Fantasyland 01 Wildest Dreams (59 page)

“Drakkar,” Atticus called from the back of a
sleigh, “a sleigh has been prepared for you and Finnie.”

“She rides with me,” Frey called back.

“But, she’s the Winter –” Father started but
Frey interrupted him.

“She is indeed. She is also my wife whose
life is in danger. She rides close to my protection and on
transport that will provide a much quicker getaway should it be
required,” Frey returned and I sighed deeply at the reminder of
another of the many things that had been weighing my thoughts since
I left Mother to go with my girls and be prepared for this grisly
event.

Father considered this then nodded.

And I reconsidered Frey’s long ago
suggestion that we not leave his big, soft bed in his big,
fancy-ass chateau in the sun-drenched fantasyland of Hawkvale.

But, alas, it was
way
too late for that.

Then Father commanded his driver, “Onward,”
their sleigh moved forward, Frey steered Tyr behind it and the
guard and Frey’s men surrounded us.

This, I found shortly after we rounded the
fountain, was not going to be a stately, sedate royal procession.
All the horses were prompted to a fast canter and it would become
apparent why. This was because where we were going was not close to
the city but far away.

At our pace, Snowdon was quickly left
behind, we climbed and rounded the low swell of a mountain and came
out on another valley, this one dotted liberally with dark tents
that had open fires but the tent city was a ghost town for beyond
that there was a sea of people edged by horses and sleighs all
spread in front of a wooden platform. This was all lit against the
falling night by an abundance of torches, especially around the
platform. As we drew nearer then started to ride through an avenue
of onlookers that was being forged by Father’s guard as well as
members of the guard who met them who had already been there
patrolling the crowds on horseback, I saw the platform was a
scaffold and behind it an elevated dais on which there were three
thrones that were only mildly ornate compared to King Baldur’s and
if the events that were going to occur weren’t going to occur I
would have thought they were way cool. Obviously, dreading what was
to come, I didn’t give it a thought.

Then my thoughts were turned from the
thrones (but mostly the scaffold with its three, dangling rope
nooses) as a cheer started to ring the air which escalated to a
shout which heightened to a deafening chant of, “The Dragon and The
Ice!”

I started to look around as we rode through
the mass of people and I saw a great number of salutes aimed Frey’s
way, arms thrown in the air, huge beaming smiles and bigger
shouting mouths as eyes stayed glued to Frey and I and the chant
kept rising as we rode.

It was like we were rock stars arriving at a
concert and it would be, I suspected, disconcerting normally.
Considering that evening’s events, it was ghoulish.

To take my mind off of it, I twisted, looked
up to Frey and asked, “The Ice?”

His eyes, which were pointed over my head,
alert and scanning, came down to me. “I do not know, wee one. I’ve
never heard it before but it would seem you’ve earned a
nickname.”

“Great,” I muttered, looking ahead
again.

I mean, “The Ice” was pretty cool, I
suppose. I just didn’t feel it was fitting.

I didn’t have a chance to consider my new
handle because it didn’t take long to make it to the platform and
then no one hesitated to move swiftly to it including Atticus and
Aurora who exited their sleigh almost the instant it stopped,
Father not even waiting for someone to approach to open the little
sleigh door. Frey swung down nearly before Tyr came to a halt then
immediately reached up to pull me down. What made me feel a whole
lot better was when the entirety of his men, including Kell and
Skylar, also dismounted and ascended the platform with us to line
up at the back of our thrones with Frey standing at my right side,
Thad at my left, Skylar in front of Thad and Kell at my back.

Truth be told, it didn’t make me feel
better… it made me feel great; their show of support was
awesome.

That was until the crowd took this in, The
Drakkar and his men flanking his bride, and they went totally
freaking berserk.

Shit.

Sitting in my throne, I reached out to grab
Frey’s hand, tugged on it and he bent so his ear was at my mouth
which also caused a crushing wave of sound.

