The Snow Queen's shadow

CHAPTER 5

Daniellepaced a circle around trit-tibar. “I know my husband, Tritt. This wasn’t him.”

“I agree,” said Trittibar. The former ambassador from Fairytown wore his usual cacophony of clothes, including a loose shirt that fountained rainbow ribbons for sleeves, knee-high trousers, and sandals the color of spring buds. He had braided tiny gold bells into his white beard for good measure.

Until recently, Trittibar had lived in a mouse-sized hollow in the southern wall of the palace. After his exile from Fairytown, he had been cut off from the fairy hill, the source of his magic. The loss of his magic trapped him in human form. Snow had been able to rescue some of his belongings, but she hadn’t been able to change their size.

Danielle looked past Trittibar, to where his entire library sat on a shelf no wider than a saucer. The large glass lens and tweezers he used to read the books hung from a peg beside the shelf.

“I’ve been friends with Armand since he was a child,” said Trittibar. “I’ve seen him at his best, and at his worst. Never have I known him to act the way he has today.”

“Maybe Father Isaac was right. Maybe this is just grief.”

Trittibar’s beard jingled as he cocked his head. “If you believed that, you wouldn’t be wearing your sword.”

Danielle touched the hilt with one hand. She had retrieved it after dinner. “We need Snow.” She hesitated. With her mirror destroyed, how much magic had Snow lost?

“If it’s magic, Father Isaac will find the source.” Trittibar combed his beard with his fingers. “Where is the prince now?”

“In his study. He wanted to be alone. I asked Aimee to let me know if he leaves.”

Someone rapped at Trittibar’s door. He jumped to his feet. “Still not used to having a real door,” he muttered. Outside stood a single guard.

“What is it, Stephan?” asked Danielle.

He gave a quick bow. “Talia asked that I find you, Your Highness. She said to meet her at the northeast tower. Snow was taking Prince Jakob there.”

“Why would Snow…?” If Stephan had known anything more, he would have said so. She saw Trittibar grab a slender rapier from the wall. Her own sword bounced against her hip as she ran past Stephan into the cold night air.

A small crowd had gathered in the corner of the courtyard. Danielle’s heart thudded in her chest, and she ran faster, jumping over the low stone wall around the garden.

“Move aside!” Her shouts cleared a path for herself and Trittibar. Two guards were holding Talia near the base of the tower. Her nose was bleeding, and she appeared dazed. Danielle spun, searching the crowd. “What happened here?”

Talia pointed toward a broken window in the tower. “Snow took the prince.” Her words were terse. She tried to wrench free. “I couldn’t get to him. She attacked me. The guards have already gone to check the room, but they didn’t find anyone except Frederic. They’re taking him to be checked by Father Isaac. I don’t know where Snow took Jakob.”

“Let her go,” Danielle commanded. The guards jumped back. Talia swayed, but kept her balance. “Get Tymalous.”

“I don’t need a healer.” Talia wiped her nose on her sleeve.

Danielle didn’t have time to argue. She ran inside, taking the steps two at a time. The door to the candlemaker’s workshop was open, the latch splintered. She stared at the empty room. Cold air gusted through the broken window. She spotted a shard of silvered glass half-buried in a candle on the wall.

“Whatever happened to Armand, it began with Snow and her mirror.” Talia moved to retrieve the candle with the broken shard. “She must have collected the rest of the pieces. Anyone who has been cut by one of her mirrors needs to be placed under guard at once.”

Danielle braced herself. “Was Jakob hurt?”

Talia hesitated. “Snow cut him twice that I know of. The magic didn’t appear to affect him.”

Shock and disbelief held Danielle in place. The wind played over her as she repeated Talia’s words in a whisper. “She cut him?”

“Small cuts only,” Talia said quickly.

Danielle spun to face the guards who had followed them up the stairs. “Seal the palace. Stephan, get to the king and tell him what’s happened. Take him someplace safe, and don’t let anyone else near him.”

Locking the gates wouldn’t stop Snow. She could be anywhere, or anything. Her magic could change her and Jakob into mice, or it could create an illusion to disguise them both. “We’ll need hunting dogs. Trittibar, get the hounds and give them something with Jakob’s scent. Nicolette can-”

“Nicolette was cut, too,” Talia said softly.

Danielle nodded, refusing to let the news affect her. “She’ll need to be watched as well.” She touched her bare wrist where her mirrored bracelet had rested. Yesterday, a single kiss to that mirror would have conjured an image of her son. “Get Armand to Father Isaac.”

