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I must have gasped, for both she and Wrath turned.
“What is it?” Wrath inhaled deeply, then let out a loud cough.
The air was sharp, piercing my lungs with a clarity I’d never before felt, but it hurt like hell and I was grateful for the warm cloak that covered me from neck to toe. I’d need gloves, too, and a scarf and hat.
“The air is practically crackling with the cold. It feels like it could shatter my lungs if I breathed deep enough. And you say that winter will return here?” I turned around, looking in all directions. To the right, I saw a group of Ice Elementals passing by, and they paused, looked directly at me, and stopped. “Uh-oh…are they dangerous?”
Lainule shook her head. “No, they sense you are their Queen-to-be. Even now, before the initiation, you reverberate with the energy of winter, Cicely. You are already transforming, but you do not realize it.
Wrath let out a slow breath. “As to the winter, here it has faded, just as summer is fading in Rhiannon’s realm. Ever since Tabera died, it has been so. Myst may claim the winter for her own, but she is not the Queen of Snow and Ice, and so there has been no rule here for quite some time. When you take the throne, the winter shall once again hold sway here.”
That scared me. If this was moderate weather for the area, what the hell was it going to be like living here in real winter? I moved closer to Grieve, who wrapped his arm around my shoulders and kissed my forehead.
“It will be all right,” he murmured. “We will adapt.”
I glanced up at him, and the sparkling lights of his eyes mirrored the flashing lights in the trees. My love, he was born for the Summer but had been transformed and reborn a winter king. He leaned down, brushing my lips with his own, his kiss so soft I could barely feel it in the numbing cold.
“As long as we are together, it will be okay,” I whispered.
Wrath led us to the Barrow palace, and there stopped to talk briefly with the guards. After they were finished, he turned. “The palace has been restored. There was a lot of damage, but everything is ready now. Come, Cicely, Grieve. Enter your new home. As Summer’s palace is called the Marburry Barrow, so this is the Eldburry Barrow.”
Silently, in a single line, we approached the entrance. As each of us stepped through, a shimmering light flashed pale blue.
I was prepared for a dark, musty place—it seemed that the palace of Winter would be such. Summer was rustic but elegant and warm, and even the air smelled like roses there. What I encountered was nothing like I’d expected.
The central common court was spacious. I could barely see the ends, and the floor reminded me of polished marble, but yet, when I looked closer, I saw that it was a pattern of stones inlaid in the dirt. Lapis and creamy white quartz, clear quartz and sodalite and amethyst, all smooth pebbles inlaid into the floor, like cobblestones, but they were firmly rooted in the compacted dirt. Overhead, the ceiling shimmered like black onyx, with stars embedded in the tiles, in an overreaching arc that mirrored the night sky.
The furnishings were minimal but had clean lines. It seemed that as comfortable and cozy as the Marburry Barrow was, so the Eldburry Barrow was cool and minimalistic and clear.
I ran my hand along one of the nearby benches. They were carved from slate and highly polished, and several smaller tables looked to be the same. The chairs around them were made from some sort of hardwood.
My father saw me staring. “Yew. The wood in this barrow is yew, with accents of elder and holly. Back at Marburry, in the realm of Summer, it’s mostly oak, with some willow and apple.”
That made sense, when I thought about it. The trees of summer. The trees of winter. As I slowly walked through the room, my hand trailing along the smooth surface of one of the tables, I closed my eyes. The room emanated age and antiquity and history. The Marburry Barrow was bustling with life once again, now that Lainule had retaken control. I tried to imagine what it would be like here, with the Winter Court full. Images of the Shadow Hunters kept flashing through my mind and I kept pushing them away, fighting off the panic that rose when I thought of ruling this realm.
I whirled to face my father. “You promise, you absolutely promise that Myst is not a true Queen of Winter?”
He gave me a solemn nod. “I do. She has never held the throne, nor been through the initiation, and without the proper rites, the abilities that make the Queen the Queen…they are not there. She is not—and never will be—the Queen of Winter. Her jealousy over that fact was what drove her in the beginning.”
That meant that although the Shadow Hunters had lived here under her rule for a while, they had not been of this place. And that seemed to make all the difference in the world. Another thought crossed my mind.
“You mentioned that some of the Summer Court were originally from here and that they might wish to return home. What if…what if they were aligned with Myst? What if I get them back here and they attack?”
Lainule shook her head, and her golden hair shimmered under the cool and icy lights. “We have taken care of that. I did not tell you, but shortly before we routed Myst and retook the realm of Summer, we…cleansed…the ranks. We knew we might have a few traitors. We watched our backs, we listened to the wind, and weeded them out. They are no more.”
Her voice was as cold as the room. I wondered what she had done to them. The look on my face must have read clear as crystal, because she gently placed one hand on my shoulder and her other hand on Rhiannon’s shoulder.
“My girls, you must accept the reality that to be a queen often entails tasks that require you to be ruthless. I ordered the execution of the traitors and stood by to watch. A queen should never send someone to his death unless she is willing to stand by her order and witness it.”
At the look on her face, Rhiannon and I simultaneously shuddered. Lainule’s fingers gripped our shoulders tightly. She leaned in closer.
“You must get over your squeamishness. The world is a terrible and beautiful place, filled with life and filled with death. Those who take the helm must, at times, make unpopular and difficult decisions. It is the way of the world.”
And then she let go and stepped back. “So, Cicely, what do you think of your home? Go exploring. There is nothing within these walls to fear.”
As Grieve and I took the front, and Rhia and Chatter swung in at the rear, we led our friends through the corridors. Lainule and Wrath stayed in the central chamber. Peyton seemed pensive. So did Luna, who was walking beside Kaylin. But he gave me a long look as I glanced back.
“She’s right, you know.” He slipped his arm around Luna as they strolled along behind us. “You have to be able to make these decisions without guilt. Remorse—that can be a good thing. But guilt?” He shrugged. “No.”
