Close to Frey stood Apollo Ulfr, the queen’s
general and chief strategist.
At his side was Ilsa, though they called her
Madeleine, the other-world woman who’d taken the place of Apollo’s
dead wife. Indeed, this Madeleine was going to do that two days
hence in an official manner, becoming his actual wife.
I’d met his previous Ilsa prior to her
expiring.
The women were the spitting image of each
other.
I did not understand this, Apollo carrying on
with this new Ilsa. It seemed sordid to me. Disrespectful of Ilsa’s
memory.
Even knowing there was another Antoine in the
other world, I would never seek to go there to find him or bring
the other him here to be with me.
There was no replacing him.
There was only one
true
Antoine.
However, it appeared Apollo held genuine
affection for her.
He was a man of emotion. He’d grieved his
wife openly and he’d done that for years.
But he was not a man ruled by emotion. He
would never take to wife a woman who had not found her way into his
heart.
This mattered naught to me.
One thing I had managed to decide that day
during my bath, with my head refreshed and my thoughts clear, was
that the concerns of others were no longer any concern of mine.
My life from that day forward would be
quiet.
No more machinations.
No more intrigue.
This decision was Antoine’s fault too. I knew
it.
However, despite it not being my character, I
couldn’t stop myself from looking to a future such as that, perhaps
not with relish as that future held no Antoine, but with a sense of
serenity.
I thought this as I turned my head to take in
the rest of the room.
On the other side of Finnie stood the mighty
(and
large
) Dax of Korwahk, their king, Lahn, his Circe, and
close to them stood Prince Noctorno and Princess Cora.
Taking him in, I found I wished I had the
time to study Prince Noctorno more closely. But even with the brief
glance I gave him, I noted the resemblance to the man who called
himself Noc was uncanny.
Prince Noctorno of Hawkvale had a scar on his
face that didn’t mar but instead enhanced his features, which Noc
did not have.
But that was the only difference.
As I came to a halt at the front of the desk,
I sensed more and looked over my shoulder.
When I did, I felt an odd pang hit my
belly.
Circe was sitting in an armchair (and it was
more than disconcerting, though I’d never allow it to show, the
present Ilsa looking like a dead Ilsa, two of the same Circes and
two of the same Noctornos in that room).
Noc was standing beside her, leaning into her
chair in a way that made me question my read of the situation the
evening before.
It seemed with the way he appeared now that
what they’d had was not a tryst.
His position, the closeness of it, would
suggest something else.
That odd pang came again, stronger, when I
saw he was regarding me, a look of familiarity on his face, warmth
in his eyes.
He was the only one in the room who was
showing even a modicum of cordiality. The rest were regarding me
with unconcealed impatience (even if I had just that moment
arrived) and even (in the case of Frey and Apollo), dislike.
It wasn’t cordiality Noc was displaying,
however.
It was friendliness.
It took me off guard, mostly because, outside
my friend Valeria, the only true friend I had in the Drakkar House
(or anywhere), no one looked on me with friendliness.
“It’s good you were able to rise from your
bed. Or Sjofn’s bed, as the Winter Palace is the home of Lunwyn’s
Ice Princess.”
Queen Aurora’s cool greeting turned my
attention back to her.
I didn’t trouble myself with a reply.
It was not lost on me that my behavior (in
more than being forced to turn traitor against my country, indeed
an adulthood (and then some) of behaving precisely like a Drakkar)
had earned me this kind of enmity.
Any other person, even our queen (who rarely
showed any emotion) would be aware of all they’d lost, all they’d
suffered, all they’d known Antoine had suffered, and thus she would
deduce sleep would not have been easy.
Indeed, by the gods, day in, day out, simply
finding the strength to throw my legs over the side of the bed and
face another day plagued with the pain was an extraordinary
endeavor.
But I had not earned that regard.
I had earned the frosty look in her eyes that
accompanied the chill in her voice.
