Chapter Twenty-Six The Villainess Foiled by the Ice Princess

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

The Villainess Foiled by the Ice Princess

The Ice Queen had never been beautiful, but hope and youth once animated her face. Hope and youth were dead. All those she loved were dead. The gleam of her eyes was no more alive than the shine of her crown, a tower of milky opals and icy diamonds upon her stone-pale brow.

"I will have the Emperor's head if I must cross a sea of blood to get it."

Time of Iron , ANONYMOUS

T he villainess preened in her scarlet dungeon. Rae thought that had gone very well.

Octavian was meant to forge the sword in the dawn, not sleep late and hastily forge the sword during the Queen's Trials, but it had all worked out. The Emperor never did care for ceremony. He thought the tournament was a joke and he'd choose his own bride.

A hero always arrived in the nick of time, but by its very nature ‘the nick of time' was almost too late. Octavian had arrived to behold his beloved in peril, and the ravine reflected his heart. Now everybody knew he was the Once and Forever Emperor.

More importantly for her wicked purposes, Rae suddenly had a lot more credibility as a prophet. She planned to use that.

For now, she was taking a scented bath. Rahela leaned back as she drizzled first the vase of lemon water, then the vase of jasmine water over her head and down her aching back. Fighting a manticore was a workout. She was thankful her water had arrived as hot as the king's today.

Rae emerged to sit on the velvet stool before the bronze mirror and complain to Victoria Broccoli. "The evil twins cause wicked back pain. Nobody thinks of this when they write about the villainess's luxuriant curves!"

She didn't really mind. It was almost thrilling to feel the normal pain of a healthy body, strained muscles, heavy breaths. Pain that glanced the surface and departed rather than settling into her bones. For so long, running was as impossible as flying. It was a miracle to be able to put in effort and accomplish what she wanted, at a cost to her body she could bear. It was a miracle she needed to bring to the real world: strength enough to protect her and her sister from ever being hurt again.

Rae wriggled her shoulders under her scarlet dressing robe and sighed. Hands settled on her shoulders, leather and strong fingers felt through silk.

"Let me," said Key.

He exerted sudden intense pressure on the muscles of her shoulders, death-dealing hands extremely capable. She sneaked a look in the mirror and saw, reflected in bronze, the clean line of his throat and wicked shine of his eyes.

Rae let herself sigh in a different way. "What did you think you were doing, throwing knives when you're still recuperating? You're in big trouble."

Key shrugged. She was glad to see the movement was so easy. "So punish me."

"You're playing with fire," Rae threatened. "I'm a heartless villainess. You don't know what I might do to you."

Key seemed undaunted. "I know my mistress is cruel and without mercy. I will accept whatever hideous fate she has in store for me."

Rae slid a smile up at him.

"I have to go fetch something from the kitchens," said Emer in a loud voice.

Before Emer could go, a tap came at the dungeon door. The king might be sending for her. Against her will, Rae felt her whole body lock up. Key must have felt the new tension. His hands closed on her shoulders, as if he wouldn't let her go.

Except he had to let her go. Everyone must bow down before the Emperor.

The door swung to reveal the Cobra's face, bright with joy and liquid gold eyeliner. Rae could have cried with relief, if that was a thing villainesses did.

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's murder?" the Cobra asked. "Don't mind me, just pretending I'm Key writing poetry. Everybody did great saving Lia today."

He came bearing gifts: sunglasses with snake-shaped rims for everyone. Rae immediately tried on her shades despite the darkness of the room.

The Cobra made a face. "Don't wear sunglasses indoors, it makes you look like a poseur."

"It makes me look awesome," Rae argued. "Who wears sunglasses indoors? Rock stars and evildoers. Sunglasses make no difference to them, because they're always doing dark deeds."

A delicate cough interrupted their argument.

Rae slid the sunglasses down her nose and stared in disbelief over the snake rims. The Cobra hadn't shut the door after him. On the threshold stood the last person Rae expected.

"What's a girl like you doing in a narrative dead end like this?" she asked Lia.

The girl wavered in the dungeon doorway, a shape that seemed formed from light and air rather than flesh.

