Interlude – Lord Leyv Riis, Lord of Tongues, House of the Ice Spider #2
Leyv eyed the gloves that protected the heir from inadvertent use of his magic.
They were one of the few things Lord Riis had been able to give his blood son over the turns.
Unless you were brave enough to steal from or bargain with the giant spiders, or you had the right connections, ice spider silk was nearly impossible to come by.
Being from a wealthy merchant family that sourced only the finest materials, Lord Riis had the necessary connections.
“You called, Mother?” Before she answered, Rhistel gestured to the door as he shut it. “Where is your guard? In times such as these, you should have two with you.”
“I required privacy and therefore took it.” The queen arched an eyebrow. “I might say the same to you. Where are your guards?”
Rhistel crossed the room. Inga poured him a goblet of wine, which their son took with grace as he sat in an armchair closest to the fire.
“They’re not allowed around me during my studies, so I also relieved them of their duties. What is so important that we need to speak now?”
“What were you studying?”
“Considering recent news, I thought it prudent to brush up on the Falk and Skau line and their histories,” the prince replied. “Perhaps what I learn will help Father with his breakthrough.”
“He shared what he was doing with you?” Inga leaned forward. The king had not shared the details of his travels with her. He respected his queen, but also feared her. As he should. Given too much information, Inga could destroy Magnus. It was why he only shared what he must with Inga.
“He did. I cannot say more.”
“You were at the House of Wisdom, then?”
“The best place for Falk and Skau archives.”
Lord Riis held back a snort. Magnus, the fool, had wanted to burn the histories of those families. To keep them out of his castle. It had been such a fight to convince him to move them to the House of Wisdom.
“Indeed.” Inga let out a hum and looked out the window.
Nerves. Leyv recognized the queen’s tells, no matter how slight they might be. He wished he could be beside her, holding her hand, helping her speak with Rhistel.
“So, what did you call me here for?” Rhistel asked.
“Seal the door,” Inga answered.
Rhistel’s eyebrows shot up, but he did as his mother requested and with a wave of his hand, a barrier of air to prevent eavesdroppers.
Leyv leaned to the side so there’d be no chance he’d be seen through the lattice. It might be foolish to be this close, but he’d waited for this day, hoped it would come for so long. He didn’t want to miss a moment of the prince’s reaction, be it good or bad.
“There’s something I must tell you, son.” Inga moved before Rhistel. She held out a hand.
He took it, but not without hesitation. “You’re acting strangely, Mother.”
“You’ll soon understand.” Her voice sounded ever so slightly strained. “I’ve been keeping something from you. Both you and Vale since the day you were born.”
The prince stiffened. “What is it?”
“There’s no way to say this that won’t hurt or turn your world on its end, so I’ll come right out with it.” She exhaled. “You and Vale are not the sons of King Magnus.”
Rhistel retracted his hand. “To say such a thing is treason.”
“It is but the truth.”
Leyv’s breathing stopped. The queen and the prince stared at one another, still as statues. Lord Riis thought he saw Inga’s gaze flicker over to him. Was she requesting his help? He’d nearly opened the partition to reveal himself, when Rhistel released a low, menacing laugh.
Inga’s shoulders tensed. “Your brother already knows, and I fear he will speak the truth soon enough, for he loves his wife.”
Danger glinted in the heir’s brown eyes. “How would you be aware of what Vale intends to do?”
“I’m in contact.”
Rhistel stood. “Is this some ploy to make sure I never sit on the throne?”
“Why would you think that?”
“There has to be a reason you never went for it yourself, Mother. I believed that you think fae with our powers should not hold such positions. You’ve been brainwashed into that weakness, but I assure you, Mother, I intend to take the Throne of Winter, whether through right or by might.”
“My son . . . the king will not allow it when he learns the truth. Saga will be his heir.”
If Magnus wins the war to come . . . Lord Riis thought from his hiding spot.
“You don’t deny my reasoning?”
Inga said nothing, which seemed to be all that Rhistel needed.
“So Saga is legitimate, is she?”
“She is.”
