Page 39 of The Midnight Blizzard

We began to step forward, but Valencia tripped and fell before the doors could open. The bill fluttered to the ground, and I hastily scooped it up. With a little cry of pain, Valencia clutched at her ankle. “I think I twisted it,” she moaned. One of the guards stepped forward to help her up, but instead of standing, she collapsed against him the moment she tried to put weight on the injured foot.

“I could carry you,” the guard suggested awkwardly, but Valencia shook her head.

“No, I don’t want to call any attention to myself, not when this is such a momentous occasion.” She turned to me, a fond smile lifting her lips. “Noelle, would you be willing to present it on your own? I don’t think I can manage right now.”

My foreboding increased and I hesitated. Was this all a grand setup to embarrass me?

She hobbled a few shaky steps to brace herself against a hall table. “I’ll wait for you back at my room. Besides, it’s better this way—it was your father who worked his whole life toward granting equal rights to mages. It seems fitting that his daughter be the one to carry on his legacy.”

The guards and herald all nodded and beamed at her statement, and I worked to keep a calm expression and not let my brow furrow. Why on earth was I so suspicious about supposedly good things happening? If it turned out to be a forgery or some sort of hoax, I wouldn’t be to blame as I was merely the messenger. If it was the actual bill that Jack and Valencia claimed it was, it would only benefit me. My palms grew sweaty and I stared so hard at the parchment it was in danger of being set aflame from the intensity of my gaze. Had she swapped it for an alternate? No, it seemed to be the same one she’d shown me before.

“Very well,” I said, and held my head high, and ignoring the beads of sweat that trickled down my back. “I shall present it and meet you back at your room shortly.”

“I’ll escort you,” the guard said, helping Valencia limp back down the corridor.

Once they turned the corner, the doors in front of meopened. I pinched the paper, holding it firmly so it wouldn’t get crumpled, and held my head high. It was time to do my father proud. King Wenceslas and Queen Isolde smiled at me as I approached, my footsteps sounding unnaturally loud considering that I was walking on a carpet leading up to their thrones.

“Lady Noelle Frost,” the herald called in his loud, booming voice, “has come to present a bill for consideration.”

I swallowed and did my best to appear as confident as Father would have if he’d been here.

“This is a proposition to grant full and equal rights to all mages,” I said, glad that my voice didn’t imitate the trembling I felt in my hands and feet.

“Yes, Lord Cedric and Jack were working on this for years before Cedric’s passing,” the king said, beckoning for the paper. The page boy at his side leapt to take it from me and handed it over. “I’m glad to see that it has finally made it through all the appropriate channels. We’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”

The queen rested her chin gently on her hand, head tilted slightly to the side. “You do look so like your father.”

“You never forget a face,” the king chuckled fondly as he passed the bill to her to examine, then directed his attention back to me. “Lord Cedric worked alongside Jack, and I’m hopeful that a similar relationship can continue between you and Jack as well. He has been instrumental in formulating propositions such as this one.”

“I hope for that as well.” My chest swelled. Would it really be this simple?

“Call the scribes,” Queen Isolde murmured. She had taken out a pair of spectacles and was perusing the bill. The page boy scurried off to deliver the message and I held my breath, nerves tingling.

King Wenceslas smiled. “No need to look so tense, Noelle. We will gladly sign this into law.”

The guard gestured for me to exit, but I stayed rooted to the spot. “It’s…it will be law? Just like that?”

“There are a few procedural steps we need to follow to have it incorporated and we will need to send out a proclamation, but within the week, yes. That’s why we called the scribes. They will begin making copies to distribute.”

My mouth flapped open. Valencia had been telling the truth? After everything I’d overcome to get to this point, it felt surreal to be told that it was a success.

Queen Isolde lowered her spectacles. “Is anything wrong?”

“No, I just…I thought it would take much longer.”

“Your father already did all the hard work, and if you acquired the final signatures, all that is left is our own signatures and enacting the law. That is the easy part.”

“It was my stepmother who secured the final signature, not me,” I corrected him, ashamed that I’d been so suspicious of Valencia. She’d found Jack and me in a compromising situation and hadn’t turned us in, even providing a way that Jack and I would be able to be together, and I’d treated her with nothing but suspicion and contempt. She deserved to have credit.

“No doubt she is a friend to all mages, just as your father was, then,” the queen said kindly. “I don’t believe I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting Cedric’s second wife. What’s her name?”

“Valencia.”

“Be sure to extend the gratitude of the entire royal family to her and let her know that I look forward to meeting her soon.”

“I shall.” I curtsied to each of them, hardly able to believe my luck, and allowed myself to be led away.

Still dazed by the success and the now very real possibility of a future with Jack, I sought out any of the clerks who were in charge of the girls entered in the competition. Against all odds, Valencia had proved that I could trust her about the bill to grant full rights to mages, and she said that she had the will ready for me.

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