Frustration heated his veins.
She grabbed his hand, zapped his marked palm with a finger, and squealed in delight like a child.
Daemon moved his gaze from the bizarre woman back to Valkyrja. “What is wrong with her?”
The queen shrugged. “We only just met. This is Perla, princess of Daryatla.”
Of course. He’d only registered the wind, not the water, which her mother wouldn’t have had. Still, he pulled his hand free of her fingers. And kept his focus on the Blessed. “I’m less interested in introductions than assurances. For over a century, your father and his father before him have made slaves of me and my people. It ends now—or we set loose the lava.”
They would never do that—it would be their own people, the thanes, who would pay. Which Isidor and Axel had both known. It was what had kept them locked in this mountain all these years. How could they harm their own people, just to pay back the tyrant?
With a bit of luck, this girl wouldn’t know that.
Perla tapped a polished fingernail to her lip. “How much over a century?”
He spared her a snarl, then turned back to the queen.
Valkyrja’s fingers had curled into her palms. “I don’t know what my father has done, nor his father before him, but I promise you this—a new Fjordlandi begins today. If your words mean that you and your people have been helping us control the Ring of Flame with this new magic I see you hold, then we owe you our gratitude. And at least one seat on my new Great Council, I’d say, depending on how many of you there are who need representation. And quite possibly seats on the High Council.”
Isidor writhed in his block of ice.
Well. Daemon didn’t know if this woman was as true an ally as she seemed, but at the very least, they shared an enemy. He folded his arms across his chest. “Seats on the Councils are a good place to start.” He flicked a grin at the Blessed that he hoped looked as wicked as they thought him. “Do I get to Challenge one of them for it? Or face their ilk in the Proving?”The thought of torching a few coldhearted Blessed was a dream he’d had more than once over the years.
Valkyrja smiled back. “I’m afraid I’ve already done that part. Now I have a few vacancies to fill—and since I was the one to defeat them, I can appoint whomever I please, no Proving required and no Challenges allowed for four years.”
Another muted-shout and squirm from her father.
Daemon felt the shift of the lava below them, the way it slid its way up the wall and crusted over into a ramp—a faster way to climb, yes, but not nearly so subtle to anyone watching. No one else would have sensed the change, though, nor was anyone peering over the side anymore. He shifted, gave Perla a wide berth, and moved to the edge. Eldrid and Nik were halfway up. Apparently his brother had heard enough to decide it was safe to join them.
In fact… “Would you fetch the others, Eldrid? I think our new queen would like to meet them.”
Nik met his gaze while Eldrid nodded and leapt back down to the pool. “You…he said…”
Were they in the safety of their own tunnels, Daemon would have offered a smile. An assurance that, odd as it seemed, he wasn’t alone. Though he’d surely thought he was plunging to his death, he’d in fact dropped into a new family. “Save it until you’re on solid ground, brother. Nik, is it?”
Nik nodded and increased his pace.
Daemon watched him carefully. It was Eldrid who had built the ramp, he could tell, but he pulled his power out with him as he left—maybe as a bit of a welcome prank, so that the newcomer would start to sink, but just as likely from habit. Daemon prepared himself to steady the ramp, given that it was the first few minutes of this new life for Nik. But the crust didn’t vanish. In fact, it thickened as Nik jogged up it, enough to sustain his weight.
Impressive. Daemon moved back to give the man room to clear the edge.
“Nik.” Valkyrja surged forward.
Nik dropped to a knee the moment he was back on rock. “My queen.” He tilted his left hand, palm up, and flexed his fingers to reveal his mark. “I owe you my life.”
She reached out, rested a hand on his bowed head. “There are no debts between us.”
“Aww.” Perla eased up to Daemon’s side, brushed her shoulder against his arm. “Aren’t they cute?”
He stepped away. This woman was clearly insane. Or had no sense of decorum. And who wore a voluminous layered gown into a volcano?
The new queen turned to the frozen crowd, zeroing in one of the Vektors. “Viggo.”
A man stepped forward.
“Viggo, I need you to secure these prisoners in the Ice Prison. I will help with the transportation from here and manage the cells, of course. Can I trust you and your comrades to guide them?”
“Of course, Majesty.”