Then: "I believe you, Rahela," said the heroine of the story. "You risked your life for me."

"No I didn't," Rae squawked. "I was confident we could handle it together, with the power of both gauntlets. And I was right!"

She had been almost entirely confident.

Lia continued earnestly, "Why would you do that, unless you truly can tell the future, and want to be allies? Let's be on the same side."

There was a stunned silence.

Until the Cobra smiled his particularly inviting smile. "Lucky I brought a spare pair of sunglasses."

He bowed with a golden flourish and offered the sunglasses to Lia, who accepted them with a curtsy and a shy beam. Rae started clapping. Key joined her. Lia glanced Emer's way, but Emer was busy arranging Rae's brushes and perfumes.

"Congratulations on your betrothal," Rae told Lia encouragingly.

"Is it the Emperor, then?" The Cobra's voice was wistful. "You don't return Marius's love even a little?"

Rae raised a clenched fist in victory like a football fan. She wasn't as fond of the Emperor as she used to be, but there was a thrill in seeing her preferred team win.

"Is Lord Marius in love with me?" Lia seemed surprised. "Surely not any more, though?"

"Today was a huge setback," the Cobra admitted. "He doesn't really get why people lie. But if you sweet-talk him, I'm sure he'll come around."

"You wish me to seduce Lord Marius but marry the king, so we can use him as a tool?" Lia looked impressed. "Lost gods, you are wicked."

The Cobra's mouth fell open. "That is not what I meant! I want somebody to take care of him."

"I could do that," Key volunteered with a wink.

The Cobra took off his sunglasses and started to beat Key with them as Key laughed. "I wasn't talking about murder! I'm never talking about murder and you're always talking about murder!"

"Your poor little meow-meow is built like a brick murder house, he'll be fine," Rae muttered.

Lia frowned. "Are you certain he's in love with me? I didn't get the creeping crawling feeling when men look at you and it feels like a thousand insects on your body, and the insects all want to undress you."

Emer knocked over a bottle.

"Because Marius is a gentleman ," the Cobra protested.

Lia sighed as though accepting another burden. "I thought he might be a friend."

Rae couldn't help remembering how Lia died: trusting courtiers who betrayed her, choosing faith though she'd been betrayed a hundred times. She'd wanted to love her stepmother and stepsister and Emer. In the other story, Lia had thrown herself between Lord Marius and a monster. She'd come to the lowest chamber in the tower of her own volition, though she'd won the hand of the king and was in no need of allies. Lia, who every man desired, wanted a friend.

Even the fairest of them all could be lonely.

The Cobra studied Lia with concern. "You don't have to marry anybody if you don't want to."

Hello, who was messing up the plot now?

"Considering Rahela's visions, I think I should marry Octavian," Lia said calmly. "If he becomes Emperor, I'll rule at his side. I can bear him touching me for that."

The Cobra appeared too stunned to speak.

Rae flopped down on the bed and began to laugh. The angelic heroine, whose virtue couldn't be stained, whose mind was above such things.

This was the great love story.

Everybody wanted Lia because she didn't want them. They thought it meant she was better than other women, purer and more worthy of having. Except all it meant was she didn't want them.

"Why do you want to rule?"

"To change the world," Lia answered readily. "I've always thought the citizens should be better fed."

That was like Lia, the ministering angel who brought baskets of medicines and liniments to the sick. The Cobra nodded along.

"Well-fed people work better, and well-fed troops will make our armed forces stronger if we must march to war," Lia continued in her placid voice.

The Cobra, truly the unexpected sweetheart of their group, dropped his sunglasses. Rae kicked up her feet and laughed in glee. Lia seemed gratified by the positive feedback.

Key considered Lia, head tilted. His grin, his hair, every inch of him was wild.

"Welcome to the pit of vipers." Key offered Lia his hand.

Lia laid her lily pale fingers briefly against the black leather covering Key's palm in an uncertain high five. Key might be villainously and generally flirtatious, but he'd been ready to fight a manticore to protect Lia. Now it turned out Lia didn't like Octavian or Marius, maybe Key thought he had a chance.

