Page 60 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

“Mal,” I called. “That is enough.”

He chucked the rest of the crumbled bread on the table. “I’m sick and tired of you all masquerading the truth. Just tell her when she gets like this. She deserves to not miss the piece of work our father was.” With that, he stood and left.

Driada’s head hung low, and she wiped stray tears with the corner of her sleeve while quietly eating her meal.

“I will talk to him, do not worry,” Larg said, resting a hand on hers.

There was one person he would listen to, and it was either of them. I was sure it was not me either.

A soldier stepped inside the breakfast room, greeting the table and leaning down to me. “There is a woman here. She has been at the gates since last night and demands to see you.”

“Demands?”

She nodded. “Very persistently. It has something to do with the queen.”

It took me a moment to blink the stagger off. The woman demanding to see me was an older lady, sat by the carriage road and shivering from the cold morning breeze. “You’ve let her wait at the gates all night?”

The soldier winced a bit. “We didn’t think much of it.”

“What was she going to do to me? Take me down with her crutches?”

Pushing past the gates, I reached to her, shedding my jacket and throwing it around her shoulder. “Apologies, my soldiers should have known better.”

She waved a bony shaking hand in dismissal. “I would not blame them, my king.”

“You’ve demanded you see me. Does it have to do with my wife?”

She nodded and brought something out from her pocket. And as she did so, dozens of swords were unsheathed around me and made her freeze. The poor woman shook from fright.

“Down!” I shouted and they all retreated. Since when have my soldiers turned to agitated killers?

“It is only a necklace,” she said, bringing the glittering jewellery out for me to see. One I could recognise. Snow’s necklace? “She gave it to me during the commotion in the city. I have a young granddaughter and the queen wanted me to pay for her care. But when I went to the jeweller to exchange it…I just couldn’t. He told me the diamonds were the finest and purest he’d ever seen and the gold in the chains,” she explained, lifting it for me to see. “It is a fine one, too. It cost too much. You can give it back to her. If she hadn’t persisted on it, I would have not taken it, my king.”

Something inside of me swelled with pride. “How old is your granddaughter?”

“Just turned five last autumn.”

“My wife would be offended if you gave it back.” And probably murderous.

“I thought about it as well since she was quite stern in person. This is why I thought to give it to you.”

“I’d hate to keep this one a secret. The necklace is yours. Bring your niece over sometimes, my stepmother invites the schoolchildren in the gardens from time to time. It does her well to keep busy,” I said, looking over my guards who suddenly became all conscious about their own actions and hung their heads low. “They will know to let you in next time.”

She gently patted my arm. “She is a pretty one. Like the night skies—dark hair and starry eyes. Very pretty.”

My smile was wide. “She is.”

“And she makes you smile.”

“She does.”

“You love her.”

“I do.”

There was no movement beyond the Highwall, not a single footstep marked the snowy grounds behind our side of the wall besides the rainstorms that had murked the white floor of Isjord with a mess of brown. The solid mass of stone for the first time seemed like a barrier of protection rather than the usual cage it had been for us. I’d spend many hours of my days in this tower, constantly overlooking the land of Krig. Wondering if everything would have been different if I had not chosen to lie. Every day, I’d looked beyond the city lands laying ahead and wondered if I’d missed her between the crowds of people. And every day, that lie had thickened, hardened and become less a lie and more of a reality. Convincing myself that I’d signed those papers that night to protect my people had become easier to admit, and soon, everyone had accepted it to be the sole truth.

“I-It doesn’t make sense,” Atlas said, from where he’d sprawled in the corner of the tower room, covered in all sorts of scriptures and ink. “Esmeray lived at the start of times, why would it have anything to do with Aurora or where the sceptre pieces are hidden? N-not to mention that Silas seems to have no trouble locating these pieces anyhow? Why would he go through so much trouble as to steal a book he cannot even read?”