Chapter 16 – Neve
Chapter 16
NEVE
S hould I read it?
It felt so wrong to read a person’s diary, even one from a long-dead queen. A book of thoughts and admissions and perhaps even ramblings that, against all odds, still clung to a regal scent: amber with floral notes. As if the queen had just set it down.
And yet, the voice led me here. The diary had glowed, for stars’ sake!
It wanted me to read it. Or, at the very least, something wanted me to read it.
Swallowing thickly, I shut the drawer and took a seat at the desk. Not having supported a person for two decades, the chair protested beneath my weight, but it held.
I stared down at the first page of the diary, wondering where to start. Then an idea struck. I tilted my chin up, feeling ridiculous but determined to try, anyway .
“Is there something in particular that you want me to read?” I asked. “Or should I start at the beginning?”
The pages flipped, sending another burst of flowers and amber into my nose. Despite my unease over the sentient nature of this part of the palace moments before, my heart lifted. We were learning to work together, the creepy castle and me.
When the pages stopped, I pulled the book closer and spoke to the ceiling again. “Thanks.”
The queen’s handwriting was elegant and flowing, so unlike my own, which I’d always thought messy but never attempted to improve. Slaves, or even courtiers, didn’t need nice handwriting.
Inhaling deeply, I dove in.
I wish I had better news to relay. Alas, my mother taught me to be a record-keeper queen, not one who shoved her head in the snow and enjoyed balls and the frivolity of court. As a result, I see much, far too much, for my own liking.
Things are not going well.
Unrest chokes Winter’s Realm, and what’s worse, I cannot blame the commonfae. For many turns now, Harald has been acting odd, harder and crueler. It is unlike him. Even he knows it . . . Even he wishes to change. Begs for me to find a cure for what ails him.
Often, I can bring him back to himself, healing a poison that seems to spread insidious desires inside him. But my ministrations never remain for long. Never take fully.
I cannot help but think that had I finished my training at the White Tower, had I gone against sweet Harald’s wishes and become a Master Healer, he would already be better. Not that our Master Healers know what is wrong with him—or even that he is ailing. Harald will not allow that weakness to be shown to others. It’s infuriating, yet unsurprising. He is acting as his own father taught him . . . Fates rest his troubled soul.
And then there’s the matter of those closest to me. One has been acting strangely in ways that put her in great jeopardy.
But Inga has always been stubborn and independent. If she wishes to flirt with Leyv Riis, she will do so. Truth be told, I can hardly blame her. Leyv is not only my favorite merchant of rare goods—you should see the phoenix opal he brought me not long ago—he is also quite handsome.
I paused, fingered the brooch I’d taken, and wondered if it was the same one. And if so, would Leyv Riis say as much when I asked? Pushing aside my questions, I continued reading.
But Inga is married to Lord Magnus Aaberg, and if he finds out about his wife and Leyv, he will not stand for it.
I wish she’d be more careful. In these troubled times, I would like to keep my most favored lady, and friend, at court, but if Magnus discovers what she’s doing, he’ll remove her. With so much unrest in the realm, who knows when I’ll see her again?
There are bright spots in my world, though. Isolde and Thyra are walking now. The twins are beams of joy during a tumultuous time. Though it may seem frivolous, I so look forward to celebrating their name day on Winter Solstice.
The diary went on, but I leaned back, unable to proceed after what I’d read.
Lord Riis, once a merchant before King Magnus titled and elevated him to the ranks of Sacred Eight, and Lady Inga, now the queen, had been . . . what? Lovers?
Or was Queen Revna misinterpreting things?
Surely, if Lord Riis rose to Sacred Eight status, it was because he’d helped King Magnus in his rebellion in some great way? And since then, Lord Riis had been close to the family. Saga had called him an uncle, of sorts.
Perhaps Lord Riis passed information on to the White Bear’s Rebellion under the guise of an affair? He was the spymaster, after all. I glanced down at the page again, unable to believe what I’d read, what the castle had wanted me to see.
