Page 10 of Frozen Hearts and Death Magic

* * *

For the firsttime in her life, Leah hated being in the library. Yes, it was her favorite place in the castle—but not when everything interesting and exciting was happening outside this room. Her mother had even locked the door. The horror. Leah felt like a prisoner in her own castle.

The delegations were arriving from the other ten kingdoms, and Leah wasn’t supposed to meet them before the introduction ball. This was the first time she was going to participate in the gathering, now that she was finally seventeen, so she had never seen the other royal families. That was why she wanted to take a look, just a look. Her heart sped up, wondering what the princes were like. Leah wanted to see them, just to feel more at ease knowing they weren’t… What? She didn’t even know what she feared. Perhaps she feared the unknown, and if she made it known, the fear would be gone. That made sense. Or maybe not.

She thought back to her dream and her dragon, which brought her a soothing feeling of peace and calm. Dragons were said to be the creators, guardians, and arbiters of all the magic in the world. But if they had ever existed, they were gone now. Except in her dreams—and sometimes nightmares. Her dragon felt so real. He had to be real, somewhere. Unfortunately not in this library.

But there was no point lamenting being locked up. Surrounded by books, she could easily find escape and solace in one of her favorites. Not that all the stories she liked were here. Kissing books were forbidden, but she’d found a few of them hidden within other covers a few years before. Unfortunately, they had eventually disappeared, and as much as Leah had looked, she had never found them again. Well, her mother always said that those books were immoral, that they would give her unrealistic expectations, and that a proper lady shouldn’t read that material. Leah didn’t think they were that bad, and she did not expect a dashing hero to save her, but her opinion made no difference if the books were gone.

Still, she had other favorites. Rudolf the Mighty, with more than twenty books, had been her faithful companion in her days of solitude. She loved reading about his adventures, even when he killed commoners, and he killed a lot of people, sometimes ten or twenty at a time. He also killed evil dragons, and her favorite book was the one where he had to face the three dragon kings who had imprisoned his betrothed. Yes, there was some romance in Rudolf the Mighty too, except that there was no kissing. Still, the stories were fun.

In some books, the enemy was a necromancer, King Skeleton, but he was evil, unlike Leah’s father. Sometimes she wished she were Rudolf, slashing and killing, getting rid of all her problems. True that she didn’t even know how to hold a sword, but it didn’t matter. Sometimes she wished she were King Skeleton, raising armies from the dead to smash her enemies, even if she knew necromancy couldn’t do that, even if she knew that she would never want to kill or harm anyone. Plus, King Skeleton was pure evil. But they were just stories, filled with comforting power and fearlessness.

Yet Leah was feeling the opposite of powerful as she grabbed The Might of Rudolf, when then the door opened. She thought it was her mother, but turned to see Kasim coming in, and was glad to see her father’s closest advisor and best friend, someone who was like a second father to her. She was even gladder to notice that he had a mischievous smile on his dark brown face. That smile was always good news, and often meant he was about to let her do something her mother had forbidden.

Leah beamed at him. “You came to open the door!” Then she added, “But my mother…”

Kasim waved a hand. “If she comes looking for you, I’ll find an excuse. But she is too busy planning the festivities.”

“Thanks. I was hoping to try to see some of the princes.”

He cocked his head. “Try, Leah? You underestimate me so.” He put a hand over his heart. “I’m wounded.”

“You…” This was almost too good to be true. “Have a plan?”

“A great one, in fact. You do like ice-skating, right?”

“You know the answer.” She wasn’t sure where he was going with this.

“Guess who’s going to visit Sunset Lake right now?”

“I don’t know! You have to tell me!”

“The young princes and princesses. Including you, of course.”

This was amazing. Or maybe not. “But my mother was very specific that I shouldn’t be seen before the ball.”

“Oh, dear, but this is such a great opportunity to get to know them.” He sighed. “If you truly want to obey Lady Ursiana, you can only watch them. Wear a hood, keep your head down, and pretend you’re a servant. Nobody will look at you. You’ll be like a little fly, listening when nobody knows you’re there.”

The idea sounded amazing, except for one small problem. “But then I can’t skate or they’ll see me.”

“Maybe. Maybe you can introduce yourself today, after enough listening. Or maybe it will be your chance to see who they truly are. It’s such a great opportunity. I don’t know why your mother…” He cleared his throat. “I mean, it’s not my place to say that.”

Leah chuckled. “Yet it’s your place to help me break the rules.”

He winked. “Always.”

“Let’s see these princes, then.”

She followed him out of the library, leaving behind those written stories, excited and at the same time terrified to live her own, unsure what to expect from the visiting princes, and trying to forget the pressure of having to make such an important choice in such little time. Unable to forget it, in fact. Her hands were sweaty and her heart was racing.

---