Page 100 of Midwinter Wiles & Valerian Dreams
They rush off, stomping through the undergrowth. After their footsteps fade, I drop the illusion of the fake pond that masked the real one.
The reflecting pond still stands frozen, Princess Talvie entombed within it.
I step to the edge, heart pounding. “Okay, little beasties. We thawed Mikael out from worse than this. Let’s save a princess.”
Mikael and Johannes keep watch while the rest of us use whatever warming or fire magic we have. Hellion is in her element, aiming fire all around the pond’s edges, while Aili is more cautious with her fire, brows furrowed in concentration. Katja, Juani, and I send focused heat closer to Talvie, palms pressed to the surface. Even Hugo waddles to the edge to breathe little puffs of warm air over the ice’s surface.
Slowly, it begins to melt. Far too slowly.
The lavender glow of dawn rises as we work, until finally, the princess floats on a single remaining slab of ice. Mikael helps me pull her from the pond and wrap her in the thick quilt we brought from Redcurrant Cottage.
Talvie’s face is serene, her limbs limp, but her chest rises and falls just enough to know she’s still with us.
“She’s breathing,” I whisper, brushing white hair from her face. Her skin is cold to the touch. Her lips have lost their bright red tint.
I ease her to the ground, tucking the blanket’s edges around her body and placing my coat beneath her head. The others cluster close, worry etched on every face.
Katja kneels and runs her hands over Talvie’s chest. There’s no change. She shakes her head at me. “There’s nothing to heal. But she won’t wake. What do we do now?”
“I…don’t know,” I admit.
A pause stretches between us, broken only by the soft rustle of wind through the branches and the faint crackle of melting ice. Scattered clouds dull the earliest rays of daybreak.
“We can’t help her. Not alone.” Unfortunately, I see only one solution. “We have to hope we reached Queen Taynia, because without her to tell us how she cursed Talvie…” Saying her true name out loud for the first time makes this all too real.
No one speaks. We all know what it means if we can’t find a counterspell.
I’m out of magic, out of tricks.
And apparently, out of time. The crunch of footsteps on snow snaps my head up.
Chapter 35
Lark
At the approaching footsteps, Mikael stiffens. Johannes and Juani drag Aili and Helkki behind a stump with all the stealth of a karku waking from hibernation. My illusion is fast and large—a continuation of the trees to stretch across the space between us and the approaching trio of figures.
Beron leads the way, with Queen Taynia behind him. Her arms are around Tahto’s neck, and she’s walking like a dream walker, like the guards suspected of Talvie when they discovered the empty pond. Only this time, my illusion doesn’t work.
The footsteps don’t pause.
Beron strides straight through the conjured trees, parting them like fog. Unbothered, he quirks a brow at me standing stunned on the other side. Taynia and Tahto remain beside the pond while he approaches.
A green gemstone on his ring catches the pale dawn light, casting shimmers like ripples across water as he lifts his hand.
“Witch-crafted,” he says. “After your performance on the road, I thought I could use some insurance. Even knowing it was fake that day, I had a hard time telling reality from visions. You’re better than I bargained for, Illusionist.”
Hoping my head stays attached to my neck awhile longer, I offer him a charming smile. “There’s a reason you hired us.”
“You proved a very effective distraction. But I certainly never expected to find Princess Talvie hiding with you afterward. I doubt I paid you enough to shelter her all this time.”
“That’s not what this is.”
“No? She didn’t promise you riches and rewards for hiding her? I assumed it was something big to outweigh the reward offered for her capture.”
Dropping my gaze, I shake my head. “It’s not like that. I never even told her I knew who she was. She still thinks I only know her as Val. And she never asked me for anything; I’m the one who needed her.”
Beron studies me, his brow furrowing. The kids peek their faces out from hiding, finding out at the same time as Beron that I’ve known who Princess Talvie was this whole time. I’ll have to apologize with pies later.