Queen Revna lost so much. Had dealt with so much. She’d known that something was corrupting her husband and tried to heal him.
But it hadn’t worked. The Cruel King had only become more cruel. Perhaps mad? And eventually, the lords and ladies of the realm banded together to unseat him. Even the commonborn helped.
How horrible it must have been for the queen. From this reading, I got the sense that she was good—kind and wanting peace.
Instead, her family had been torn apart, murdered, and even those in her extended family killed for their family name. For the actions of one cruel male.
A lump rose in my throat and I leaned back, not ready to read more. Did I have to?
I tilted my chin to the ceiling. “Anything else you’d like me to read?”
In answer, the book slammed shut. I was done. Thank the stars.
“Then I’ll be going.”
Vale might have already returned to his rooms and was wondering where I’d gone. I hoped he remembered the hidden door and kept quiet. But would he? Within days, vampire assassins would show up to kill me. Perhaps hoping he’d be calm was asking a bit much.
That in mind, I left the queen’s chambers, the phoenix opal heavy in my pocket, and rushed through the corridors. Finally, I spotted the knob on which I’d tied the pink ribbon.
I grasped the knob and turned, hoping I’d find Vale’s rooms empty. That he wouldn’t have been worried or looking for me. Instead, as I entered the prince’s suite, I found him at the door to his rooms too, just entering. Quickly, he shut the door behind him, his eyes wide.
“It opened for you again.” He rushed to my side. “How?”
Excitement glinted in Prince Vale’s eyes, and despite the information I’d learned, I smiled. It was sweet to see such excited innocence in him. I suspected that as a youngling, he’d tried many times to get into the hidden parts of the palace. What little one could refrain from that pull?
“I needed refuge. Again,” I admitted.
The wonder fell from his face. “What? How so? My quarters are secure and there’s no way they could have already sent assassins. The vampires only left this morning.”
“Not vampires. Your brother stopped by.” I shuddered. “I know you don’t want to talk about what he can do, but I figured if you were worried about him touching me, I should be too. The door opened for me right before he came into your suite.”
Vale spun toward the door, face set in hard lines. “Sir Arvid let him in?”
“He’s the heir,” I whispered lamely. “It didn’t sound like Sir Arvid had much choice. I heard it all.” I pounded on the wall. “From inside. ”
“Of course he didn’t have a choice! Rhistel . . .” The prince trailed off; his lips sealing shut as if he had been about to reveal information about his twin.
For a second time, he’d protected Rhistel. Even though he was furious with him. Why? What could Rhistel do that was so bad?
“He didn’t see me. Or do anything,” I continued, wanting to calm Vale down.
“He shouldn’t have been here. I made him promise not to speak to you or touch you. He broke that promise right away.”
To make Vale feel better, I wanted to say that his twin intended to honor his word when he made the promise or else he wouldn’t have been able to do so. Fae, me aside, and only for nine more days at that, couldn’t lie.
But that gave the heir too much credit. I didn’t trust Rhistel and wouldn’t defend him.
Instead, I sought to change the subject. “Vale, there might be people living back here.” I touched the wall where the door had been again.
I wouldn’t tell him everything. Certainly not about Queen Revna’s diary. Inga was his mother, and I needed to consider what I’d read before I shared. But some of my observations were harmless.
The change of subject worked like a charm, and the anger lifted from his handsome features a touch. “What makes you say that?”
“It’s cleaner than the last time I was there. I bet someone who lives in the palace goes back there and tidies. ”
Vale looked thoughtful. “I could see that. It’s one reason I let you go that night you slipped into my suite. Over time, two slaves have gone missing. No one looked into that much, but concubines have escaped Father’s harem too. There was a search for the concubines, but they were never found. It’s rumored that they must have used the hidden passages. Perhaps they stayed back there a while.” He swallowed. “Healed. Rested. I don’t know. Whatever they used it for, I hope it helped.”