Maybe he did. Maybe there were evil sparks flying.

A pang of unease shot through Rae. "Sure you want to be a viper? You are… basically good…"

Lia's expression turned piteous and abandoned, crystal tears welling in her eyes and sliding down her cheeks. Rae threw up her hands in surrender.

"Don't make the damsel face! You can be a viper."

Lia smiled beatifically with tears still drying on her baby-soft cheeks. She'd been her parents' spoiled darling once, Rae recalled.

"Can you really cry on command?"

Lia nodded. "It's a gift."

Her pretty tearstained face made an empty, sister-shaped place in Rae's heart ache. Rae patted the bed and Lia skipped over to lean, tiny and bird-boned, against her.

She'd lost so much weight before she was diagnosed. "You look great," her best friend told her. "Now you're as thin as I am." Rae hadn't ever considered which of them was thinner before. Apparently her friend had. She'd forced a smile at the time, though she felt so tired.

Now Rae smiled for real.

"Can't wait to be executed for our many conspiracies," murmured the Cobra. "Do we want a secret handshake?"

Rae hissed and mimed a serpent undulation with her hand, which was a joke until Lia giggled and did it too. Key performed it experimentally, knife in hand. The Cobra rolled his eyes and executed the viper gesture with flair.

"With respect," Emer said in her flattest voice, "m'lord, m'ladies, you look unbearably stupid."

Everybody laughed. Rae threw an arm around her stepsister's slim shoulders, and considered the next stage of her scheme.

In a few months Princess Vasilisa would get word that her brother the king had died young. She would be distraught, and go to Octavian's chambers for comfort only to find him carousing. The combination of drunk king and grieving princess led to the spectacularly bad decision of sleeping together. Vasilisa expected they would marry, but Octavian told her he loved another. A small force of raiders sacked the capital to avenge Vasilisa's dishonour, leading to the Emperor going down into the abyss to claim his full power. Chased by the Emperor's undead army, Vasilisa and her warriors fled. Years later, the merciless Ice Queen rallied her raider army and sailed across the sea to crush the Emperor. In the long night of battle that followed, Lia and Marius were killed.

Rae would be gone before any of that happened. The woman who'd opened Rae's path to Eyam said Rahela had no further use for her body, so when Rae plucked the Flower of Life and Death Rae suspected Rahela's body would die. Perhaps her friends here might miss her. She would miss them. They weren't real, but she no longer blamed the Cobra for getting attached while living in the book. Before she left the story, she wanted to make sure these characters were safe.

Someone needed to let Vasilisa know the Octavian thing would never happen. Vasilisa should go home and spend time with her brother before it was too late.

The celebration for the future queen was a perfect opportunity. This was the holy prophet's time to shine.

Rae entered the celebration looking good, feeling fine, and determined to avoid the main characters. Her dress was a column of pure white, the rubies stitched onto her train sweeping the malachite floor. She walked holding the Cobra's arm, Key and Emer behind her, and imagined she could hear jaunty background music.

Then she realized that was the Cobra's private band of minstrels.

The hero and heroine passed by. The king, and the fairest of them all. His face was hidden by the royal mask, and her beauty was a mask too. The setting sun glowed behind their heads, lending lustre to Octavian's crowned mask. It didn't matter what the main characters had actually done. It mattered who they were.

Lia made the viper gesture, hand winding secretively behind the king's cape. Rae flashed Lia a grin behind her ruby-encrusted fan before turning away.

Princess Vasilisa stood in a cluster with the Cobra's book club. Rae almost didn't recognize her. Vasilisa wore a yellow silk blouse and a striped wool skirt with a tassel belt. The lapels of her blouse were wide and the sleeves stopped at her elbows, so Rae could see the princess's tattoos. Starting at Vasilisa's collarbone and spreading to her left shoulder was an intricate design of a deer with a griffon's beak and goatish horns in place of antlers. Vasilisa had the same animal tattooed in thick black ink on both wrists, horns curling around like bracelets.

