Page 29 of The Crown of the Last Fae Queen
“Do you plan to ever let me go?” She combed her fingers through her windswept hair. “Or will I be killed once my usefulness is used up?”
Astrid slowed in her steps. “Why would you think Commander Alfaer would …killyou?” A hint of horror laced her words. “He is not that cruel?—”
“Heisthat cruel,” Rakel said, stopping and turning to stare at them both. “But it is not his decision to make. Queen Aesileif will decide what to do with you.”
Astrid’s mouth dropped open while Kolfinna shivered, her thin dress barely staving off the chill clinging to the air. She pursed her lips and stared down at the uneven cobbled road as they continued their trek once more. More unease and dread pulled at her chest. She hadn’t doubted Vidar’s intention of wanting to get to know her as his daughter, but what if the queen didn’t share his sentiment? She was known to be frigid, wasn’t she? Cold, unfeeling, and heartless—the queen of the fae had a horrible, murderous reputation.
“What is the queen like?” Kolfinna asked once they reached the tower and entered through the gates of it. Hundreds of glowing runes were etched into the double doors, so crammed together that the surface, from afar, appeared simply golden.
Rakel climbed up the spiraling staircase. Sconces lined the bricked walls, casting orange light across the dim tower. “She is … intense.”
“Intense?” That wasn’t the word Kolfinna had expected her to say. She climbed up the spiraling, rutted steps of the tower behind Rakel, making sure not to step on the dirtied hem of her dress.
“Yes.” Rakel didn’t turn to look at her, just continued going up, her staff clanking against the stone steps.
When neither woman elaborated, Kolfinna urged, “What do you mean?”
“She is powerful,” Astrid said carefully. Her hold on Kolfinna’s arm loosened and she frowned, seeming to be lost in thought for a moment. “I have only met her a handful of times, but you can tell almost immediately that she is extremely mighty. It’s an honor to fight alongside her and be in her ranks. When I was younger, I always wanted to be a part of the Queen’s Guard.”
Kolfinna opened her mouth to ask more about the Queen’s Guard—the very idea didn’t exist in Rosain, since kings were therulers here, rather than their queens—but Rakel spoke next, and her words cut through whatever thoughts she had.
“If you think Commander Alfaer is cruel, terrifying, and unapproachable,” Rakel said, turning around to finally face them once they reached the top level of the staircase, “then you will find that Queen Aesileif is ten times worse than her husband.”
Kolfinna paled. It was suffocating being around Vidar as he was, and the queen was supposedlyworse?
“You don’t meanworse,” Astrid said with a reluctant pause. “You mean, simplymore, correct?”
Rakel parted her lips, fastened them shut, and gave a tightlipped smile. “Of course. I did not mean to imply our queen is bad in any way.”
Astrid nodded with a relieved smile. “I thought so.”
“Yes …” The elf motioned to the short hallway that led to a single door. “Your new room, Your Highness.”
Astrid released Kolfinna, gesturing her forward. She hesitantly approached the door, glancing carefully at the elf and the fae, both of whom were staring at her expectantly. What was behind these doors? Rakel had mentioned a prisoner and an old friend—who had she been referring to?
Without wasting another breath, Kolfinna stopped in front of the door and twisted the doorknob, only to be met with resistance. Her eyebrows pulled together and she tried again. “It’s locked?” she said.
“Ah, sorry about that. Here’s the key.” Rakel strode forward, a giant, gleaming gold key with runes scribbled all over it in her hand. She slid it into the doorknob, turned, and shoved the door open.
“How could you forget the key?” Kolfinna couldn’t help but grumble with a frown.
Rakel flashed her a grin. “We’ll just say it was a reminder for you to realize that all these doors are locked with rune magic.”
“Uh-huh.” Kolfinna hid her surprise at the rune-marked keys—she hadn’t even thought to do something like that with her rune magic—and pushed her way through. “It sounds to me like you simply forgot.”
The inside of the tower room was semi-circular and fairly simple, but actually more extravagant than the military dorm she had shared with Herja and Inkeri. There was a barred window that glowed gold from the runes, two beds on either side of the room, a plush rug that staved off the chill from the ice-like stone floors, and even a door that led elsewhere. Everything was polished, immaculate, and pristine—it looked nothing like a prison cell.
Sitting on one of those beds, with a book in both hands, was a frail older human woman with reddish-brown hair streaked with gray, sad brown eyes, and hunched shoulders. When they entered the room, she lowered the worn leather-bound book onto her lap.
“Oh,” Kolfinna said, giving the woman an awkward nod. This definitely wasn’t an “old friend” of hers, so she assumed she was a prisoner. “Hello?”
“Ah. Hello,” the woman said, her voice barely a whisper.
Rakel stood at the entrance while Astrid hung in the hallway. “Two princesses locked away in a tower,” Rakel cooed with a short laugh. “We used to have children’s stories about this kind of situation, didn’t we?” She glanced over at Astrid, who shrugged. She waved a dark hand toward the woman. “Kolfinna, this is Princess Aslaug. She’s been locked here for a long, long time, and going by what she’s told us, the humans planned to let her rot here.”
“Not the humans in general.” Aslaug’s voice rose as she stared at them all. “The king. My brother.”
King Leiknir had a sister? Kolfinna had never heard of that before, but then again, she had never cared for royalty. She vaguely had a sense of idea that he had relatives, but they had died long ago, or so she had heard. Why was the king’s sister locked away here?
