Chapter One
One hundred years ago...
Siobhan stared up at the impossibly high sides of the outer walls of the Winter Court, her stomach twisting in fear. In the dark, the tiny blue lights of the frost fairies were only deep purple flickers reflected in ice refrozen so many times that even the smallest bubbles of air were eliminated and the surface became as slick as black glass.
“I must be crazy. It’s twenty feet tall.” She turned to the five tiny fairies floating in tight formation next to her like a small flock of night birds. “You sprinkled the sentries with sleeping dust? Right? Good. While we wait for that to work, show me again why I’m sneaking into the compound of one of the most powerful fae queens in Underhill. Maybe I’ll see something that can help us. Doubtful, since I’ve watched it over and over again, but I’ll take any help I can get at this point.”
Freelana moved in front of her three sisters. The minor fae were perfect miniatures of the larger elvatians, but their structure was more brittle and their features sharp. Some in her village had hated them, suspicious of their sharp teeth and wider than proportional eyes. Siobhan had always loved spending time with them and they’d never hurt her. In fact, they’d become her fast friends.
Her narrow pointed face frowning in focus, Freelana moved her wings almost too fast to see. Hovering a few inches away, she opened an ice bubble in the air. It glowed a pale, luminous purple in the dark and Siobhan ducked a quick look up at the sentry. But the shield she’d erected seemed to be working because he didn’t move so she gave all her attention to the bubble.
Inside, a miniature image of her little brother formed. Bosco hadn’t been away from home very long, maybe a year, but already he looked more adult. Maybe it was the fear that sharpened his face. Maybe it was the skimpy high court attire that spoke of rooms well heated in the middle of winter.
She’d been shocked at the changes the first time she’d seen this, but now she looked closer. His long, snow-white hair was pulled back into ornate court braids, threaded with jewels, that showed off his delicately pointed ears. Her mother would die at the sight of her baby’s precious ears pierced with long silver hoops. His eyes, the very rare black that few elvatians besides their family had, were full of dark desperation as he whispered his plea.
“Please, Siobhan, come get me. This isn’t what I thought it was going to be. I’m scared.” His adolescent voice quavered, breaking on his last words. “I want to come home.”
The bubble popped, fragmenting into tiny pieces of frost that blew away on the night wind. Siobhan pressed her lips together. “I still don’t understand. What could possibly have gone wrong? The queen herself crowned him the current King of Winter. He was thrilled.”
It had broken her heart, but she’d never expected to see him again. None of the queen’s cosseted boys ever returned to their villages, even after they’d grown up and their stint as the Winter King was over.
Freelana shook her head vigorously, the tinkling sound of ice bells chiming with each shake.
“I know there are rumors, Freelana, but every time we see the boys she crowns, they seem happy. Just think of the few times we’ve caught a glimpse of Ardan.”
Happy, yes. But now that she thought about it, she’d only seen them from a distance, riding with the hunt or attending the queen. They never visited their families, once they set off in the white sleigh of the queen, pulled by two elven steeds with hooves that could cut ice.
Freelana chimed again, her sisters joining in.
“What can I do?” Siobhan stared back up at the top of the wall where a sentry light gleamed. “She’s a full queen of the fae. She holds this keep. Hell, she holds all the lands of the north. Her power is the reason our village doesn’t fade into the mists of Underhill. She’s the reason we have a home at all.” She shook her head at the insistent fairies. “And she’s surrounded by all her lords and ladies. And don’t forget the guards. Even the least of them is more powerful than me, more powerful than anyone in our village.”
She’d never regretted her small amount of magic, until now. Country living in a land of winter suited her. She skated during the long winters on lakes of frozen glass, making Jack Frost patterns in the ice with her tiny friends. She formed lovely flowers for feast days using snow and water and magic. No, she couldn’t join the courts, but then, who would want to?
Her brother, Bosco, that’s who. And, all the adolescent village boys who saw the court riding by on their fine horses and in their fine clothes, each of them wielding more power in their fingertips than her whole family could muster. She remembered the celebration years before, when the queen swept into the festival and took Ardan, Siobhan’s childhood sweetheart, to be the Winter King. That had been fifty years ago when Bosco had been little more than a baby. Ardan had taken one look at the beauty of the White Queen and climbed into her sleigh. And he’d never looked back at Siobhan again. Not even to wave goodbye.
The fairies chimed.
“I know. I know. That sentry should be out by now. And Bosco’s waiting...” She checked the sheath of the sword strapped tight to her back, pulled her ice shoes out of her pack and strapped the metal spiked soles onto her boots. Before putting the pack back on, she dug out her emergency escape globe.
The marble-sized ball was cold as it rolled in her palm, its colors swirling together as it moved. One use, that’s all it was, but if she needed it, she’d want it somewhere easy to get to. If it worked at all. None of this magic was her strength. She was an artist, a creator of frost flowers and designs in ice. But even she knew better than to go into the Winter Palace without an escape route. She tucked the ball into her left side pocket, then double checked that the leather straps of the shoes were tight.
Her stomach churned with nerves. This was it.
“I’ve never climbed anything this straight and smooth before. Can you help me?”
The fairies swarmed with her over to the wall. She handed them her climbing rope, its end tied with a viciously sharp hook. It took all five of the fist-sized fae to haul it up and secure it to the top. Siobhan took the rope in hand and started up.
The climb was worse than she’d thought it would be. The shiny surface resisted her spikes, and she slid and slipped with only her arms to hold her up. Several times she thought she’d never make it, but she finally pulled herself over the top and collapsed next to the concerned fae, her fingers cramping.
“I’m fine,” she panted. “We made it.” Arms shaking, she unstrapped her ice shoes and tucked them back into her pack, shrinking it down and stowing it in her right coat pocket.
Pack in the right, escape globe an icy presence in the left. “Lead on, ladies.”
Keeping low, she followed the fairies as Freelana sped ahead, dowsing the lights as they approached. The purple glow of the fairies’ inner light a beacon, drawing Siobhan down a set of stairs and into a quiet courtyard.
A hand grabbed her elbow and fingers covered her mouth, preventing her scream from escaping.
“Shh, it’s me.” Bosco’s face appeared, illuminated in Freelana’s light.
Her heart thumping in her ears, she wrapped her arms around her brother and squeezed tight. Tears rose to her eyes. “Oh, it’s so good to see you. Are you well?” She kept her voice low as she ran her hands down his arms. He’d never been heavy, but now she could feel his bones sticking out like fence railings under her hands. “Aren’t they feeding you?”