Of Sorcery and Snow (37 page)

Then the wolves tried squeezing inside two at a time, so that the bats had to beat back both of them. Some bats managed, but a few of our enemies wiggled through. The first one had an X-shaped scar on his snout. Lieutenant Cross. His black lips curled away from his fangs, his gaze fixed on the sleeping kids on the floor, spread out like a wolf's feast.

The magic of my sword flared, and I sprinted. Cross's hind legs bent, but by the time he left the ground, I was there, smashing my sword hilt between his ears. He dropped, his four legs sprawled. A white wolf bounded in three slots to my right, and it took a snap
kick and a two-handed smack with the flat of my blade to bring it down.

“We have incoming!” cried Miriam, standing beside Philip. Trolls marched through the huge front door, seven hockey masks across and five deep. Their spear butts struck the floor in unison.

“We will take care of it!” called Hadriane.

Then the dwarf siblings charged, and with a flurry of Ima's throws, Iggy's kicks, and Hadriane's axe, four trolls went down.

A red-brown wolf and a black ran at me together, and while I was ducking away from one and punching the other, I heard Chase shout, “Lena?”

“Two minutes!” she called back.

“Oh, crap.” And he sounded so upset that I looked over to see if he needed backup. Seven wolves lay in a bloody circle around him, but he wasn't looking at them. His eyes were on the door.

“What do we have here?” said General Searcaster, blocking the whole entrance.

She surveyed the prison cell—the trolls and the dwarves pausing their battle, Miriam and Philip standing side-by-side, Lena kneeling inside the ring of sleeping children, the sleepwalking patrol and ex-spies guarding her, the fallen wolves around me and Chase, and the Bats of Destruction still whaling away at the slots.

None of us could fight a woman as big as a building, who had almost as much magic as the Snow Queen herself.

I
knew
we should have set up the combs.

I ran, a hand in my pocket. If I could just get between her and the rest of the kids . . .

“Ah,” the giant said, like she'd finally understood what was taking so long, and she pointed her basilisk-wrapped walking stick at the walls. “Up, bats! Quash this insurrection!”

No,
I thought. It wasn't possible. They were
Lena's
.

The Bats of Destruction swiveled away from the slots. Then one of them flew at my face.

I twisted away. It glanced off my cheek, hard enough for dark spots to open up across my vision.

Another bat struck Forrel across the shoulders so hard he fell.

Miriam screamed, then Lena.

Not every invention needs to be brought forth. A sword has two edges.
Rapunzel should have just
told
Lena that Searcaster would hijack our weapons.

Chase ran for me. “Rory, get down!”

Too late. A bat smashed into the back of my head, knocking me to the ground. One more burst of pain, and everything went black.

Something cold pressed up against my aching cheek.

I thought, for a second, that we'd managed to get back and Gretel was holding an ice pack to my face in the EAS infirmary. But if we were safe, who had trapped my arms behind my back? I looked.

The Snow Queen's face was only a foot from mine, her glacier-pale eyes inspecting me like a troll inspects a pretty war trophy, with glee and triumph and
appreciation
. Her hand was touching my
face
. With a gasp, I jerked away from her.

Bad idea. Moving made my head throb and the room spin. I would have probably fallen if two troll guards weren't holding me up. Geez, was this what bad guys felt like after I knocked them out? Dying probably hurt less.

“Wonderful of you to join us, Rory Landon,” whispered the Snow Queen.

“You're okay,” came Lena's relieved, trembly voice beside me.
Her glasses were bent, her eyes swelling, and she was very still, trying to lean away from the troll pinning her arms.

Three trolls held Chase down on Lena's other side—rust-colored blood had dried beneath his nose, but he stopped struggling when he saw that I was up. Miriam wept with fury, trying to squirm out of her guard's grip, but Philip just stood there, stoic, not acknowledging anyone. Behind them, a troll held all four of our carryalls in his arms, like they needed guarding too.

I looked on my other side. Forrel, Ima, and Iggy must have fought the hardest—they had all been forced to their knees. Ropes covered their entire torsos, spears inches from their throats. Hadriane was the only dwarf standing, but she wouldn't fight, not when the twins and Forrel were down.

We couldn't die here. I couldn't do that to Mom.

Then the Snow Queen walked to the very edge of the balcony, and once I saw the audience, stretching out and out to the colossal open doors, I realized we were back in the entrance hall.

“How did we get
here
?” I asked.

“Stairs in the walls. They had to carry you,” Lena whispered. “It's my fault—the bats—”

“No talking,” grunted one of my troll guards. The Snow Queen had decided to speak.

“We have already discussed the Pied Piper's most recent catch.” Solange gestured below her.

Oh no. The kidnapped kids were here too, right in the front, under the balcony—all of them, even the ones who'd been in a drugged sleep. The Pied Piper guarded them, his wooden flute raised to his lips. He would enchant them the second they tried to resist.

“But we have had a new development.” The Snow Queen's
arm swept back to us, and my face flamed. “Behold the rescuers that the Canon has sent. These are their best, their strongest—one Tale bearer and the so-called Triumvirate. It took my forces only a moment to subdue them.”

