Alorah greeted the two women whom the rebels approached first. A little shaken still, they bowed their heads and walked off down the hall. Guards, bloodied and beaten, escorted them. They were last to go since they sought a private word with the Queen.
"Eliza and Georgie Taboth," Lukas said, noticing the direction of her glance.
"Sisters?" Aurelie didn't much care. Her thoughts were elsewhere.
Healers had been called out. Every few minutes, Aurelie saw someone pass to the infirmary. She had no interest in visiting it herself. In fact, she convinced that after she left the table she would be using the portal to return home.
"In-laws."
"I see."
Lukas moved his chair closer, invading her space. Aurelie turned her head away and pretended to observe the room. Any closer and he'd be sitting atop her. "Both brothers are dead now, of course."
"Of course."
The memories of the wizards that approached her with the portal had mostly faded. It had been her desperation, perhaps, that formed expectations help in the form of soldiers from Alorah. She was no longer sure whether help was being offered at all. And if it had been, looking at how dire things were here, Aurelie wasn't sure that kingdom could spare even a single man never mind a whole army.
"It was quite a story here, really. They fell down the stairs, during an apparent row."
"The both of them?" Aurelie gave him the slightest bit of attention and regretted it as soon as she did.
He moved even closer. "Yes, strange indeed."
"What is?" Alorah sat back down and waved her finger at the guard.
"The Taboth deaths."
"Ugh." Alorah raised her fingers and shoulders in disgust. "They were horrible old men. It's a wonder they didn't take their wives with them. Did you see how frightened the poor women were? I doubt they're over the first incident and in comes another."
She shook her head in disapproval and turned to the guard who had taken his place on her left side. He was not inside the dining hall when the rebels attacked but the blade of his sword was stained.
"Find one of the servants and tell them to bring us some hot tea."
"Your Majesty, they're all down at the infirmary assisting the healers."
Alorah turned her head up to look at him and frowned. "Then you bring it!"
A fresh cut traced its way down his brow and onto his cheek. It's a wonder he didn't lose his eyes. The astonishment he showed toward the queen's request said quite clearly what he dared not and that was that he was a warrior, not a maid.
"Jonah, do we have a problem? Are you not skilled in pouring boiling water over some leaves? Have we run out of fire? If need be, bring your wife so she can teach you. But if you do not plan to return with tea, you can leave your uniform and coat with Mrs. Jimble and find your way out of this castle."
"Mother, surely weâ
"Do you wish to fetch the tea then, Lukas?"
"No, Your Majesty," he answered slowly, avoiding the guard's eye, embarrassed by his own treatment.
Jonah bowed reluctantly and stepped away but not before throwing Lukas a look that was not returned. The whole exchange was uncomfortable to watch. Aurelie wanted nothing more than to leave the company. She was cold, wet and not in the slightest mood to witness the Queen's show of strength.
"Great!" Alorah tapped her hand on the table and sat back in her chair. "Now, Aurelie, shall we discuss our situation?"
Aurelie folded her one leg over the other. "What is there to talk about? Your situation is direr than mine." Perhaps it was not smart to share her true thoughts with the Queen. They could grab and rob her of the portal right then and there and she wasn't sure she'd be able to stop them.
"Quite right." Alorah nodded. "It is unfortunate that you had to see our weakness on the first day of your visit. The problems I have with the rebel factions will end once we break the Dranoir curse."
We... You mean me.
Aurelie crossed her arms. The Icelands, whether it was the cold or her alacrity to keep herself composed, had a calm effect on her. She no longer felt as though her magic could surpass her proper judgment. Maybe it was even Alorah's presence that showed Aurelie how to manage her own temper.
"The rebels attack out of desperation. They know that even if they storm the castle, their livelihood will not improve. The curse has to be broken. Once that happens, they will be too busy rebuilding and rejoicing." She tapped her index finger on the table as if that would somehow convince Aurelie that she would get what she asked for.
"And at which point do they gather to fight for me? Is that between the rebuilding and rejoicing? I cannot wait years, Your Majesty. My situation is just as dire."
Alorah smiled. "Once you free them, they will kneel down and worship you. You will tell them to jump and they will ask you pick a cliff."
"And you will let them? Worship me that is."
Alorah degraded her son for going against her on an order of tea. Aurelie didn't truly want the throne, but she wouldn't give it up to anyone either. Neither would she allow Alorah to take credit for any victory in Highfire.
"I would worship you too."
Aurelie placed her elbows on the table and leaned in. "Prove it." She rose in her chair. "Surely, if you would worship me, you would also beg? They are one in the same. Both destroy strength. Show me how much you want me to help you. For I will be doing so purely on the basis of your word, and that is that you will help me and not dispose of me."
Alorah's nostrils flared. "Let us see if you're worth anything first."
"Ladies," Lukas said with a sigh.
Jonah returned with a tray of tea. He placed a wooden board on the table and heavy iron teapot atop it and started to pour the tea. Alorah's eyes remained on Aurelie. She picked up a steaming teacup that Jonah placed in front of her and took a sip.
"I didn't want to do this," Alorah said, calmly. "I want to create alliances instead of destroying them. You forced," she paused at the word, "my hand."
