Page 95 of Midwinter Wiles & Valerian Dreams
“It’s time,” I tell Kat, lifting my hand and sending sparks into the air to signal the troupe and our helpers. “If we try to delay, we’ll lose the queen, and she’s the whole point of this thing. We’ll just have to adjust.”
If this insane, love-addled play can reach whatever sliver of warmth might still live in that frostbitten woman’s chest, we have to try. For Talvie’s sake.
If it works, if we thaw her heart, maybe the princess gets her stepmother back. She can go back to her real life, whereshe doesn’t have to fight for survival every day. She can fulfill the role she’s meant to, where she can make a difference. The Hinterlands deserves to have its princess back, and Talvie deserves the life to which she was born.
Which is not this little pretend life with me. No matter how much it hurts, she was never mine to keep. But I can leave her with this gift…as long as this works.
A blur of movement cuts through the crowd. A cabbage sash flutters behind the frantic figure who barrels into me.
“Lark!” Aili is red-cheeked and out of breath. “She’s gone! Val’s gone!”
Katja gasps. My own lungs spasm.
“What do you mean, gone?” I crouch to grasp Aili’s tiny shoulders.
“The queen—she cursed her!”
The words hit like a blow. “What? Where is she? Show me!”
“You cannot go to her. Not yet.” The disembodied voice stops me cold.
From behind Aili’s back, a soft glow gathers, and Lumi rises to hover between us. I toss the illusion of a curtain around us, hiding the moon from any onlookers.
“Lumi? What happened? I have to go to her.” My pulse is wild with the need.
Lumi’s glow thrums. “There is nothing you can do except what you are already doing. We will need the queen’s help. Only she can break the curse. If you abandon this now, you will lose her forever.”
I grip my hair with both hands. “I can’t just stand here—”
“You must,” Lumi says. “The story must play out. Let Taynia’s heart be moved, and the rest will follow.”
I stare at the moon, stunned, then turn back to Aili. “What happened? Start from the beginning.”
The other kids join us, curious about the delay and the secretive curtain.
Aili wipes her nose, her eyes shining. “Val told me to hide when the man came. She made me swear not to leave the cupboard, but I heard them talking. I could tell he scared her. She f-felt sad…I didn’t want her to be alone when she was scared and sad. So I snuck out even though I wasn’t supposed to, and I—I followed them.” Her lip trembles.
“You’re not in trouble,” I soothe. “You’re so brave.”
She nods, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. “He t-t-took her to a pond. And the queen was there with more scary men. I hid in some bushes. But I saw the queen…She took Val’s necklace—the one with the stone where Lumi hides—and she threw it in the pond! And then Val turned into the princess from my coloring pages.”
Confused murmurs ripple through the kids, but Mikael stiffens. Katja gasps again. Their eyes flick to Lumi, then to me.
We’ve all seen the stacks of flyers with Princess Talvie’s face on them, and the reward for her return.
No time to explain.
“Then what, Aili?”
“The queen was so mean. She made Val—or, I mean, she made the princess drink a bad potion. She had all these big icicles, and she forced her to drink. I wanted to help, but I…I was so scared,” she whispers. “I couldn’t move.”
Tears spill down her round cheeks, and I wipe them away. “You did the right thing, sweetheart. She wanted you to hide and stay safe, just like you did. And you’re here now.”
Aili sniffles a few times before finishing. “The princess went all stiff and weird, and now she’s frozen in the pond. I stayed in the bushes until they all left, then I crawled out to see. I couldn’t melt it. I tried.” She pauses again while I rub her back. “Th-the n-necklace was there. It floated into some reeds, and I…I used fire magic to melt it out. Then Lumi came out of her stone.”
“The little one was very brave,” Lumi says softly. “We could not free Valkie, and I urged the little one to run when we heard guards returning. We took a circuitous path back to town to find you.”
I hug Aili close while she sniffles against my chest. “You did so well, Aili. And you too, Lumi. Thank you.”
