Page 140 of Autumn Queens & Shadows

Blue Irises

Thora

Winter was only a week away from showing us its full blight, a week away from the solstice. Soon—Iskyla was going to make her biggest move soon, I could feel it. The weather was listless, and the skies were pale compared to other winters. There was a coat of aberrance that I couldn’t exactly point out. Everything looked out of place. Down to every flake of snow that had settled on the last snow storm a few weeks ago.

Perhaps it was my connection to the land that was making me restless, that it was causing my state of alert. Or the fact that my magic had decided to play hide and seek with me all of the sudden, leaving me to the mercy of my physical training.

Elias joined me on the castle wall tower looking over the city expanse and just a little further outside as well, beyond where the old city walls had been.

A small group of Isliners awaited at the old entrance, by some of the wall ruins had been left as a reminder of the history our kingdom had gone through.

At my order, Elias had held back his soldiers from attacking, and from some point inside the city itself, Malik had held back his dead. I couldn’t see him or where he was, but he must have known to retreat when the Isjordian soldiers had—maybe even before. He knew their intentions better than my guessing.

“Is this Iskyla’s new strategy, send me some commoners to kill so I could be the bad guy?”

Elias shook his head. “I don’t think Iskyla has sent them, and it’s not just…some.” He pointed his head further back where the snow mist had gathered just outside the city. “More accompanied them. Families. Elderly. Children. They’ve come to speak to you.” He passed me a piece of paper. “From Mal.”

I raised a brow at him. “He is Mal to you now?”

“He is to me whatever my queen thinks him to be,” he said so officially, and then muttered between his teeth, “I’m glad he wasn’t a dick to you.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled, a little embarrassed for some reason. Unfolding Malik’s letter, I read the one word he’s written and descended the tower steps, heading for the city.

Safe.

That was all he had written.

My dragon took shape before I’d stepped off the tower steps, and I jumped on its back.

A few gasps and murmurs sounded as the dragon landed only a few feet from the group of Isliners who’d shown up at my doorstep.

There were small children amongst the bunch, and I was considering how far would Iskyla go to take my throne before approaching them.

They seemed to hesitate, too. Looking back and forth the dragon and I as it began evaporating and turning back into snow.

An elderly man finally stepped forward, passing a greeting in old Yslot before saying, “We come to speak to you.”

“Then speak.”

“We ask that we be accepted in your lands,” he said proudly and very nonchalantly, not even flinching or looking offended at my cold tone.

I blinked. “You’re already in my lands.”

“To remain.”

Taken aback, I asked, “To remain? And your queen, your lands, your home?”

“Wherever there is winter, we are at home, and we follow no one person, only what our god guides us towards. We humans and Aura alike are merely his disciples.” He threw a look over the city behind me. “However,” he continued. “You do not seem to be a disciple.”

“Then what am I?”

“We have no name for what you are. We have no explanation for what we saw when you came to the Islines. We have no reasoning behind why the land and the creatures would react to you the way they did. But we have faith, we listen to nature, and we recognise its affinity to you. And if winter is your kin, we have no choice but to follow you. It is what our god wants.”

This seemed like the perfect trap. “Are you saying you’re abandoning Iskyla because your god told you so?”

“We are only abandoning a human being. One who seems to be led astray by her own strayed beliefs. We reasoned with her, and she would not reason back with us, so we left. Thankfully, pride is an easy thing to repair.”

“To remain in these lands would mean to remain under my rule. Are you ready to bow to my pride?”