With a quick sweep, Alorah knocked everything off the table. Her hand extended toward the roof, the other firmly resting on the table.
Aurelie withdrew her hand, summoning a flame. She stepped away from the table and pointed it at Alorah. The portal was right there in her pocket, as always. All she had to do was create a wall of fire between them, and she could escape.
Lukas reached out. "Wait." Placing his hand on her wrist and flicked his head in his mother's direction.
An image of a room came into focus on the crystal table. "By the frost," Alorah chanted. "Leila, by the frost." Her crystal eyes turned white and began to swirl with shades of light blue.
The image moved. A shadowy outline of a nose remained in the center of the scene. It moved again, and Orken appeared on Peter's couch with a mug of ale in one hand.
"I can't go back there," Leila spoke. "The castle is in the very center. Even if I do go now, it'll take me a month just to reach the castle." Aurelie couldn't see Leila in the room, but it was certainly her voice. The queen remained chanting, in the same position.
"What are you good for then?" Orken asked.
"Leave her, Orken," Kirin said. The image swung to show him.
Aurelie's heart fluttered. The Queen was seeing through Leila's eyes. They were in Peter's house, planning and plotting as they usually did.
"I knew we shouldn't have let her go to that ball. I warned all of you. How are you not worried? You've been linked at the hip since we arrived!" Orken continued.
"I trust her judgment."
"You're the only one!"
The scene moved and locked onto Kirin. He sat on the couch with his head in his hand and bored by the conversation. He still had faith in her. Aurelie smiled. She missed them all terribly, even Orken. It was strange to see them after what had happened at the castle. It hadn't felt like a day at all. And at the cabin, nothing changed. They were all exactly the same. She noticed a smile on her face that accompanied only Kirin's image and put a more neutral expression on her face.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Lukas turn to her. "Who is he?" he asked.
"Just a shadow walker." That wasn't going to save it. Aurelie dropped her guard for a second, and her weakness was exposed.
Leila hissed and grabbed hold of her wrist. A small, white snowflake appeared below her touch. The skin around it turned a shade of blue.
"What is that?" Aurelie asked.
"She knows we're watching now," Lukas answered.
Alorah's hand moved, and the image shifted with it. A man sat on a chair in a wooden room. It was dark, and Aurelie couldn't quite make out who it was. His face appeared swollen and badly bruised.
"Everyone asleep?" mumbled the prisoner. It looked to be the night that he had escaped the inn and called the King and his men to attack the inn.
"I think so," Leila said. She bent down and drew something out from under the belt of her skirt. "Do you remember where to go?" It looked like a small, sharp blade. Leila pulled it closer and revealed it to be a broken arrowhead that Sasha had removed from one of Leila's wounds.
Leila cut the ropes of the prisoner and tiptoed to the door which he put his leg on the seat of the chair and rocked it backward until the legs snapped.
Her eyes stung but Aurelie continued to watch in disbelief as Leila scouted the area for their prisoner. Tears formed and she didn't care whether Lukas or the Queen saw her.
Footsteps sounded from upstairs, and Leila reached for the prisoner with her hand, stopping him. They waited until the person reached the second floor.
"Turn around," he told her and picked up the rope. "We'll have to tie you up if they're to believe you."
Leila turned and allowed him to tie her hands.
Voices sounded upstairs. "I couldn't save her, Aurelie. You must know that I would have if I could," she faintly heard Kirin's voice coming from upstairs.
"Was everything you told me a complete lie?" Aurelie heard herself ask. Her voice sounded so different from a distance. She remembered how hurt she felt that night and how quickly she had forgotten everything as soon as Daerious screamed.
"You have to go," Leila told the prisoner. "He doesn't know about you yet but someone's bound to tell him any second and he'll be down here faster than lightning strikes."
He nodded and looked out of the door, turned his head left, then right and disappeared.
"What are you talking about? Is this about the engagement?" Kirin asked upstairs.
Leila heard a door open on the lower level. It was her abilities that saved her that night. If she wasn't a shapeshifter, she wouldn't have heard anything. Daerious would have caught her, and Aurelie would let them do to her whatever they pleased . . . No, that was a lie. She would have protected her even then despite not wanting to.
An iron grip settled over Aurelie's heart. To think, that traitor was with the people she betrayed right at that moment.
Leila crawled closer to the nearest wall and banged her head against it. She paused, squeezing her eyes shut as the pain traveled through her skull and then banged again harder this time.
"Stop!" Aurelie said. Leila hit her head again and lowered herself to the floor.
"Stop it right now!"
Daerious walked into the room. His eyes widened. "No!" he screamed and ran out of the room.
The Queen broke whatever spell she cast, and the table was back to normal. Aurelie removed the portal from her pocket.
"If she runs when I go back, can you track her for me?" she asked.
"Yes."
Aurelie nodded and placed the portal on the table in front of Alorah. Without another word, she stood and walked away. She felt sick and fought every instinct that told her to hold her hand over her aching stomach. The thought of Leila working against them . . . Rage fueled her. Fire churned within her and heated her limbs. After a moment, her feet splashed every time she stepped on the melting floor.