46. Maddy
Chapter 46
Maddy
W hen I come around, Freydis has my head on her knees, and the situation is so reminiscent of so many years that the backs of my eyes begin to burn again. Surely there are no tears left in me?
Freydis winces as she strokes my hair tenderly.
"Did you still get a headache every time I passed out, even with the distance between us?"
"Yes." Her voice is soft. "That's how I knew you were alive."
I throw myself into her arms again, holding on like she might disappear if I let go. Every hug helps convince me this is real, that my sister truly never hated me.
"Freydis, there's so much I want to tell you."
"I know, and there's so much I want to hear," she says. "We've got a little while—they're having a meeting about whether they can get back into Featherblade. They've worked out that that's where Father must be." She raises an eyebrow in question.
I don't even think about whether I should trust her. "Yes, he's locked up in the cells under the catacombs. In fact, it was Kain who locked him up."
"Kain the fire-fae?" she asks, and my face instantly flushes.
"Freydis… I'm in love with him."
Her mouth falls open. "You're in love with a murderous fire-fae?" she says, deadly serious. "Erik said you spent time together, and that he was a threat, but…" She stares at me, and I feel uncomfortably immature before her gaze.
There is nothing at all immature about Kain and me, and my cheeks burn even hotter.
"This is a conversation that's far too long to have right now," I say quickly. "We need to work out how to get out of here, now."
She shakes her head. "There's no way out of here unless you know how to make portals."
"No," I say. "Where exactly is the Frost Giant realm?"
"It exists beneath the root rivers. As far as I know, the only way in is a portal, unless you can fly."
"We need to get Sigrun here," I say firmly.
"Have you got any way of contacting anybody at Featherblade?"
I shake my head. "No, the only outside contact I had was your mirror." A thought strikes me—Sarra had the mirror when I last saw her. "Freydis, do you have your compact mirror?"
She nods. "Yes. I have this, too."
She retrieves the things she dropped when she entered, digs in a bag, and hands me the tiara of Skadi.
"Why did you tell them I had it?" I ask, turning it over in my hands.
"Because I knew how much they wanted it, and whatever they wanted it for, it can't have been good. I honestly didn't think that they were going to come and get you out of Featherblade like that to get it." Her eyes fill with tears again. "I'm so sorry, but it was the only thing I could think to do to buy you time."
"It's okay," I reassure her with a smile, then drop my eyes back to the headpiece. I lift it, looking closer. "Wait… Did you find an emerald?"
She gives me a small smile. "Before I had to hide it from Mother, just a few days after you left. I stole it from one of mother's dull-as-ditchwater guests."
"Freydis, I have all the other gems," I say breathlessly.
"What?"
"I have them all. We can fix it."
Freydis looks at me doubtfully, tension lining her mouth. "But if it stays broken, they can't use it."
"They can get those gems eventually. They have connections throughout Yggdrasil ." The truth of it sits heavy between us. "It'll slow them down but not stop them. If we fix it first, if we can use its magic ourselves—maybe we can end all of this."
"How?"
"I don't know. But there must be a reason they want it so badly."
She studies my face. "Maddy, is this just your curiosity? Just wanting to see what happens when we fix it?"
I shake my head. "I don't think so." The words come out more certain than I feel. "Look, let's get all the gems together, then decide."
We work quickly. I pry the starstone out of the beautiful bracelet, and Freydis works the moonstone free from the piece of jewelry I found outside the vault what seems like a lifetime ago now.
When both gems are reset, I pull out the firestone that I was rewarded with by Featherblade. Guilt and sadness pull at me when I think of Navi. "My roommate died the day I got this," I say, as the gem glistens fiery orange. "I had to lie by her corpse and play dead."
"Fates, Maddy, I'm sorry." Freydis hugs me fiercely.
When she lets go, the mirror clatters to floor from the fold of her dress.
We both look at it a beat.
"Shall we try the mirror before we fix the tiara?" she says hopefully.
She's nervous about fixing it. All these years convinced it would be my salvation, and now…
"Okay," I say. She passes me the mirror. "The chances of this working are almost nothing, but when you wouldn't talk to me, I gave the mirror to my friend." Pain flashes across her face. "My friend…" I pause, my throat closing a little. "My friend is sick. She got infected with magic from a monster that roams the canopy outside Featherblade."
"I'm sorry," Freydis says softly, "but I'm glad you had someone there."
"It's my fault she got sick. Then Erik made it worse."
"He's pure fucking evil." The curse sounds strange from my proper sister's lips.
I nod grimly. "Orgid's worse. Inga hates me, but Orgid enjoys causing pain."
"So your friend has the mirror?"
"Yes, but I don't know if she's conscious, let alone has it with her."
"It's worth trying," Freydis says. "Do what you can, not what you can't."
Warmth floods through me. "Oh, Freydis, you have no idea how many times I've told myself that at Featherblade. It's been my mantra, keeping me sane. Helping me make the right decisions for weeks."
She gives me a beaming smile. "Good. At least I was with you in some way," she says.
I open the mirror and will it to life. After five minutes, I'm once again in the position of absolutely hating this mirror and wanting to hurl it against the wall until it smashes into a million pieces. "There's no answer?—"
The words die in my throat as Freydis gasps. The cell door crashes open and our mother strides in.