Winter's Sword Read online

  WINTER’S SWORD

  By

  Alexandra Little

  CHAPTER ONE

  The foulings were playing in the snow.

  Fresh flakes were falling from the sky, a light dusting from the gray clouds. But the clouds were moving fast, and the snowfall was interrupted by strong rays of sun that reflected off of the snow and nearly blinded me with the burning light.

  I preferred the darkness now.

  But the foulings were having a time of it, bounding around like happy dogs. Huge, happy dogs. Their fur and scales stayed white, only seeming to darken to their natural black for the few moments when they were in the air. Their camouflage seemed to work by touch, and when they rubbed up against me they turned the color of my leather boots, or blended with the pattern of my cloak. A pack of five had designated themselves my protectors, and I had not been able to get rid of them. I hadn’t wanted to, but now we were on the border of the Dagnar lands.

  “You should have brought the crown,” Dalandaras said from behind me.

  “Do you think your queen would give me a better reception if I wore it?” I asked. I scooped up some snow and compacted it, and then I threw it at the foulings. All five leapt for it, but the smallest of them jumped off another’s back and caught it in its mouth, swallowing it whole. “I could bring the foulings.”

  “They will certainly notice you if you did that.”

  I couldn’t tell if he was joking.

  But no, walking into the Dagnar Queen’s home with five foulings trailing me would not be the best idea.

  “She’s ready,” Firien said from a distance back.

  I didn’t bother to look back. My hearing had improved quite drastically. Firien’s steps were soft, and Aerik’s were heavy but not dragging. The other elves had remained at Tal Uil, or had been forced to stay behind.

  I knelt in the snow. Immediately, the foulings came to me. I didn’t even have to call them, only desire them near me.

  Snow scraped behind me - it was Dalandaras, taking a step back. Even he was not quite used to being too near the beasts.

  The smallest of them all came to me, nose to nose. Their breath was still rancid - would that ever change? - but there was no curl of the lips, or raising of the hackles.

  I scratched her neck, and she seemed to purr.

  “What shall I call you?” I murmured as I stared into her eyes. There was a deep well in them, that spoke to me of starlight and souls and all the things that Adhannor had so coveted. Were the foulings even individuals? Did they have personalities, emotions like any other dog? Without Adhannor grasping at them, would they go their own way, or would they blindly follow me to whatever end?

  “Annel you shall be,” I said. “Like Adhanel. It fits, don’t you think?”

  If I wasn’t mistaken, Annel nodded, just slightly.

  “Look after the others. I won’t be long. Maybe overnight. But you’re used to fending, aren’t you?”

  With a final scratch of the chin, I stood. Annel turned and, with the others, ran back off into the trees.

  With them gone, I felt their absence. Even with Father, and Aerik, and Dalandaras, and Firien, I would have liked the foulings with me. But was that myself desiring them, or was that the old magic that was now within me?

  I hope they understand you,” Dalandaras said.

  “Oh, they understand,” I murmured. Only then I turned.

  Three tired humans, I thought, and two tired elves. It was not much of an entourage to bring into Tal Uil. Dalandaras could still command the majesty of his heritage - the sheen to his silver skin, the height and the wide sweep of the fur-lined cloak, but Firien had sacrificed majesty for fierceness. Some of his new wounds had not healed, and a I suspected the slash on his face would become a new scar. Father and Aerik looked tired. Even elven food and the kindness of my old magic could not hold back the flaws of their human nature, and they both limped from nonspecific injuries.

  I must have looked a fright myself. I hadn’t combed my hair in ages, and the braid had long fallen out.

  “Then lead the way, Firien,” I said.

  He bowed. “Lady,” he murmured. I had told him to stop that, but it seemed ingrained into some part of his blood. He knew what power I had now, and the supplication came as a reflex.

  We took a path between the mountains’ base and the forest. It was wide enough for a cart and several horses, but with the angle of the rocks and the trees it was no so obvious to those who had not traveled it.

  And then we came to a great ravine, which plunged deep into the trees. The trees seemed to lengthen, and kept the tree tops leveled with each other. The trunks and branches shot up straight and tall from the ravine itself.

