“Oh,nowshe’s our mother? No longer a cold stranger? No longer the cruel Ice Queen you’ve always claimed her to be? Amazing. What a momentous change of heart you’ve had.”
“Ihavehad a change of heart. She’s different. For the first time I can remember, she actuallywantsme around.”
Mareda laughed very softly, without really smiling.
“Of course she does. We all heard her: what ashamethat you’re not campaigning for Heir. What agreatleader you could have made one day. Tell me, what else have you changed your mind about, Adeline?”
“Marry, stop it,” Adeline groaned, screwing her eyes shut. “That’s not what this is about for me.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?” she hissed.
But Mareda did not lose composure, ever. She was only slightly flushed, her voice only slightly raised. Adeline didn’t speak. What could she say?
I didn’t tell you because I know how insecure you are.
Because I know what it looks like.
Because I didn’t know how to admit I was wrong.
She felt like something was slipping from her grasp, like there was a perfect choice of words that would save the moment, fix it all and keep Mareda from doubting her. But Adeline’s voice seemed to sink away into her stomach, weighted by panic–by a fear that this was something she couldn’t undo.
Mareda’s eyes flicked searchingly across her face, though Adeline couldn’t say what she found there. Whatever it was, she nodded, and looked away, as though she spoke her next words very quietly to someone standing far down the hallway.
“Well. Whether you choose to campaign by deceit or good faith, I wish you all the luck you deserve, Adeline. Excuse me.”
She walked away, spine straight and chin held high.
Adeline took a step back, feeling for the solid stone behind her, and finding it, she leaned against the wall, blinking hard. A lump in her throat tightened her breath. That was how Silas found her moments later, slumped against the wall and breathing hard, one hand trying to massage the ache from her throat. She looked at him, still blinking stupidly.
Her father held his arms out to her.
“No, don’t,” she groaned. “You’ll make me cry.”
“You look halfway there already, my love.”
He wrapped his arms around her, and she buried her face in his shoulder.
“Shout at me instead, then,” she mumbled into the cloth of his doublet. “Go on, I walked away from my mother’s order. I - I swore in front of the Queen.”
He laughed then, the sound a comforting rumble beneath her cheek.
“You’re a grown woman, and your mother has heard a lot worse. I think she was more concerned that you’d scandalised King Cumhaill. Although –” He pulled away from her and raised a stern eyebrow. “I believe you were already making quite the attempt at flustering the poor man.”
Despite herself, Adeline snorted.
“I did no such thing.”
“Hmm,” said Silas, sounding less than convinced. But he took Adeline’s hand and placed it on his arm. “Come. I think we could both use some of Marie’s pheasant pie.”
And as they headed together for the dining hall, with the promise of a full belly and distant thoughts of the Merrow King’s flustered scowl, Adeline found her spirits perhaps slightly lifted.
Chapter 17
Adeline
When Adeline arrived at the weapons hall early the following morning, the room was cold, dark and utterly still; Master Ellis hadn’t come early, as he usually did, to light the torches and set up the training space.
Thinking little of it, Adeline lit the room, made the fire, unlocked the brackets of glinting blades on the brick walls and then poked her head out the door to glance down the hallway.
