39
Eislyn
It had been four days since Eislyn had eaten anything but berries. She’d wandered through the forest, using the nighttime constellations to guid her west where she knew she would eventually find the Ice Road. There was little that she remembered from what Reyna had tried to teach her. She’d never been interested in learning how to protect herself in the outside world, far too content holed up behind castle walls. But Eislyn had always liked the stars, especially when viewed through the curving glass roof of the library back home.
She knew she was headed in the right direction, but she had yet to find the tavern where the Ice Road met the Rowan Road. And she did not dare join the road until she did. It would be the first place her enemies would expect to find her, and she’d feel safer once she was firmly outside of Lord Killian’s lands.
Enemies, Eislyn thought sadly. She had enemies now.
With a sigh, she trudged through the snow, picking a few more berries to power her through the rest of the day. She would keep walking for as long as she could before finding somewhere to sleep for the night, safe and hidden deep beneath the snow-laden trees.
A crunch sounded in the distance. Followed soon by another. Heart in her throat, Eislyn dropped into the snow, thankful that her hair blended in with the ice. She squeezed her eyes shut tight, hoping and praying to her forsaken god that she had not been seen. She’d come so far. To be caught now…and what would they do with her? She didn’t dare even think it.
“Eislyn!” A familiar voice called. “Princess!”
“Vreis?” Shock flittered through her as she pushed up from the ground, brushing the snow from her bare shoulders. He stood only a short distance away, the sunlight slanting through the trees and spearing his face. He looked rough, his hair tousled, a thin scar running down his left cheek. When he saw her, he fell to his knees. “Thank the Dagda. You’re alive. Dagda help me, you’re alive.”
Tears filled her eyes as she ran to him. It felt like years since she had seen a friendly face, and even longer since she had heard a voice she did not fear. She flew to him, dropping heavily into the snow by his side, grasping his hand in hers. He was cold to the touch.
“I thought you were dead.” She brushed the tears away before they froze on her cheeks. “I thought Lord Killian had you killed.”
“He tried,” Vreis said with a sharp shake of his head. “His fae cornered me as soon as you walked away from me. I fought them off, but there were too many to take on my own. I thought they were going to kill me right then and there, but you started racing through the markets. They left me with only two guards. Too few, a mistake on their part.” He gave her a grim smile. “I managed to kill them both and get free, but you were gone by then. I’ve been tracking a pair of footprints for days. I didn’t even know if they belonged to you. All I had was hope. And fear. Fear that you hadn’t escaped at all, that you were dead.”
The emotion in his voice brought Eislyn to her knees. “You’re freezing.”
Vreis was not an ice fae. He would not be immune to the cold. And yet, he’d been trekking through the northern forests of the Ice Court without a fur coat and winter leathers. To find her. She doubted he even knew how to camp out here in these forests where snow piled waist-high or even higher.
Her heart swelled with an unexpected emotion she did not dare name. Where Thane had run from her, Vreis had charged through foreign lands to find her, risking his life. She wanted to pull him to her chest and never let go.
Vreis shuddered against the cold. “It seems your court’s name is very fitting indeed. It is impossible to escape the ice.”
“Come,” she said quietly, taking his hand. “There are some caves not far from here where we can take shelter for the night. I’ll build us a fire, so you can get warm. And then maybe we can figure out what the hell we’ll do next.”
Vreis’s relief was immeasurable. She wrapped her arm around his waist and led him through the snow, wrapping him as close to her as she could get. Her body warmth would do very little for him now. He was so chilled that his skin had gone blue. He needed fire and soon.
And, truth be told, Eislyn wouldn’t mind it herself.
She didn’t feel the cold, but there was still an ache in her bones. She was exhausted from running for days, and the hunger in her gut felt like sharp claws against her ribs. A rest would be good for both of them.
The caves had once been mined for ice glass, but they were abandoned now. The fae had already carved out every shard they could find, and had then moved on to deeper, darker caves where the glass was seemingly endless. Eislyn led Vreis into the first cave they came across, ducking out of the path of the falling snow.
Even now, the caves glittered from remnants of the ice glass, too small to be deemed useful now. The silver stone walls curved overhead, slick stone that looked as though it had been painted to match the colors of the court. The tunnels stretched on for miles, vanishing into darkness, but Eislyn settled them down near the mouth of the cave where light could still reach them.
“There we go.” Eislyn sat back on her heels, smiling, once she had gotten a fire going for Vreis. Glencora had once taught her to make a fire, and Eislyn hadn’t been certain she would be able to replicate it without her sister there to lead her through, step-by-step. But she had managed to produce some flames, meager though they were.
Vreis shuddered as he held his hands over the flickering warmth. “I never thought I would be so happy to see fire, but here we are.”
“And I never thought I’d build a fire myself.”
“That’s right.” He cocked his head, curious. “You’re an ice fae. You don’t feel the cold, right? Where did you learn how to do this?”
“My sister. Glencora,” she said. “Reyna doesn’t like fire very much.”
“No, I can imagine her very stubbornly resisting it, even if it was needed.”
Eislyn laughed. “That is Reyna, through and through.”
He answered her laugh with one of his own but then choked, coughing. Eislyn’s heart sank. “Have you slept at all?”
“Pitifully,” he said with a strange smile. “In five-minute bursts here and there. I couldn’t find peace long enough to relax. My thoughts were plagued by your face.”
“Oh.” She frowned. “I didn’t realize my face was so terrifying.”
He smiled and took her hand. “Quite the opposite in fact. I was afraid that as I slept, you were somewhere hurt and scared. It seems I didn’t need to fear at all.”
He fell silent and stretched across the smooth ground. A moment later, his eyes dropped shut. Eislyn sat on her hands, watching the rising and falling of Vreis’s chest as his breathing steadied. Now that they were safely tucked away in a cave, the full truth of their situation bore down on her head. They were fine—for now. But what of tomorrow? What then? They could not return to Margaidh, and it was a long, long while until they reached the next town. There would be villages on the way, but would they be full of friendly faces? They were part of Lord Killian’s province, and they would be loyal to him. He could have already sent word to each and every one, instructing them to take her by force if she appeared.