Today, the space around her was overrun. A forest of flowers, an orchard of fruits, a river of ice trinkets - and more substantial tokens too. A sack of grain, sprinklings of goldpuintcoin–someone had even tied a live goat draped in evergreens to the nearest tree.
And more gifts were coming.
A line of worshippers waited to pay their respects, so many of them that the path to the Laune was blocked by a queue that snaked halfway down the road, and Adeline and Ger had to jostle and squeeze to get past them all.
“Here, boy,” Ger called to a young lad toward the end of the queue. “What’s happening?”
The boy rolled his eyes. “Waiting to pray to the Sorceress.”
“Yes, I’d figured that much out, thanks,” Ger grumbled.
“He meant to ask; why is the shrine so busy?” Adeline said, a little more gently.
The boy turned his rolling eyes on her, and then blinked them abruptly. “Er – Princess – Your Highness–”
He started to bow, but Adeline shook her head quickly. By now, the people of the Queen’s Village were as used to her comings and goings as her neighbours in the Capital, but the last thing she wanted was to draw the attention of the unexpected crowd. She didn’t need to distract from whatever was happening here before she got the full scope of it.
“No need. I’d be grateful if you could tell us though, why is there such a queue today?”
Ger harrumphed at her pleasant tone, and she nudged his arm without looking around.
“It’s been this way for days now, Princess. Maybe weeks. Since the Thaw began, really.”
Adeline’s stomach lurched.
She’d known from watching her mother at the public court that people were worried, but this… This was more than worry, worse than fear.
This was desperation.
Adeline tried to get a handle on her own dread, to school her features into something careful and neutral as she thanked the boy and bid him goodbye.
“May you soar on Silver Winds, Princess,” the boy called after her.
A popular Eisalaan phrase, but the poignancy at this particular moment made Adeline shiver.
“May the Winds bless us all,” she returned, and she and Ger walked on in silence.
Their visit to the Laune was strange.
The place was magical as ever, still alive with music. Ice dancers still weaved through the crowds, ducking beneath garlands of glittering icicles and Eisalaan-blue bunting strung between the wooden stalls. Tourists, all bundled up in woollen layers against the cold, skittered around clumsily on the ice with pink cheeks and bright, darting eyes, trying to take in all the wonders of the market at once. Children lined up at a cauldron filled with molten chocolate and were sent away with steaming mugs cupped in their mittened hands.
But still, everything was justoffsomehow. Adeline’s boots shone wetly in the slush that coated the once solid laketop. The walls of the market had been moved, crushing the stalls closer to warden off a section toward the middle of the lake, where a vein of shallow jagged cracks webbed the smooth surface of the ice. Off in the distance beyond the walls, a team of Edward’s Wielders stood clustered together. Their black cloaks were a smudge against the Laune, their backs to the market as they drew the Winds to their hands and worked on the surface of the ice.
Adeline could not help noticing the absence of one of her favourite stalls, too. It was run by a merchant Wielder who carved tiny ice palaces and gave them to her young daughter to paint and stain with multicoloured dyes. They lit the little castles by candle from within so that each one cast flickering auras, and the shelves of the stall looked like a glittering fairytale village. Adeline had hoped to send one to Iseult for her birthday, a pretty little reminder of home.
She cast another glance around the market for the little stall as she and Ger headed home, having decided to skip the alehouse for today.
Perhaps they’ll be back, she thought.
The voice in her head was unconvincing.
Chapter 19
Kai
Kai,
I’ve made the rounds of the host houses, and all is well. You’ll receive word from each of them within the next day or so.