Isaac’s magic wasn’t as powerful as Snow’s, but of everyone in the palace, he had the best chance of reversing whatever Snow had done. She waited until the others hurried from the room, leaving her alone with Talia. “Why would she take my son?”

“I think… I think she was curious.” Talia was staring at the overturned bench. “She wanted to know why her mirror didn’t affect him.”

“Do you think she’ll… what will she do to him?”

Talia looked away. “I don’t know.”

Danielle could feel the fear pushing up from her chest. She put one hand on her sword, but even the touch of her mother’s final gift couldn’t quell that terror. Snow had taken her son. “Tell me the truth. Are you well enough to fight?”

“Always,” said Talia. The blood trickling from her left nostril made her assurance less convincing, as did the obvious stiffness in her arm, but Danielle took her at her word.

“Search Snow’s library. I doubt she’d take Jakob there, but whatever happened started with the destruction of her mirror. Be careful.”

“What will you be doing?”

Danielle was already on the stairs. “My husband was one of the first to be cut. With Snow missing, perhaps he’ll hold some answers.”

Talia took the bronze rungs two at a time as she descended the narrow passage hidden in the room Danielle shared with her husband. When she neared the bottom, she loosed her grip and dropped silently to the cold, hard-packed earth. The impact jolted the bruises in her side and reawakened the throbbing pain in her shoulder.

There was no light here. She stepped away from the ladder and did her best to slow her breathing. She heard nothing but the pounding of her own heart.

Talia moved from memory, taking two steps and reaching out to touch the smooth wood of the door. She pressed her ear against it, listening for several heartbeats before pulling it open and stepping inside.

She ran one hand along the whitewashed wall to her right, seeking the lamp and tinderbox stored there. She pulled the tinderbox from its oiled leather pouch and retrieved the steel striker and flint. Dropping to one knee, she placed the box on the floor, arranged the char cloth, and scraped flint to steel. The equipment was well-tended, thanks to the vigilance Beatrice had drilled into them all. Moments later, the lamp was lit.

Black tiles littered the floor before her, each one carved in the shape of a sailing ship. Snow’s magic had bound those tiles to the map of Lorindar on the ceiling, allowing them to track various ships through their waters. Now the lapis lazuli seas were empty.

Weapons shone on the walls to either side. Talia took a curved Arathean dagger, sliding it through her belt, then turned to light another lamp.

A set of sharpened steel snowflakes, each one about the size of a playing card, rested on a small shelf in the corner. The original snowflakes had been a gift from Talia, years before. Snow kept losing the things, which meant Talia had to commission a new set at least once a year.

There was no movement in the library. She retrieved a steel-banded Hiladi war club before stepping through the doorway, just in case. Light glinted from the empty platinum frame of Snow’s mirror, which lay on the floor. Dark smears of dry blood showed where Snow had tried to grip the frame, perhaps to keep it from falling. Talia brought the lamp to the floor, searching for the telltale glitter of broken glass. Nothing. Snow had reclaimed every speck.

Broken chunks of wax littered the floor. Another candle sat in the middle of the table, melted wax pooled around the base. Drops of blood, now dried to a rusty brown color, were scattered over the table and floor.

Talia crouched to study the blood. The thickest drops led to a cedar chest in the corner. Snow would have walked there for bandages. Talia was all too familiar with the contents of that particular chest. There had been no blood in the armory, so Snow must have bandaged her wounds before leaving.

But she hadn’t done so right away. Dark lines and smears of blood covered the table. Talia touched one of the black lines. Ash rubbed away at her touch. The lines were too regular to be random. A spell of some sort, though Talia couldn’t follow the pattern. The ashes were stuck in the surface of the congealed blood, meaning Snow had worked this spell after her mirror broke, but before tending to her own wounds. Charred stems, perhaps from flowers, were sprinkled through the mess. “What were you doing down here?”

Talia stepped away, searching the room until she spied a dark smudge on the bookshelves. Snow had tried to wipe the leather clean, but faint smears showed where she had grabbed a particular book on dwarven architecture. That book was the trigger mechanism to open the seawall passage down through the cliffs. The seawall passageway was meant to be an escape route of last resort. Why would Snow-or whatever had taken control of her-have bothered opening it if not to flee?

Talia set her lamp on the table. A quick tug of the book triggered the mechanisms in the wall. Talia crossed the room to grab the far set of shelves, which hid the passageway. Keeping her club ready, she swung them inward.

