Page 26 of Heart of the Summer Queen

With that thought, I stand. “I’m going to head back to the library,” I declare. “The sooner I can find answers about this damned curse, the better.”

ten

When I return to the library, my stack of books is where I left it, and sunlight spills in through the window beside my desk. The candle I lit still burns, and the small flame flickers in its glass container. I watch it, the gentle movement captivating my mind and briefly silencing my deafening thoughts. Then I lean forward, pull off the glass container, and blow out the flame. The suffocating smell of smoke fills my nostrils, and I breathe in as much of it as I can.

Though I left Elona and Kassia just minutes ago, now that I’m alone, I feel myself breaking once more.

It’s easy to rationalize that annulling our marriage is for the best, easy to say it out loud, but it’s much more difficult to convince my heart. Yet since there’s nothing I can do about it—the annulment is Elaric’s idea. All I can do is repeat these cold, hard facts over and over.

And distract my mind with research, with finding a way to save Dalia.

The memory of her frozen face has my hands reaching for the next book in my stack. This one is bound with a crusty,dark leather cover, and the pages within are filled with various accounts on witches. Many entries are accompanied by sketches.

One drawing is features a breathtakingly beautiful woman with luscious curls. The adjacent page is entitled:Melusine the Mad, and I scan over the several paragraphs beneath the heading.

While the capricious nature of witches is well-documented by the countless other examples included in this tome, one of perhaps the most notable records of their volatility is through the tragic tale of Stemore Kingdom.

Unbeknownst to the court, Melusine the Mad successfully infiltrated the royal family by seducing the recently wed crown prince, Torrin. It is rumored that Torrin never once visited his wife’s chambers after their wedding night, and the prince held no qualms for showing his affections publicly to his new mistress. When his wife remained without child even the following summer, it came of little surprise to anyone in the whole kingdom. Although this matter greatly distressed the king, the crown prince himself showed no concern for his lack of an heir. Perhaps the only surprise to anyone was that Torrin’s new mistress stayed as barren as his wife.

By winter, the crown prince began to show greater signs of his succumbing to madness. It was reported that he rarely slept, and frequently experienced hallucinations during the day. On one occasion, he publicly defied his father before the entire court, and accused the king of conspiring with his younger brother to murder him and remove him from the line of succession.

Six months later, the king died of a sudden heart attack, and Torrin took the throne in his father’s place. The new king’s paranoia grew, and so did his court’s concerns for his reign. Torrin was well-aware of his lords’ diminishing respect for hisauthority, and therefore decided to make an example out of several of them. His brother wasn’t spared from his suspicion, and eventually Torrin ordered his beheading during a court meeting.

Stemore Kingdom’s struggles worsened with each passing month, and in the June after succeeding his father, King Torrin threw himself from the palace’s highest tower and into the courtyard where many nobles were celebrating the Midsummer Festival.

Torrin’s beloved mistress rushed to his side and huddled over his body. At first, she was believed to be weeping, but then her sobs turned into laughter, and she revealed her identity to the crowd as the witch Melusine, demanding their applause for the entertainment she had bestowed upon their miserable lives throughout the past two years.

Although several attempts were made to capture Melusine the Mad, she vanished from the kingdom without a trace, and as of the time of writing this account, fifty years later, no other sightings of this witch have been reported.

I tear my eyes away from the pages, lean back in my chair, and look out the window. A few servants are rushing past, carrying out their daily tasks.

I’m not sure how long ago this book was written, since there’s no date at the top of the passage, and I didn’t see one on the title page either. But even if this particular witch is still alive, she can’t be the one responsible for Elaric’s curse. While the passage didn’t explicitly mention her powers, a book I read earlier this morning included ‘mind’ as a branch of magic, and it’s possible Melusine influenced the crown prince with her powers rather than just through verbal persuasion.

Maybe Elaric’s witch, whoever she is, relishes the freezing of the Crystal Palace and the disappearing girls every MidsummerBall, much like how Melusine savored the destruction and suffering of Stemore Kingdom.

Even more so, I wonder why Elaric was cursed in the first place. Did he do something to offend her? Or did this witch have no apparent reason other than for her amusement?

One thing I can be certain of is that witches are dangerous, for both their tremendous powers and unpredictable temperaments, and the path to breaking Elaric’s curse will be perilous indeed.

I flick through the next few pages, where I find plenty more passages about witches with various powers. One sketch illustrates the sinking of a kingdom, while another shows a kingdom being frozen. Eruweth, the latter was apparently called. But the book includes nothing more than that, and not the witch’s name either.

I pause, my finger tracing over the castle’s turrets. Could this be Elaric’s witch? If there are any other books which mention the freezing of Eruweth, maybe I can find her name. But even if I succeed in identifying her, how will I know if the witch who froze Eruweth is the same one who cursed him?

Besides, by the time I finish flicking through this tome, I have encountered several more ice witches who all have a particular love of freezing and shattering their victims.

I close the book, stretch my arms, and let out a yawn. Glancing through the window, it appears to be mid-afternoon. I wonder how long it’ll be before Elona and Kassia come to find me and scold me for not eating anything since breakfast. And what’s the king doing right now? Is he sitting by his desk or is he staring out of his balcony windows? Is he thinking about our annulment?

Before I can ruminate any further, I head to the shelves, rummaging through them for anything on Eruweth—one of my few leads.

As Eruweth is a long-lost kingdom, I have to search the oldest tomes, many of which are missing pages. It takes an hour to gather enough books. Arms full, I return to my desk.

I make it through three more before the library door opens. Now dark beyond the windows, I lit a candle earlier to spare my eyes.

“Can you ask for my dinner to be brought here instead of my chambers—” I begin, but trail off as I turn.

It isn’t my maids who stand there, but the Winter King himself.

“I will inform the servants,” he says. If he notices my surprise, he makes no mention of it.

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