Chapter 19

I collapsed onto my bed, wishing my pulse would slow.

Here I was, locked in my room again, my escape attempt an utter failure. I sat up, rubbing my hands across my face and trying to pull anything useful out of the last few hours.

I had seen Lhoris and Kara, and they were safe. That was the most important thing.

Also, I had a friend here. Someone had pushed the key under my door. My room would be locked with magic from now on, so getting out was no longer an option, but still, someone in the palace had tried to help me.

And there was the owl.

He had said something about being my protector, and mentioned the color of my hair. How was that even possible?

Adrenaline was still flowing through my body, making me twitchy and unable to focus. In a few hours, the Prince was coming for me, and I would find out what I had been kidnapped for. I needed to be alert and ready, not strung out and exhausted.

“Get it together Reyna. One thing at a time,” I told myself aloud, before going into the bathing chamber and washing my face with warm water, trying to relax my racing thoughts.

I was no worse off than I’d been before. Just a little shaken up. I would be ready to face the Prince — who would know nothing of what had just happened.

I took deep breaths as I looked at myself in the mirror over the basin.

My reflection showed a woman in the wrong place.

It always had, but the obviousness of my not fitting in was even more pronounced here, in this dark and cold palace. I picked up a strand of shining copper hair, the low firelight in the chamber making it glow in the gloom.

“You can do this, Reyna. Do as you’re told. Find your allies.” But before I could add, ‘escape’ to the end of my sentence, Svangrior’s words floated back.

If I tried to escape again and was caught…,

I closed my eyes.

I wouldn’t give up.

Die trying.

But next time, I would make sure we weren’t caught.

When I walked back into the bedroom, I froze.

There was a large white and gold owl perched on the corner post of my bed.

“H-hello,” I said slowly. “How did you get in here?”

The owl blinked at me. Without warning he flew from the post, toward the fireplace. With a small, angry hoot, he dove at the tapestry that depicted the black raven, then flew back to the post.

“You don’t like ravens? I think you’re in the wrong room then.” Again, he flew to the tapestry and pecked hard at the raven. This time, he caught a bit of the material in his beak, and when it came away from the wall, I saw the tiniest flash of something.

I stepped to the tapestry and cautiously lifted it from the wall. The owl flew back to the post, watching me.

A window. There was a window behind the picture.

I examined the heavy artwork, trying to see how it could be removed from the wall, and then I saw a sturdy, but fine, piece of cord hanging from the rod it was fixed to at the top. I pulled on it, and the tapestry began to roll up from the bottom on some sort of pulley.

I kept pulling until the whole thing was in a neat roll at the top of a small, arched window. The panes of glass were criss-crossed with lead piping, and the window was set high enough into the wall that I had to stand on tiptoes to look out. There were courtyards far below, not filled with white marble and gold like the ones at home but with large stone statues of dragons and serpents, and the odd raven. Beyond that, much lower, I could see the twinkling lights of towns. The sky was the same dusky twilight it had been when we arrived, sprinkled with pinpricks of light.

Dragging my eyes from the view, I looked for a catch on the window. There was no way I could escape out of it, the drop to the courtyard below was completely sheer. But it must have been how the owl had gotten in.

Try as might though, I couldn’t find a catch. All that was on the sill was one snowy white feather with a dusting of gold.

I picked up the feather and turned to the owl. “Thanks for the help with the bear,” I said. It wasn’t actually what I’d intended to say, but without the owl’s distraction, Lhoris would definitely not have made it through the night in one piece.

The owl blinked. “I am a mighty warrior. It was not difficult.”

Despite everything, the corner of my mouth lifted in a smile. The bear had been at least twenty times the size of the owl. “Well, all the same. I appreciate it. How did you get in here? The window doesn't open, and the door is locked.”

“I was hunting in the forest when I was visited by a fae. She told me I was to assist the copper-haired gold-giver in whatever way was needed. Then I found myself here. I assume you to be the copper-haired gold-giver?”

I nodded slowly, nerves tingling through me. “Who was the fae?”

“I do not know. She was…” The owl tilted his head thoughtfully. “Magical and moderately terrifying. Almost as terrifying as I am when I hunt.”

“Terrifying?”

“Yes. Also, my hunt was not finished, and I am hungry. Where do you store your rodents?”

I shook my head again, then sat down on the chair. “Why were you told to assist me?”

“I do not know. I assume you require my superlative hunting skills?”

“I…. Well…no. I don’t think so.”

He hooted irritably. “Then why was I sent here? To save you from marauding bears?”

“I honestly have no idea. What did the fae say to you?”

“I already told you that.” He blinked his perfectly round eyes. “My initial suspicion that your intellect is far below mine is proving to be correct. Disappointing.”

I drew in a long breath. “What’s your name?”

“Voror.”

“Okay. I’m Reyna.”

“I shall call you heimskr .”

“I am not stupid,” I told Voror, taking another deep breath.

“You have an understanding of the ancient language? That does not fit with the idiocy you have so far presented.”

“Can you just call me by my name?”

“No.”

I folded my arms. “How is it you can speak the ancient language?”

“I am of superior intellect.”

“You’re an owl.”

“A superiorly intellectual owl.”

“Could you speak before this mysterious fae visited you?” I asked him.

