reason. Become a different person in the blink of an eye and it’s easy to lose the person you were. Slowly shift, and you keep the best of both worlds. At least, that was how I hoped it would play out in the end.
We hurried through the forests. The trees here towered into the sky, dark conifers that could survive in the realm of Winter. They were brooding, and alive, and while I had yet to hear them speak, at times I felt them watching me—as if they were contemplating my place in their world. As we passed a clearing, a group of Ice Elementals wandered by, slowing as I drew near. They were bipedal, shaped like very tall humans formed of bluish-clear ice. No features marred their faces. Their arms and legs were angular, like icicles. As soon as I stepped forward, the pack stopped. There were five of them, and they turned toward me, pausing.
They are unbound, Cicely. You should tie them to you. Ulean’s gentle voice tickled at my ear.
They are unaligned? Very well.
I closed my eyes, raising my hand as I let myself slip into the slipstream. As the astral wind buffeted me, I reached out to them. I am your queen. Guard this place and bind yourselves to my service. Should anyone counter to my will enter this area, destroy them.
A moment later I felt the connection take and hold. It was as if I had reached off of a web—held out my hand and offered them the chance to join my world. A moment passed, then another, and finally, one by one they moved onto my path, into my journey, binding themselves to my power. I opened my eyes. The Elementals gazed at me, unspeaking, but then nodded and spread out, moving at a steady pace, sparkling under the sky that forever shadowed the realm of Snow and Ice. They would keep to their task until I gave them permission to stop, or until some spell countered my will.
They all love you, Cicely. Or…as close to love as they can get. There is no name, truly, for how the Elementals look at you. You are the core of their essence, now. You are their world.
I let out my breath and turned to the others. “They now belong to us. They will watch this area.” A petal-soft kiss touched my face and I glanced up. The sky was clouding over and a light scattering of snow had started. “Come. We haven’t far to go.”
We threaded our way through the forest and then veered off to the left onto a broad path of compacted snow. It had been traversed so many times it would never melt, a solid sheet of chunky ice. The new snow that fell on top of it usually drifted to the sides in the wind. Some of the snow banks would melt. There were seasons here in the realm of Snow and Ice, but spring and summer were just warmer winters, and the temperature never rose above the low thirties. Sometimes just high enough for the top layers of snow to trickle away and freeze later.
As we came out of the forest I breathed a sigh of relief. The path wasn’t long, but it could be dangerous if you met the Winter Wolves along the way, or snow spiders or the giant ice serpents that hid in the mountains and rock formations that dotted the vast snow fields.
Not fifty yards from the edge of the forest was the edge of the Crashing Sea, foaming and churning as it sloshed against the edge of the ice sheet. I hadn’t yet figured out if we were on a gigantic glacier or what, but I had learned that once in the realm of Fae, it was best not to ask too many questions. The answers were usually difficult to comprehend and just gave me a headache.
As we slowed, staring at the waves, I caught my breath. There, resting on the water, bobbing as the currents rolled beneath it, was the ghostly shape of The Wave Catcher.
Ulean shifted, her gusts brushing my face. Something is wrong, Cicely—something is terribly wrong here.
It was as though the galleon was formed of mist—smoke encapsulated within a pale framework. We could see through to the lower levels, all with the same translucent shimmer. The hole in the hull gaped, raw and wounded, and the masts were battered, the sails tattered and torn. But more startling than the ship was the trail of passengers that disembarked along a ghostly plank leading to the shore. They looked neither right nor left, simply marched slowly off the ship.
I moved forward, stepping into the path of the oncoming traffic. The man coming toward me didn’t even blink. Instead, he passed through me, unflinching, and a bone-deep chill hit me to the core. Cold beyond the cold of the realm. Cold as deep in the grave cold. Cold as in depths of the ocean cold. And they kept coming.
Cicely, move. Do not let them touch you—even though it seems they are shades or memories of what might be, there is far more to it than that. Move, please. Ulean was frantic now, and I tried to step out of the way, but my feet wouldn’t obey. I stood there, letting them pass through me until Check yanked me to one side.
“Pardon me, Your Majesty, but you don’t know if any of them are dangerous.”
