45. Isla
45
ISLA
“ M ilana, Ilya…” Since my heart is presently lodged inside my throat, their names come out garbled. “They took the trains out this afternoon. Are they—” I lick my lips. “Are they part of Ksenia’s insurrection?”
“No. Only that arms dealer, Bohdi,” Mestyla says, burrowing her trembling hands beneath her thighs.
That arms dealer… She mustn’t know he’s her biological father, but he must know she’s his daughter since Ksenia was frightened of retribution. Unless she was faking it? Unless Bohdan has no idea he fathered this girl?
A frown forms on Mestyla’s forehead as she pulls one hand out from underneath her thigh and holds it up.
“What is it?” I ask while Vance squints at the forest that’s no more than a dark smudge.
“My leg doesn’t hurt, but I think I’m bleeding.” Mestyla twists her palm in my direction, displaying the crimson shine on her long fingers.
My heart misses a beat. “The ichor in your veins is black now, so that’s not yours.”
Vance glances over his shoulder. “Must be Faerie blood.”
I press my knuckles against my trembling lips. Please let it be Ksenia’s. Please.
Khráach, what did the niece have to say?
I’m about to morph to smoke to fill my father in when shrill squawking rings out across the land.
“Isla, make yourself invisible in case we need to run,” Vance hisses, already painting himself with the sigil.
Since we stand on the same sleigh, both Mestyla and I wink out of existence. I tremble so hard that my finger skids repeatedly. I can’t tell if the blood has sunk in. I start sketching the symbol once more but freeze, as the shouting grows more distinct. And then I squint because a moving shadow materializes against the pall—huge and dark like a colossus.
As it approaches, it gains color and texture, and I realize it’s not some forest demon but a Fae whose dimensions are enhanced by an armor of fat, leafy branches. The person’s foot must catch on the invisible sleigh blade because they trip and flail forward, their enchanted shield shimmering as it rearranges itself to buffet their fall.
“Blasted bargain,” the Faerie mutters, shoving up.
Though the ambient world is dark and white, the glow coming off the castle licks up the newcomer’s face and fiery mane— Sofiya .
She curses as she gets to her feet, dusting snow off her heavy emerald cape, then limps toward the glass atrium. “Open the bloody door right this bloody minute!”
I wait with bated breath to see if someone will open.
“By all means, take your time.” She snarls when a hailstone knocks into her timber exoskeleton. “It’s not like ice projectiles are falling from the heavens.” She bangs on the glass. “Hello? Where the underworld is everyone?”
“The castle’s under siege,” I say.
Her shoulders jolt together, and then she’s spinning around, palms held aloft and crackling with more magic. “Who’s there?”
“Isla.”
“Where?”
“Nearby.”
Her head swivels left and right. “Show yourself!”
“Why don’t you put your hands down and tell me why you came to the capital?”
She snorts. “I’m only telling Konstantin.”
“Did Milana send you?”
“Why would my sister send—” She snaps her mouth shut. I expect it’s because some rebel is coming upstairs to grant her access, when she adds, “I’m only talking with Konstantin.”
“He isn’t available at the moment.”
Her forehead furrows. “Tell him to make himself available, will you? Oh, wait, you can’t communicate with him.”
“You’re right. I can’t.” If only I could…
Her eyes go as large as snowballs. “I knew it!”
“If you know anything that can help me save him, please tell me.”
She pales. “…Save him?”
In that moment, I’m comforted in my belief that she isn’t complicit with Ksenia and that Milana mustn’t have sent her. I know Mestyla said Milana wasn’t involved, but she is Ksenia’s mother. A mother might do wrong by the world to do right by their child. My mother would.
“Konstantin, Izolda, my friends…they’re all inside the seized castle. I don’t know what’s being done to them. What’s been done to them.” My voice catches on a tremor made up of one-part fear and a thousand-parts rage. “I don’t know anything, save for the fact that there must be troops of armed men beyond those walls. That, perhaps, Konstantin’s own guards have turned against him. So anything you’ve heard that can save your king?—”
“Give me a bargain,” Sofiya interjects.
“No,” Vance hisses.
