The Impostor Queen (The Impostor Queen, #1)(65)

“You have no right,” Oskar roars. “We’re not within the walls of your city, and you’ve attacked a cavern full of women and children!”

“These two,” Leevi says as he wags his finger at the women lying burned on the ground, “were unauthorized magic wielders. They attacked us.”

Oskar’s face twists with rage. “Because you invaded their home!”

I drop to my knees, my fingers clutching the slippery hunks of grass at the edge of the drop-off. Either there is no Valtia and the elders worked together to create this heat themselves, or she’s on the throne and sent them here. Either way, they picked the perfect strategy to make their travel easy and to draw the men away from the cavern, eager to hunt and fish on an unseasonably warm day. Anger knots inside me—and confusion pulls it tight as I spot Harri, his dark curls shining in the morning sunlight, standing among the constables. He’s very still, like he hopes Oskar won’t notice him.

“We’ll clear out in the spring,” Oskar says. “Tell the miners they’re welcome to the copper in these caves once the thaw comes.”

“That’s quite a promise, coming from a pack of thieving murderers, but that’s not why we’re here today. We merely want to take a look at the young ladies,” Leevi says with a smile, just as two more priests jog out of the cave, giving Oskar a wide berth.

“They’re walled up in a small cavern at the back,” one of them says. “At least one is a fire wielder.”

Oskar pales, and I know he’s thinking of Aira and Freya.

“We’ll capture the unauthorized wielders and take them back to the temple after we find who we’re looking for.” Leevi turns to Harri. “Would you know her by sight?”

Harri’s gaze darts to Oskar, whose eyes go wide with the realization that the black-haired pickpocket is working with the priests. “I would,” Harri says.

Oskar stares at him. “What are you doing, Harri?”

Leevi pats Harri on the shoulder as he speaks to Oskar. “We don’t have to do this with violence. We seek only girls with copper hair and ice-blue eyes.”

“I assure you, the new Saadella is not here,” snarls Oskar. “None of our little girls have hair that color.” He nails Harri with his stony gaze. “And you know that.”

Leevi steeples his fingers beneath his chin. His thick red eyebrows rise. “Ah, but we do not just seek the little Saadella. We are also searching for our new Valtia, a young woman sixteen years of age.”

Oskar’s brow furrows, and Leevi looks pleased. “You see,” the elder says, “we’re in a desperate situation. When the previous Valtia died so tragically while averting the Soturi invasion, the new Valtia went mad with grief. She ran away, and we’re worried not only for her safety, but for anyone she comes into contact with. After searching every alley and cottage in the city for her, we suspected she’d fled to the outlands. So we combed all the homesteads on the peninsula for her and had begun to wonder if she’d managed to leave Kupari altogether—until this young man bravely came forward to let us know she was here. If you care about those women and children, you’ll let us look at each of them, to see if our lost Valtia is among them, as we suspect she is. Copper hair and ice-blue eyes. She might have sought refuge here sometime in the past six weeks or so. Hmm?”

Leevi’s words seem to hit Oskar like a blast of icy air. He blinks and steps back. And then his gaze darts up to mine, full of questions, before he tears it away. Harri doesn’t miss it. He turns and sees me perched at the edge of the drop-off. No, I think. Please don’t.

“There she is!” he shouts, his voice cracking, his finger jabbing at me.

Leevi’s blue-eyed gaze streaks right up the rocks until it lands on me. His mouth drops open. “It’s her,” he screeches.

I shoot to my feet, every shred of my body thrumming with fear.

My boot slips in the melting snow and my arms reel. All around me, I have the sense of fire, of freezing air, of violent wind. But it’s the slippery grass that does it.

I fall to the sound of Oskar shouting my name.





CHAPTER 17


I grab at the air, begging it to grasp my flapping hands and hold me high.

If I were the Valtia, I could use my magic to slow my fall. I could summon a hot wind to carry me. I could ask the ice to rise up and catch me.

But I’m the Astia. And that makes me helpless.

I land with a huff—but not on the ground. Oskar’s arms close around me, and he falls to his knees still holding me tight. I gasp, knocked breathless by the impact as Oskar’s forehead leans against my cheek. His body is between me and the priests, who are firing blasts of ice and fire at us with all the power they possess.

And Oskar is taking all of it. His face is a mask of agony as a blast of fire slams into his back. His chest shudders and he groans from between clenched teeth.

I don’t feel the fire, but the sight of Oskar’s pain causes molten rage to well up inside me and overflow. I look over his shoulder, right at Leevi, and see the tight, bitter determination on the elder’s face as he and his priests close in, their palms outstretched, trying to destroy Oskar so they can get to me. I will kill you for this, I think as the elder sends a blast of ice at him.

My hands tangle in Oskar’s hair as the ice collides with his broad back. “Give it to me,” I whisper as he lets out a choked, shuddering whimper. I press my face to his neck. He shivers.