Page 55 of The Iron Dagger
ELEVEN
Angharad
The palace library was just as grand as Hara remembered, but perhaps a little smaller. The three levels were framed in dark gleaming wood with heavy ladders that glided smoothly down the rows. Hara walked slowly up and down the stacks, searching the dusty titles. She shifted her arms uncomfortably, trying to balance the books she had found on royal lineages.
Gideon was at a charity event involving horses today, and so she was alone to browse and research. It would have been convenient to have another set of strong arms to carry her selections, but then Hara smiled wryly to herself. If Gideon were here there was a very good chance that he’d summon a page boy to carry books for them.
Her eyes passed over a section of books on the history of Corvus’ reign. Most of them had titles likeThe New NobilityandMajesty Earned. Hara did not feel any particular loyalty to the royal family, but her mouth pulled down at the corners at the blatant propaganda.
One of the titles looked promising. She set down her heavy stack and chose a book calledMonarchs of the Mountain Realms.At the end of the row she found a quiet seat set into a stained glass window, and sat down to read.
There was a section with family trees, and she flipped to the page that showed the last generation of the Ilmarinen line.
Hara stared at the small dark blot with the question mark. Gideon said all the Ilmarinen had been executed, but it appeared that was not the case. There could have been a survivor.Seith.The name sounded familiar, but it was difficult to put the name to a face in her old life.
On the bottom of the page there was a key that explained the different magical abilities, and Hara glanced over the unfamiliar terms.
Enchantment: Non-elemental. The ability to charm people and animals either by suggestion or beauty.
Geopotent: Elemental. The ability to control earthquakes and seismic activity.
Menspotent: Non-elemental. Power of the mind, including memory, suggestion, and any influence over emotional state.
Meteorpotent: Elemental. Power over the weather, including temperature, cloud patterns, precipitation, lightning, and wind.
Poor Seith did not appear to have inherited the powerful elemental magic the family was known for. She brushed her fingers over his abilities.Shapeshifting.
The strange otter crossed her mind, and she wondered if it was possible that the lost prince was hiding in the woods near the city after all these years. She frowned at the small black dot and marked her place with a scrap of paper from her notebook.
The next page showed a line of fae royalty, and Hara paused out of curiosity. When she was young she remembered stories about the fae, but she’d never seen one at court. They were known as charlatans who used magic to trick mortals and little else. She knew they lived in the mountains and kept to themselves, but she’d never thought about them having their own royalty.
She flipped to the historical account of the fae and read:
The fae were driven north by sorcerers, and over time, they formed strongholds throughout Montag. They are a naturally suspicious class of being who shy from iron and have an affinity for enchantments involving perception and temptation. While the sorcerer may wield magic directly, the fae depend on magical materials and locations to perform their enchantments (e.g. food, scrying stones, springs, formations in nature). They live for hundreds of years if left undisturbed, but are killed easily with force as any mortal may be. One of the special talents of the fae is their ability to use portals from one location to another. This sophisticated branch of magic allowsthem to travel quickly and secretly, and often by unexpected means.
The last sentence made something tickle at her memory.
She’d made plans with Gideon to meet after sundown each day, so as not to be seen being too familiar with each other in the daytime. He was adamant that they be discreet in their dealings with one another, and Hara was inclined to agree. He knew the court dynamics, and his father, better than she did. But someone was sure to notice if they snuck into each others’ rooms at night. And meeting in public was risky, so they discussed different secluded rooms or rarely-visited courtyards. If only there was a way they could use portal magic.
Hara closed the book and took it with her as she gathered her things and left the library. She went directly to her room and closed the door, setting her things on a nearby table.
Hara stared at the tapestries in her room.
That funny feeling grew the longer she looked. There was some secret, some droll little trick about them that she could not quite remember. She reached out to run her hands over the fine embroidery, and the leaves and the roots under her fingers seemed to grow waxy and rough in turns.
Traverse tapestry.The words bloomed out of her memory, and Hara smiled. These were created by the fae. Her eyes traveled along the stitched thicket of trees until they landed on a break in the greenery. A thin dirt path snaked its way out of sight, and Hara went to stand before it. Again, she pressed her fingers to the stitching, and her skin met dirt.
With her heart leaping in her throat, she looked about her room and spied a chair. She took it and carried it back to the section of tapestry with the path. Then she climbed atop it, and holding her breath, she raised the toe of her boot to the tapestry. Instead of cloth and stone, her boot sank into air, then rested on hard-packed soil.
As Hara stepped up into the tapestry, memories came flooding back to her. She and her mother would bustle from room to room within the embroidered leaves and branches of these tapestries, the stitchwork birds looking down at them and the berries looking almost real enough to pluck.
Hara walked through the embroidered forest, and every so often, she came upon a fork or a side path that led into other chambers. She could see them through the trees, glowing with fires or empty and dark. Some had occupants sitting unaware, and Hara crept past, unseen.
Finally, she saw a room ahead that had a fallen sapling stitched over the path. She stepped under it, and then she realized that it was Gideon sitting in the large chair before the fire, his profile obscured by his hand. Hara crept forward until she reached the edge of the path, and then she jumped down into his room. Her feet made a soft thud onto his carpet, and Gideon started, leaping out of his chair.
“Who’s there? Come forward and—Hara?” he said with bewilderment. “How did you get in here?”
Hara straightened and grinned at him. “Traverse tapestries. My mother and I used them all the time in our section of the palace. It looks as though the royal chambers have them, too.”