“Of course I could.”

“To humans?”

The owl paused before answering. “No. To a select few fae.”

“Which fae?”

“The royal family of the Earth Court.”

“Is that where you live?”

“No.”

“Then why do you speak to them?”

“I don’t.”

My jaw clenched tight. “You just said you did.”

“No. I said I could have, if I wanted to. They are the only magic users in the five Courts equipped to converse with creatures as intelligent as myself.”

I ground my teeth. “Do you not find it strange that you can talk with me then?”

“No. The fae told me to give you the feather.”

“So you haven’t told me everything she said!” I exclaimed, standing up.

He ruffled his wings, shifting his weight again. “If you find me a rodent, I will recount the conversation word-for-word.”

I pinched my nose. “I don’t have any rodents in here.”

He hooted haughtily. “Then I shall bid you goodnight.” He spread his wings wide and took off from the post.

I cried out as he headed straight for the closed window, but the sound died on my lips when he passed straight through the glass.

“What the…” I stood up as high on my tiptoes as I could to look out of the window and watched him swoop away, down toward the closest town.

I paced the room for the next half an hour, trying not to freak out that a second unknown fae was aware of the ‘copper-haired gold-giver’. The Prince had sought me out. And now this owl had been sent to find me by somebody different. What did they know about me that I didn’t?

A heavy truth was trying to settle over me, invading my brain, and my stubborn defiance was failing in its attempt to dislodge its hold.

It was no good.

I stopped pacing, and let the words whisper into my head.

I can’t run from this.

Both because of Svangrior’s threat to my friends, and because I needed more information.

I needed to know why the Prince had sought me out. I needed to know who the fae who had sent Voror was, and what they knew. And I needed to find out what my part in whatever this was, before I could make any kind of bid for freedom.

Movement made me look at the window. Voror drifted through the glass, then landed gracefully at the end of the bed.

I picked up his feather from where I’d put it on the desk. “You’re back.”

“I have completed my hunt,” the owl announced, ruffling his feathers. “And now, as promised, I shall tell you what the fae female said to me, word-for-word. She said: Voror, mighty and wise owl. You are required by the ancient ones to assist the copper-haired gold-giver. Give her one of your feathers and she will be able to communicate with you. This is a dangerous quest that could change the course of Yggdrasil’s future, and the fate of all the fae and humans who call it home. Good luck.”

My eyebrows shot up as I gaped at him. “Ancient ones? Change the course of Yggdrasil’s future?”

“That is what she said.”

“What kind of fae was she?” Desperation to know more was burning through me.

“I do not know.”

“Well, what color hair did she have?” That was usually a sure way to tell what kind of magic a fae had. Ice-fae had blue hair, gold-fae had white, and so on.

“Her hair was… made of light.”

“What?”

“Do you have problems with your hearing, or is it your inferior intellect that requires me to repeat myself so often?” I narrowed my eyes at the owl, and he shrugged his feathers. “It was made of light. My sensitive, superior, eyesight struggled. A little.”

“Do you know of any fae who have hair made of light?”

“No. Or I would have answered your earlier question about what kind of fae she was.” His tone was dry.

“Voror, I’ve had a long day. A long few days. I’ve been kidnapped. I’m supposed to marry a murderous maniac—at least until I help him with some secret plot, after which he’ll probably kill me. And now you’re telling me I’m connected to the fate of the whole of Yggdrasil . Oh, and I almost got eaten by a bear a couple of hours ago. I’m going to need a little longer than usual to process information. Okay?”

The owl tilted his head. “Humans are strange.”

“No doubt.” I rubbed my hand over my face yet again. “How did you fly through the window when it was closed?”

“The fae female made me glow. And now I can fly through solid objects.”

I blinked at him. “That could be useful.” It meant he could go anywhere in the palace. Except that the shadow-fae might notice a big white owl flying around.

“It does not help me catch rodents.”

“Perhaps not. But it might help you in your quest to assist the copper-haired gold-giver.”

“I do not know why I have been selected for such a task. I was perfectly happy in my forest.”

I had no idea why either. But I did know I needed allies. And someone, somewhere, had sent him to help me.

Could they be trusted?

The memory of Voror diving at the colossal bear, saving Lhoris’ life, filled my head.

Making a quick decision, I launched a flattery offensive, knowing it would be the easiest way to get on the right side of the self-important bird.

“I’m sure your forest is missing you. Except all the rodents. They must be celebrating the absence of such a formidable hunter.”

Voror’s feathers ruffled proudly. “I imagine that they are, yes.”

“And I’m sure the fae selected you for a good reason. She must have known you were the only one who could be trusted with the fate of Yggdrasil .”

He blinked at me. “Well, of course she did.”

“Listen, the Prince is going to tell me why I’m here in a few hours. But I don’t think we should let him see you.”

“I am hard to miss, in all my glory.”

“Are you adept at hiding?”

“An owl cannot hunt, if they cannot be stealthy,” he said drily.

“Good, then hide. Come back later.”

“Fine. In the meantime, find a way to keep my feather on your person, so that I may contact you at will.”

“Good idea.”

“I am an endless well of good ideas.”

“I’m sure you are.”

Without another word, he flew out of the closed window.