Midnight Frost (16 page)

“An alliance, Delano. The pixies and the fairies – side by side. We can't fight off the Dark Hordes alone, and neither can you. Do you really want this for your people – complete destruction?”

“Better that than submission!” Delano spat. “I know your fairy ways. You'll enslave us – exile us to the northern mountains, to those barren swamp-lands where we eke out a living while you fatten yourselves on riches – no! Better we all die than that.”

“It won't be like that, Delano,” I pleaded. “Feyland will be different. We've all sworn an oath – under the banner of the Midnight Knight. We're not fighting for Summer or Winter, or even for our own kind. We're fighting for this land. This land we all love. Home to all of us.”

“To you, perhaps.”

“I swear to you, Delano. If we survive this – pixies will participate as fully as fairies do. No more exile. We'll welcome you – let you live among us. As our equals. Our friends.”

Delano looked at me darkly. “Why should I trust you?”

“Because I know you care for this land, too. I know its magic sustains you. And I know that you consider Skirnismal your home.”

Delano looked at me with surprise. The pixie name for this territory was never heard on Fey lips.

“Hark!” A pixie gave a great shout as an enormous Minotaur charged towards us – its skeleton visible beneath its flesh. A Dead Minotaur.

“Let us have the girl!” A booming voice echoed in the Minotaur's throat. “She is anathema to our kind!”

The pixies scattered, giving the Minotaur a clear path to me. It charged faster and faster, its sharp horns pointed directly at me. I raised my shield, bracing for impact.

A bright green light shot forth from Delano's fingers, surrounding the Minotaur.

It reared up in pain as an emerald box formed around the Minotaur, encasing him in what looked like green amber.

“That should hold him for a while,” Delano said. “Until we can figure out how to kill the thing.”

“What was that?” I turned to Delano

He did not smile. “That, my dear Breena, is an alliance.”

Chapter 17

S
uddenly, a great cold whipped through us, accompanied by a shadow.

“What's going on?” I turned to Delano.

“Look!” He pointed upwards. I gasped at what I saw. The two suns of Feyland – normally so bright – had begun to shrink and dim, their light slowly vanishing. Frost began to appear on the surface of the earth – not the clean, fresh snow of the Winter Kingdom, but a cold black ice. Everyone started shivering – even the Winter Fey, accustomed to cold, started to yelp and shout in fear.

“It's the Dark Hordes,” said Delano. “I knew it was said that their magic could blot out the suns – but I never realized...”

“Blot out the sun?”

And then they were gone – both of them – and all of Feyland was plunged into darkness. Instinctively, the fey began creating what magic lamps they could – tiny piles of warmth within this great, expansive frost. But as Delano and I looked at each other, we knew they wouldn't last long. It was taking enough magical energy to keep these lights from burning out – there was no way these soldiers could create light and fight off the hordes at the same time.

I closed my eyes, trying to connect my magic with that of all the Fey, communicating with Winter and Summer alike.
Retreat
, I said.
Back to the Summer Palace.
At least there we could huddle in shared light and warmth – there we could light a flame as we decided what to do next. My heart was pounding with terror. I had not expected this – this darkness, this fear. How could we stand a chance of fighting off the Hordes.

“Tell your Pixies to come inside the Summer gates,” I said. “That we must stand together now. That we mean them no harm.”

Delano nodded. “We haven't got much time,” he said. “The suns are the source of all magic – as much mine as yours. Without them we will grow weak – we will die. It is only the Hordes who can see in darkness, who can survive...”

“Hurry!”

I returned to the tower, running to my father. “Hurry,” I said. “We have to change the spell – have it let in Winter and the pixies.”

“The pixies?” My father furrowed his brow.

“I've convinced Delano to join us – he's not stupid. He needs those suns as much as we do. And the wolves – the centaurs – let all of us in!”

It took fifty fairies to cast the spell a second time, but they managed, and a ring of protection was cast that allowed all our allies into the palace. I looked around sadly. My beautiful Summer Palace, a place of rest, a place of childhood and fond memories, had been transformed into a military camp. Swords and armor were strewn everywhere; bodies of the injured lined the gardens while Rose and her fellow-alchemists tended to their wounds.

“I never thought it would be this way,” my father spoke gravely, as our allies funneled in through the enchanted gate, fighting off the Dark Hordes as they did so. “An army fueled by such anger, such hatred. An army so captive to their own pain that they want nothing more than destroy everything in this land. They will blot out the suns – they will destroy all! I never thought such hatred could exist.” He sighed, placing a hand to his grey-tinted beard. “But I was a fool not to know of such darkness.”

“None of us could know.” The Winter Queen came forth, her expression grave.

“We must retire – the leaders, all of us. To strategize.” My father extended a hand to the Winter Queen and she took it, a small smile on her lips.

“And now we are friends, then?”

“We must be friends,” said my father. “We have suffered too much of the same thing – lost too many of our friends, our allies, our family, to hate one another now.”