The prince took two steps closer to his mother and leaned in so that they shared breath.
“Who says the king, my father, will need to allow anything?” Rhistel raised a hand and removed the glove that kept his whisperer magic nullified.
“Especially when I erase this truth from your mind. It will be like you never spoke. And as for Vale—well, I’ll come up with something to explain his addled mind.
He was always so dimwitted, anyway. It would not be hard to convince the masses that the whore of a Falk manipulated him. ”
He lunged, but Inga dodged the hand coming for her.
In his hiding spot, Lord Riis gripped the wall.
Should he reveal himself and use his own magic to nullify Rhistel’s power?
Yes, then Inga and the Lord of Tongues could come up with a new plan.
He very nearly pulled aside the lattice when the door to the queen’s chamber burst open.
“Stop!” Princess Saga rushed inside just as the queen grabbed Rhistel by the arm.
Leyv saw the moment Inga whispered her son. She rarely left tells, but their son—a profound whisperer himself—was no normal fae. His eyes went vacant, his body slack.
Saga stopped in her tracks. “What are you doing to him?”
“Daughter, I can explain. I—”
“You had better for I saw all that just happened, Mother.” The princess spoke with a seer’s authority.
“I know what you told Rhistel about him and Vale and Lord Riis. I witnessed how my brother reacted. I thought to arrive in time to stop him from hurting you, but it seems I didn’t have to worry.
You protected yourself against him, somehow.
The only thing I do not understand is why he looks like that. ” Saga pointed a finger at her brother.
Lord Riis’s heart thudded. Saga still knew nothing of the whispering powers her mother and brother possessed. So she hadn’t seen everything that had occurred.
Inga released Rhistel, and his eyes cleared to normal, though when he sat back down—unbothered, Leyv knew Inga was still in control.
“Shut the door, Saga,” the queen said. “I’ll explain everything. I’ve been wanting to for many turns.” She swallowed. “Though the truth will endanger me, Rhistel, and you as well.”
The princess shut the door. Before she sat, however, she turned to the lattice. “I saw you too, Lord Riis. You may as well emerge.”
Inga chuckled, though there was no delight in it. “Please, Leyv.”
He slid the lattice aside, and though every part of his being wanted to run and take Inga in his arms, he refrained, if only for Saga’s sake. The princess, after all, did not seem too impressed with him or her mother at the moment. It would be more prudent to fight his impulses and stay away.
The princess and the spymaster gathered around the queen, all the while the prince sat there, still and without the haughtiness that was his nature.
“What did you do to him? Is this from reading his mind too forcefully?” Saga eyed her half-brother.
“No, my dear,” Inga said. “I—and your brother—are whisperers.”
Saga’s hands flew to her mouth.
“Before you say anything,” Inga said, “we did not tell you to protect you.”
Silence hung through the air until Saga turned to the spymaster. “But he knows?”
“He,” Inga looked at her first love, the love of her life, “was the first person to experience my whispering. He has kept silent for many turns and is trustworthy.”
“Who else knows?”
“My family kept me a secret. So my father, my mother—stars rest her soul—my siblings too. Lord Vagle bound them to secrecy in a blood oath. Then your father knows and your brothers. That is all.”
“Half-brothers, from what I saw in my vision.” Saga’s voice came out small, and she stared at Rhistel again. “He’s one too?”
“The ice spider gloves are not because of powerful Winter magic, but because Rhistel could not control his whispering magic for a long time.” Inga gave a sad smile to her son.
“That is no longer the case. He looks docile but do not be deceived. Rhistel fights me even now. His thoughts, though suppressed, are not peaceful.”
“What do you mean?” the spymaster asked. “Will he hurt you?”
“He’d like to, and I’m not the only one.” A quick glance at Saga made the queen’s meaning all too clear. “I’m afraid our plan must change, Leyv.”
“How so?”
“Rhistel is already thinking about how to harm Saga. And how he’ll control Magnus, take power, and hunt Vale to keep this secret. I will not allow it. I must stay here and keep control of him.”
“He’d really hurt me?” Saga spoke softly, but not weakly.
