7. Hoarfrost

They heard Hoarfrost before they saw it. Aesylt had been expecting its extraordinary guard force, but the Barynovs could have been hosting a party for all the village, for as loud and raucous as the sounds were, carrying up to them on their way down the tree-lined slope.

"Told you," Niklaus murmured. He pulled to a stop at the start of their descent down the forest hill overlooking the modest keep at the north wood's edge. "There's no way in, Aes. You can see for yourself now."

She squinted through the fog, trying to add visual confirmation to everything she was hearing. Red was the color of the Barynovs, a bright and bold color that contrasted with the icier blues and silvers of her home. The color was everywhere, on all sides of Hoarfrost. Standards, uniforms, painted posts... Against the stone and snow, it reminded her of the gory splash that had followed carnage. Of the Nok Mora.

With a shiver, she straightened. "How about the root cellar?"

"What about it?"

"They have six cellars, remember? The others are detached from the keep, but not the root cellar. You really don't remember that was how Val would sneak us in after dark?"

Niklaus gazed at the ground. He toed his boot against a rotting log. "If they catch you, they might not kill you, but they will take you hostage. The war you asked me about? It will begin. Over you."

Aesylt balked. "But I haven't done anything wrong, Nik. Val asked me to be his final witness, and I was. Nothing happened that could have caused whatever... whatever he went through out there. And if I don't see him, if I can't figure out what happened, this will only get worse for everyone."

"I thought reading whispers didn't work anymore."

"It does... sometimes."

What Nik wasn't saying, because even in his anger he still loved her, was that her ability to receive messages from laying hands had gone away after the Nok Mora—not because the magic had left her but because it had been years before she'd let anyone touch her in more than a passing way. Before she'd dared touch anyone else. When she finally allowed it again, she was careful to close her thoughts off from receiving information. Wandering through the smoldering village alone, checking for breaths and heartbeats, reading their deaths in reverse... It was still just as real. The scent was never far from her nose. The horrors gripped her heart in perpetuity.

The truth was she had no idea if she could read Val or not.

"Even if you could, who in there will believe you? If you tell them you read the truth in his flesh, that would only make it worse. Ancestors save you if they ever knew what you used to do. The starwalking." He jutted an arm toward the keep. "They've already decided. You're a koldyna to them, and we both know how our people deal with dark witches."

Niklaus was right, but she had no choice but to try. Drazhan would raze the Barynovs altogether in his fear of losing her, and they would take everything they could with them as they burned.

Aesylt crossed her arms and turned back up the hill. Hot tears burned her eyes but didn't fall. They wouldn't. She'd cried exactly twice since the dust of the Nok Mora had settled: once when Drazhan had returned home after many years away and then the other night, when she'd been certain her doom awaited her at the top of a damned tree. "You and I could go in circles about this for hours. But I'm going. It would be easier if we went together, but..." She lifted her shoulders and started down the hill.

"Wait!" he cried, part whisper, part scream. "Aesylt, for the love of the Ancestors!"

Aesylt wove a path between the trees, pausing at each to verify she hadn't been spotted. Niklaus was close behind, grunting his displeasure under his breath but keeping pace. They continued this way until they reached the edge of a small garden, where the Barynovs grew winterberries and hoargrapes they made into wines. They could hardly get anyone south of Witchwood Cross to stock their harvest, for all its bitterness, but to the Vjestik, it was a sigil of their resilience. If they could suffer through a Barynov varietal, they could withstand anything.

She ducked between two rows and gestured for Niklaus to join her. "Here's what I'm thinking. We get as close as we can. If we can't... If we can't reach the cellar on our own, I'll create a distraction to draw their eyes away and you go for it."

"The fuck you will." Niklaus's eyes flashed wide in fearful anger. "You stay here, and I'll go take a look around. Stay here, Aes. I'm not asking either, so unless you want me to get Drazhan involved, you'll calm your blood for a few more minutes. If I get caught, I'll say I was coming to see Val, and no one will say a word to me, other than wondering why I'm here so late, but I can explain that. If you see anyone coming... Can you still... starwalk..."

