Chapter 12 – Isolde
ISOLDE
Ibit back the squeal of glee when I found my sister exactly where I predicted she might have gone—to the healing sanctuary.
Thyra kept Thantrel at arm’s length, but I’d caught her stealing glances. I’d watched her twist his way and saw how she tilted her head in his direction when he spoke. I’d suspected something was changing inside her.
There she was, sitting at his bedside as a healer applied fresh gauze around his wings, talking with him. Secretly talking. Some might call it flirting.
I was pretty sure Thantrel did. He hadn’t spotted me yet, hovering outside the door to his room, but I’d rarely seen him smile so widely.
Stars, if only Vale had come with me. He’d be elated to witness such a sight.
My wish to let them continue bonding warred with my desire to speak with Lord Balik. In the end, the latter won out. I cleared my throat. “Sister.”
Thyra jumped up from her chair and spun. Her cheeks, normally as pale as mine, stained pink.
“I just stopped by.”
“Fifteen minutes ago,” Thantrel crowed.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“You must not have spoken with the Scholars for very long, huh Thyra?”
“They found nothing.” She rolled her eyes. “And then I was going to my room, as I said I would, but the sanctuary was on the way.”
“A twisty sort of way, I suppose.” I shrugged.
It was Thantrel’s turn to laugh, and my ear detected a heaping amount of satisfaction in his joy.
“Oh hush. The both of you. What do you want, Isolde?” She was irritated at being caught, but even so, as she said my name, her face loosened.
Thyra had disliked that I’d clung to a slaver’s name.
I understood her reasoning, felt it a bit myself, but I’d needed to move at my pace to claim my birth name.
“Lord Balik has summoned us.”
“Let’s go then.” She stepped away from the bed.
“No kiss goodbye?” Thantrel’s lips puckered, and he made kissing noises.
“You should just be happy I graced you with my presence.” Thyra strode my way, tossing her words over her shoulder as she went.
“I always am, love.” Another sly grin spread across his face. “Especially when you wish to be so clandestine about our meetings. I love a secret romance!”
“By the dead gods, I never should have saved him from that spider,” Thyra muttered as we left the sanctuary and joined our escort, a butler who, since our initial meeting in the training room, had introduced himself as Valintin.
Knowing how one’s mate could scatter their thoughts, I allowed my twin a few moments to pull herself together and enjoyed taking in the sights of the castle. Before our arrival, Vale had said that Ramshold was beautiful, and he was not mistaken.
Beautiful art lined each corridor. Many of the paintings and tapestries showcased the mountainside in which Myrr rested or fae who, judging by their appearance, had to be of House Balik.
We’d passed through a domed intersection of six hallways with a chandelier made of gold and dripping emeralds when Thyra broke our silence.
“What do you think he’ll say?”
No need to question who ‘he’ was. In this instance, there was only one fae who mattered.
“I don’t know.” I dropped my voice. Valintin walked five paces ahead. But I didn’t want him listening in. “Vale’s certain Lord Balik will side with us, but I don’t think he expected to have to wait so long. That makes me question things.”
Less than a day, but it felt longer. Felt more dire. Life or death, which for my twin and me and so many others who were loyal to us, it was.
“What if he denies us? Do we flee?”
I swallowed. If we left Myrr, where would we go? To Lord Riis’s estate in Bitra?
Not an option I wished to consider. I wasn’t sure I could ever trust Lord Riis again and the city where he ruled, Bitra, posed an issue.
It was too close to Avaldenn, and the Riis army, the dwarves of Dergia, and the rebels combined, would not be enough to protect Bitra if King Magnus struck with the combined force of multiple armies.
Waiting and planning in the far south was preferable.
“One step at a time,” I replied, to which Thyra frowned.
We climbed a winding set of stairs to a part of Ramshold I had not seen yet. At the top, the vast corridor was stunningly quiet. No servants swept through the area, busy and barely taking notice of Thyra and me. We had to be in a private wing.
My suspicion was proven correct when the escort stopped before a door with two guards posted outside and knocked.
“Enter,” a voice called from inside.
One guard opened the door, and the butler entered.
“You found them, Valintin?” the Warden of the South asked from where he sat behind a desk.
“We did,” Valintin replied. “Would you like me to wait here?”
“Outside.”
With his topmost right arm, Valintin waved us inside, and the door shut behind us.