“Maybe the guys being here –” I started and
Frey turned his head to catch my eyes.

“They stand with you,” he stated
implacably.

“But, all those people are –” I began again
and Frey cut me off again.

“All those people are a mob of unknowns with
unknown intents. You are exposed. My men stand with you.”

Oh. Right. That made sense.

So it wasn’t a show of support so much as
protection.

That worked too.

“Okay,” I whispered, Frey’s lips twitched
then he straightened, faced the crowd, squeezed my hand
reassuringly once then let it go to cross his arms on his
chest.

I took the hint, time to be a princess, so I
put both hands in my lap, clutching them tight.

It was then a ripple filtered through the
crowd, changing the euphoric excitement to something else that
didn’t feel very good and my eyes shifted to back of the sea of
people. There I saw a black, covered sleigh led by four black
horses that had entered the avenue we’d left behind and this was
guarded by a large phalanx of my father’s armed soldiers.

The condemned had arrived and almost
immediately the crowd, already having started to whip themselves
into a frenzy at seeing Frey and I, didn’t delay in shouting jeers
and throwing snowballs that hit the side of the covered sleigh, the
horses and even the guard who, luckily, carried large shields at
their sides.

“Oh no,” I whispered as my body tensed and I
felt, in two places, reassuring squeezes. One was my right shoulder
and that was from Frey. The other was my left and that, to my
surprise, was Kell reaching over the back of my throne to do it
swiftly then removing his hand.

Father stood and strode purposefully across
the platform and down the steps to the scaffold where he spoke with
a guard there then he strode back, face stony, the guard peeling
off and I understood his intent but it was too late. The sleigh was
now being rocked back and forth by the number of snowballs hitting
it and the jeers had escalated to the point the air felt laced with
acid. Once the sleigh stopped at the gallows, more guards rode
forward to form a shield of horses around it as well as further
guards on foot marching down to stand in front of the horses, the
men unsheathing their swords in warning.

But it was too late.

Much too late.

And the guards knew it so they wasted even
less time.

The prisoners were led out of the sleigh and
quickly moved across the scaffold to stand at their noose. The two
men first with Viola, looking thin, pale and terrified, bringing up
the rear.

It was Viola and perhaps the violent and
public way her scheme had been carried out that caught the sheer
force of the biting fervor of the crowd and the minute she became
visible to onlookers, snowballs were hurled with such violence and
quantity, her frame jerked with every missile that landed and it
became clear very quickly that these projectiles had been prepared
in advance and embedded with rocks or maybe worse as only snow
would not rip through her coarse clothing or tear open her
skin.

And it was when she slipped on the snow at
her feet and fell to her hands and knees, her hair sodden and
dripping, her clothing in tatters within seconds, the icy missiles
coming fast even as guards stood in front of her, holding up
shields attempting to shelter her and getting pelted in their
attempt, the crowd going wild at her fall and a new wave of sound
hit me that I lost it.

Without thinking, I shot out of my throne,
shrieked, “
Stop!
” and
dashed to the stairs that led to the scaffold.

I didn’t make it. Stephan caught me first
and then I felt myself transferred to Frey’s arms but I continued
to screech, “
Stop! Stop right now! Stop right now!
” as I struggled against his
hold.

“Finnie, wee one,” he growled in my ear with
a rough squeeze, “calm yourself.”

I totally ignored him, kept struggling and
kept shouting, “
Stop right now!
”

And that was when I noticed it and Frey
did as well for he stopped trying to pull me back to my throne. He
stood still and stared as those closest to the platform heard me,
saw me and stopped throwing their snowballs and started staring up
at me in shock. This, too, shifted through the crowd with amazing
speed and they all quickly become motionless and silent as I kept
screaming, “
Stop!
”

It took only moments for the entirety of the
crowd to stop and stare and I stood there, in the curve of Frey’s
arm, my chest rising and falling and I returned their stare.

Then, I don’t know what came over me, I
started yelling.