And as ever, I withstood it, but this time, I
had no venomous rejoinder.
I just stood there silently.
“In order to save you the energy of making
your play, Franka,” she continued. “And as we’ve all got much more
important things to move on to, we’ve discussed recompense for your
activities of yesterday and we’re seeing about doling that out
without delay.”
I stood silent, but inside I went still.
How much I had changed.
Even playing my small part in saving the
world, it hadn’t occurred to me to use that happenstance to better
my circumstances. Prior to Antoine, this very thought would be the
first thing on my lips before I’d actually go to Spectre Isle to
face the three most evil, most powerful witches in our entire
hemisphere.
I’m not slipping, Antoine, my love
, I
thought in horror.
I’ve lost it completely!
Queen Aurora swept out a hand slightly to her
right, indicating the small chest on her desk.
“Lunwyn’s Sjofn ice diamonds,” she declared,
and I felt my knees lock.
Even that size chest, filled with Lunwyn’s
highly sought after ice diamonds, was not a small fortune.
It was a magnificent one.
“This from Lunwyn, as thanks,” Aurora uttered
her last word as if it was difficult for her to say. She then
gestured to the largest chest that lay in the middle of the three.
“Korwahk emeralds, rubies and sapphires.”
By the gods!
It took grave effort not to allow my eyes to
widen.
“From the Dax,” she turned her head toward
King Lahn and Queen Circe and tipped it their way, “his Dahksahna
and the people of Korwahk, in gratitude.” She looked back to me and
indicated the last chest. “Gold coin, in appreciation of your
efforts from King Ludlum of Hawkvale, his son, Prince Noctorno,
ruler of Bellebryn, and, of course,” a small amount of warm infused
her features as she looked to Princess Cora, “his princess.”
I turned my gaze their way and saw distaste
in Prince Noctorno’s eyes, eyes that were on me.
Princess Cora, however, was studying me as if
I was a curiosity.
“And last, from the House of Ulfr,” Queen
Aurora went on, and I looked back to her to see she had her arm
straight out. I turned my attention to where she was indicating,
directing it at one of the chairs that sat in front of her desk, a
chair that was piled high with luxurious pelts, “sable, chinchilla
and mink, the finest, of course, as they’re Ulfr.”
My eyes moved from the dizzying spectacle of
that beauty back to my country’s queen as she kept speaking.
“As I know you, Franka, I can safely assume,
for your part in the difficulties that played out yesterday, this
will be enough. I do hope you consider this a debt fully paid.”
The coin from Hawkvale alone, I could tell
from the size of the chest, was more than enough.
This more than enough being the fact that I
could live on that quite well (in other words, get Josette a
much-needed assistant for the care of my person and belongings). I
could also get far better appointed apartments in Fleuridia (or
wherever I chose to go). Further, I could have not only a butler, a
cook and two lady’s maids (all that I already had in Fleuridia,
save the second lady’s maid) with help coming in every two weeks to
clean and tidy, I could hire an actual house maid on staff who’d
clean and tidy every day.
By Adele, I could hire fifty if I wished!
With the riches that lay before me (and on
the seat beside me), I could live in extreme luxury until I took my
last breath.
More, I could share them with Kristian. He
could then be safe from the House of Drakkar, independent, his own
man. He could make his wife safe, his son. He, through me, could
make them
all
safe from the secrets that had plagued us
since we were children.
Indeed, if he had a mind to, he could take
them away. He could even go live in a realm across the Green Sea
where nothing could touch them.
Nothing.
No one.
Not even magic (maybe).
This, I would share with him. He listened to
me. I’d heard things about those realms. There was great beauty in
the countries of Airen, Firenze, Wodell.
Perhaps I’d go with my brother and his
family.
And yet, as these thoughts raced through my
mind—along with feeling the sensation of relief, the knowledge that
I no longer had to connive and manipulate to obtain the lifestyle
to which I was accustomed, the understanding I could make my
brother and his family safe with a finality that would mean decades
of worry would disappear—I tasted a sourness in my mouth.
