Page 71 of Fractured
We kept going.
Beyond the trees, there were archways rimed with frost and snow, with carvings of animals on them that were half faded, like they’d been here a very long time. Must have been some kind of a garden we walked into because the archways led to a path lined with statues of fae women and men, some whole, some broken at the ankles, or with missing faces. I couldn’t tell you whether they were meant to look like that from the beginning or if something hadbrokenthem, but…
“Fuck,” I breathed when we reached the other end andsaw the actual gardens—as wide as those in the Seelie Court, except these were basically a grave of frozen vines and petals and brittle thorns, curling around rusted benches and shattered lanterns. Only a handful of them still held that light that wasn’t gold, but wasn’t silver either, and the shadows danced with our every step.
I continued to look back, constantly expecting someone to be following us, but we were still alone, and Vair didn’t seem worried.
On the contrary—his every step was precise, relaxed, unafraid. It helped me convince my own instincts that I was safe, that there was no risk, nobody coming to eat me in the dark.
We were just fine.
The gardens went on for a long time, but about halfway through, parts of them came alive. Flowers with bright petals, some closed and some wide open like the sun was high up in the sky. They were at the end of every step in every small garden shaped like a star for possibly a hundred feet—but the working lanterns were only a few so I couldn’t really see very far ahead. Benches were placed along the sides, gazebos and tables here and there randomly, some with a bit of snow gathered at their legs, but the flowers were all alive. It was cold out here, though I didn’t really feel it from all the emotions going through me, and the cloak over my shoulders—but it seemedtoocold for flowers.
Then Vair said, “Winter blooms.” He must have noticed how I was looking around with my mouth wide open.
“They’re beautiful,” I said in a breath, and the air fogged up in front of my mouth a little bit. The tip of my nose did feel a little numb, too, now that I paid attention.
“Those are winter roses,” he said, nodding his head tothe right, to where there was a row of those isolated gardens surrounded by cobbled pathways, and the flowers there were ones I’d seen before—in paintings. The large roses with lilac-pink petals that looked like they werethrivingunder the darkness and against the cold air.
“The queen’s favorite.” That’s what Vair told me.
They were beautiful indeed, and the deeper we went, the better we could smell their scent—roses, but with a twist. A spicy twist that my nostrils adored, apparently, because I couldn’t stop sniffing even though the air was ice-cold.
Wasthisthe scent Rune had remembered?Had hereally remembered when Raja took off his seal, or was that just his imagination? Hard to tell, considering all the magic that was basically dumped on him by his father.
But maybe Icouldcome back here sometime, I figured now—just to pick myself some of those roses. Just to carry their scent with me, maybe bring it back home when I left. It didn’t sound too bad.
For now, I kept going with Vair to the very end of the gardens, and just like I’d seen from the windows of the throne room, we finally arrived near the crystal shards that could only be the Ice Palace’s outer walls.
From the windows, they had looked like teeth coming out of the jaws of a gigantic animal, but from closer up, they rose from the ground like a crown of crystals spearing up in uneven, towering shards that glittered faintly even though neither the moon nor the stars were visible through the dark clouds. A few torches were mounted on their sides, which was what made me think they were not made of ice—just crystal. The same as the dais that had sprouted a throne in front of my eyes.
The shards seemed to encircle the palace exactly like acrown, each shard different—some smooth as glass, others splintered and raw, with those silver veins pulsating just slightly here and there, like the moonstone in the queen’s bedroom. Some were chipped, broken, some with big pieces missing, and it made me wonder again if it was on purpose, though I doubted it.
I saw no gates ahead, but Vair kept going, and my step didn’t falter. He wasn’t headed for a gate at all, though—but a narrow tunnel-like cut etched between two large shards. Someone had carved a path right through the crystal—yes,it was definitely some kind of a crystal, not ice—and the gates were on the other side.
Vair didn’t speak. He slipped inside the tunnel with his head up, and he didn’t hesitate for a second. The question was at the tip of my tongue—what if there was someone out there?
But this time Vair didn’t wait for me to open the door at all. He simply pushed it with his muzzle, just slightly, and it moved. It swung open with a weak cry—no handle, no lock, no nothing on it at all, which was weird as hell.
And when I stepped through to the other side, I realized why.
The crystal of the shards hadn’t looked anything out of the ordinary from the inside, aside from the broken and chipped parts, but out there was a different story. The surface of it lookedburned, and the missing pieces were much bigger. Every single shard looked like it was barely standing from this side, and what I thought was ashes covering the surface was actuallyrot.Dark grey rot that was coming from the inside of the crystals, from the many holes on their surface.
The smell, too. I’d gotten so used to the smell of flowers as we went through the gardens that the scent ofrust and dirt assaulted my nostrils and made bile rise in my throat.
With a hand to my mouth, I stepped farther away, looked up at the shards—what the hell?!They were ruined, barely standing for real. They’d looked so whole and almost completely intact from in there, but…
“What the hell is this, Vair?” Because he was looking at the rot, too, ears perked up and twitching every second, even though we couldn’t really hear anything, and there was no movement around us.
The lynx finally turned to look at me. “Magic. The magic is fading.”
Ice-cold shivers ran down my spine. He’d said the same thing before when we were in the palace.
“Thisis because the queen is dead?” I shook my head at myself. “My God, Vair. Is this what happens in every court when the king or queen dies?”
Silence for a beat.
“I don’t know,” he finally said.
