AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I passed through the gate, and he was gone.
“Ugh.” Izolda, riding next to me, groaned. “Two weeks on the road. I hope you packed warm, Fia. I don’t know whose idea it was to travel just before the snow, but they must be out of their mind. Nights won’t be so bad, since we’ll stay at inns and such. But if we’re going to get there before the season changes again, we’ll have to push hard. And you’d best pray it doesn’t rain at all.”
She was right. The wind was already biting cold, and hours out riding in it were sure to be miserable. “Have you been before?”
“To court? Every year. My mother was Lady Heli’s maidservant before me. She brought me along to help with small jobs as soon as I was old enough. She left the baroness’s service when I was able to take over. My grandmother insisted she shouldn’t be working for the humans at her age. It was ‘undignified.’”
I frowned at Izolda. “Are you Drakra?” She had to be, at least in part, though she didn’t look it. Why else would she call the baroness human?
She laughed. “A quarter. Why do you think I’m so colorless? My grandfather was taken prisoner in the second Spider War, where he met my grandmother. When he was released, he convinced her to come back west with him.” She tossed her braid over her shoulder. “So my blood runs black—or at least a quarter black. Mind, it’s a pain in my ass. Do you know how much rouge I have to wear every day to keep my cheeks pink?”
With the wind-chapped flush in Izolda’s face, I never would have guessed at her inhuman heritage. Now that I looked close, though, I could see that her eyes were more yellow than brown, and while she wasn’t unusually short for a human, her Drakra ancestry could account for her height, as well.
I was fascinated. “I’ve never met a Drakra before.” My older brother, Sergey, lived near the East Mountains and traded with Drakra regularly, but I’d been too busy to visit since he’d moved east.
“I’m not really Drakra. Just a quarter. I grew up around humans. This is about the only interesting thing my black blood gave me.” She held up a hand, and shadows wreathed it. “A touch of shadow-melding. Nothing like my mother can do.”
My mouth dropped open. “You can control shadows?”
“A bit.” She shrugged. “It’s an entirely useless skill.”
I could think of several uses, but my mind was spinning too much to contradict her. She glanced at the train of people ahead of us. “Come on,” she said. “We’re falling behind.”
***
Han
Mila was gone. I tried not to dwell on it, but I was already packed for my own journey, and there was little else to do. I went to the stables, hoping the presence of the animals would soothe my troubled mind.
Why hadn’t I tried harder to make her stay? I could have told the tsar she needed to be at home. He would have understood, at least. Anna and Yakov could have kept her there. She would have hated me, but at least she would have been safe. Or as safe as she could be with all these rabid soldiers roaming around.
It was too late now.
Our old mare looked up as I reached her stall. “Hello, old friend,” I murmured, rubbing her nose. “How are you settling in?” The black beast nuzzled me, searching for a carrot or a lump of sugar. That was Mila’s fault—she spoiled our horses. My heart clenched at the thought. “No treats today.”
Once she’d determined I had nothing in my pockets to interest her, the horse turned away.
“There’s no need to ignore me.” I leaned against the door of the stall. “I suppose it’s for the best that I can’t take you with me. There’s no treats on the road. You’d be miserable.”
“On the road to where?” A familiar voice came from the stable doors behind me.
I turned slowly, heart pounding. “Yakov.”
“Youabsolute bastard.”The younger man stepped forward and swung, his fist connecting with my nose. “How could you?”
I stepped out of his reach and pressed a hand to my stinging nose. Blood poured from it. “I’m sorry,” I said, my eyes stinging.
“You’resorry?You disappear without a word, and we have to find out from yourstewardthat Mila almost died of Moon Fever and we won’t see either of you for months?” Yakov’s arms hung at his sides, his fist still clenched. I took another step back in case he decided to hit me again. “I went to see Ulyana and her husband, hoping they could tell me where exactly you’d gone, and they didn’t even know Mila was sick! They told me I might find news here at the castle, but I didn’t expect to find you here.”
This was why I’d left so quickly, why I hadn’t told Yakov where I was going. I couldn’t lie to my friend.
His shoulders drooped, and he sank onto a bale of straw. “What’s going on, Han? Why are you here?”
“I—” I paused, rubbing my neck. I’d planned to write to Yakov, to tell him the truth once the army had gathered and it was safe to put word in writing, but he was here now. The tsar would want to meet him. “Come with me.”
My nose, thankfully, had stopped bleeding. I wiped the blood from my face as I led him through the silent halls of the castle, into the baron’s private wing, and stopped in the small dining hall. “Stay here.”
“Where are you—” Yakov began, but I was already gone.