  It was a wide but turning slope downward. Between the trees I thought I spotted other elves, cloaked and armored in grays and silvers of varying shades. They blended into the shadows and into the trees, and I saw no indication from Aerik and Father that they saw them at all.

  The path became graveled, and ten minutes we came to the bottom of the ravine. The shadows of the branches far above us seemed to cast us into a strange twilight; the sun was like starlight, twinkling overhead. We came to the elves then, who emerged from the trees to watch us. Some were pale, like Dalandaras; others were dark as coal. But all seemed to easily shift into the background and disappeared. Their hair flowed long; some were scarred as Firien, but most were not. A good many had daggers tucked into the belts of their silken robes.

  In the distance, the path came to an end. The trees seemed to merge into one, their trunks arching to form walls and a great doorway directly in front of them. The archway was firmly guarded, the soldiers wearing what looked like dragon scales and carrying pikes whose blades curved.

  Firien halted before them. They seemed to know him. One gave a minute nod towards the elf warrior; Firien nodded in return.

  “Enter,” a woman’s deep voice flowed out from within.

  Firien led the way.

  The tree trunks seemed to change to gray stone; the ceiling arched high above us to end in a point. From the point hung a glowing globe, its light pure and white. Directly ahead of us was a balcony that jutted out in another point from the chamber. Seeing no one else, not even the possessor of the deep voice, I stepped up onto it.

  The trees gave way, and below us was a deep lake of water, clear and blue. The sky opened up to reveal the darkening blue of dusk. The lake extended out to the end of the ravine, many miles in the distance. All around the walls of the ravine white tree trunks curled out, and lights flickered from between the branches.

  This was Tal Uil, I thought. This was there the elves lived. No castles for them, but for those needed in their watchtowers. Here, they lived among the rocks and trees and bushes as any other animal.

  “My home,” the deep voice said again, and as one we all spun, even the elves. A woman emerged, lithe and graceful. Her skin and hair was dark as lead, as was her robe. Firien and Dalandaras bowed deeply to her. Father and Aerik managed a far less graceful bow. I didn’t bother. I was the Lady now.

  Her deep eyes met mine. If she thought anything of my declining to humble myself before her, she thought nothing of it.

  “I have heard much of you, Evalandriel,” the Queen said, and gestured behind her. The alcove behind her was truly a doorway – behind its translucent curtains was a small gathering of other elves – Alid among them.

  “I am not certain you should trust what you hear,” I replied carefully. “There could be…misinformation in those words.”

  “I should trust your lover instead?” she asked in Elvish, and inclined her head towards Dalandaras.

  At least she spared me the blushes of having my father understand that. “I have not taken him as a lover,�
�� I replied. “Yet.”

  A corner of her mouth twitched. “Let us talk,” she said in the common tongue. “Privately.”

  I inclined my head.

  She gestured to the wall opposite Alid and her companions. It was a mirror image, with another alcove and a doorway. The curtains seemed to part for the Queen, but they did not bear me the same grace. It was another room, but without the safeguard of walls or railings. The room simply opened up into the elements. From here, I could hear the rush of water. When I approached closer to the edge I saw that there was a waterfall, which came out of the rocks far below us.

  “A drink?” the Queen asked. I turned back to face her, and found her at a table, pouring a silver pitcher into a delicate glass.

  I hadn’t had a drink in a while. I didn’t seem to need one. “Please.”

  At once I felt a flare beneath my feet, of deep and old power. It came from the Queen, and seemed to surround the room like a cocoon. The hairs on my arm stood up.

  I may have been the Lady, but the Queen was no ordinary elf, either. “Neat trick,” I said.

  “I wondered if you would notice,” she handed me a glass, and I took a sip. It was nothing but cool water.

  “It speaks to the power of those mountains that you did feel it.”

  "Will we come to it now?" I asked. "The purpose of your asking me here?"

  "You do not comprehend it?" the Queen replied, taking a glass of her own. "A prince of my people and my own warriors have accompanied you, and you think I do not have the right to command you here?"