“Princesses, please sit.” Lord Balik sat behind a vast desk, papers stacked on one side, taking up a quarter of his space. The rest of the study was neat as a sewing pin, with not a book out of place, despite the fact that hundreds of books lined three of the four walls.
We sank into hunter green chairs as one, and before I’d had time to situate myself, Thyra struck.
“So? What’s your answer?”
Lord Balik let out a soft chuckle.
“You’ve waited twenty turns to reclaim the Throne of Winter. What are you in such a hurry for?”
“Nearly twenty-one turns,” Thyra corrected him.
My lips parted. She was right. Our twenty-fourth namedays were fast approaching. From one of my mother’s old writings, I’d recently learned that the exact date of my birth was the twenty-first day of the twelfth moon. Winter Solstice.
“Clearly you felt every single turn.” He stared at my sister. “For Isolde, things must be going fast.”
Six moons ago, I’d been a blood slave to vampires. I had known nothing about my past. Now, I fought to avenge my family, save a kingdom from a tyrant, and had friends and family members whom I loved.
“I have decided.” He leaned forward and tented his brown, slender-fingered hands on the desk. “I will allow the rebels to enter Myrr. And I will ally with you against Magnus and the Shadow King.”
My heart leapt.
“With conditions,” Lord Balik added.
I shoved down my excitement, ready to do business.
After all, I’d been prepared to negotiate.
After learning we’d be coming south, Thyra and I had created a list of things the Warden of the South might want and discussed what we’d be willing to give.
Now we learned what motivated the honorable Tadgh Balik.
“Which are?” my sister drawled, as if the idea of negotiating bored her. A good act.
“The rebels must remain in a guarded portion of the city during their stay in Myrr.”
“What?!”
“Did you expect them all to stay in my home? Hundreds of people whom I do not know?”
“No, but I didn’t expect them to be treated like animals either. Caged and kept away from others.”
“They won’t be caged. I didn’t say that, nor did I intend to insinuate such a thing,” Lord Balik corrected.
“They will stay in a specific neighborhood where they will have all the comforts they’re used to.
More actually, considering I doubt there has been a bakery in the town of Valrun for a good long while. ”
“We have money from trading. We can rent homes.”
“Rebels have attacked my people before, Princess Thyra. They have made their lives difficult because of my loyalties to King Magnus. My people paid a price that was not theirs to pay. I won’t fault the rebels for past deeds but nor will I allow rebels into my city and put my subjects in a state of fear.
” He stared my sister down, and she glowered back.
Both fae cared deeply about those they’d made promises to.
“The rebels will be contained and cared for like my people, but they will not have free rein in the city. Not until I am sure they are trustworthy. I will not budge on this. Do you understand?”
Thyra continued to glare at Lord Balik. I feared she’d deny him. Then where would we be? I couldn’t risk it and as he’d said, the rebels would be safe, I didn’t see a reason to.
“That’s acceptable,” I said. “We would, of course, like to see where they’ll be living. And have those in our court be able to visit them to check on them.”
“Granted.”
“Those already in the castle will stay too, right? All of us?” Most of those who had come with us to Myrr were my friends. Bac and Aleksander, however, were rebels through and through.
“Yes.”
“And my other advisor and our last three Valkyrja.” Thyra’s chin jutted out.
Lord Balik gave her a small smile. “I would not dream of separating two princesses from their advisors and guards. Are the rest of your Valkyrja vampires as well?”
Last night, after he’d gotten over the shock of seeing their kind, the vampire sisters had intrigued the Warden of the South.
“A faerie, a dwarf, and a half-orc.”
“Very well, I was merely curious.” He hadn’t balked at the mention of a half-orc, which was more than I could say for myself. Tonna might find other fae like herself in the southernmost city of Winter’s Realm.
“And on the matter of an alliance?” I wanted to move things along. “What stipulations do you have there?”
“You came with a great house and a kingdom long-thought dead already on your side. I do not know what you promised them for their part in your war efforts, but I require a betrothal.”
My throat dried up. “I’m wed to Prince Vale—”
“Not from you.” His attention swept over Thyra. “I recognize that you are mates with Thantrel Riis. I learned that you have chosen not to acknowledge that bond.”
Lord Riis must have told him. Annoyance rose at the spymaster.
“That’s true,” Thyra said.
“If you still have not accepted your bond by the time the war is over, you will wed my eldest son, Sian.”
I cringed.
Lord Balik caught the motion. “What is it, Isolde?”