Chapter 41 #2
Vair and I had left the court through a side-door somewhere, and I’d never actually seen the front gates.
The outer wall of the kingdom wall was made of a crystal that almost looked like plastic, same as those large shards that wrapped around the Ice Palace.
It was covered in something black here and there that smelled awful—rot because of the lack of magic. The lack of a ruler.
This kingdom, too, was on the verge of falling apart, just like the Unseelie had.
Now, though, it would not, if everything went right. If I somehow managed to…become queen.
What a ridiculous, absurd idea.
Yet the horse took me forward, and the soldiers spread out farther apart, and all their hands were on the handles of their weapons.
Then the five who’d been ahead of us dismounted their horses and they went toward the wide pathway that led to the large wooden gates, which were about halfway into the crystal walls.
They opened—again, all of it could have been a figment of my imagination, and I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
Rune was gone, hours ago. Maera still refused to say a single word.
And I couldn’t even hold onto Vair’s cube because I had to keep the reins in my fists, or I’d fall. Too distracted.
Too…empty.
Soldiers wearing silver armor came forward to meet those wearing black.
Heads were bowed. Words were exchanged as we waited farther back.
I looked at the night sky hoping to find a moon looking down at me, but the clouds were too thick.
So little light made it through the darkness, and if it wasn’t for the small fae lights the Midnight soldiers made to float over their heads here and there, we’d have seen nothing at all.
Then the gates opened all the way. The five soldiers who’d spoken to the others got back on their horses, and those of the Frozen Court stepped to the sides.
I instinctively pulled up the brown hood of the cloak I wore. It was big and it hid my hair and my face all the way, just like I liked—though I couldn’t really tell you why. I wasn’t trying to hide, was I? I wasn’t trying to pretend I was here for something else.
Together with Maera and the rest of the Midnight soldiers, we followed the first five straight through the large gates and into the Frozen Court. The crystal wall was indeed at least three feet wide—and the magic in the air on the other side of it was so familiar it shocked me.
White-haired fae. Small buildings and lights in the air, not silver, but not exactly golden either.
I let go of the reins with one hand and reached for the cube in my pocket.
I wished nothing more than for Vair to be there right now, to lead the way, invisible to the rest of the world—but I would see him.
I would hear him. I would know that I wasn’t alone.
It wasn’t fair to Maera because she was a friend, but she didn’t understand.
Rune wouldn’t have, either. Vair did. Vair was me.
At least a version of me, of that I was sure now.
But he was stuck in my pocket and I was stuck upon that horse, and we walked ahead without stop as we followed the soldiers.
Tears slipped from my eyes in silence. We passed houses and buildings and so many fae, which meant it wasn’t that late in the night if all were awake still.
Children, too, stepping to the sides, watching us go, some afraid, some curious, some in awe.
I doubted any could see my face, but they still looked at the shadows underneath the hood. They still tried.
And they gathered.
I noticed Maera turning back every few feet sometime later, but I thought she was looking at the Midnight soldiers who were following us. Instead, the people, the Ice fae who’d come out of their homes to see us passing, were coming after us. Were walking behind the horses.
“Do they…do they know?” I wondered.
“I don’t know,” Maera said, and I knew her long enough to understand that she was concerned now, too. And the Midnight soldiers were slowly but surely moving closer and closer to us on all sides. They didn’t know what to expect, either.
We didn’t stop.
I wasn’t sure how long we rode through the towns of the Frozen Court, but it sure felt much longer than when I’d come out of it with Vair—and I’d been walking then.
Now, sometimes I wondered if the horse was deliberately slowing its pace, if it knew something I didn’t, if Rune was really going to come find me sometime this year, at least.
Would he?
What exactly did a king do?
I guessed I would be finding that out myself soon, too.
The Ice Palace loomed ahead, surrounded by a wall made of shards that still looked like the teeth of a giant monster that lived underground peeking through as he prepared to swallow the entire building whole.
Over. It was really over. I was here.
Somehow, I’d started off running for my life the second I came through the Aetherway months ago, and now I’d ended up here.