She squints into the night. “Who else is here?”
“Vance,” I say. I leave out Mestyla’s attendance. “If you don’t tell us what you know, Sofiya Patchenkov, I’ll curse you with a sigil that will rot your teeth and gums. Does that bargain suit you?”
The horror that reshapes her features would’ve made me laugh had I been in any mood to laugh. “No. I want a true bargain.”
“My father has forbidden me from bargaining,” I lie, “so I can’t give you one, but I can promise I’ll help you survive the night if you help us out.”
“Why would I trust you?”
“Because you can’t exactly go home at the moment, and heading into the palace alone is suicide.”
Her eyelids spasm.
“Don’t you care about Konstantin and the fate of Glace?” I ask.
“Not especially. After all, he didn’t choose me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Sure, you are.”
“What news do you bring?” Vance prompts her.
After cursing out a hailstone that smacks into her leafy umbrella, she finally confesses, “Fine. I’ll tell you. But don’t you bloody dare curse me.”
“As long as you help us, I’ll help you. Cross my heart.”
She works her jaw from side to side a few times before finally confessing, “My sister got home a few hours ago because of a missive supposedly penned by me , telling her to come celebrate my betrothal. Yes, I’ve accepted the advance of the Nebban half-blood—to Atsa’s immense regret—but there’s no celebratory supper planned. My future husband isn’t even in Glace. We tried to figure out who would impersonate me, especially with information that hasn’t been made public. The only person my father has told is his best friend, Ekaterina.”
“Zaslofsky?” I ask.
“Yes, but I don’t see why she would’ve invented a?—”
“Bohdan,” Vance hisses.
“You think he crafted the letter?” Sofiya wrinkles her nose. “Why in the world would he write my sister a false letter?”
“To get her out of the castle and get the rebels into it,” Vance says.
“What? How?”
“She used Konstantin’s private train to get to Voshna,” I explain.
“Because of the weather,” Sofiya counters.
“Perhaps, but how convenient…?” I breathe out.
“Milana did say there was an unusual amount of soldiers on the quay. Come to think of it, she also mentioned many had round ears and little to no hair.”
“And that didn’t alarm her?” Vance bites out.
“Apparently, Konstantin has been trying to convince Salom of letting non-pure-bloods enlist for a while now. She assumed Salom had finally conceded.”
I suddenly hope that Ksenia also concocted the news Ilya received. Although I wish for Yuri to make a full recovery, if Milana’s letter was fabricated, that means that Ksenia hasn’t completely lost her heart.
May she have sent Izolda away…
Maybe that’s why Aodhan rushed out! Because Izolda was headed somewhere.
“You still haven’t told us why you rushed here, Miss Patchenkov,” Vance says.
“Because my mother asked Milana if it was true that Ksenia was having an affair with Bohdan. My sister had no clue, but Konstantin’s damn bargain compelled me to journey to the capital to pass on the information, which I truly hope is a rumor. Though I suppose that vile, manipulative man would seduce his son’s ex-girlfriend.” Her nose rumples with disgust.
I maneuver toward the footboard and hop off. The instant my boots hit snow, I reappear. Of course I messed up my invisibility sigil.
“Isla, where are you going?” Vance hisses in Serpent.
“I’ll fly her to my room. It’s warded. She’ll be safe there.” I’ve spent so much time around the Serpent recently that I can taste his disapproval on the air. “Then I’ll come right back here. Promise.” In Glacin, I say, “Climb onto my back, Sofiya.”
“When Shabbe freezes over…” she snipes back.
I tilt my head. “You prefer facing off with bloodthirsty, pure-blood haters than being flown to safety?”
Her features twitch. “You’re offering to fly me home?”
“No. I’m offering to fly you to safety.”
“Where is this safe place?”
“My bedroom.”
“How is your bedroom safe?” she yelps. “You just said the castle is under siege!”
“My bedroom is warded.”
“Lock her in your closet and paint a sleep sigil over her brow for good measure,” Vance murmurs in his tongue.
“She’ll love that.” My voice drips with sarcasm.
“She’ll love it more than being beheaded or gouged with an iron bullet.” Vance’s humorless tone slashes through a peal of thunder.