Aesylt nodded, glancing away. It had been years since she'd taken Niklaus starwalking, long enough that he'd evidently tucked it into the back of his thoughts. How would he feel if he knew she'd been to the celestial realm with Val just days prior? And the scholar after.

"Good. I think." He frowned. "I'll be back."

The keys.Rahn's first thought after waking abruptly.

Gods, she played me for a fool. His second.

He searched his apartment, but it was strictly performative, confirming what he already knew.

She'd given him the slip.

Rahn dressed in a rush. As an afterthought, hopefully an overreaction, he grabbed his sword and scabbard and fastened them onto his belt.

But when he reached for the open bolts, he didn't know where to go next.

Drazhan was the sensible choice, but Rahn only had suppositions, not facts. Aesylt would never forgive herself if her brother went ballistic on her behalf. It would be deeply unfair and inappropriate to put Imryll in a position to either lie to her husband or betray her sister-in-law.

He needed to get a read on the situation before involving them.

Tasmin then.

Rahn slipped out of his apartment with a reasonable gait, but once he passed the guards in the hall, he bolted.

It wasa half tick of the moon before Niklaus returned. Aesylt crouched in the knobby root system of a large tree.

"You were gone a while," she remarked. "How bad is it?"

"Bad," he said, keeling forward to catch his breath. "But you were onto something with the root cellar. There are two guards with a partial view, and quite a few more once you exit into the keep, but... I remembered something. We don't need to go through the halls at all once we're inside the cellar."

Aesylt brightened, standing. "The hoists!"

Niklaus grinned. "I remember the middle one stops in his apartment on the top floor. Only trouble is someone needs to be at the top to run the pulley. But if I head to his room, the way any welcomed guest would, then I can go inside and pull you up. It's late, and they might question it, but we used to come and go at all hours. If anything, I'm overdue for a visit."

Aesylt didn't hesitate. "Let's do it."

"Adrahn Elezhar Tindahl."Tasmin spun away and lifted a hand, her gold robe flapping, as she stormed back into her bedchamber. Her tight smile appeased the guards, and then she slammed the door to a rustle of fabrics. "How could you let this happen?"

Rahn groaned as he slid his fingers down his face. "The question deserves an answer, but findingAesylt is more pressing at the moment."

"You have blinders on with her. You're incapable of objectivity." Tasmin emerged with her hair piled hastily into a ribbon, a dense cloak covering her wrinkled gown. "And I'll be insulted if you deny it. To others, fine, but to me?"

He threw out his hands in weary surrender. "I won't argue that. But if we don't find her before Drazhan realizes she's gone, then..." There was no point in finishing.

"Fine." She fastened the leather straps on her cloak, starting at the neck. "How long has she been gone?"

Rahn stared at her in blank shame.

"No guesses whatsoever?" Tasmin blinked.

"At best, an hour." Rahn breathed deep. "At worst... three."

Tasmin blurted a laugh. "She could be halfway to Wulfsgate by now."

"But that's not where she went." He grimaced before speaking it. "Hoarfrost."

Tasmin's smirk disappeared. "Rahn, if she's there, we have towake Draz. This is not something you and I can handle ourselves?—"

Rahn reached for her arm. "Please. Not until we know for sure. You and your mother are the only ones I trust to keep this between us. Every other person in this keep has sworn a vow of loyalty to their steward. I could wake Teleria, but?—"

"No, don't." Tasmin wrenched away with a tight scowl. "For the love of the gods. Aesylt. She's just like Imryll, you know. Obstinate. Incorrigible. I love them both, but only miracles can account for them still breathing."

Even the words sent his heart into a discordant flutter. "Perhaps." He glanced at the window, into the darkness. "I'm not much of a tracker, but if we can retrace her steps..."

"We'll rule Fanghelm out first. First the keep, then the courtyard, barns, and livery," Tasmin said. She checked her pocket for her keys. "There's noreason to go storming into a lion's den without being absolutely sure our little lamb has wandered where she doesn't belong." She turned and met his eyes. "But if she did go to Hoarfrost, we have no choice but to wake the beast."

