Page 100 of A Kingdom of Shadow and Ash

She had learnt from her brother long ago:If something is chasing you, do not run. Running makes you prey. Stop. Wait. Let it come to you.

So Mal stopped.

She exhaled slowly, planting her feet, tensing her body in preparation. If this was an enemy, they would not stand a chance. She was one of the most skilled fighters in all the kingdoms. She would end them before they could even reach for a blade.

‘Oh, hellooooo.’

The voice came fromabove.

Mal jumped, her body betraying her as a startled yelp tore from her throat. She barely had time to recover before glancing up—

There, hanging upside down from a thick branch, was a girl. She grinned down at Mal with all the mischief of a tricksterspirit, swinging slightly, utterly at ease.

‘Ya don’t recognise me. That’s okay. I wouldn’t either. But ya did meet me brother when our House was introduced. He’s Bryn, of House of Snow. And I’m his twin sister, Wren Wynter. He was born two minutes before me so now he gets to become king and I get to enjoy everything else.’

Mal opened her mouth to respond, but Wrenkept talking, words spilling from her as easily as breath.

‘I’m sorry if I gave ya a fright. I’m sometimes so stealthy I scare meself at night when I see me own shadow as I head to da kitchens for a snack. Has that ever happened to ya? Me papa says that I was born a natural snow-walker. We wolverians have a special way of walking on snow, and some, those that arereallyskilled, can even do it without leaving footprints. So walking on normal grounds, especially this sturdy stuff they have in this land, makes it even easier to move around without being heard.’

With effortless agility, Wren flipped herself down from the branch, landing lightly on the forest floor.

She was small—smaller than Mal—but identical to her twin. Same sharp features, same piercing eyes. Mal remembered the twin, Bryn Wynter, from the royal introductions. He had congratulated her politely alongside the other noble Houses. The wolverians were a people of ice and snow, their kingdom a frozen expanse in the farthest reaches of the north. They were famous for many things—their frost-bound castles, their ability to hunt through raging blizzards.

And, of course, their wolves.

Great white beasts, large enough to carry three riders upon their backs.

Mal studied Wren, this strange wolverian girl who had somehow managed to follow her through the forest without leaving a single trace.

Wren Wynter was made of winter itself. Her skin, her hair—both as pale as untouched snow, as though she had been sculpted from frost and ice rather than flesh and bone. All wolverians bore such features, designed by the gods to blend into the frozen landscapes of their kingdom, to move unseen beneath the silver hush of snowfall. The only thing that set them apart, that marked them as living rather than apparitions of winter’s breath, were their eyes—a blue so pale, so diluted, that it was nearly white as well.

A creature of ice standing beneath the sweltering sun.

Mal studied her, intrigued. ‘Were you following me?’

‘Yes.’ Mal’s brows lifted in surprise at her blunt confession. ‘But hear me out. Ya see, I was walking through da castle grounds, swearing becas da heat was going to melt me. I was planning on going down to da kitchens to see if I could steal some ice to put down me shirt…’ Wren winced, correcting herself. ‘I mean, not steal. I was just planning on borrowing it.’

‘How can you borrow ice?’

Wren hummed thoughtfully. ‘Good point. So I was headed towards da kitchens when I noticed something very odd. A maid that is meant to be sick in bed, sneaked another maid into da castle. What is odd about this is that that maid that was sneaked in I’ve neva seen before.’

Mal frowned. ‘And you know every single servant that works in this castle?’

Wren shrugged, utterly unbothered. ‘I get bored easily.’

Of course she did.

‘My point is,’ Wren went on, ‘since I’ve arrived to da castle, no servant has been changed for another. No new ones have arrived, no old ones have left. So why all of a sudden is this new maid brought in? And in such a sinister way? And most importantly, da maid that was sneaking in da other was yer oldmaid Vera.’

‘Vera?’ Mal shook her head. ‘That cannot be. I was told she was ill and bedridden. Well, perhaps she is better now.’

‘It’s okay, ya don’t have to pretend. I know ya know that yer maid Vera is actually a witch.’

‘I never said she was a witch.’

‘Well, sheis,’ Wren said, pulling a face. ‘Vera is meant to be gone off to da Kingdom of Magic to find a magical dagger on petition of Queen Cyra so that Ash Acheron can stab ya in da heart with it.’

Mal’s stomach twisted. Her vision wavered for a moment.

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