“You, my love, are the only trueborn child of King Magnus and yes, Rhistel would do anything to protect his title as heir.”
Saga caved inward, as though someone had punched her in the belly.
“I know it hurts to hear such a thing. It tortures me to think that my children could harm one another, but I believe you must come to terms with it, and fast.” The queen turned her attention to the male who had been by her side, if only in spirit, all her life.
“I’ve searched Rhistel’s head. The king and Lord Roar went toward where the Ice Tooth Range and Red Mist Mountains meet.
They’re in search of the Ice Scepter. Rhistel doesn’t know exactly what led them to that area, but he believes Warden Roar has something to do with it. ”
Lord Riis displayed no sign of shock at the mention of the Scepter. He’d known as much from Vale. The king had, at one time, suspected his own family of holding a famous Hallow of Winter’s Realm.
“More than that,” Inga let out a long sigh, “a coinary in a place called Eygin informed my husband that Vale was there, so I assume Magnus will go there too. He’ll search for Neve.”
“No,” the princess cried out, but her mother did not break eye contact with the spymaster.
“Take Saga,” the queen said. “Find Vale and protect them. Please Leyv.”
“Remember,” Lord Riis sought to assure the queen, “Vale and Neve are on the road already. Most recently in Vitvik, and while I cannot pinpoint where Eygin is, it is not Vitvik.”
Inga swallowed. “A small mercy.”
“Yes.” He faced Inga, not wishing to say what he needed to say next. “And I will go, though, I dislike the idea of leaving you in this predicament alone.”
Though the words destroyed him, he knew better than to ask her to come with them.
The queen looked out the window. “I wish so many things could have gone differently. I wish I could have apologized to Princess Neve myself, but I must stay behind. This is how I will keep Winter’s Realm together for as long as possible.
Rhistel has grown strong, and I cannot control him forever.
When he breaks free, he will tell Magnus all that I’ve said.
All that I’ve done. Perhaps I can escape before he does so. ”
They both recognized it was unlikely.
So this was goodbye. Unable to stop himself, the spymaster took the queen in his arms and kissed her.
Saga might have been watching, but she said nothing as they kissed, as tears ran down their faces.
The merchant’s son and the lord’s daughter had loved one another since they were young.
When the truth of Inga came out, as it always did, the realm would implode.
These might be their last moments together.
“Keep Saga and Vale safe.” The queen pressed her cheek against the spymaster’s chest and added. “And as for Neve, tell her I am sorry for my part in her tragedy. Tell her the whole truth, Leyv.”
They broke apart, and after one last kiss, the princess flung herself into her mother’s arms. A few moments of tearful bargaining on Saga’s part proved fruitless. Queen Inga insisted she leave and told her daughter that if she did not do so willingly, she would force her.
So, Saga and Lord Riis left the queen to her plans.
The princess wiped her face and did not cry another tear. Nor did she speak, not even to ask if she might gather personal effects. She did not look at the spymaster, nor breathe in his direction. Not as they left the castle. Not as he took her to the Warmsnap to get a disguise and ready two horses.
Normally, Lord Riis would travel via a gateway.
But Saga did not know of Luccan’s magic, and the spymaster thought it a good idea to keep that quiet for as long as possible.
The less the princess knew right now, the better.
The king had closed the city gates, but Lord Riis had spiders at his service.
One gate was open to him. Once they left Avaldenn, they’d simply have to ride swiftly down the King’s Road to put distance between them and Avaldenn.
“The vision of you and Rhistel and my mother was not the first I saw today,” Saga said suddenly. “It was the last. Before that, I saw Vale, Neve, your sons, and others.”
“Did you? Were they in a town?”
Vitvik perhaps? He was not sure what would delay them, but anything that made his job of finding them earlier was welcome.
“No. They were traveling. Through a forest in the midlands, judging by the size of the trees.”
The largest trees grew far from the raging winds along the coast and the mountains that bordered the west and south. If they’d begun in Vitvik and were traveling, Lord Riis assumed they were still going east.
“Were they well?”
She turned her reddened eyes up to the spymaster. “They’d been captured.”