Page 72 of A Tale of Ice and Ash
“Onyx…”
“Bah. Look at me. One day away from my wife and I’m already channelling her. I’m getting soft and sentimental in my old age…”
A wave of dizziness washed over her. Her head throbbed. Was she standing too close to the fire? She backed away, tumbling into something. She wasn’t sure what. Her limbs were losing sensation, her legs numb.
The floor spiralled up towards her. “Onyx…”
Her chest felt tight. Colour was dribbling away. What was wrong?
Someone was screaming. Voices, fraught and wretched, the wrong note on a violin.
“Oakley–OAKLEY! Grab something, quickly–”
Hands all over her, patting her down. The screaming was getting worse. Something was wrenched from her hair.
Eirwen.
A voice, a voice in the crowded dark, telling her not to go.
Hold on, little dove.
∞∞∞
Cole had spent the day avoiding his mother and had instead gone down to ‘help’ the guards with the incident at the granary. He confiscated the keys and may have ‘accidentally’ left the place unlocked.
The grains had been picked clean from the street. Cole couldn’t imagine a hunger like that.
He wondered if Eirwen could. The dwarves didn’t look like they went hungry, but there could have been harsh winters in the past where the forest yielded little. He hadn’t asked. He hadn’t wanted to.
So many questions he’d never wanted to ask, because they’d spoil this comfortable view of the world. Never again.
Not wanting to return to the palace, he pulled up his cloak and headed to a tavern. It was alight with gossip of the princess’ spectacular return.
“Are you sure it was her?”
“Does it matter? Anything’s better than the Queen, at this point…”
“She won’t follow through with her promises. That lot never does.”
“Shouldn’t we give her a chance?”
“Can we afford not to?”
“She was mesmerising…”
Despite himself, Cole grinned. He wished he could have seen it, her inspiring words, her black hair whipping in the wind, her blue eyes blazing. Mesmerising indeed.
His smile continued all the way back to the castle, until he bumped into Niamh, white-faced and red-eyed.
“Niamh? What’s wrong?”
She pulled him into a nearby storeroom. “Where have you been?”
“It doesn’t matter. What happened?”
“Your mother, she… she ordered me to find something belonging to Eirwen or her mother…”
Cole frowned. Such trinkets were rare, his mother having sold everything of value and burnt everything without. Only a few pieces remained, one of which was in his quarters. Had Niamh–
