...From the massive, rocky hills that dotted the rugged northern landscape, all bursting upward from the ground at once.
How many ancient trolls had been sleeping there for centuries?
They were all wide awake now and advancing on us through the snow with massive, stone-strong legs. As the cloud of snow they’d flung off from their grassy sides finally collapsed to the ground beyond our bubble, I could see exactly who had woken them.
Apparently, we weren’t the only ones to have desired extra witnesses to this meeting.
The elf-lords rose from the center of the white landscape, tall and beautiful and shining like icicles encased in flesh. Their long, pale hair glittered with razor-sharp shards of transparent glass. Their floor-length white coats shimmered with iridescent silver embroidery. The crown of the elf in the center looked as if it had been fashioned from pure diamond, and an audible gasp ran through the inner semicircle of human watchers as the snow cleared to reveal him.
The elven king, according to Amy, had never attended this ceremony. That was the duty of his representatives, hardly suited to the eminence of his role in the elven court...
But the eyes of the elf-lord on the king’s left side gleamed with unmistakable satisfaction as his cat-like gaze turned directly to me.
Lord Ihlmere was ready to claim his prey.
“Your Majesty. We are honored indeed by your presence here today.” Lady Cosgrave stepped forward and bowed her head to the elven king with perfect grace, ignoring the gigantic trolls who continued to close steadily around our tiny semicircles. Even as their massive strides shook the earth beneath her feet, she kept her steely social smile fixed to her face.
“...And my lords.” She looked deliberately around the assembled elves. “How delightful to see so many of you gathered in friendship for this year’s solstice ceremony...especially after such a disappointing absence from this year’s Samhain celebrations. If only we’d known how many of you would be arriving today, we would have set out even more places at our feast to welcome you as kin.”
A ripple of expressions ran across the faces of the elven courtiers, ranging from skepticism to outright sneers. The elven king himself, standing still and poised in the very center, appeared to be perfectly unmoved by any such trivial emotion, except...
Had that been a warning twitch of his eyebrow as he nodded gravely back to Lady Cosgrave? I frowned, peering at them both from my position at the back of the second semicircle. I was too far away and too untutored to read the intricacies of the code, if there was one, that had passed between them in that moment.
But I remembered what Amy had told me: “It was either a deliberate snub, in which case our treaty is in grave danger—or else a sign that their own court is in such disarray that he didn’t trust any one of his courtiers to meet with us in public this year...”
The elven king might be here to defend the treaty. But in this particular meeting, he could well be overwhelmed by his own attendant numbers...and I wouldn’t be surprised if Lord Ihlmere had more than one upset in mind for today.
“Our noble king,” he’d murmured in a tone of pure venom all those days ago, as his sole reason for leaving the lost travelers unharmed.
Ihlmere stepped forward now, taking control as easily as if he’d already slipped the crown from his ruler’s head.
“Alas,” he said in a tone that reeked of satisfaction, “not every friendship can last forever. And when one side is guilty of such a vast betrayal...”
I wasn’t the only human who stiffened at those words. Every politician in the inner semicircle sucked in a preparatory breath, while every magician in the group went as taut as a hunting dog waiting to be set loose.
My own magic should have been a vital part of our defense...but for once, that bitter seed had no chance of taking full root in my chest. It was overpowered by the cold certainty that we would still have been hopelessly outmatched. Lady Cosgrave had prepared for a political ceremony today, not a battle.
Everyone knew what had happened in our last, epic battles with the elves, when our nation had prepared with all its might. The blood shed then, on both sides, was a nightmare passed down all the centuries.
“We share this land,” Lord Ihlmere said, “but we do not alter it, on either side. To call down an unnatural storm such as the one that currently torments our pets and threatens our own traditional hunts is an abomination that spits in the face of our longstanding treaty. And when it comes to the human who made a promise to one of our own—a daughter of the Boudiccate herself...”
He smiled at me with glittering intensity.
“Well, woman? Have you identified and brought us one of your own, for the culprit to be punished by our laws? Or are you ready to join me for my own private hunt...as I am certain your friends and family will allow without a word of protest, for the sake of protecting our precious treaty?”
Beside me, Jonathan sucked in a breath through his teeth. Standing in the circle before me, Amy lifted her chin. At the edge of the outer semicircle, Wrexham’s posture was as stiff as a bayonet.
I stepped out of my place, leaving all of them behind.
My mother, if only she were here, could have warned Lord Ihlmere of exactly what ultimatums and threats did to my resolve.
All of the fear had drained out of me when he’d threatened my family. Now I glared back at him with every bit of the fury and contempt that I felt. “I won’t break our agreement,” I told him sweetly, “any more than my nation has.”
His eyebrows rose in open disbelief. “How...very...noble of you.” He looked around, drawing his companions into the conversation with a sweeping gesture. “So? Which of your compatriots have you brought to face our justice? Or are you turning yourself over now without any resistance? Because as you know, any resistance whatsoever from anyone in this gathered group—”
“Yes, yes,” I said, and flicked one hand at him in dismissal as I turned to the elven king in the center of their group. “Your Majesty,” I said, “may I repeat the terms of my agreement with Lord Ihlmere?”
Every other elf in the group had stiffened at my disrespect to their spokesman.
But the elven king tilted his head, his attention piercing. “You may,” he said in a voice like sparkling ice. “We are listening.”
“Thank you.” I smiled.
I had never been a good daughter of the Boudiccate. I would never, ever follow in my mother’s political footsteps.
But I knew how to memorize and recite a spell, word-for-word, without a single shift of intonation.
“I agreed,” I said clearly to the whole gathered group, “to protect the elves’ pets by discovering the one who cast this unnatural storm, whether the perpetrator was human or not.”
“And?” Ihlmere snapped. “Have you brought him to this gathering? Or do you officially declare forfeit to me now?”
“No, I didn’t bring him,” I said, and kept my gaze on the king. “You did, Your Majesty.”