Jim Hines - The Snow Queen's shadow

Two more Stormcrows ran toward her. A look back showed the third coming from behind. They weren’t alone.

“Fine,” Talia muttered to Snow’s imagined teasing. “You’re right. This was a stupid plan.”

She ran back through the alley, lashing out with knife and club to clear her way through the demon’s slaves. Possessed or not, the crowd’s reflexes were still human, and there weren’t enough to simply overpower and smother her. Not yet, at least. She sacrificed the cloak and lost a bit of hair when someone grabbed it, but she made it through.

The instant she emerged onto the street, she felt the change. The people here were free, and surged toward the gates. The walls still burned, but the gate itself was open. “Thank you, Danielle!”

She jumped onto a cart, ignoring the protests of its owners. She glanced behind. The Stormcrows weren’t close enough to catch her.

The closest pulled a gold-tipped rod and pointed it at her. There was a heavy impact on her shoulder, but she saw nothing. Instead, the spell seemed to splatter over her body. It felt… sticky, like someone had bathed Talia’s skin in molasses.

Talia grabbed her knife. Every movement tugged her skin, slowing her movements. With the wolfskin, she could have easily torn through the enchantment. Without it… she clenched her jaw, pulling back to throw even as the Stormcrow’s spell threatened to tear the skin from her bones.

A dog snarled and seized the Stormcrow’s leg in his teeth. A rat scurried through the crowd to join him.

“I told you to get to the tower,” she yelled.

“Is that what you said?” Danielle asked innocently. “I’m sorry, I must have misheard.” She looked skyward, and a pair of blackbirds swooped down to harass another Stormcrow.

“Don’t move,” ordered Gerta as she scrambled onto the cart. “The more you struggle, the faster you’ll be torn apart.”

A donkey brayed and dragged its wagon across the road, barreling toward the Stormcrows.

“Hurry,” said Danielle.

Gerta squinted, then jabbed her thumb into Talia’s shoulder deep enough to bruise. She repeated a hasty chant, then spun and pressed her thumb to the side of the wagon.

The pain vanished. Talia flung her club, catching the first Stormcrow in the stomach. She grabbed Gerta by the arm and jumped down.

They had gone only a short distance when the wagon creaked and splintered behind them.

“I couldn’t break the spell, so I had to transfer it. That’s what would have happened to you.” Gerta looked over her shoulder at the wreckage of the wagon. It had been reduced to kindling. “It’s not a nice spell.”

Talia swallowed and grabbed Danielle and Gerta by the hands. She had already begun to sweat from the heat of the walls. “How did you get the gates open?”

“The people in the towers haven’t been infected yet,” Danielle said. “So we told them the truth. It took some persuasion, but their spells confirmed our words.”

“What truth?” Talia asked.

Gerta’s voice hardened. “That Kanustius has fallen.”

The lake was the closest thing to beauty Snow had seen since the demon showed her the world as it truly was. With her followers waiting silently at the shore, the lake was lifeless and frozen and perfect. “What do you think of your new home, Jakob?”

Beside her, Prince Jakob shivered and plopped down to sit on the ice. He had spoken less and less of late, but for the first time in more than a day, a spark of interest lit his eyes. He brushed off a spot on the ice and examined his reflection. “It’s a mirror.”

“Very good.” She conjured a gust of wind to clear a larger patch. “From the outside, Allesandria appears strong. These people have warred with humans and fairies alike, defeating all who challenged their borders. When Allesandria falls, the fatal blow will be struck not from the outside, but from within.”

With Laurence fallen, the Nobles’ Circle would pool their forces both physical and mystical to retake the palace. Nobody wanted to risk another ruler like Rose Curtana. But Snow’s mirrors had already reached the Circle.

She watched the ice, peering from one mind to the next to eavesdrop on the Circle’s debates. The Lord Protector of Voma worked to raise a stone army to defend his city. The ruler of Caronia called for an exception to the laws governing the summoning of demons, claiming it was the only way to meet this threat. One young noble even proposed raising Queen Curtana. “Better an undead queen who can be controlled than a demon-possessed king.”

Snow reached through the mirror, nudging her servants. Unlike the king, these slaves would not fight openly; they would bicker and argue, delaying consensus and sabotaging the Circle’s efforts as the chaos spread.

A thought opened a new window in the ice, allowing her to see through King Laurence’s eyes. She extended herself through the mirror shard in his flesh, donning his body like an ill-fitting dress. She stayed only long enough to plant her next command before turning her attention back to Jakob. “Your mother bargained with fairies to escape Kanustius. You’re going to help me find them.”

Several of Snow’s Stormcrows had seen the darkling. Danielle must have dealt with the Duchess. So much for those high ideals she lorded over everyone else. She was no different. When her life was at stake, she had no compunctions about dealing with criminals.

Jakob was on his hands and knees, tracing one finger over the ice. It was the most attention he had paid to anything since leaving Lorindar.

“Would you like to learn mirror magic, Jakob?”

He nodded.

The ice cracked at Snow’s touch, offering up a frozen shard the size of her palm. She handed it to Jakob. “Why don’t you try searching for your mother? Be careful. The edges are sharp.”

Sharp enough to draw blood. The more he tried to use the frozen mirror, the more his blood and magic would seep into the ice.

“I’m hungry,” said Jakob.

Snow blinked. When had she last eaten? She no longer paid any mind to the complaints of her body, but it had been at least a day… She gestured to those gathered on the shore, sending a small group away to hunt.

The wind blew harder, swirling snow into the air. Instead of dispersing, the snow began to solidify. Strands of ice grew like a crystalline web stretching up around her.

She glanced down at Laurence, who clutched his scepter in both hands as he spoke to the surviving members of the Nobles’ Circle, passing along Snow’s offer. Many would refuse, but some would seek her out, hoping to bargain for power as they had with her mother.

It was poetic. Almost beautiful, in its own way. Their corruption would lead them to her, and that same corruption would damn Allesandria for its crimes.

Talia used shoulders, elbows, and the occasional low kick to clear a path. The road beyond the gate was wide enough to spread out, and Talia dragged her companions ahead, all but running. Only when the road reached the outer edge of the woods and the trees began to block the flaming wall from view did she slow.

“Our supplies are gone,” Danielle commented.

“You want to go back and get them?” Talia asked. She searched the trees until she found the darkling. It had returned to what she assumed was its natural shape, crouching like a monkey in a snow-dusted pine.

When the road neared the top of the hill, Talia turned back to look at Kanustius. Smoke still rose from the palace, and she could make out smaller plumes where other fires had spread through the city. Were those started by the demon’s slaves as well, or were they merely a symptom of the spreading chaos?

“Snow would have taken the city regardless,” said Danielle.