Vasilisa's people didn't wear the same clothes as the people of Eyam. Vasilisa had been uncomfortable in an unfamiliar costume. She seemed relaxed now, brown hair tumbling, face pink with laughter. She didn't appear cast into hell by jealousy.

Maybe Vasilisa wouldn't sleep with Octavian this time around, but grief inspired wild behaviour. Rae had heard the saying that wars could be lost for the want of a nail. She must warn Vasilisa about His Majesty nailing and bailing.

"Hi, everybody! Especially hi, Your Highness!" Rae tried to think of a smooth method of getting the princess alone.

"Lady Rahela," said Princess Vasilisa. "Would you step aside with me for a moment? I wish to consult with you on a private matter."

Plotting was only getting easier.

The small room they slipped into was lined with books and brass ornaments. The floor was a warm-hued mosaic of the godchild in his cradle. The goddess rocked her child to sleep, before any of the pain and horror happened.

Rae sank down on a velvet pouffe. Her skirts with their ruby hearts floated and settled around her. She grasped Vasilisa's hands and gazed ingratiatingly into her eyes.

"Talk to me, girl."

Vasilisa avoided her soulful gaze. "I hear you can tell the future."

"Don't doubt it. Seriously… don't." Rae took a risk. "So – the gods tell me there's a man you admire?"

Even though Octavian was the hero, Rae almost believed Vasilisa would say that wasn't true.

Instead the princess tried to wring her hands while Rae was still holding them. "Yes! I greatly admire him. I believe tenderness is growing between us."

Octavian's medieval boy-band looks had hypnotized this woman.

"Very into pretty boys, are we?"

Vasilisa's lashes cast fluttering shadows on the burning red of her cheeks. "He has an allure so different from other men, such as that brute Lord Marius."

Rae nodded. "Buff with resting bitch face, a terrifying combination."

She gave everybody who wanted to climb that icy mountain props for courage.

Vasilisa bit her lip. "I hear rumours my beloved's interests lie – elsewhere. Can your gift tell me if it's true?"

Rumours such as everybody knowing Octavian was crazy about Lia, and them being engaged? Did Vasilisa think Lia and Octavian were only betrothed because of the Queen's Trials? Did she not know true love when she saw it?

Women weren't encouraged to have experience with men here, Rae reminded herself. They were expected to be innocent. In practise that meant being ignorant and easily hurt.

Villainesses were always cruel. Right now, Rae was cruel to be kind. "I don't need my gift to tell you. His interests do lie elsewhere. The whole court knows."

Vasilisa took a quick, hurt breath. "Everybody must think me a fool."

"No," Rae lied. "I'm sorry I had to be the one to tell you. And I'm sorry again, because I must hurt you twice. I've seen a vision of the future. The gods showed me you on the throne of your country. You were very unhappy, and very alone."

And very inclined to send armies to ravage your ex's shores.

Vasilisa's fingers transformed from soft, wrung flesh to stone. Rae's hand went numb in her grasp.

"I was on the throne?" Vasilisa demanded. "What happens to my brother?"

"I'm sorry. He dies young."

"Of what?" Vasilisa pursued.

How would Rae know? The guy never appeared in the book except as a corpse in a laboratory. He was only a name: Ivor the Heartless, who created the metal soldiers the Ice Queen used to fight the Emperor's dead army. He was a plot device to give Vasilisa the power to wreak havoc on Eyam. He wasn't even a character to Rae.

To Vasilisa, he was a person she loved.

"The gods weren't clear. All I saw was his doom."

Vasilisa reared like a steed caparisoned in yellow silk. The stripes of her skirt blurred. "Where's King Octavianus?"

"We're doing this now? You might want to sleep on it—"

Vasilisa flung open the door. Her guard Ziyi stood outside.

"Escort me to Octavianus of Eyam, then send a message home. Your king's life depends on our speed."

"Or now," Rae murmured to herself. "Now is good."

Ten minutes later, they assembled in the throne room to hear the proclamation of departure by the royal princess of Tagar.

