Jim Hines - The Snow Queen's shadow

“When you wish to contact me, simply call three times.” Danielle could remember every detail of the Duchess’ face as she spoke those words. What had the fairy known, to create such certainty that Danielle would one day come begging for aid? Had she foreseen this day, or had her words been mere boast?

Danielle wrapped one hand around the hilt, the other around the blade. The sword had never once cut her skin. Her mother’s magic saw to that. A part of her wished it would, if only so the physical pain would distract her from the emptiness inside.

Danielle licked her lips. She had learned enough from Snow to know it wasn’t the name alone that worked fairy magic, but the intention. The need of the caller.

Thinking of Jakob, she whispered “Duchess” three times.

The carpet sagged at a spot between the bed and the door, as though the tile floor beneath had been cut away. Individual fibers unraveled, sinking into a hole illuminated by sickly blue light.

Danielle stood, watching the hole expand until it was the size of a serving platter. The surface shimmered like water, blue lights dancing along the ripples.

“Princess Whiteshore. How lovely to hear your voice once again.” The Duchess’ face was little more than a shadow on the water, but Danielle’s mind painted the details. Short silken hair the color of bleached cotton. Slender ears, the pointed tips rising just past the top of the head. Overlarge eyes and narrow lips that seemed ever quirked in a predator’s smile. “I wasn’t expecting your call. Particularly so soon after you sent your ambassador to demand my arrest.”

Danielle wasn’t at all surprised to learn the Duchess had ears in the fairy courts. The spying and intrigue of Fairytown made human politics look like the simple squabbling of children.

Danielle did her best to remain calm. The Duchess had tricked a fairy king. She would do the same to Danielle in a heartbeat. “That was months ago, and I made no demands. I merely asked Fairytown to investigate your role in the death of my stepsister Charlotte.”

“I was saddened to hear of her passing. The girl should have stayed in my care. She was unprepared for the harsh realities of the world. But she wished to leave, and as a kindness, I chose to grant her freedom. Had I known-”

“And the gown you provided her?” Danielle asked. “Enchanted to carry a fire sprite. I watched as it burned her to death.”

“The fire sprite was to provide warmth only,” the Duchess said. “As you know, my domain is a cold place, without the luxuries enjoyed by those on the surface. I’ve no idea why the sprite turned upon her. Your stepsister was not the most pleasant woman. Perhaps she said something-”

“I’ve no time for pretty lies.” Danielle moved to stand at the edge of the pit. “You sheltered my stepsisters when they kidnapped my husband. You conspired with the Lady of the Red Hood against my friend, murdering Charlotte in the process. Had I any proof you did these things knowingly, I would find a way to see you punished.”

“But you have no such proof.” The Duchess’ tone never lost its smothering politeness.

“No.” Danielle fought the urge to drive her sword into that shadowed face. “I wish to speak to you about another matter. My son Jakob has been taken from me.”

“If you intend to accuse me, you’re wasting your time, Your Highness. Believe it or not, my people aren’t responsible for every child you humans misplace.”

“I know who took him. I want you to help me find him.”

The Duchess was slow to respond, as if savoring Danielle’s words. “You must be devastated. Please accept my sympathy to you and your family.”

“You told me once that I would need your help. Can you find my son?”

The Duchess’ smile grew. “You would bargain for my aid?”

Danielle could hear Talia’s warning as clearly as if she were in the room. Never bargain with fairies. Not if you wish to keep your future, your joy, your very soul. But what if the bargain was the only way to regain those things? “Yes.”

The ripples cleared, bringing the Duchess’ pale face into focus. She wore a circlet of platinum, inlaid with flakes of jade. A high, silver collar followed the contours of her cheekbones. “I may be able to help you track him. Your son is marked, both by the human magic in his father’s bloodline, and by fairy magic.”

“Thanks to your darklings.”

“You still don’t know what he is, do you?” The Duchess laughed. “Danielle, do you think it normal that the animals obey your every wish? That your mother lived on after her death, that she watches you to this day, imprisoned in that magic blade you carry?”

“She loved me.”

“And your father did not? I don’t see you carrying his soul around in a sword.” The Duchess leaned closer. “My darklings did nothing but awaken the fairy magic already within your son’s blood. Judging by your mother’s trick with the hazel tree, I’d guess dryad magic, perhaps three or four generations removed. Your son is a rare creature indeed. One with the ability to manipulate both human and fairy magic. The only question was who would be first to sense that potential and try to steal it.”

“Impossible.” The anger in her voice startled her, but she didn’t try to suppress it. The idea that her mother, that she herself carried fairy blood… “Jakob is human. Snow examined him many times after we escaped your cave, and she never found anything unnatural.”

“What could be more natural than fairy magic?”

Danielle shook her head. “I would have known.”

“Is our kind so horrible? Rest your mind, Princess. You and your son are human in every way that matters. But, like your friend Talia, you’re also something more.”

“You knew.”

The Duchess spread her hands. “I suspected. Human blood dilutes our own. Even a fairy of the pure caste might not recognize one of our descendants after a few generations.”

“Why did you never-?” Danielle backed away. There were many reasons to keep such secrets. A better question was why the Duchess was telling her now. Was it simply a way to keep Danielle off-balance? “What do you want?”

“I can help you find Jakob. In exchange for that help, you will send him to me in Fairytown for six months of each year. I give you my word to raise him like my own son. He will be protected from all harm. Given everything you’ve said, he’ll be safer here than in your own palace.”

“You can’t be serious,” Danielle breathed.

“Isn’t this better than losing him altogether?” The Duchess softened her words, never losing her smile. “I can teach him to understand his fairy blood, to use his magic to protect himself.”

For Jakob’s sake, Danielle refrained from telling the Duchess what she could do with her bargain. “Choose another price.”

“Why ask me, Princess? Why not your friend Snow White?” Amusement danced in her eyes. “Could it be she has finally overreached herself, that she’s fallen prey to her own power?”

The Duchess knew Snow was behind Jakob’s kidnapping. It shouldn’t have surprised her. Febblekeck was the obvious candidate for the spy, but by now word had likely spread.

“As I understand the story,” the Duchess said, “Snow’s mother ordered her killed. She intended to dine upon her own daughter’s heart. Gruesome, but not unknown.”

Danielle kept silent, unsure where the Duchess was leading.

“Ancient wizards believed you could consume another’s magic in such ways. I hope whoever stole Jakob away doesn’t believe as Snow’s mother did. I hate to imagine him suffering such a fate because his own mother was too weak to protect him.”

“I won’t save him from one evil only to give him to another.”