Shaken out of my startlement, I nodded. “Of course, you’re right.” But I couldn’t take my eyes off of the parade of the dead. And then, perhaps ten minutes, perhaps half an hour later, I noticed the same man who had first passed through me. He was walking off the ship again, and as I looked closely, I recognized several of the other faces. Men, women, children, they kept coming and coming but in a circular pattern.
I pointed it out to the others and we waited, watching closely. Sure enough, over and over the dead passed by, and when the last marched past us, the man whom I had first encountered was there again, followed by the rest.
“They’re caught in a loop. But why did they return? And where are the bodies? They weren’t aboard the ship.” I had no clue how to deal with spirits or ghost ships. Nothing I had ever done prepared me for this.
Grieve moved forward, gazing at the parade of the dead. “There’s something about them…I don’t even know if they are spirits. I don’t have any sense of…being-ness. Is this a picture show?” He reached out for my hand. “I’m as confused as you are, love.”
Are they ghosts, Ulean?
Not ghosts, no. But I don’t know…they are unnatural—they should not be. Their presence signifies something has gone terribly awry.
“Your Majesty—look at the water surrounding the ship.” Check headed over to the edge of the floe and pointed toward the rippling waves sloshing beneath The Wave Catcher.
At first I wasn’t sure what he was addressing before I realized that the waves were indeed crashing beneath the ship. As though there was weight bearing down on them. But if the ship was merely an image—or even a ghostly remnant—they should be frothing as normal. Check stood there, staring into the water, as puzzled as I was.
“What’s going on here, guys?” I backed away. The endless circle of spirits—or whatever they were—was starting to make me dizzy. I thought I heard Ulean calling to me, but couldn’t focus on her voice and the next moment, a drive so strong I couldn’t ignore it hit me and I backed away, instantly transforming into my owl self.
I took wing, panicked beyond reason, unable to get my bearings. I headed out over the water, not knowing where I was going. The next moment, a great horned owl swooped in beside me. I realized it was Hunter, my grandfather. In the flurry of chaos, he was trying to guide me away from the open water back to the shore. As I tried to steady myself, he circled wide and I followed his cue. We were past the water, then back over land. As Hunter came in for a landing, I followed suit and transformed back into my normal shape as we landed on branches that were scattered with patches of snow.
I turned to my grandfather. “Where did you come from?” He hadn’t come with us.
“I was in the woods as you passed. As I watched the water under that ship, I realized that it’s not what it seems.” He slid his arm around me and we headed back to the others, who were running up.
Cicely, you almost flew out into the open ocean. You would have…there is some sort of portal ne
ar here. Some sort of vortex. I can feel it calling to me. I must take wind and return to the Barrow so it doesn’t overpower my will.
And like that, Ulean swept away, back toward our home.
Check was pale—looking terrified. He skidded to a halt, dropping to one knee in front of me. “Your Majesty, forgive me. Please, forgive me. I wasn’t there to protect you.”
I knew that he would fall on his sword for me if need be. And that was his job, but this was something nobody could have anticipated.
“Stand up and leave it be. None of us expected this. Hell, we don’t even know what this is. Ulean says there’s some sort of a portal near here. A vortex that lures people in. Until we know what we’re dealing with, let’s get the hell out of here.”
Even as I spoke, a great howling rose on the wind. Loud and mournful, the call of a wolf who sounded the size of a mountain ricocheted through the air. The sound of terror, the sound of hunger, and the sound of a creature out on the hunt.
I gasped, looking around, trying to figure out where it was coming from. Immediately, the guards surrounded Grieve and me as Hunter took to the sky, soaring up above us.
My heart was racing. “What the hell is that?”
“I don’t know,” Grieve whispered. “I have never heard such a keening in my life.”
But in my heart, I knew it was the sound of death come to call, of the hunter spying his prey. We were on the menu of whatever this creature was and the only thing I could think about was to get away from the noise and the fear. The chaos in my mind continued, and I realized that I was so caught in the panic that it had to have a magical component.
“The sound—cover your ears. It sets off a fear reaction.” Holding my hands to my ears, I headed back toward the woods. “We need to get out of the area, now. We don’t have the resources to fight whatever is coming our way. Not with us, not today.”
The guards formed a circle around us as we headed back into the forest. The trees felt ominous now, hiding dangers rather than guardian sentinels, and all I could think about was the need to get away from here—the need to get back to the Barrow.