Delicate ladies were provided with chairs. Rae snagged a seat beside the Cobra, who'd had a low gilded sofa brought in. His book club were behind him, Lady Zenobia covertly reading a novel. The twins sat beside Lord Fabianus, Hortensia's face pale and strained. Oddly Lord Marius was nowhere to be found, but apart from him the entire court was present and agog.

"O holy prophet, please ask the gods why are you like this ," hissed the Cobra.

"This time, I was trying to do what you wanted," Rae whispered back. "I was trying to help people!"

Perhaps her villainous nature meant she could never do good.

Octavian's masked crown was lifted, his expression startled. Prime Minister Pio stood beside the throne, seeming stressed. "The Queen's Trials is a palace game," Pio said. "Let me assure you, Princess Vasilisa, our countries are still seriously engaged in marriage negotiations."

A titter echoed around the court at the mere suggestion Vasilisa might still have a chance. The court didn't take the ice raiders seriously. Rae knew better, and winced. The princess fleeing the same day the beauty won the king's hand was not a great look.

Princess Vasilisa addressed the king directly. "Your Majesty, it's clear you have no interest in marrying me. And I have less than no interest in marrying you."

Wow, she was addressing the king very directly.

The optics of this situation underwent an abrupt reversal. The entire court had front seats to witness their gloriously handsome king being rejected by a plain woman.

Rae cheered internally. That's it. Keep your dignity. Don't send texts after midnight or troops to invade the capital!

"As a gentleman I respect your wishes, and as a king I hope for amity between our nations," the king declared. That would have been an excellent way to end the audience, but from the corner of his mouth Octavian muttered: "Personally, I'm relieved."

In the story, Vasilisa's infatuation must have made her interpret the king's jabs as jokes.

In this version, Vasilisa's eyes narrowed. "Personally, I'd have my heart cut out and thrown into your ravine before I wed the man who let my friend's body be desecrated, and who lacks the basic courtesy necessary to refrain from insulting a lady."

The heated whispers around the throne room turned to thin screams, like a pot on the boil. Humiliation fought discretion on Octavian's face.

Vasilisa the Wise bowed her brown head. "Apologies. I'm distracted by concern for my brother. Permit me to withdraw."

Octavian's mouth jerked like the reins on a horse, stopping it from running wild. "Please leave as soon as possible. For your brother's sake."

For one glorious moment, it seemed everything had gone as Rae planned.

Until a man's voice exclaimed, "Vasilisa! You can't go."

Astonishingly, it came from behind them. Rae turned slowly in her seat. Lady Zenobia dropped her novel. The twins clutched hands.

Lord Fabianus, resplendent in a violet silk waistcoat embroidered with peonies, went to stand before the princess. He seemed oblivious to his enthroned king.

"I mean to say. I mean, I say! Vasilisa. Must you go?"

Vasilisa took a deep breath. "I must. My brother is in danger."

"But I mean!" exclaimed Lord Fabianus. "That is to say."

Why was he making a scene when he couldn't make a speech?

Graciously, Princess Vasilisa declared, "I will always remember your friendship."

Her example of calm seemed to inspire Lord Fabianus. "If you must go… won't you take me with you?"

Faintly, Vasilisa replied, "I would welcome a visit from you, if that's what you mean."

"That's not what I mean at all!" Fabianus cried.

There was a note of genuine pain in his voice. Once again Rae felt an uncomfortable twinge in her chest. She'd never meant to hurt anybody.

"Vasilisa," Fabianus continued. "I mean, Your Highness. Damn it, I mean Vasilisa! Don't we have an understanding?"

Vasilisa's blush rose and her gaze fell. "I believed I misunderstood…"

Rae was starting to think she'd made a prophecy based on very outdated information.

Lord Fabianus reached for the princess's hands. "You didn't misunderstand."

" Fabianus! " called a man's deep, heartfelt voice. "No!"

General Nemeth advanced from the shadow of the king's throne to where Fabianus stood. The general's battered armour was a ludicrous contrast to his son's waistcoat.

Fabianus twinkled. "We both know Tycho's the better heir."

The general said, "There could be no better heir than you."

Fabianus blinked.

