Jim Hines - The Snow Queen's shadow

“Gerta and I talked about that on our way back.” Talia reached into her pocket and pulled out the broken blue chain Laurence had used to suppress Gerta’s powers, back at the palace.

“It won’t hold for very long,” said Gerta. “It wasn’t designed to contain a demon, but the chain follows the principles of a binding circle. If you can secure it around Snow, I think it will last long enough to… to do what you must.”

“Save these until you’re on the road,” said Veleris as she finished wrapping the rest of the fish.

“Thank you.” Danielle bowed. “We’re in your debt, and I give you my word as Princess of Lorindar that none of us will reveal your secret.”

Veleris smiled. “Princess Whiteshore, you never would have found us without your darkling friend. You couldn’t lead another soul here if you tried.”

“Not that I expect you to live long enough to come looking,” added Bellum.

Danielle spent the night haunted by dreams of Jakob, trapped in an icy prison, searching and calling for her but unable to find her. When she tried to answer, her throat refused to obey, and her limbs were like stone. She awoke feeling even more exhausted than before.

Tommy guided them through the twisting tunnels to the surface. Danielle ate as she walked, forcing herself to finish a hard smoked roll that tasted of mushrooms and smoke and old meat.

The sun was low in the sky when they emerged, and Danielle shivered even within the bundled jacket and oversized mittens the giant had provided. Their weapons had also been returned, along with blankets, rope, and other supplies crammed into musty, dirt-stained packs.

Tommy jabbed his shovel to the northeast. “Head that way until you reach an old mining trail. It should take you the way you want to go.”

“Thank you,” said Danielle.

The knocker was already retreating through the small hole from which they had emerged. He raised his shovel in salute, then rapped it against the wooden frame of the entrance. The impact collapsed the drifted snow overhead, burying the way in.

Gerta used her boot to clear away the worst of the snow. She frowned, then dug deeper. Her efforts revealed nothing but snow and rock. “That’s a nice trick.”

The darkling shifted its form, becoming a pair of shadow-thin reindeer once more. Climbing onto the creature’s back was no less disturbing than the last time, but the darkling was the fastest way to reach the lake.

Danielle watched Gerta and Talia as they mounted the other reindeer, wondering what had happened in the mine. Gerta’s fear was still very much present, but the edge was gone. As for Talia, she was hurting, though she tried to hide it. The clipped tone of her words, the tension in her body… she meant to save Snow, no matter the cost. Danielle could see it in the way she moved, deliberate and purposeful.

Danielle prayed for the same, but if Bellum and Veleris were right and there was only one way to stop this demon… She prayed that it wouldn’t come to that, for all their sakes.

Talia scowled when she saw Danielle watching her. “Come on. The sooner we leave these damned fairies behind, the happier I’ll be.”

“Damned fairies?” Danielle repeated. “Does that include me as well?” The words sounded strange. In her mind, she was as human as Talia… though perhaps that wasn’t the best comparison, given the magic flowing through Talia’s blood.

“Don’t be stupid,” Talia snapped.

Danielle knew Talia well enough to know her barbs weren’t personal, her anger not directed at Danielle. “It changes things,” she said. “The people were wary enough when their prince married an ash-covered servant girl. What will they say to the revelation that their future ruler is less than fully human?”

Talia scowled. “Your lives-Jakob’s life-might be easier if certain things were kept secret.”

As they rode, Danielle found herself thinking of the bargain the Duchess had reached with the fairies of Speas Elan. The fairies of Allesandria had been hunted down, nearly driven into extinction, but was Lorindar any better? Their own war with fairykind had ended with Malindar’s Treaty, which confined fairykind to a single walled city. Was that treaty so different from the Duchess’ terms?

Every history she had read described conflict between human and fairy. In Arathea, the fairies had used Talia’s curse to wipe out the ruling line, plunging the nobles into chaos. In Allesandria and Lorindar, the humans had triumphed. But they were all variations of the same basic war, played out again and again. “Do you know of any land where humans and fairies live in peace, as equals?”

Talia raised an eyebrow. Gerta shook her head and said, “Not for very long.”

“Fairy magic could have fought this demon,” Danielle said, “but Allesandria slaughtered its fairies.” The most powerful fairies would have been the first to be destroyed. Had the demon recognized its vulnerabilities? Was that another reason it had fled to Allesandria?

Jakob was both human and fairy. Danielle would have sooner died than give her son into the Duchess’ hands, and yet… he would be king of Lorindar when he was older. What could he accomplish, with connections to both worlds?

She closed her eyes, imagining Jakob as a man. A leader, trained to navigate human politics as well as fairy. He could change things. Humans and fairies, no longer enemies bound by a treaty, but true allies.

Noble families had been known to send their children to serve in foreign courts. The King and Queen of Fairytown rarely spoke to one another, but it would make sense for Jakob to visit both… when he was old enough.

Instead, the Duchess had claimed him. Her bargain with Bellum and Veleris was proof of her hunger for power, a hunger which would doubtless twist Jakob as well, poisoning that future. Instead of bringing human and fairy together, the Duchess would use Jakob against her enemies on all sides.

Danielle refused to consider the possibility that they might be unable to save her son, that both he and Armand would be lost to her forever.

“You’re still thinking about Jakob,” Talia guessed. “We will find a way to destroy this demon. As for the Duchess-”

Danielle raised a hand, cutting her off. The darkling served them by the Duchess’ order, but Danielle had no doubt the creature was listening to their every word, and would report back to its master.

“I made a bargain.” To rescue Jakob from the demon, only to lose him again. She closed her eyes, waiting for the pain to recede enough for her to reclaim those images of her son grown to adulthood. Taking his place as King of Lorindar. Reaching out to Fairytown and rewriting the treaty. Taking a wife. Having children of his own.

“We’ll get him back,” said Talia. “We’ll get them all back.”

Danielle managed a smile, but said nothing. Talia sounded much like Danielle had several years ago, always insisting everything would work out. Danielle remembered well what Talia had said to her at the time.

“Just because your story had a happy ending doesn’t mean everyone else’s will.”

They discovered Veleris’ message on the second day, printed upon one of the dried fish. Tiny black marks, slightly smeared, covered the yellowed meat like an old tattoo.

“It’s a spell,” Gerta said.

Danielle peered closer. The letters appeared to have been written in haste. “On a fish?”

“To hide it from Bellum,” Talia guessed.

“She writes that it’s an old charm used by giants before battle, to toughen the skin,” Gerta read. “She says it should protect us from Snow’s ice wasps. It’s fairy magic, but she believes the spell can be adjusted for human use.”