Aera. One of the new gods, under the Faith of the Goddess. Her daughter, if he remembered right, or one of them at least.
“You haven’t seen it?” Iseult squealed. “Oh, then youmustcome ice skating. We’ll quickly show you the Shrine, and then you can watch my dance at the stream, and then you can go find your sister.”
Iseult marched up the aisle, still planning aloud. Adeline caught Kai’s eye and grinned. He was slow to return her smile; he hoped it didn’t look too forced. His mind was racing ahead, out of the palace and blindly through the trees in search of the so-called Shrine.
Had the pendant never left Avette’s throat? Could it really hang there still, fixed by frost above her eternally frozen heart?
Adeline got to her feet with one long stretch, and tilted her head toward Iseult’s dancing form at the end of the shelves.
“Looks like you’ve got a busy day ahead of you.”
Let’s hope so.
Chapter 27
Kai
The splendour of the Mid-Winter Faire was enough to distract him, briefly, from all that Iseult’s book had unveiled.
The palace staff had created a wonderland from the blinding blank canvas of Eisalaan. They had trailed a vast length of stained glass lanterns leading from the palace courtyard to the depths of the woods and out toward the banks of the Laune. The coloured lights were strung from tree to tree, weaving in and out of the branches and looping trunk to trunk until the whole forest flickered gently beneath the grey sky. Each clearing they passed spilled bustle and chatter in their path; on this side, children skidded up and down a frozen stream, laughing and squealing. On the other, music swelled over the scuff of booted feet dancing in the snow. As they walked, the forest thinned and a throng of people huddled around something Kai couldn’t see. They seemed to be waiting for something; many of them clutched steaming flasks, shuffling side to side to stay warm and chatting with their neighbours.
“Oh no, look at the queue,” Iseult moaned. She turned her pout up to Adeline. “I wanted to go skating.”
“Well we can always show him later, Iz,” said Adeline. “We’ll come back when the queue dies down a bit. Is that alright with you, Kai?”
It wasn’t until she turned to him that he realised what they must all be waiting for - a Shrine, Adeline had called it. These people, with their sacks of grain, and jewellery slung over their arms, were waiting to pay tribute to Avette. Maybe even pray to her, as though she were a disciple of Mother Adhlas herself.
No, not a disciple of the Mother, but a child of the Goddess. A Daughter, as they said in today’s Eisalaan. Avette would have relished the thought.
Kai swallowed against the sour thickness in his throat. Adeline was looking up at him expectantly, and all he could do was nod in what he hoped was a casual enough manner. As they walked by, he craned his neck to catch a glimpse over the crowd, but all he could see was a white billow of hair and one slim outstretched arm.
“Kai, are you coming?”
He dragged himself away. He would come back. Avette was not going anywhere and the revelation was still so raw it stung. He hadn’t had a moment to breathe around it, let alone form a plan. It would be better if he faced her alone. Safer.
Later, then.
Kai followed Adeline and Iseult around the outskirts of the crowd to the end of the forest, where wooden stalls snaked the treeline above the lake, every one of them draped in purple silks and silvered garlands. Iseult clutched at Kai’s cloak, pointing everywhere, her small voice reaching an inaudible pitch in her excitement. He tried to drag his thoughts away from the Shrine and rally inwardly, pulling on a smile and dutifully looking here and there as she pointed out all of the stalls offering their unique wares.
Adeline’s soft, admiring gaze did make it somewhat easier to hold that smile in place.
The merchant closest to them sold living ice miniatures, and as they passed he bustled around to the front of the stall, kneeling in the snow to present Iseult with a tiny horse carved from ice that galloped in place on her small hand. Iseult’s rounded eyes took up half her small face, and Adeline tried to press a few goldpuinton the merchant, but he refused.
“A Mid-Winter gift for the Princess,” he said, waving her hand away.
Iseult flashed a bright grin and dashed away, clutching her new frozen pet.
“Iseult, say thank you!”
The merchant gave a bellowing laugh, shaking his head fondly after the little Princess. Kai and Adeline thanked him again, Adeline apologising ruefully. They set off after her sister, craning to keep track of the girl’s red hair whipping here and there as Iseult weaved through the slow moving press of the Faire’s crowd.
“She’s so cheeky, honestly.”
Kai couldn’t help the short gust of laughter that escaped him.
Adeline narrowed her eyes. “What?”
He cut her a sideways glance. “I was just thinking that she reminds me of you.”