  "You offered assistance with Adhannor," I replied. "I did not ask for it. Indeed, the whole mess was really an Elf issue. Had it been taken care of a thousand years ago, I need not have risked my neck."

  "Had we 'taken care of' it, as you put it, you would not exist."

  She seemed to be under the impression I was Adhannor's descendant, an inheritor through his bloodline. She probably heard that story from Alid. "You would be incorrect. I am Adhanel's descendant, not Adhannor's. At the very least, I do not have his crimes on my head."

  Glass shattered - the Queen had crushed hers in her hands. Water and blood dripped to the ground.

  It was Alid who burst through the curtains first. "Eguin," she said. "Are you--"

  "Leave," the Queen ordered without moving, and I heard the deep command of old magic in her voice, as I had heard in Adhannor's, and as I could hear in my own when I needed it.

  But what had angered her so much? That I was Adhanel's descendant, and not Adhannor's? Was there something I had that she wanted, and now she couldn't get...or was there something she was hoping I had, and now I had confirmed I didn't have it?

  "You're going to give your people an awful time cleaning that up," I said, and gestured toward the blood.

  The Queen dropped what was left of the glass, and covered her hand with her sleeve.

  "Why don't you simply state why you wanted to see me, so we can both decide whether to be enemies."

  "Under other circumstances I would like you, Lady Eva," the Queen said. "This is a meeting of courtesy. As you say, you are the Lady now. And you occupy a rather...precarious piece of land. I know you commune with the foulings, and can command the dreadwolves. Tell me, who are your people now?"

  She wanted numbers. She wanted to know my forces. She wasn't talking about humans. She didn't know who or what was in the forbidden lands, or what my magic could command. I wasn't entirely certain myself.

  I drained my glass and brought it back to the table. There was a stack of papers on it - mostly maps. Many of them showed the extent of the Empire's colonies and outposts. But another one, partially buried under the others, outlined a coastline I did not recognize, and showed a mountain that I did.

  "Lady Alid," I called loudly. "Bring your mistress a bandage."

  "You do not command my servants," the Queen said calmly, but Alid came anyway.

  "You are bleeding through your sleeve," I replied as Alid took the Queen's hand and bound it tightly.

  When both elves turned their backs to me, I slid the map out from under the others. I folded it quickly and tucked it into my belt under my cloak.

  "Are we finished here?" I asked. "By the time we exit the ravine, it will be nightfall. I will have to hurry faster than I would like, if my party is to reach shelter."

  "You will stay the night here," the Queen said, turning to face me. Alid stepped back, her head bowed. "Unless you wish to leave, which of course you are free to do."

  I inclined my head, and followed her out.

  "Though there is one more thing," the Queen announced as I went back to my father.

  Alid obeyed an unsaid command and went into the other room.

  "Lord Baradan," the Queen said. "I have received several emissaries from the fort you command, known as Winter's Crown."

  "I apologize for the inconvenience caused to you and your people," my father replied. "I did have to leave quite suddenly."

  "Eliawen explained as much. But I would not apologize just yet. You have a warrant out for your arrest, from your own government.”

  “For what?” My father and I demanded at the same time.

  The Queen gestured Alid forward from the doorway. A human accompanied her. He was not a man I had seen before. But he was most certainly human. Short, broad, and firmly built, he was my father’s age. His brown mud-stained boots stood out among the pale silvers of the Dagnar. The way he stood, so certain of the sword at his side, spoke of him as a soldier, and I respected him for that alone. But if he was sworn to bring in my father as a prisoner, I would end him.

  The man bowed. “Lord Baradan. And Lady Eva. We feared you both to be dead.”

  I glanced back at my father, who returned the bow. “Sir Pirridan.”

  I nodded towards the man. “What is the warrant concerning?” I demanded.

  “Suspicion of murder, and abandonment of post,” Sir Pirridan replied.

  My hand found Dauntless’ hilt before my mind had truly considered it.

  Father placed his hand on my arm, and I forced my fingers to unclench. “And your proof?”

