Heart of Ice (The Snow Queen #1)(69)

Rakel turned, looking for Liv so she could thank her. Ostfold is ours—and Steinar is safe!



Farrin studied the Verglas forces with chagrin. Rakel had bested him—even if he was free to move around again. Without his sword, he couldn’t easily attack, and even with his superior speed, he would be hard-pressed to escape the elf.

As he watched, the Verglas princess turned to smile at a woman who was hiding behind one of the water tower stands. Her grin abruptly dropped from her mouth and she groaned. “No!” Her eyes slipped shut, and she sagged to her knees.

Thrusting aside the regret of his loss, Farrin tapped his speed magic and caught her before she could hit the ground. “Rakel?”

“Back away from the princess!” the Verglas fire user yelled.

Rakel didn’t respond.

“Rakel!” Farrin said, his heart beating unevenly.

The elf was on him in an instant, dragging him away from the princess. He struggled—surrounded and significantly outmanned as he was—and one thought kept tolling in his mind. Rakel!

“She’ll be fine, lad,” said the older Verglas magic user who summoned the elf. He kindly smiled and held out a pair of those wretchedly unbreakable manacles. “Now if you’ll co-operate…”

Farrin let himself be led away, but he cast one more glance over his shoulder to look at his sword…and Rakel.





CHAPTER 17





KING STEINAR


“Princess, I’m certain you shouldn’t be up already,” Liv said, her forehead puckered with worry as she trotted at Rakel’s side.

“I should have been up long before now,” Rakel growled.

“You were unconscious until barely ten minutes ago,” Liv protested.

“That’s not a good excuse.”

“It’s an excellent excuse! Please, return to your room to finish recovering.”

Rakel ignored the plea and marched through the castle, hoping to come upon someone she knew. (Liv stubbornly refused to reveal where Oskar, Phile, and General Halvor were.) After lying like the dead for three days, Rakel badly wanted to learn about the rest of the battle for Ostfold. More importantly, she wanted to know how her brother, King Steinar, was reacting to his rescue.

Unfortunately, information was scarce. Liv, in her insistence that Rakel needed to return to her room to lie down, was impossible to twist information from. So Rakel was lost somewhere in the palace—while Snorri had drawn countless diagrams of the palace grounds, Rakel had paid scant attention to the innards—and hadn’t come upon anyone familiar.

She stopped walking and turned to Liv, her chin rising and one of her eyebrows arching as she considered what it would take to make the normally meek female talk. Fortunately—for both Rakel and Liv—a squad of patrolling soldiers rounded the bend.

“Princess?”

Rakel looked away from the quaking but determined Liv and smiled. “Knut, your timing is exquisite as usual.”

The soldier bowed and gave the pair his charming, gap-toothed smile. “Thank you, Princess. Congratulations on, uh, waking.”

“Thank you. I would appreciate your aid and expertise, if you could be spared for a moment,” Rakel said, casting Liv a thinly veiled scowl.

“How can I serve you, Princess?”

“Do you know the location of Oskar or General Halvor?”

“Not Phile?” Liv asked.

“As Phile has not sought me out yet, it is likely she is partaking in a shadowy activity of which I wish to remain ignorant,” Rakel said.

“Oskar and Phile were having a meeting in the royal library when my boys and I passed it not twenty minutes ago,” Knut said.

“Thank you for the information. Where is the library?”

“The first floor of the royal wing, Princess.”

“Where is the royal wing?” Rakel patiently asked.

The hallway was as silent as death as Knut studied his feet, and Rakel couldn’t quite pin down why. I didn’t ask anything unusual…did I?

“I will show you there, Princess,” Liv said, her voice quiet and almost mournful.

Rakel eyed her, suspicious over the newfound desire to help. “You will lead me directly there?”

“Yes, Princess,” Liv said, her lower lip trembling.

Rakel looked from Liv to Knut. “Is there a reason for the sudden lachrymose air?”

Knut straightened. “No, Princess. Good luck finding them.”

“Thank you, Knut. I beg your pardon for intruding.” Rakel nodded to the soldiers, then followed Liv, who moved through the palace at a brisk pace. In no time at all, she escorted Rakel all the way to the library. She hovered at the doors, preparing to knock, but Rakel—having spent too much time with Phile in the past month—threw the door open.

Phile was sitting on top of a desk, her legs draped off the side. She tossed Foedus high in the air and caught it. “Little Wolf.” She slipped off the desk and smiled as brightly as the sun.

Oskar was seated behind her, an arm thrown across his forehead. At Phile’s proclamation, he peered out from under the arm and then leaped to his feet. “Princess, it is a delight to see you so refreshed!”

“Oskar, Phile. Please forgive my curtness, but what happened during my…convalescence? Where is Frigid?” Rakel glided towards them, remembering to call out, “Thank you, Liv.”