I do hope you consider this a debt fully
paid.
Were they showering Noctorno and Circe with
riches for the parts they’d played?
Or was it simply me they wished to pay off
for they thought (due to my own actions over the years, it must be
said) it would be expected.
“And I do hope this extraordinary show of
generosity,” Queen Aurora carried on, “will mean that you feel
yourself well taken care of and we will find there is some time,
a great deal of it
, before we’re again in your company.”
They might be showering Noctorno and Circe
with riches.
But they were showering me with them to be
rid of me.
For good.
The queen studied me, and I endured her
scrutiny even as I tried to understand what I was sensing in the
room.
I knew I had everyone’s attention. However,
it seemed far keener than this insignificant chore would need. The
magnitude of the offering was astounding. But the chore of being
done with me surely was felt by all (save Noc) as
insignificant.
And yet I sensed they were all watching me
closely.
I didn’t like the feeling. It seemed
dangerous.
And in a room filled with people who either
disliked me greatly or didn’t think much of me, that danger was
considerable.
I knew that kind of danger.
And I knew the play that had to be made when
I found myself in it.
I needed to retreat immediately.
“My gratitude, your grace,” I said quietly.
“May I beg the favor of a servant to carry these generous gifts to
my rooms?”
“I appreciate you voiced this request, as you
haven’t seemed to concern yourself with ordering about servants
who’ve been scuttling around the Palace now for weeks preparing for
the Bitter Gales, not to mention after the rather dire and
miraculous events that occurred yesterday, in order for them to
cater to your whims,” Queen Aurora returned.
I fought my back snapping straight.
That was not cold.
It was spiteful.
Any guest in this palace would not hesitate
to do the same.
And I’d ordered wine, bread, cheese and a
fire. Noc had ordered the blasted whiskey.
Oh, and I’d asked for a sleeping draught and
a bath to be brought up that morning.
But that was all.
I hadn’t even requested breakfast.
“But, yes,” Aurora went on to answer my
request. “We’ll see they’re safely delivered to your rooms
immediately. Now, can I further offer the services of the palace
staff to assist you in packing and being certain the horses are put
to your sleigh so that it’s waiting for you early on the
morrow?”
In other words,
get out
.
I didn’t fight back lifting my chin a smidge.
“Yes. You may. And I would be grateful.”
“Excellent,” she murmured, casting her eyes
to her daughter (who was not her daughter), somehow communicating
at the same time she was casting me out of her mind.
I was to leave.
Immediately.
I did not bow or drop into even a slight
curtsy, although this was a considerable breach of protocol.
I’d been dismissed.
Therefore I turned to leave.
“As I said.” I heard Frey mutter.
Apollo’s words came right after. “Yes, Franka
Drakkar would never do something for naught.”
I heard this but it was what I was feeling
coming from Noc that made my gaze shift to him.
And the pang came back, ten times the
strength, searing a swath of pain through my middle as I saw
disappointment and even mild aversion in his eyes as he watched me
move through the room.
Looking at him, I knew. I knew he’d told them
of our time together last night. He’d likely shared he thought more
of me than they ever would.
Undoubtedly, this was met with
incredulity.
Or, perchance, hilarity.
But I knew he’d also told them I would not
accept remuneration for the part I’d played in saving my
universe.
Or, perhaps, not that extraordinary
amount.
And I knew just looking at him, looking at
the carefully blank expression on Circe’s face, which I caught when
I cast a swift downward glance in her direction, that they may have
been offered their rewards.
But they’d declined, or at the very least
eschewed such extravagance.
They’d done what they’d done out of care and
concern. They’d put their lives at risk because it was the right
thing to do.
They’d done it because they were good, kind
people right down to their bones.
Unlike me.
I’d been born with the black soul of a
Drakkar and no matter how hard Antoine had worked to cleanse it, it
would forever remain midnight.