Page 24 of Frost Like Night
“I protect my people!”
“You had no idea this takeover would happen until it unfolded before your eyes.”
“At least I’m still fighting it. What are you doing? Running away to barricade yourself in Putnam?” Ceridwenflinched. “How did you even know about any of this?”
Giselle tipped her head. “It took you far too long to ask that.”
“Because I knew you wouldn’t tell me.”
“Won’t I?” Giselle pulled her attention to the street. A hint of mildew tinged the air—they were drawing close to the Langstone River. “He came to Yakim. After your visit a few days ago.” When Ceridwen didn’t ask who, Giselle pressed on. “Angra. He came with a proposition to unite Primoria—but unlike the rest of the world, I realized what he truly offered. And it was not freedom, as he professed.”
Ceridwen risked a glance up. Night had fully embraced them by this time, but she could still make out Giselle watching her with that maddeningly studious gaze Yakimians did so well.
“He left once I told him I would consider it, as is the nature of my people. To think and ponder and live in a world of ideas—which is the exact reason I cannot allow him to spread his magic.”
Ceridwen’s jaw went slack.
“I have seen the product of his rule. The entire world has.” Giselle’s grip on her reins tightened. “Spring festered for centuries—stagnant even by Season standards. And he wishes to spread the same to my kingdom? He honestly expected me to embrace something that would change my people from learned members of this world to mindless, possessed shells. I will not let my people’s minds be marred byhim.”
Giselle smiled as if she were an adult speaking to a child. “Which is where you come in.”
Ceridwen balked. “What? How?”
Giselle’s smile softened. “When I asked who else was involved in his plans, he rattled off an impressive list, with even more impressive plans to choke the rest of the world into submission—except for Winter. ‘That kingdom will burn,’ he said. The only reason a man would destroy something like that is if he finds it a threat. They’ve been at war so long, Winter must know things about Angra that he fears. And the Winter queen calls you an ally.”
“Yes. But—”
“And you have an army at your disposal.” Giselle waved her hand before Ceridwen could say no, Simon had been killed, and Raelyn or Angra would no doubt seize Summer’s assets. “No, child—yourarmy. The one you think hidden from everyone else.”
Ceridwen’s face pinched before she tripped, slammed into Giselle’s horse, and launched around so she swung as far from Giselle as she could get.
Her refugees. Her freedom fighters. Giselle knew about them?
“If you touched them—” Ceridwen spit.
Giselle stopped her with another flick of her wrist. Ceridwen wanted so badly to cut off that hand. “I care not for your survivors, but of course I know of them. Did you believe I had been selling people to your kingdom formoneyall these years? No, Princess, I sought a far greater prize—Summer itself.”
Ceridwen blinked. “What are you talking about?”
“The people Summer bought from Yakim. Some were peasants, useless enough—but most were not so useless at all.” Giselle’s eyebrow arched high. “Soldiers, Princess. Spies, if you will, sent to build an army within your own walls. I hadn’t planned the invasion to happen for a few more years, but recent events have forced me to reevaluate Yakim’s priorities.”
Sweat pooled along Ceridwen’s spine.
“You were . . .” Her mind sputtered. “You sent your people to be tortured! Why would you think they would still be loyal to you after that? Children, Giselle. You sold my brotherchildrenso you could conquer Summer?”
Giselle clucked her tongue. “I did not tell you this so you could question me. I told you this because you have three hundred of my soldiers in your camp, and I want you to use them.”
“Threehundred?”
Ceridwen couldn’t see Giselle’s face anymore. She couldn’t see the street, or the shadows of night, or Rintiero at all—the only thing she could see was her refugee camp. The hundreds of freed slaves who lived on the border of the Southern Eldridge Forest in safety and anonymity—or so she had thought.
Ceridwen’s blood caught fire.
Giselle fished for something in one of her gown’s pockets and turned to Ceridwen, hand extended. “My royal seal, so you can convince them that I gave the order to fight for you.”
The seal dropped from Giselle’s palm and Ceridwen caught it. A small ring with an indentation on top, metal that curved into the outline of an ax.
Ceridwen glared down at it. She almost snapped at the Yakimian queen, almost shouted what she would really do with this information. She would use the help to stop Angra, yes—but she wouldn’t let a moment pass after his fall before she swayed every Yakimian slave to her side. She would tell the innocents what their queen had done to them, and she would rally them against the callous bitch who had sought to use them. Conduits and magic be damned—everywhere she turned, it seemed, she met corrupt people misusing the power she would have given anything to have.
