Hadrian came up behind her, but before she could ask him what in the hell he was doing, he kicked her feet out from under her. Avalon gasped, but he caught her before she could hit the snow. Though his eyes were filled with emotions she couldn’t quite place, he was grinning from ear to ear as he sang out, “Last one to the top is a rotten egg!”
And then he took off running, and Avalon bounced in his arms as he practically flew over the hill, and for the first time in what felt like an eternity, she threw her head back and laughed.
19
I don’t know what you want me to say,grumbled Sable.I can’t read a single word of this wretched book!
“I have a feeling it can help us undo the curse,” Avalon said, speaking out loud solely for Hadrian’s benefit. “If only we can find out what’s supposed to go in these spaces…” She trailed her fingers over the indentations in the leather cover.
Avalon and Hadrian were sitting across from each other in the Temple of Ice, clutching their cloaks around their shoulders. Despite the temple’s protection, it was chilly. The crack in the wall—where Sable and Levon had found the book so many years ago—looked the same as it did way back then, a gaping mouth lined with icicles for teeth.
Aside from the crack in the wall, there was no other damage. Whatever had struck the wall that night was powerful enough to cut a slit in the barrier. The fact that the temple was built into a mountain didn’t matter; nothing was permitted to cross the barrier, whether on feet or by digging through the mountain. Whatever had bruised the barrier had been stronger than magic itself; it hadwantedSable and Levon to find this book.
The realization sent a violent shiver down Avalon’s spine.
The ceiling of the temple was cluttered with engravings like the ones in the catacombs, though these were easier to identify. Most depicted the old deities of ice—Anaxi and Serene. The termoldwhen referring to gods and goddesses was somewhat new; people had started using it during a great war that had spanned nearly a century, when the existence of these all-powerful beings became myth—when the mortals and the Fairfolk decided the gods had abandoned them.
In those days, the mortals not only worshipped the gods, but some also worshipped the Fey and Elves, the latter of which were now fewer in number than ever. Fey were powerful creatures, their influence over the elements and the special gifts some were born with second only to the gods who’d blessed them. But some still claimed the power of the Elves exceeded the Fey, though the Elves were prone to Corruption—a sickness brought on by the overuse of certain magic that Fey seemed immune to.
Avalon had seen the effects of Corruption firsthand. The few remaining Elves in Elderyn currently fought in her father’s army, and most were corrupt.The Dark Elves,they were called. The mere thought of them frightened Avalon to her very core.
“There has to besomeonewho knows what happened to Sable,” Hadrian sighed, his breath puffing out before him like a ghost. Avalon tore her gaze away from the engravings. “You used to translate old texts at the library in Hilsian when you were younger. Do you think you could decipher the one in this book?” Translating had been a somewhat entertaining way to pass the time during her countless days alone in Hilsian while growing up.
“That was different,” Avalon said. “It was easier for me to translate the library books because every new language I found had some connection with another; a way for me to untangle the letters and symbols until they made sense. The ones in this book are…odd, for lack of a better word.” Avalon sensed Sable listening impatiently inside the mask.
The captain sighed. “We live in a world filled with Folk that are thousands of years old. There has to besomeonewho knows how to read it.”
“What if the language wasn’t meant for our eyes?” Avalon remembered what Levon had said in the Temple of Ice—that the book didn’t belong in this world. A headache was forming between her eyebrows, and her ears began to ring. The words on the pages shimmered before her, and Avalon gritted her teeth as nausea twisted in her stomach. “What if it’s a language our people never knew?”
They sat in silence for another few minutes, until Avalon’s headache grew so fierce that she pushed the mask up and pinched the bridge of her nose. She began to say something, but Hadrian shushed her.
He’d picked up on a sound too quiet for mortal ears and was on his feet in an instant. Even with the barrier providing some form of protection, they’d been on edge since coming here, as if there were eyes watching from the sleeping forest. Crows were a possibility. Silver Maidens, perhaps. Dark Elves…Anything but them,Avalon thought.
Two figures emerged from the mist—one cloaked in red, the other in white.
When Avalon recognized the faces beneath the hoods, she put the mask back on and slowly rose to her feet.
Sable was ready, but this time she would wait. And Avalon barely shuddered as the warrior took her place—beside her, this time. No longer pushing her, no longer suffocating her.
A cloud passed over the moon, and Sable shivered as the cold of the realm she’d lost a decade ago seeped into her bones.
~
The sight of the captain and the king’s daughter standing in the Temple of Ice had Kit at a loss for words. It wasn’t that he didn’t expect to find them here; hedid. But seeing the mask on Avalon’s face brought back a million memories.
The last time he had seen the mask, he was in the catacombs beneath the House of Ice, where he was forced to sit idle and quell the anger swirling through his blood as Sable was locked inside it. Ten years had passed since that day, and although he had no idea what in the Nine Hells Avalon was doing with that mask on her face, he hoped it was something good.
“Captain,” Kit said by way of greeting. He shook off his hood.
“General.” Hadrian nodded stiffly. “What brings you here?”
Kit held up Avalon’s bracelet, clutching it between his thumb and forefinger to avoid touching it as much as possible. Contrary to common legends whispered in the mortal lands, iron didn’t burn the Folk, but if worn could squash one’s magic into nothing.
“My bracelet,” Avalon squeaked. She stumbled forward, but Hadrian’s arm shot out in front of her, stopping her before she could reach the barrier.
Hadrian whipped his head around to glare at the general, his nostrils flaring as he scented the breeze. “I suppose your Wolves are on their way,” he growled.
“Aside from us, no one knows you’re here.” Kit waited a moment before he added, “And no one has to find out.”