Cold, damp air spilled into the room. Little light penetrated the passageway, but it was enough for Talia to make out the woman huddled on the stone steps.

Talia raised her club. “Snow?”

The woman was the right size, with the same pale skin. Talia snatched the lamp from the table. The light revealed a woman younger than Snow, with dark red hair and a pale, frightened face. She was naked, shivering violently from the cold. Her lips and ears had a bluish tinge.

“Is she… is she gone?” Her words were slurred.

Talia tossed the club behind her and reached to take the woman’s hand. Her fingers were cold as ice. “Who are you? How long have you been down there?”

“Don’t know.” The woman tried to walk, but her legs gave out. “Maybe a day?”

Talia pulled the woman into the library and kicked the shelves shut. She fetched an old wool cloak from another chest and wrapped it around the woman’s shoulders, but wasn’t sure what other aid to offer. Snow was the healer, not Talia. Growing up in Arathea, Talia had learned the symptoms of sun poisoning by her fifth year, but she knew much less about treating half-frozen women. “What’s your name?”

“Gerta.” She pulled her body into a ball, squeezing her hands beneath her arms.

Talia set the lamp on the floor in front of Gerta, who eagerly cupped her hands around it. Gerta wasn’t a name common to Lorindar. It was possible, if unlikely, that Gerta had discovered the concealed opening in the water at the base of the cliffs. Perhaps a runaway, or an escaped prisoner of some sort, someone desperate enough to brave the rocks and waves? “Your full name?”

Gerta was shaking so hard she had to try three times to answer. “Rose Gertrude Curtana. But I prefer Gerta.”

Talia yanked her dagger from its sheath. “Rose Curtana is dead.”

“I know. Snow destroyed her.” Gerta’s cracked lips managed a weak smile. “I’m Snow’s sister.”

“That’s impossible. Snow had no sister.”

“Half-sister.” Gerta shivered again.

There were similarities. Rose’s hair was shorter, but it framed a face with the same narrow features and high cheekbones as Snow’s. Gerta’s large brown eyes were almost a perfect match for Snow’s own. She was attractive, though not as beautiful as Snow. “She would have told me.”

“There are many things Snow preferred not to remember,” Gerta said.

“A forgotten sister? One who happens to arrive in Lorindar this very night?” Talia kept her dagger ready as she backed away to retrieve another blanket. She tossed it to Gerta, who wrapped it around herself with shaking hands.

“Our mother, may she burn forever, sent me away when I was a baby,” Gerta said. “At least, that’s the story Snow liked to tell herself when she was older. When she was young, she believed I was her true mother, come to save her from Queen Rose.”

If this was a trick, Talia couldn’t begin to guess its purpose. “Get to the point where you explain who you really are and how you ended up here.”

Gerta shrugged. “I’m who she made me. In the beginning, Snow wanted a mother who would protect her. Later, she longed for a friend. She used to lie awake at night, imagining what it would be like to have a sister. She made up stories. We explored the woods together, having marvelous adventures. Fighting evil dwarves, rescuing cursed princes, and doing everything she was forbidden to do.”

“Imagining… so you’re not real?”

“Don’t I look real?” Another faint smile. “Would you like me to prove it to you, Talia?”

“I hate magic.” Talia circled Gerta. “You know who I am.”

“I have fragments of Snow’s memories. She gave them to me before she pushed me through that door.”

“She pushed you…” What in the hell had Snow been playing at? “She made you?”

“I think so.” Gerta glanced around the room. “It’s hard to remember. There was pain. Pressure, as if my body was being kneaded and shaped like wet clay. My first clear memory is of Snow looking down at me. She was frightened and hurt. What happened to her?”

Talia remembered her first view of Snow on the staircase, blood still dripping down her face. “We don’t know yet. Can you find her?”

Gerta shook her head. “I’m sorry. I’m not powerful enough. In her fantasies, she was always the stronger sorceress.”

“Why did she leave you here?”

“I could feel her fighting against something, trying to hold on to herself.” Gerta turned toward the empty frame of the mirror.

Talia’s throat tightened. “I know.”

“She told me to help you.” Gerta stared at the wall. “I could feel her ripping memories from her own mind. She hid me from herself as she closed the door, sealing me into the darkness. Even through the door, I felt her lose the battle. She stayed down here for a long time. I couldn’t use magic to warm myself until after she left, for fear of drawing her attention. I waited as long as I could, and then… the door wouldn’t open. I tried climbing down the steps, but the cold grew worse.”