"My good boy." General Nemeth's rough voice went gentle. "When your mother passed, people said I owed it to my children to marry again. I couldn't bear to. I failed you, and you kept the house nice and the girls dressed beautifully. Our fortunes will come about. You don't need to make any more sacrifices for the family. I know your inclinations lie elsewhere, son. I've always known. I never cared."

Suddenly Rae became convinced that General Nemeth would never villainously plot her death. It must be the prime minister and his facial hair of evil.

In response to his parent's touching declaration, Lord Fabianus coughed. "Father, I appreciate that. But it is possible for people to enjoy the company of both ladies and gentlemen."

The Cobra cupped his hands around his mouth and cheered.

"Both?" General Nemeth looked like a trout with many military decorations. Mouth opening and closing, his gaze travelled the court, in search of help or possibly sex ed.

Fabianus gave a bashful nod. "People made assumptions because I like fabrics and fashions and dislike fighting in the mud. I might add, several fellows who do like fighting in the mud made advances . When I refused, they went to you and made jokes."

The king must have abdicated, because guilty silence suddenly reigned.

Fabianus smiled his pleasant foolish smile with a slight curl to his lip, and patted the general's arm with the hand not offered to Vasilisa. "I would have told you, Father, if you asked. Still, I found it convenient you never brought up the subject of marriage to me while you hounded the girls about marrying well. That was wrong, and I'm sorry to the Horrors, but – I did rather dream someday I might marry for love."

Princess Vasilisa's voice trembled. "And now?"

Fabianus's hand was still held out for hers. The joke of the palace reached out with hope and courage.

"Now I'm in love," Fabianus said simply. "I would go with you anywhere, if you asked. But I have a family I worry about, the same as you do. Hortensia's not well. I know it's awful cheek to ask, but would you wait for me?"

Before the princess could answer, Hortensia sprang to her feet. The embroidered lap robe tumbled away, revealing her wasted form. Her voice could have pierced a god's ear.

"I almost drowned you in the creek when you were ten, Fab Nemeth. Don't make me come over there and finish the job. I will do perfectly well without you. Finally, my big brother won't be there to criticize me whenever I wear yellow! I couldn't be happier."

Fabianus held up his free hand with unusual sternness. "Yellow makes you look like an enormous lemon, Hortensia!"

Horatia protested, "My dear! A dainty lemon."

Hortensia collapsed back into her chair. "Your Highness, please take him."

"Then, my princess…" It was Fabianus's turn to blush. "Take me away?"

With her hand hovering in response to Fabianus's reach, Vasilisa nodded. Rae wasn't sure how it happened, as their gazes were fixed upon the throne room floor, but they touched hands. All at once they were in each other's arms.

Suddenly, the future Ice Queen and the fool of the court were kissing like the hero and heroine of an epic love tale, like they didn't know they were minor characters destined for disappointment, like they didn't care the whole court was watching.

The Cobra rose from his seat with sweeping golden self-confidence and applauded authoritatively, as if at a play. After a last startled split second, so did Rae, the book club, and Fabianus's sisters.

Even Prime Minister Pio seemed pleased by the alliance with Tagar being preserved, and presumably war against the ice raiders avoided.

"That didn't go the way I expected," Rae whispered to Key as they left the throne room. "But I'm into it."

Vasilisa and Fabianus might not look like Lia and Octavian, cut right out of a book of fairy tales, but they felt like someone's happy ending. Even if it wasn't hers.

Safe in the scarlet basement of shame, Emer set up Rae's screen of ebony black and paper white, poured the piping hot water and sprinkled the petals. A second hot bath might be overkill, but Rae had a lot of party eyeliner to remove and she schemed better in her hot tub. She was starting to think of it as her plot tub. Rae should find the maid bringing the lovely hot water and tip her.

It wasn't until Rae dunked her head beneath the surface of warm water fragrant with rose petals, that she remembered the one person in the throne room who hadn't been smiling.

Muffled by water, she heard a disturbance. It could have been a voice raised or a heavy object falling. Out of her element, Rae could only tell that the noise was loud. Indistinct and terrifying, it sounded like an oncoming storm.