I took his hand, so much larger than mine. And warm, so warm.
As much as I hated that the king kept a harem, it gave me comfort that Vale despised the practice too. Not a surprise, considering the prince was romantic enough to have wanted to marry his soulmate.
And I’d taken that from him.
No. Not taken. I’ll leave at my first chance, and he’ll be able to remarry. They’ll assume me dead. He’ll get to find her. To love her.
Though the idea should have made me happy, my stomach churned. I squashed the ridiculous reaction as quickly as it appeared.
Yes, I was attracted to Vale, admired and respected him too, but I had no true hold on his heart. We played at a marriage. Nothing more.
“How did talks with your father go?” I asked.
He frowned. “Better than expected. Still, I’m not sure I trust him.”
“How so?”
“He told me he won’t take action against you.”
“That’s good. ”
“Yes, but he didn’t say that he’d stop others from doing so. He might pretend to embrace you, but he’s waiting for the vampires to do his dirty work. It’s a sneaky way of making amends. Of not alienating me further.”
“But he doesn’t seem to have an issue with making a scene and punishing those who’d witnessed our marriage.”
“Father has . . . other aims regarding the Courting Festival. He needs me on board for those. Perhaps his anger thawed, and he needed me more than he wished for revenge. For now, at least.”
The way he said it made me think it was yet another secret the prince was holding. I leaned closer.
“Want to share?”
He exhaled. “Let’s sit. This will be a long night.”
I went to bed and waited as Vale changed into something more comfortable. I tried not to watch or notice the muscles rippling in his back. Instead, I stared at where the hidden door had been, where now only a smooth wall remained. When Vale was done, he turned to me, face set in serious lines.
“What I’m about to tell you cannot be repeated. I’m only telling you because it involves someone we’ve allied ourselves with, so you have the right to know.”
“Who would I tell? Saga?”
He eyed me. “Saga doesn’t know. And she can’t. Only Rhistel, Father, Mother, and I know.”
“Fine. I won’t say a thing.”
He slid onto the other side of the bed, and, for a moment, I marveled at how comfortable I felt sharing this space with him. Roar and I had slept in different rooms, and I’d wanted to keep it that way. Not that that was an option here, but it didn’t need to be. Vale might have secrets, but for what mattered, I trusted him as I’d trusted few in my life. Deep down in my soul, I knew he wouldn’t hurt me or betray me. I just knew it.
“Given your past, you might not know about the Ice Scepter, but?—”
I gasped. “I do, though! Roar told me about it!”
During my time at court, the Hallow of Winter’s Realm drifted from my mind, but now the conversation in that tavern in Traliska came rushing back. “It was lost during the rebellion, and Roar told me it has affected the magic of the realm since. Possibly that it was responsible for the blight affecting the health of the fae too.”
“He told you the truth,” Vale said. “No one knows where it is. My family doesn’t speak of it, and I’m sure the great houses have deduced that we don’t have it. Perhaps the lesser houses and commonfae suspect that it’s missing too, though I doubt that the latter think of the troubles of the noble houses often.”
I let out a dry laugh. “No, I don’t think they would care if a noble house was missing a bauble. But commoners are perceptive.”
In my experience, slaves were even more perceptive, I wanted to add but didn’t. Vale was compassionate, but he might never fully understand how I grew up. How all the slaves I’d known did. I suspected many commonborn fae in this realm, especially the poorest among them, lived similarly in some regards—on a knife’s edge of survival, day to day. And if the Scepter was key to their survival, someone would eventually question why the king hadn’t brought it out in so long. Why he wasn’t using it now.
“Many fae have been born sick or deformed, and Winter’s Realm is growing more harsh.” I paused. “If the temperature continues to plunge and the storms worsen, we’ll die, won’t we?”
“Even the most stouthearted fae of Winter’s Realm won’t be able to live here. We’d have to flee south to the Autumn Court or die. But if we can find the Ice Scepter, things could change. That’s why my father called the Courting Festival.”