  “The Emperor is very understanding that the situation may be…er, uncertain,” Sir Pirridan replied. He had not flinched. “And from the stories that I have heard - and the damage that I’ve seen - at Winter’s Crown, I am certain that there are extenuating circumstances.”

  “It is not unexpected that I must answer to the Emperor,” my father murmured to me. “I wouldn’t fear anything yet.”

  It was the ‘yet’ I was worried about.

  “I can only suggest,” the Queen said, her deep voice, seeming to calm all in the room. “That we hear the story. I am very interested to hear it myself.”

  And so I told them all. I started from the beginning, of finding the ruins and releasing Adhannor. I even told them of the ghost of my dead mother. There was no point leaving her out now. I told them of Crowndan’s attentions, of Zarah’s friendship, and the betrayal of them both. Though I thought the Queen might not react well to Dalandaras’ grandfather’s secrets being revealed, there was no way to remove him from the tale. He had taken me to Adhanel out of an obsession for her, but Adhanel had done well by me, and helped me to find the old magic and take my place as an inheritor.

  There was one part I wished desperately to leave out, but there was no good way to do it. I was no longer just an inheritor. I was now Lady of the land, as Adhanel had once been, and as Adhannor had tried to be. I did leave out the crown. The crown was but a minor detail to all the rest of it. Maybe it was more than a symbol. Maybe it conferred a power I hadn't discovered yet. Until I knew what the Dagnar Queen wanted, I would remain quiet about anything she didn't need to know.

  "Might I speak with you, my lord?" Sir Pirridan asked.

  "Ar Dalandaras," the Queen commanded, and walked toward the balcony. "I would speak with you."

  While my father moved off with Sir Pirridan, I moved to Aerik. "Speak quietly to me," I murmured, and
turned my body so that I could catch the words coming from the Queen. "Don't ask me any questions or say anything that needs an answer."

  Aerik complied, and his words faded in my mind until I heard only the elvish coming from the Queen, Dalandaras, and Alid.

  "Is she your lover now?" Alid demanded.

  "I am surprised you would take a human babe to bed," the Queen said. "Or did you think that was the best strategy to learning of Adhannor's fate?"

  "You may command much of me, my lady," Dalandaras said, though I could not tell to whom. "But who I take to bed is not your concern."

  I was torn between being outraged and being flattered. Did Alid and the Queen think that I had seduced him somehow? They were foolish to not realize that he had his own mind - and knew better than most what it meant when Adhannor's powers were given free rein among his own kind.

  "It is of my concern that she is an inheritor," the Queen said. "Do you think that I can allow her to roam free with the magic that she commands?"

  "You can do nothing besides let her roam free," Dalandaras replied. "Unless you think to have war with the humans."

  "The humans do not care about one trouble-causing girl," Alid said. "Not when Lord Baradan is a wanted man."

  "She is lady of her House," Dalandaras said. "And heir to her father's. My lady, I would not trifle with her."

  "Has she grown that powerful?" the Queen asked.

  "She has defeated Adhannor and lived. As a prince of our people, I caution you now: tread softly with her, if you want her cooperation."

  "You will tell me all you know of her," the Queen said. "Tonight. I am certain you all have much to discuss," she said to the room at large. "Especially with Sir Pirridan. Sir Pirridan, would you be so kind as to show your kinsmen to their rooms? You may continue your meeting there."

  I let Pirridan claim Father’s attention, and Firien claimed Aerik’s. Whatever the Queen wanted with Dalandaras, it did not seem to require Firien.

  It had grown dark. I had not noticed. But that was another’s benefit of being an inheritor. I didn’t need the light. But as we left the Queen’s rooms, the lights seem to come alight for us. Hidden amongst the tree branches and the shadows of doorways, pure light flickered like little flames. Pirridan knew his way well enough, and wound us between trees until we came to another cluster of trunks that merged into one building. It must have been built for the non-elven friends of the Dagnar, for it had a door instead of the draperies I had seen in Tal Uil. There was a dark central room, and several doors spaced evenly along the walls.