“They caught me trying to steal the queen’shair comb in the village I grew up in, poor, half-starved, and beatregular by my pa,” Pavel said, catching Roark’s full attention.“They were sailing back here to Sea Ridge, bringing the queen toher new home.They could’ve cut me hand off for thievin’, but gaveme a chance to sail with them, to learn a sailor’s trade.”Hechuckled.“I got so terrible seasick on the journey they let metrain to be a stable hand instead.Here I’ve been since.”Hisjovial manner turned serious.“They gave me a new life, a goodlife, King Jerrik and Queen Alyssa did.Even kept me on after sometrouble I got into with the king’s uncle.Most would’ve turned meout.”He met Roark’s gaze head on.“I learnt my lesson about lyingtwenty years ago.Nothing good ever comes of it.”
“No,” Roark agreed.The lies of omission keptsticking in his throat.The knowledge of what he was about to do tothe king’s family, to Alina, weighing heavily on him.“Itdoesn’t.”
He considered going to her, to the king, andconfessing all, or going back toThe Roverand refusing totake part in Roger’s scheme, or even walking up into the mountainsnever to be seen again.
Yet no matter what he chose to do, other thantake part in the plan, the repercussions would affect not only hisfamily, causing them to lose Roger’s and likely many other lairds’trade and alliances, but the hundreds of families who depended onthe lairds for their livelihood.Not to mention the shame hisfamily would suffer because of him.He drained his third cup ofbeer and looked around the courtyard, spying Leif by the beer casksflirting with a buxom blonde as if he didn’t have a care in theworld.As if what they were about to do wasn’t weighing on him inthe least.
Roark stared into his empty cup and coveredit with his hand when Pavel held a full pitcher of beer over it.“No, thank you,” he told Pavel.“I’ve had enough.”Enough to dullthe sharp pangs of guilt pricking his conscience, yet not so muchhe would muck things up.He stood.“It was good to meet you.”
“And you, young Green Isler.”
He walked aimlessly through the growing crowdof revelers, trying to distract himself from what the night wouldbring.He patted the vial of White Milk, known here as the Oil ofthe Dream Flower, in his tunic pocket.He’d traded a bolt of finelywoven highland wool for the drug and hoped he wouldn’t have to useit on Alina, though he would if it came down to it.For her sake aswell as theirs.
Dusk turned to night and the hum of thegathering rose in volume as the torches were lit and the crowdparted, opening a pathway as Alina walked with her parents andAnders from their longhouse to a newly cleared area in thecourtyard.Roark made his way to the clearing’s edge as the familytook their places, the king standing in the middle as the queen,wearing a lynx throw over her shoulders and carrying a harp, sat ona stool near the back of the clearing.Anders went to one side, andAlina the opposite.
She wore a long-sleeved gown of fern greenworm weave, the lowcut bodice skimming the swell of her breasts andnipping in at her slim waist, the skirt flowing down in panelsflashing iridescent green and gold around her legs, which lookedeven longer and leaner close up.
Her mane of burnished cedar was pinned upwith combs of gold and copper, showing off the graceful line of herneck, and was crowned with a wreath of winter lilies and snowdrops.Around her throat she wore a delicate chain of filigreed copper,from which a lustrous gold pearl the size and shape of a dove’s eggdangled in the hollow between her breasts.Alina was a beautifulyoung woman, even dressed in workaday linens with soil-coveredhands, but seeing her dressed like this was a revelation.
Roark stood spellbound.
“Welcome everyone to the festival of Spring’sEve,” the king announced.“I hope you are enjoying the hospitalityof our city.”Shouts and whistles broke out and the king smiled andwaited for them to die down.“To start the night’s festivities, wewill sing and play the song of The Spring Maid, the Sun God, andThe Lord of Winter.”
The crowd fell silent as the king moved toAlina’s side of the clearing and she walked to the center of it,knelt down, and tucked into a tight ball.The queen strummed herharp, and Alina began to sing of the cold and the endless snow, hervoice thin and reedy, then growing fuller and stronger as sheslowly unfolded and rose, unfurling her arms and reaching for thewarming sky she sang to.
King Jerrik stepped into the clearing,jutting his head this way and that, singing in a low, gutturalgrowl, calling to the winds and icy snow.Spying Alina, the springmaiden, standing and swaying as if blown by a gentle breeze,singing with a voice as pure and clear as water rippling overstone, he spread out his arms with his fingers clawed and envelopedthe Spring Maid in the Lord of Winter’s icy hold, blowing andmoaning his victory over her as she shrank back into a frozenball.
Anders’s voice rang out, rich and sure andstrong, singing the warmth back into the sky and life back into theearth as he strode into the clearing, head high and shoulders back,the Sun God reclaiming his world.He stood over the Spring Maid,singing to the heavens of light and heat and rebirth as the SpringMaid slowly thawed and rose again.Standing in the Sun God’s warmembrace, her brilliant smile reflecting the sun’s light, the SpringMaid sang of the new life stirring within her as she and the SunGod held their arms out to the rapt gathering and sang together.They beamed as their voices reached a glorious crescendo.
Roark met Alina’s shining eyes and sworeunder his breath.“Damnation.”
“What do you think you’re doing?”Leifgrumbled in Roark’s ear as Alina and her brother and parentsclasped hands and bowed to the audience’s wild applause.
“What do you mean?”
“The plan was for me to get close to theprincess,” Leif said.“Not you.”
Roark resisted the urge to plow his fist intoLeif’s face.“Plans change,” he said instead.He hadn’t chosen tobe part of Roger’s plan.In fact, he’d argued against it manytimes, but it hadn’t made any difference.The only choice they’dgiven Roark was to join them or refuse and risk severing all ties,leaving his family shamed and shunned.“It doesn’t matter who getsclose to the princess,” he told Leif.“As long as one of us does.You and I will simply swap roles in this.The end results will bethe same.”
Leif chewed on it a moment and then slappedRoark on the back.“It’s just as well,” he said.“She’s too plainand high speaking for my tastes.”
***
Dressed in her green gown and a short cloakof gold and brown owl and hawk feathers sewn onto a leather liner,Alina stood on the outside edge of the crowd gathered around themusicians and peered through the eye holes of the feathered maskthat covered her nose and tufted out from her cheeks into the shapeof an owl’s wings, the eyeholes and edges of the mask studded withstones of topaz and amber.
“Looking for somebody?”a deep voice saidfrom behind her.
She turned around and looked into eyes thecolor of rain from beneath a headdress of buckskin adorned with astag’s eight-point antlers.“It seems he’s found me,” she answered,accepting the cup of drink that Roark held out to her.She took asip.“How did you know I prefer honey mead to beer or wine?”
“It was what you drank at supper.”He leanedin as close to her neck as his antlers allowed and inhaled.“Youstill smell like cherry blossoms,” he said, his warm breathtickling the small hairs on her nape.
“You smell of moth-eaten deer hide,” shesaid, stepping back and putting some distance between them.
Roark laughed, low and mellow.“You shouldhave smelled it before I aired it out for three days.”
Alina wrinkled her nose.“I’ll take your wordfor it.”
The musicians started to play a reel andRoark lifted his chin toward the people dancing.“Would you like todance?”
