“Iseult!”
But Kai could feel a rumble of laughter growing in his chest, shaking loose some of the tightness and exhaustion. He could see why Adeline had missed her sister, could see how close they must be; Iseult was almost a rose-haired Adeline in miniature, as preening and playful as her sister.
“Those are all very interesting questions.” He took another contemplative sip of tea. “Well first of all, yes, I can breathe underwater. See these scars, here?”
He gestured to the underside of his jaw and Iseult moved closer, craning her neck. He held his breath and flexed; the thin scars at his throat peeled open and pulsed just once.
“Gills!” The girl gasped.
Adeline blinked wide enough to flash a ring of white around her dark irises, and Kai released his breath too fast, coughing as his gills sealed once more. Heat prickled at his ears. He shouldn’t have done that.
Show them your human side, fool. Appeal to your shared nature. Don’t remind them of what you really are.
But Adeline’s shocked eyes relaxed, then creased in a slow grin. “That’samazing.”
Oh.
He nodded, not sure if he should thank her, and instead turned quickly to Iseult. He didn’t want Adeline to notice the traitorous flush that was surely creeping down his ears - although she was likely rather accustomed to it by now.
“I’d quite like to introduce you to my sister, Ceri,” he told the girl. “I’m sure she’ll be delighted to answer all of your questions.”
“Does she have gills too?”
Adeline hauled Iseult onto her lap and clamped a hand over her mouth while Kai doubled over, nearly spilling his tea into the thick carpet as his body quaked with compressed laughter.
“We were just about to have somequietreading time before the Faire,” Adeline said loudly, as Iseult wriggled indignantly against the muzzle of her sister’s palm. Adeline yelped and pulled her hand away, wiping it quickly on her skirt. “Did youlickme, you little beast?”
Iseult ignored her. “Come and read with us! Ade got me the most wonderful book for New Winter. It’smagic. Real magic.”
Kai hesitated, throwing a glance over his shoulder toward the annexe where the archives were held. He really should make use of this last hour or so before the Faire, he thought, but Iseult was still chattering excitedly.
“The pictures are enchanted so that everyone sees the story as if it’s drawn from your own imagination! My favourite is the Princess in theFirst Frost, she has red hair like me but it’s so long that it reaches all the way down to her bum–”
Kai’s attention snapped back to her.
“The First Frost?”
He knew the name as well as his own by now. It was the title Eisalaan had given to his story; his and Avette’s. Her final moments on Adhlas before her ice magic had consumed everything in its path. Had consumed him, and still did.
“I’d like to read that. Will you show it to me?”
The look Adeline turned on him was radiant, eyes shining . She’d mistaken his keen interest for kindness toward her baby sister, of course. He shoved aside his shame as he always did, as he had to, not meeting her eyes.
Adeline picked up the cream tome from the table beside her chair, and Kai set down his teacup in its place. He knelt beside the Princesses and peered over the armrest as Iseult opened the book. Her small hand fumbled with the pages until she spread them open to reveal curls of ink in grandiose, near-illegible font that may have spelled outThe First Frost.Beneath the title was a passage of text, and on the opposite side, a blank square.
Adeline inhaled theatrically, and began to read in a rather practiced manner – she’d clearly read this same story to her sister many times before. As she spoke, strokes of colour and inked lines swept across the blank square, an illustration taking shape before their eyes.
Kai loosed a sharp breath, touching his fingers to the page carefully. He had seen the charmed ice around the palace and at the market, but this was different. This was a complicated enchantment. He couldn’t imagine what elements the Mother would have brought forth for its creation, nor who might have Wielded them.Real magic indeed.It had been so long, so very long since he’d seen real magic. His very veins seemed to contract at the sight, a sick, dry feeling spreading across his limbs, puckering at his gills, aching to be quenched with the trapped magic of the Laune. He snatched his hand away.
Adeline read on, oblivious. She spoke of the kindly Princess, the chivalrous Merrow Prince, and their first meeting at the Beira King’s court. An invisible hand sketched out their faces; his black hair, her dark eyes framed by a spidery fringe of lashes. As Avette’s face filled out in front of him, Adeline gave a softOhof surprise.
“What is it Ade?” said Iseult.
Kai tore himself away from the disorienting portrait of their first encounter; his long body bent in a bow, Avette’s pale hand clutched demurely to her chest, a pretty flush kissing her cheeks. Here, beside him, living and breathing Adeline was frowning at the illustrated square. His stomach clenched, until he remembered that she wasn’t seeing what he was seeing.
“I think it’s me,” she said, wonderingly. “Last time I read this, the Princess was fair and pale like Mareda, but she’s different now. She’s me.”
“Mine looks like me, too,” Iseult piped up. “And my Prince is handsome, like Ger. Who does your Prince look like?”
