Page 85 of The Heartless Archer

“How are you feeling?” Nikolai asked.

“Peachy.”

“Noora,” he sighed.

She sighed and looked at him. “How do you expect me to feel?”

“Furious, determined, a little scared.”

She raised her brows at him. “I’m right, aren’t I?” He leaned slightly forward, his knees grazing hers over the small space of the vehicle. A shit-eating grin adorned his lips and Noora felt her hands itch to punch it off his face.

“You are feeling awfully well for a prince who embarrassed himself not a long time ago.”

He waved her words away. “That was not the first time and it certainly will not be the last time I will embarrass myself. I’ve survived worse.”

Something in his voice made her think he was not talking about embarrassing events in his life.

Instead of remaining silent, she decided to use his presence as an advantage. “What do I have to expect out there?”

Nikolai nodded as if he expected her to ask sooner or later. “The difference between the first and the second task is rather major. You will not be encased in a small arena, saved by the walls we built but you are out there in the wilderness.”

“That’s nothing new to me.”

He shook his head. “Do not overestimate yourself. You will have to rely on yourself only. The crowd will gather at the starting line of the tournament, which is where the jury will watch from a tower. But we can only see so far.”

Noora leaned slightly forward, making the prince adjust his legs so one of hers was between the two of his.

“What exactly do we need to do, Kai?”

He drew out a scroll from inside his cloak, revealing a small map of the surroundings of the ice palace. The adjacent wood that encircled almost the whole south side of the palace walls was drawn in carefully crafted circles. Behind it was the opallake, currently frozen with ice at the temperatures that were reigning outside.

The end of the lake was surrounded by the family of Stormbryteren, a mountain scape that encased Oy Frossen from the Arctic Ocean.

“You will start here.” Nikolai pointed at the opening of the woods and then drew his finger through the thicket, leaves, and traps of it, emerging at the other side right at the lake.

“You will be provided with ice skates since it will take you too long to walk all around the water and get to the other side, so you can take the entrance into Stormbryteren—”

“Wait what?” Noora interrupted him rudely as the sleigh jostled them both again, making them slide closer.

“You want us to travel into the mountain range? Are you completely mad?”

Nikolai looked up at her from the map. “This is not an easy tournament; you won’t receive glory or Gulls without having to risk something.”

“I won’t be able to earn gold or glory if I end up dead.”

The prince looked at her surprised.

“What?” she snapped.

“Is that where you draw the line? Shouldn’t it be natural for you to travel through nature?”

“Nikolai, this is a suicide, it is freezing outside, the forest will be a death trap and I don’t even want to think how dangerous it would be to skate over the opal lake.”

Something glinted in his eyes. “You’re scared.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I just respect nature too much to test its limits.”

“You mean your limits,” he said, raising a brow.

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