Heart of Ice (The Snow Queen #1)(16)

“I’d move if I were you,” she called as her sled hurtled her straight up to one of the buried buildings. The soldier standing on it gawked at her, missing his chance to flee. When the sled smacked into the roof, the woman flew into the air and crashed into him.

“That was a thrill,” the woman said, peeling herself off the stunned soldier. “A fast ride and a soft landing—how perfect! It was even better than riding a water serpent. Thank you, soldier, for your worthy sacrifice,” she said, bowing to the mostly unconscious soldier. She brushed off her pants and smiled when she caught Rakel’s eye. “You, there, beautiful lady. You must be the fabled Princess Rakel?”

Beautiful? That is such a poor lie it must be a joke. Rakel warily eyed the woman’s unusual wardrobe—she had never seen any of the village women wear pants—and collected a chunk of her magic. “I am.”

“I, Your Highness, am Phile Silver-Step—the Robber Maiden. I am here to offer you my services.”

Noticing one of the soldiers had recovered and was nocking an arrow in his bow, Rakel threw a boulder-sized snowball at him, flattening him. “If you mean to rescue me, allow me to assure you it is not necessary.”

“Of course not,” Phile said, sounding scandalized. “You are a strong, independent woman—or I wouldn’t offer you my services. I choose not to reward sniveling girls who make no attempt to rescue themselves—you don’t want to reinforce such behavior, you know.” She made big gestures and held an oddly shaped dagger in her right hand, which she stabbed when she wanted to make a point.

“No, I don’t,” Rakel said, snapping her wrist.

A Chosen soldier shouted in dismay when the arrow he was trying to load froze to his crossbow.

“Don’t worry. I will teach you about it later—you’re sure to come across many sniveling girls in your campaign for Verglas. I imagine they’ll snivel extra when they see how pretty you are. King’s earwax—your parents must have been a gorgeous couple. But, enough! For now, I will reassure you that I am an ally!” Phile spun around and parried a blow from the soldier she had previously knocked over. Her dagger glinted in the sunlight as she leaned into him.

Rakel couldn’t watch the fight; too many of the soldiers had recovered from the avalanche and the shock of meeting the Robber Maiden. She concentrated on subduing them and pulling them into the deep snow where they floundered.

A soldier yelped like a puppy. Rakel saw Phile’s opponent drop, his hands covering his eyes.

“Behold, the powers of Foedus—fear its ugliness,” Phile crowed, holding her dagger up as she launched herself from the roof and landed on her sled, which took her careening off to the next roof. “Try to corral them together, Your Highness—then we can take them captive,” Phile shouted.

“I doubt they will be inclined to do so after you just shouted the plan for all to hear,” Rakel said.

“Regardless of whether they know our plan, do you honestly think they can counter your powers?”

“I see your point,” Rakel said. She drained the avalanche snow away until the snow crust was just a little deeper than it had been before she had arrived, and the doors of the buildings could be opened and closed.

The Chosen soldiers abandoned their rooftop posts and ran towards Rakel with sabers and pikes raised.

Rakel, in response, melted the snow, then froze it again so it formed ice thick and slick enough to skate on. The soldiers slipped and fell.

“Very precise work,” the self-proclaimed Robber Maiden said as she darted past them. She bailed out of her sled to avoid crashing into a building and leaped onto the nearest soldier.

In five minutes, the girls had the soldiers rounded up. Rakel encircled them with walls of ice twice the height of the tallest soldier and too thick for any of them to break through.

“What a pleasurable fight. Our opponent was not savory, but you are highly skilled with your magic. It is a joy to behold,” Phile said, drawing closer.

When inspected from head to toe, Rakel could see that Phile was a concoction of loud colors and foreign notions. She was not from Verglas, for her skin was a warm shade of olive. Her dark-colored hair was pulled back into a wild ponytail and covered with a brilliant, red kerchief. She wore white linen pants tucked into brown boots, and a thick, red coat the same shade of red as her kerchief. As Rakel watched, she slipped on a pair of white, leather, fleece-lined mittens.

“Thank you,” Rakel said, tilting her head to study her from another angle. It was possible this was a trap, and Phile was sent to attack her. “Are you a magic user?”

“ ’Tis a shame, but no. I was most disappointed as a child when I realized it was so. I am as I said—a Robber Maiden. My mother is the venerable Leonia, the famed leader of the biggest gang of thieves in Baris—the Dishonorable Knaves,” Phile said, twirling the tips of her hair. “I am also the bearer of Foedus—the world’s ugliest dagger,” she added, holding the weapon out for inspection.

Foedus was indeed ugly. It was shaped to resemble a bizarre, misshapen insect, with the cross-guard serving as the head, and the blade—which was unusually straight on one side and curved on the other—jutting out from the bug’s head like a massive horn. If the shape wasn’t bad enough, the bug had gaudy green jewels for eyes, and the grip was wrapped in repulsive reddish-orange leather.