Yes, yes. A dream.
And, in the dream. I went ahead when the gates, smaller than those of the kingdom, opened from the other side, and soldiers wearing silver armor stood and watched us, confused and concerned and everything in between.
Again, the Midnight soldiers, just two of them this time, dismounted their horses, left them to the sides of the gates, and went ahead to speak to the others.
Told them something to get them to move aside and let us through. Then they continued to lead us on foot.
It occurred to me that this was why Rune had sent those soldiers with me.
It occurred to me that he, the Midnight King, had command over the army of the Frozen Court. The Ice Queen had given it to King Helem, and Rune had inherited it.
He’d made sure that I’d be safe, indeed, and able to simply walk through the court, even though he wasn’t there. He’d made sure I would get here.
More people gathered to my sides. Staff and soldiers, all of them looking up at me, their eyes adding a pound each over my already exhausted shoulders.
I hardly recognized the gardens and the inside of the walls—there were so many of them now.
More Ice fae than I’d ever seen before in one place—and to see the color of their hair and the blue of their eyes was like looking at a blurry reflection of my own self.
To look at me, you really would believe wholeheartedly that I was one of them. I believed it, and I knew exactly where I came from.
More Midnight soldiers dismounted their horses, moved to the sides on foot to push the crowds farther away as we passed.
Ahead, ahead, look ahead, I said to myself when they began to whisper and call, demanding answers, I thought—but I couldn't really understand anything. I couldn’t understand my own thoughts.
What I did understand was that the people were getting louder by the second, and the Ice Palace was right in front of me.
The memory was there, ready to play the music from the small music box to my ears only, that haunting melody that was almost as beautiful as birdsongs from back home.
The palace with five towers that had been in the box was in front of me now, as big as all other fae palaces I’d seen.
This one had walls that were almost completely white, though.
And darkness behind the many windows. The pointy rooftops of the towers must have been made out of crystals, too, because they reflected what little light they could catch from the moon hiding behind clouds.
The closer to it I got, the more I felt like a stranger in my own skin, and at the same time like I was finally aware of all of me. My own self. Like I’d gone a lifetime without knowing myself, but now I did. Now I saw.
And it was uncomfortable as all hell.
Screams and shouts—they didn’t stop. Midnight soldiers all around me, and Maera was off her horse, too, the reins of mine in her hands as she looked around with those sharp yellow eyes, waiting to see if maybe the Midnight soldiers wouldn’t be able to hold back the crowd from reaching me.
It occurred to me that maybe it wouldn’t be so easy to simply step inside the palace now that everyone knew I was here. That Vair wasn’t. That Rune was back in his own home.
It wouldn’t so easy to simply claim a kingdom, which was a ridiculous notion for me all on its own.
Maybe the best way would be to turn back. Back where we came from. Leave the gates and go to the Midnight Kingdom—but who was I kidding? Soldiers or no soldiers, nobody was going to let me leave now.
I looked at Maera standing near my horse’s head, and she looked at me. For a moment there, we were both of the same mind—we are doomed. It terrified me that I found comfort in that thought, even if only for a moment.
Because being doomed meant I wasn’t going to have to claim anything, didn’t it?
Then the polished white doors of the palace atop the four wide stairs opened, and a woman came out.
She wore silver from head to toe—and in her eyes, too. Her hair was a deeper shade but silver still, and her smile was barely there.
Everybody stopped moving all of the sudden, stopped shouting, stopped calling.
My heart did the same, paused for a good moment while the memory replayed itself in my head involuntarily—of the sorceress in Mysthaven who’d become a seer right in front of all our eyes.
The very same woman who was standing in front of the open doors now, all alone, the silver dress hanging on her slim shoulders, her hands folded in front of her as she looked at me.
She looked at me like she could see my face, but she couldn’t.
I still had the hood on, and I couldn’t even tell you what made me push it off me.
I couldn’t tell you what I was thinking or even if I was breathing, but the woman was there, and the crowd had stopped like they had all been unplugged at the same time.
The seer raised a hand toward me.