All of her forces gloated about it too. Searcaster stood to the right of her mistress's balcony, and in front of Ripper's wolf army, four pillars guarded the other side. I guess the sorceress-giant had convinced the Snow Queen to promote her son, even though Jimmy Searcaster definitely wasn't the scariest villain ever. Likon still held the Fey princes, but they had stopped struggling. The Seelie kid looked like he had passed out. Prince Fael just stared at us, terrified.

“We have expected the EASers for some time, but it hurt to see these dwarves with them,” said the Snow Queen. “Their people are my sworn allies. I am willing to listen to an explanation for this betrayal. One of them has volunteered to speak on their behalf.”

When her guard let her go, Hadriane stepped forward, her jaw set.

I started shaking my head. She
wouldn't
.

Lena whispered, “They're
making
her, Rory. Searcaster threatened the twins if—” Then a troll shook her to shut her up.

“Haddy,
no,
” Forrel said.

The princess bent down and whispered, “You'll keep them safe? You'll see them home?”

“Of course—” Forrel said.

“Don't watch,” Hadriane told the twins. Iggy's face was white, and tears glinted on Ima's cheeks. When they closed their eyes, she added, “I love you.”

“Come here, child.” The Snow Queen sounded kind, but her impatience was written all over her face. “Tell them.”

The princess stepped to the balcony's edge. She was so
calm
. “I am Hadriane of the Living Stone Dwarves. My father allied with Solange more than ten years ago. You may have heard of Kiivinsh, the city of ice her sorceress-giant built for us, and my father has often said we can never pay back what she has given us. It is true that her gifts are great.”

The Snow Queen smiled graciously, pretending she hadn't fed Hadriane all her lines.

“But it is also true that she
takes
what she wants,” said Hadriane, and a scowl darkened Solange's face. This wasn't part of the script. “Seven nights ago, when the Pied Piper led the children past our gates, he called out my brother and sister, heirs to the throne. She kept them prisoner alongside the human children.”

“Don't—” Forrel whispered. His troll guards looked to the Snow Queen, waiting for her to give the order to start slaying the hostages.

Hadriane didn't look back. She didn't see the twins' eyes pop open with sudden delight. “She calls us her allies, and yet she is as ruthless with us as she is with her enemies. She speaks of making her allies masters of the earth, but in truth, I believe she sees only one master in her vision of the future. And she crowned herself queen long ago.”

Solange raised a hand in Hadriane's direction. I thought that she was just doing a spell, like the one Arica used to take away my voice when I was a flower-bird, but when the Snow Queen flicked her fingers, shards of ice flew. All four thudded into Hadriane's chest, straight into her heart.

The three dwarves cried out, and I did too.

Then Hadriane collapsed, her head turned toward me. I saw the resolve in her eyes.

And then I saw the light go out of them.

It would take something truly tragic for my father's people to change their minds.

It had been on purpose. She had
meant
to die. She'd wanted to show everyone who the Snow Queen really was.

“That was necessary, I'm afraid.” The Snow Queen mixed regret and apology in her voice. She even bent down to close Hadriane's eyes, and I hated her for touching my friend. “In private, the princess confessed that her father had ordered these questers imprisoned as I'd requested, and she had defied him and me. Alone among the Dwarves of Living Stone, she was a traitor.”

A few members of the audience were
nodding
. No, the Snow Queen couldn't actually
recover
from this. Hadriane's death couldn't be a waste.

“And traitors cannot be tolerated. They must be executed as swiftly as possible. For without trust among us, we're at the mercy of one another, and the humans have won,” said the Snow Queen. “Is that what you want?”

“No!” screamed voices from the crowd.

But only a few. The rest were silent. Either watching Solange murder the dwarf princess had shaken them up, or they were still deciding.

I could practically see the wheels inside the Snow Queen's head turning as she calculated. “But never let it be said that I am without mercy. My first impulse is to execute these questers as well, but I suppose I could content myself with seeing them in my dungeons. I will give them the opportunity to save their lives. A duel, I think. I will nominate my champion, and they may nominate their own. Is that not fair?”

None of us were stupid enough to think that the Snow Queen
actually meant it. We would only live as long as her guests were here.

Then Forrel said, “Yes.”

Of course. He'd promised Hadriane he'd keep the twins safe. He would play by the Snow Queen's rules from now on.

“Very good. As for my champion . . .” The Snow Queen peered into the audience, making a big show of looking over her allies. A bunch of trolls actually raised their hands, but she ignored them. “Torlauth di Morgian,” she said finally.

He'd been in the very back, trying to creep toward the door, still hiding behind that stupid cloak. When he threw it off, I could see the fury on his face. Word was going to get back to the Seelie Court that Torlauth had allied with Solange and sold out their heir. The days when he could play both sides were over.

He flew, his bronze hair waving like a banner behind him, and after less than a minute, he landed at the Snow Queen's side, his hands curled into fists, his cobalt wings buzzing behind him. He glanced over us eagerly.

He couldn't wait to take out his frustration on one of us, and that made him twice as dangerous.

The Snow Queen looked our way too. “Well? Who will you nominate as your champion? Who is the bravest among you?”

I thought Forrel would volunteer, but Chase was faster. His voice was so smug you would have thought he'd won already. “That would be . . .” He paused for effect, and I was
furious
at him for making the choice for us, for putting himself in so much danger.

His gaze slid straight to me. “Rory.”