We looked around. Never had it been like this – pixies tending the wounds of werewolves, Summer and Winter fey sharing the last of their provisions. Centaurs and the loyal minotaurs lay down side by side in the stables, resting their heads on the same hay. My heart constricted. Is this what it took, I wondered, to get us all to fight together? Was it our shared fear, our shared pain, that could bring us closer than all my treaties ever could?

My father, Delano, Logan, Kian, the Winter Queen, Cary, Shasta and I all retreated to a private chamber, bolting the doors behind us. Kian remained silent, and although I could not see his face behind his visor I saw him turn his expression to his mother and sister. He too, I knew, felt the strain of his disguise.

“If only we had been wise,” said my father. “If only I had been wise. If I had not left the kingdom to Redleaf to run – if I had been bold enough to stand up to her and to the people in the early days, to insist on peace before war created such a chasm between us.”

Tears were falling from the Winter Queen's face. “I do not blame you alone,” she said softly. “For I too bear the burden of this guilt. I let my anger get the better of me – I cloaked it in stoicism – but it was anger nonetheless. Anger at Summer. Anger at those Summer fey who died at the Silver Bridge, alongside my husband. Had I been less rigid, I might have seen a way for peace. I might have let Breena marry him...” Her voice choked in her throat. “My son. They might have created a united Feyland simply by marrying. I convinced myself that the people would not accept it. But perhaps it was
I
who would not accept it.”

“It is too late for regrets,” said my father. “Whatever happens, we will come out of this as friends.”

“Yes,” the Winter Queen whispered. “Friends.”

“I can't bear this!” Kian's voice rang out loud and clear from behind his visor. “Mother, I can bear this no longer!”

He thrust the helmet from his head, shaking his long, tangled hair from beneath the mask. He ran to her, taking her hands in his and pressing them to his lips. “Mother, I'm so sorry I deceived you, so sorry....”

The Winter Queen clapped a hand to her mouth. “Kian!”

“We were afraid of the secret getting out – that the others would find out that there was no Midnight Knight, only those of us who believed in the power of that myth...I was afraid to tell you on the battlefield, when so many might see. I was wrong to put you through such pain, mother. Forgive me.”

She trembled – on the verge of fainting for the first time in her life. Kian caught her deftly.

“Brother!” Shasta ran to him, enveloping him in a great bear hug. She then hit him soundly across the face. “That's what you get for lying to us!”

Yet the Queen said nothing, but only wept quietly, hiding her face in Kian's chest, holding him close. Kian had always told me he was convinced that his mother had not really loved him. But as I saw her hold him tight, clutching him as if to hold him back from the reach of Death itself, I knew that the Queen loved Kian even more than I did – even more than any of us could have.

“You have given us all hope,” the Queen whispered. “As the Midnight Knight, you convinced us to still take up arms and fight. But as a mother, seeing you here in front of me inspires more hope than any legend could have done.”

“I love you, mother,” Kian whispered, saying words I knew had never been spoken between them.

She caught her breath. She had forbidden that word in her house – forbidden what it represented: uncontrolled passion, dangerous magic. But now, as she wiped the tears from her eyes, all that was forgotten.

“I love you too, my son.”

Chapter 18

L
ogan came up to me as the Winter Queen, Shasta, and Kian continued their embrace. “I'm glad we were able to do something good,” he said, pulling his lionskin cloak more tightly around him. Even with the magical fires we had produced, it was still freezing around us: it would only grow worse, I knew, as Feyland adjusted itself to the lack of sun.

“We'll get out of this,” I said. “I know we will. The Midnight Knight – the Red Wolf – the Summer Queen. We'll manage.”

But my voice betrayed my uncertainty.

“When we were engaged,” Logan said slowly, “I promised the wolves that our engagement meant one thing – restoring the magic and power of my kind. To bring magic back to the Wolves, to bring us back to our glory, just as my grandfather would have wished me to do. They – Josephine, I mean – they all thought the way to do that was to marry you, to ally Fey and Wolf Fey together, permanently. But now...” He took my hand. “Breena, I don't know what's going to happen after the war. I don't know how things are going to be with us. But I don't want to have made that promise to my people in vain. If I don't...I mean, if
we
don't...I'm going to do it anyway. I'm going to find a way to bring magic back to my people. Make us fully Fey again, instead of half-wolves, half-humans, still possessed of some semblance of magic.”

Logan and I went aside into a private room, where he took my hand. “I love you, Breena,” he said. “And that love will give me hope. But I don't want to rely on that love for the sake of my men. Josephine was right to want what she wanted – power for the Wolf Fey. But she was wrong to link that goal to my marriage. If I end up with you, it will be for you alone – not for these stupid politics. I want to be with you because we want to, not because we have to. And if you choose...him – I won't be letting down my Wolves. I can't deal with that on top of a broken heart.”

He pulled me close and kissed me, and for a moment I let myself succumb to this love, this desire. But as he kissed me I felt another calling – the stirring from another room. It was Kian's voice, echoing in my head.

My darling, I have already thanked you for saving my life – for my own sake. But now I must thank you again. Not for what you have done for me. But for what you have done for her. For my mother.