Page 6 of Frost Like Night
“You’re leaving us too?” Kiefer snapped.
But Phil stepped forward, his eyes on Mather’s. “He’s going after our queen.”
Mather bowed his head in response. He expected more protest, but all that met him was silence, even from Kiefer. They realized the seriousness of Meira’s situation—how she had left with someone none of them knew, and could at this moment be fighting for her life. . . .
Thankfully, Dendera picked up where he could not. “Bring her back. The rest of us”—she shrugged toward his Thaw, Nessa, and Conall—“will get the children to safety.”
And then what?Mather held back the question, because he knew the answers too well. They would have to face the Cordellan takeover of Winter and whatever Angra was doing to the world, and bringing Meira back would put her at the center of those conflicts.
But she was the queen. She washisqueen. Whatever shewanted Winter to do in this brewing war, he would obey—but never again would he leave her to face any conflict alone.
Dendera turned to Brigitte. “How do we leave?”
It took visible force for Brigitte to look away from her son, and when she did, she ran a hand along her own mask as if making sure it was still in place. “There’s another passageway, just through here,” she said, and moved to a different tapestry.
But as Dendera neared it, Nessa put a hand on her arm.
“Where will we go?” she whispered. Melania clutched Nessa’s skirts, burrowing into her, and Nessa straightened. “Winter is no longer safe.”
“There’s a Summerian refugee camp,” Jesse offered, “a day’s ride from where the Southern Eldridge Forest meets the Langstone River. You’ll be safe there.”
“Fine,” Dendera said. “We’ll steal some horses. A carriage, maybe, or a boat, and we’ll meet you there.” She pinned Mather with a gaze that told him it wasn’t a suggestion. Hewouldmake it, with Meira, to that camp.
Dendera shifted the princess in her arms as the king bade a final farewell to his daughter. A kiss on her forehead, then one each for his son and other daughter, quickly, as if he didn’t trust himself to linger over good-byes. When he turned away, his eyes were bloodshot, tears welling—there was pain on his face, but determination.
The king faced Brigitte, but she looked at Mather now. “Go down the way we came,” she told him. “At the secondlanding, turn left—there’s a door that will take you into the main hall.”
“Thank you,” Mather said as Dendera, Nessa, and Conall started moving for the other passage. Hollis held the Ventrallan prince, and it was plain on Hollis’s face as well as Feige’s that they knew they had to follow Dendera. The rest of the Thaw lingered, casting uncertain glances at Mather. He would have taken them in an instant if he didn’t need to travel quickly, even faster than they had traveled here from Winter. Plus, the children needed all the protection they could get—of the group, only Dendera had ever truly fought, though Conall looked as deadly as any soldier Mather had seen.
Mather still swallowed a pang of reluctance. He felt stronger with his Thaw. More complete.
Hollis broke the Thaw’s uncertainty with a grunt. “We will not be defeated,” he said, a quiet declaration—the same pledge from their training.
Mather smiled. “We will not be defeated.”
Hollis and Feige moved, with Eli closing in to coax his brother on. Kiefer jerked away and dove into the new passage, face dark, shoulders slumped.
Trace hesitated, sucking in a breath like he had questions prepared, but he just shrugged. “We’ll race you to the camp,” he teased with a flash of a smile.
Only Phil remained, motionless.
“Go,” Mather told him. “The others need you.”
Phil cocked a brow. “Sorry, Once-King—you’re stuck with me.”
“Phil, I’m serious.”
Any further protest shriveled in the way Phil looked at him. “We’re in this together. All of us. And if any of us splits off from the rest, he won’t go alone.”
Feige’s head whipped up from where she followed Hollis into the passage. “Orshe.”
Phil smiled. “Or she. Point is, I’m coming with you.”
His grin was infectious, his confidence resolute.
Mather found himself relenting.
In truth, he was glad not to be alone.