“Look, Sofiya. In one second, I’m out of here. Either you climb onto my back, or?—”
“Surely there must be some other way than flying?”
“I suppose I could make you invisible. You do know where my bedroom is after all.”
“You’d walk with me?”
“No. You’d be on your own. I only offered to fly you because I want to check Konstantin’s quarters in case Ksenia took him there. Or you can hang out here on the sleigh with my Serpent friend?—”
“I’ll come with you!” Could she grimace any wider?
After I shift, I learn that she can, for when she climbs atop my extended wing, the skin around her mouth rucks with revulsion.
“Wait,” Vance calls out. A hand suddenly strokes over my beak, gusting the scent of blood into my nostrils. Once I’ve winked out of existence, his hand drops. “Try to reach Immy?”
I take off, calling out to her through the bond. Silence echoes between my temples but not against my ears. As we gain altitude, Sofiya squeals and plasters herself against my back, strangling me.
Hailstones come at us as though batted from the heavens. I’m filled with such adrenaline and fury that I barely flinch as they sock my wings and spine, each thwack feeling no more painful than an insect nibble. They must hurt Sofiya, though, because she swaps her squeals for creative curse words.
As I count the skylights, using them to orient myself, I tell my father all I’ve learned. Vance is getting very worried. Is Imogen still going through the cargo?
Silence.
Dádhi?
The sky growls and flashes twice before his voice lights up my mind. I didn’t speak to her.
If neither he nor Vance can reach Imogen, then that means someone wedged obsidian through her heart. Who? Salom? Bohdan?
Did you truly sense her at the capital’s train station, or did you make that up?
The last time we had contact, she was landing beside Bohdan’s sleigh which was parked beside the train terminus.
I spot something through the hallway skylight that grinds down the beats of my heart. A numbness slicks through my blood as I beat my wings to reach the next ceiling window, then the next…the next…the next… The blue-and-white runner is littered with bloodied corpses.
Chill after chill zings through my marrow as I soar over more of the castle, absorbing the devastation within. Even though I cannot create thunderstorms, this one feels of my making.
I pivot and rocket toward Konstantin’s window, reminding myself that he wears his necklace, that even if he bleeds, he lives. His curtains are drawn—both the one above his bed and the one above his desk.
ISLA! My shouted name draws me out of my dark mind. Isla Mara Ríhbiadh, if you don’t answer me this very second, skies help you when I land in Glace.
May the skies help me before you get here, I think.
They murdered all the guards, Dádhi. Even though everything within me beats with anger, my voice is toneless. All of them.
Through the pack bond, I call to Lachlano, to Aodhan, to Imogen, to Fionn, to Colm. None must be in feathers, given that their voices don’t resonate between my temples.
Dádhi, can you ask Lach and Aodhan if they found out anything?
Lach hasn’t been answering.
A fresh wave of fear dashes against me. But you can feel him?
I can feel he’s inside the castle. He must’ve picked up his pace, because his every word is punctuated by a raucous inhale.
Has anyone—save for me—managed to communicate with you?
Not since Aodhan went after Izolda. We’re in the dark here. After a beat, he asks, You are with Vance, correct?
Yes, I say.
Why do I lie? For the same reason he did earlier.
Please find a safe place to hide until we arrive. My father is breathing so hard that his voice is as choppy as the rhythm of my heart. Colm and Fionn are on their way. They had to board a train for a part of the journey, but they’re on their way, he repeats. Wait for them. Wait for me.
If anyone had told you to wait when Mádhi was kidnapped, would you?
It’s not the same thing.
Because Konstantin isn’t my mate? My heart feels as hard and cold as compressed ice. I love him.
Silence reverberates down the bond.
I’m invisible. To reassure him further, I add, Vance painted the sigil.
Invisible doesn’t make you insubstantial.
I understand what he means, that magic and weapons can still touch me, but to touch me, the bastards would have to spot me.
I beg you, mo khráach… My father’s voice cracks like the sky above. Instead of spilling blinding light, though, it spills a heartrending plea. Wait for me.
But how can I, when my friends and lover are fighting for their life?