Talia sheathed her knife. Keeping Gerta in her vision, she retrieved a small, locked chest from the corner of the room. She pulled a silver key from a chain around her neck and opened the lid to reveal a dirty red cloak lined in wolf fur. She bundled the cloak under one arm. “I should get you upstairs where it’s warmer.”

“Thank you, Talia. I wouldn’t have survived much longer.”

“Come on. You can tell Danielle and Father Isaac what you’ve told me.”

And hopefully Isaac would be able to tell them all exactly what Gerta was.

Danielle had spent her childhood learning to shield herself from the torments of her stepmother and stepsisters, building armor that their cruelest jabs failed to penetrate. But exhaustion had weakened that armor, and Armand shattered what remained without even raising his voice.

His hands were shackled, and two armed men stood watching him. Father Isaac’s magic would prevent him from physically harming anyone so long as he remained inside the chapel, but it couldn’t stop his verbal assaults.

“Without my mother to guide you, you’re lost. You allowed our son to be stolen from within your own home. You’ve failed, Your Highness. Both as a princess and as a mother.”

Danielle was tempted to order him gagged. Instead, she turned to Father Isaac. “Whatever magic infects my husband, it came from Snow’s broken mirror. Can you use that same magic to find her?”

Isaac shook his head. Neither he nor Trittibar had been able to explain Armand’s behavior, let alone find a way to counter it. Everyone else cut by Snow’s mirrors had been moved to the dungeons, by Danielle’s orders. Twenty-two people were now locked in the dark, cliff-side cells, many of them her friends. But it was the only way to keep them from harming anyone else.

She had ordered Armand brought here to the chapel. The smell of incense was stifling. The grassy smoke was enchanted to dampen violence within the church. The air was warmer here, as though each of the candles mounted along the walls was giving off the heat of a much larger flame. But so far, the magic of the church hadn’t been strong enough to free her husband.

Nobody had seen Snow or Jakob since they entered the candlemaker’s workshop, and thus far, no magic had been able to locate them. The gates were locked and guarded, and Danielle had ordered every available man and woman to search the palace, but given Snow’s power, she held little hope.

“He’s not possessed,” said Trittibar.

“Or if he is, it’s no form of possession that we’ve ever heard of.” Father Isaac tapped his crucifix against his chin.

“It’s the mirror.” Talia strode into the church, side by side with a barefoot girl in a wool cloak. Danielle had never seen the girl before, but something in her walk was familiar. “With every cut, a tiny splinter breaks off and enters the blood. Snow took the worst of it when her mirror was destroyed, but Armand and the rest each suffer from a smaller portion of that same power.”

“It’s how mirror magic works,” said Talia’s companion. “Even the smallest piece can channel the power of the rest.”

“Who is this?” Danielle asked.

“I was hoping Father Isaac could answer that.” Talia beckoned Danielle closer, away from Armand. In a low voice, she explained how she had discovered Gerta below, as well as the girl’s claim to be Snow White’s sister. For Gerta’s part, she appeared more interested in Armand than anything else.

Danielle cut Talia off. “Gerta, if you know what happened to my husband, can you reverse it?”

Gerta approached the prince. Danielle signaled with one hand for Talia to stay close, but Gerta merely studied Armand.

“Keep away from me, you filthy witch,” snapped Armand.

Danielle tightened. This wasn’t her husband. He would never speak so to anyone.

Yet even as she defended him to herself, she wondered. Did some part of Armand believe those words? Was this cruelty merely an aspect of himself he kept hidden… an aspect that reminded her so much of her own stepmother?

“Look at his hand.” Gerta pointed to a pair of dark bruises on the back of Armand’s hand. “You’ll find others where the sliver cut him from the inside as it moved through his body.”

“Can it be removed?” asked Danielle.

Gerta chewed her lower lip as she stared at Armand. She moved away from him, out of earshot, and gestured for the others to follow. “It would be dangerous. The splinter isn’t the problem. It’s what that splinter carries.”

“Tell me.”

“Have you never wondered where the mirror’s power came from?” Gerta looked from one face to the next. “All magic has a cost. Minor spells like your priest’s incense take most of their strength from the ingredients of the potion. He can prepare a new batch and feel no more fatigued than a man who spends an afternoon chopping firewood. But an artifact like our mother’s mirror, one with the ability to show anything its master commands? Not even Rose Curtana was powerful enough to create such a thing on her own.”