A festival to suss out the Ice Scepter? “I don’t follow.”
“I’ll explain.”
And he did. Vale told me of his most recent battles with the orc tribes in the midlands, how he’d found an elder orc, and she’d given him information on the Ice Scepter. The orc believed a noble lord of the land had taken it.
The king believed they might still have it, hence why he’d called every noble family to Avaldenn under the guise of an ancient practice, a Courting Festival.
“What if the houses had no one to marry off?” I asked. “Or what if the Heads of House, the most likely to possess the Hallow, didn’t come?”
“The Heads of House were required to attend, and as for family members of marriageable age, almost all of them had at least one person fitting that criterion,” Vale said. “We made sure of it. The few who didn’t were jarls, old and not very well-off ones, at that. Their houses were crumbling, and they weren’t at all powerful. Why take a magical object with the magic to change the realm if you have no hope of controlling it?”
“Does your father? Can he control it?”
He was Falk by blood, and it was said that the Falk line could wield it best.
“He should be able to do so, but he’s never had the opportunity. By the time he took Frostveil, the Scepter was missing.”
My hand pressed into the bed, and my fingers fiddled with the blanket, teasing the fur between them as I listened.
“Father believed that if the lord or lady in possession of the Ice Scepter was invited, they were likely to bring it with them—if only to take it before our Drassil tree.”
I blinked. “What does that mean?”
“We have a Drassil tree at the palace, a twin to the Heart Drassil in the Tower of the Living and the Dead. It’s called the Crown Tree. It’s said they were planted at the same time and are intertwined even more deeply than the usual Drassil connection. Every Falk who took the crown has stood before the Crown Tree and asked the Faetia to bless them with the ability to wield the magic of this realm.”
Roar hadn’t mentioned that. Surprise, surprise.
“What does that do?”
“If the Faetia accepts, it binds the ruler to the land in a way no one else can claim. They become the undisputed king or queen.”
“And no one questioned that your father didn’t do that? ”
“Some did.” Vale looked away. “They disappeared.”
My stomach tightened. No, the king had killed them.
“He is the blood of Prince Calder Falk, though.” Vale turned his eyes on me. “The king’s own brother. No one disputes that, and so most accepted his rule. In time, no one spoke of it again.”
No one was foolish enough to want to lose their heads for speaking up about something that didn’t affect them.
Except now it did. Things were getting worse. The storms raged more viciously. Goblins, orcs, and other brutal races of fae attacked villages or travelers for food and other supplies. I’d been part of a party attacked by goblins, and the one I’d caught in my sleigh had said as much. They starved because Winter’s Realm was squeezing them at the necks.
“I see,” I drew the words out. “And you said this involves someone we allied with? Who?” I had an idea but wanted the truth out in the open.
“Lord Riis.” Vale confirmed my thoughts. “Though I don’t see it, Father has reasons to suspect him. And he’s not the only one. My father suspects Lord Balik and Roar as well.”
Roar, well, I understood that line of thought. He’d fled the castle in the middle of an obligatory festival. In doing so, he’d defied the king’s orders.
“Lord Balik? I haven’t met him, only some of his children.”
“Many regard him as the most honorable of the lords and ladies of the Sacred Eight. I can’t say I agree with my father’s call on this one. ”
“But you can with Roar and Lord Riis?”
Vale paused before nodding. “Roar, certainly. Lord Riis, well, he is the spymaster. He’s cunning and adept at hiding things. And while he wasn’t a lord at the time of the rebellion, he was a wealthy merchant. Those who didn’t know better could have perceived him as a lord. Someone like an orc.” He blew out a breath. “I think we should trust him, and I’d like to tell him that the king suspects he is acting oddly. But at the same time, I want to keep an eye on Lord Riis.”
With the words in Queen Revna’s diary fresh in my mind, I couldn’t help but agree.