Or, more accurately, lecturing my subjects
like I was an honest to God princess.

“
It is a measure of a nation their cunning!
It is a measure of a nation their strength! And it is a measure of
a nation,” I leaned forward and screeched, “
their mercy!
” I leaned back and surveyed the crowd and
for some bizarre reason kept right on shouting. “The condemned you
see before you have been tried justly and meet their sentence
fairly. They have done wrong and they will pay for it. But I am not
the Winter Princess of a nation who does not see that even the
condemned deserve to be treated with respect as they face death.
You may think they do not deserve it but it is your duty as
Lunwynians to rise above their actions
not
fall to their depths. They will hang for their
crimes and you will watch this sentence carried out. How could that
not be enough for you?”

I tore my eyes away from the now whispering
crowd as those close sent my words far, feeling Frey’s arm still
tight around my middle but I ignored it and looked down at the
scaffold.

“
Bring her to her feet,” I ordered the
guard standing around Viola and they shifted and stared up at me in
stupefaction so I snapped, “
Bring her to her feet!
”

They jumped toward Viola who I avoided
looking at as they helped her up and moved her to her noose.
Instead, I looked back to the crowd and, yep, you guessed it, kept
right on shouting.

“Today, you witness something infinitely
sad. Three people who have gone wrong somewhere in their lives,
done wrong because of it and therefore are paying the ultimate
price. Do not stand there shouting and jeering, demonstrating that
they were right to move against this great nation, those fortunate
enough to inhabit her ice-bound earth and those privileged to wear
her crowns. Stand there and, as the Lunwynians I know you to be,
stand strong, stand proud and stand filled with mercy.” Then I
turned in Frey’s arm, looked up to him and snapped, “I’m done.”

He was staring down at me with an expression
I wasn’t in any mood to read and luckily he didn’t give me time to
do it. Swiftly, he guided me back to my throne and I went, sat and
looked back out at the now silent crowd, hands clasped in my lap,
trying to deep breathe.

“Commence without delay,” Atticus barked
from my left side and I watched silently (as did the crowd) as each
of the condemned were allowed their last words. Berg Enger and
Viola Milstrom both declined, Enger clearly shaken by the events
and Viola obviously so. Hernod Grieg strangely lifted a fist and
shouted, “Unite Lunwyn!” and that was it from him.

Their heads were covered with black cloth
sacks, the nooses were pulled over their heads and tightened around
their necks, a man in a white robe with the band displaying all the
gods’ colors dangling said a few words in the ancient tongue and
then Father shouted, “Lunwyn!” and the hangman walked down the
length of them kicking a high wooden lever behind each of the
damned and down went Enger, down went Grieg and I couldn’t help it,
I closed my eyes but it was bad enough just hearing her short,
sharp, heartbreaking scream that stilled abruptly when down went
Viola.

Then the hangman turned and shouted, “It
is done, my king!” and Frey had me out of my throne so fast, I got
lightheaded. Then we were down the platform, the soles of his men’s
boots sounding behind us. Then I was on Tyr, Frey was behind me,
his arm tight around my ribs, he leaned us to Tyr’s back, dug his
heels into Tyr’s flank and shouted, “
Yah!
”

There was no avenue anymore and before us
the crowd jumped away, parting on their own as Frey, me, Tyr and
his men all galloped straight through them and away to Rimée
Keep.

* * * * *

It took half the time to get back to the
Keep than it did to get to the platform because Frey rode Tyr hard
all the way there. Once we arrived, he dismounted and, while doing
it, dragged me down right along with him.

Then he dragged me up the steps.

Then he dragged me through the doors that
were opened by a footman before we arrived.

Then he dragged me right by my hovering
girls who all rushed forward at the sight of me.

Then he dragged me down the hall and into
the room we’d been in earlier with my parents.

The girls followed as did, by the sounds of
the hustle and bustle, every one of his men as Frey pulled me
inside then turned on me.