“So where did it come from?” asked Danielle.

“I believe our mother enslaved something within the mirror. Forced it to serve her.”

Something which had broken free when the mirror shattered. “Snow never spoke of this,” said Danielle. “You told us Snow created you, formed you from her own thoughts and memories-”

“She never spoke of it,” Gerta agreed, “but she used to lie awake at night, wondering about the price of Mother’s magic. As she grew, she learned not to question such things. Much of our mother’s magic was best left to the shadows. Snow was a child. Had she allowed herself to dwell on the torments our mother inflicted, the rituals she wove, it would have consumed her. So Snow locked those fears away, burying them so deep they couldn’t reach her even in dreams.”

No wonder Snow had imagined a companion for herself. For a child to face such nightmares alone… the thought made Danielle wish she could somehow go back and whisk Snow away when she was first born. “And then yesterday, the mirror broke.”

“Releasing what?” Isaac asked.

“We once encountered a mermaid who trapped human souls and used them as slaves,” said Danielle. “Could the mirror have done something similar?”

“No human soul would be powerful enough.” Gerta shook her head. “If any were so strong, my mother never would have been able to enslave them.”

“A demon.” It was Father Isaac who spoke. “No minor fiend, but a true denizen of Hell.”

“Snow didn’t know,” Gerta said quickly. “Even had she tried to discover the truth, it was impossible to be certain, short of shattering the mirror.” She gestured toward Armand. “She never intended any of this.”

Talia whispered a curse in Arathean. “Snow gathered up every last speck of glass. If each splinter is a reflection of the demon’s power, she could infect half of Lorindar.”

Danielle was watching Father Isaac. “Is Gerta telling the truth?”

“I believe so,” said Isaac. “Strange… in some respects, she appears a construct, yet her flesh is human.”

Gerta reached out and tugged the curls of his beard, earning a yelp. “Is that real enough for you, Father?”

“From the moment Snow emerged from her library, she carried a demon within her,” said Talia. “Why did nobody detect it? What good are these damned wards and spells if-?”

“Snow created many of those wards,” Danielle pointed out. “She avoided Father Isaac, and Tymalous tells me she never came to see him, either.” She looked to Gerta. “Can you use the glass in Armand’s blood to find Snow?”

“I already asked,” said Talia.

Gerta turned away. “Snow always imagined me as the weaker sister. Someone she could impress with her own spells. I am as she made me. If I use magic to touch the splinter, it’s likely the demon could take me as well.”

Despair swelled in Danielle’s chest. She would continue the search until every corner of the palace had been checked, but she knew deep down it was futile. Snow was gone, and she had taken Jakob with her.

Laughter pulled her attention to her husband. There was nothing pleasant to the sound, only mockery, like a bullying child. “You’ve lost them both. How long before you accept your failure, Cinderwench?”

To her surprise, Armand’s use of her old nickname helped her regain control. This sort of hate was familiar, easier to brush aside. She strode toward him. “The man I love would never call me by that name.”

“The man you love?” He laughed again. “They say love is blind, but in truth love is blinding. You’ve no more love for me than I had for you. You looked upon me and saw salvation. I was nothing but a way to escape your stepmother and stepsisters.”

“You know that’s not true.”

“Just as I looked upon you and saw… simplicity. A child with no hidden schemes, a girl trained to obedience. A bride fit for a prince. Love is the lie we feed ourselves when we’re too weak to accept the truth. You warmed my bed and kept to your place.”

Gerta stared. “You’re married to him?”

“Yes.”

“He’s an ass.”

Trittibar coughed and covered his mouth.

Danielle clasped Gerta’s shoulders. “You claim Snow created you.”

“That’s right.”

“When Armand was stolen from me, Snow used my unborn son to find him. As Jakob grew into his own person, that connection faded. But you were ripped from Snow’s mind less than a day ago. Can you use that bond to find her?”

Gerta shook her head. “Not without exposing myself to her power.”

“Damn,” Danielle whispered. That left but one other option, one she had prayed she could avoid. “Thank you for your help. Please stay with Trittibar and Father Isaac. There has to be a way to remove the glass from Armand. Work with them to find it.”

“There might be, but-”

“Try.” Danielle started toward the doors. “I’ll be in my chambers. Send a page to fetch me if anything changes.”

“What will you be doing?” asked Talia.

“Finding my son.”