They hadno trouble reaching the cellar or climbing down the dark, narrow stairs. But Aesylt had her first pang of doubt when she considered the row of hoists.

The cellar had a dank putridity to it from the roots that had gone to rot and been left to decay. The long table centering the room was scored with knife marks and stained with vermilion and ocher hues. Ends and other discarded bits were gnarled and dried, and the cobwebs stretching over the lift doors had her wondering if they even worked anymore or if they had fallen into the same disrepair as the rest of the fetid room.

"Did you test it?"

Niklaus ran a finger through the table's dust. "Now you're concerned about the viability of this plan?"

"Not concerned," she lied. "Just mindful of all the details we need contingencies for."

He laughed. "You sound like the scholar."

"He's thorough. As we should be." Aesylt moved to the middle door and brushed her sleeve along it. She turned the creaky latch, wincing, and the door yawned open, revealing the tray and pulley. With a hard breath out, she turned and said, "Should we test something first?"

Niklaus scanned the room with an exasperated air. "All we'd be doing is drawing more notice. If someone hears this thing moving, they might wonder why. They might investigate. We need you to be in Val's room, and the pulley at rest, by the time that happens."

She closed her eyes, thinking. "We'll hope for the best."

"Ancestors keep us," he hissed. "Anything else we should discuss before I?—"

"No," she said quickly, mindful of her waning courage. "Go."

Aesylt waited, agitated, her thoughts awkwardly fumbling through a series of what-if scenarios. They were all bad, every one. If she was caught, even a trip to the celestial realm wouldn't save her, because she couldn't stay there forever. Her longest stint had been two days, once, and she'd been a dazed mess for a full day after. Skin tingling. Tongue dry. Dizzy as a storm.

Only a staircase separated her from the bustling keep. Her imagination fixated on their bloodlust, how they'd whipped each other into an anti-Wynter frenzy. They were all hoping to be the one to bring in the little pale-haired koldyna who'd sent the village to its knees.

Val. Val is the key. If I can just clear my mind, if I can touch him?—

Aesylt jolted when a distant knocking traveled down the chute. She closed her eyes, mouthed a silent prayer, and leaned in to look up. At first all she saw was a man-shaped shadow, but then Niklaus's arms flailed wildly, beckoning, and she released her breath.

She pressed her arms on the platform to judge its stability, but it was pointless. She was getting in no matter what.

Aesylt had started to climb in when she thought of the bulky furs. If they got caught on anything...

She darted into an alcove, shrugged the cloak off, and stuffed it into an empty barrel. Before she could change her mind, she raced for the chute and clambered in. The metal was cold to the touch, and she already missed the fur, but she waved at Niklaus, her heart pounding, and braced for the trip.

Aesylt toppled sideways when the first creak of the pulley jolted the platform. She spread her palms to find balance, but the entire thing listed to the right. One of the four ropes had snapped. I've had a lot of crazy ideas over the years, but this might just top them all. She slid to the left to even it out and held her breath, moving her legs and arms akimbo.

The platform moved arduously slow. Niklaus's grunts became more labored with each tug. But at last she heard him sighing in relief, and before she knew it, he was tying the anchor.

Niklaus reached in to help her out, then lifted and lowered her onto the floor. Warmth was the first sensation that greeted her. The next was an eerie silence, nothing like what they'd heard outside or streaming from the keep.

"We need to be very careful," Nik whispered as he ushered her away from the lift. "They know I'm in here, but if they hear you, it's over. I told them I just wanted a few minutes with my friend, and they were hesitant even to give me that. I couldn't risk locking the door, or they'd definitely be suspicious."

"Obviously," she said curtly but smiled in apology. "Hvala, Nikky. Really, thank you. You're the only one I trusted to help me with this, but I'm not ignorant to the risks either. I promise."

He lowered his stare to the ground. "Just hurry, will you? Anyone could come in here at any time..."

Her hand traced his shoulder. "I know." Aesylt finally looked toward the bed, but her gaze climbed no farther than the rise of blanket over Val's legs. "Is it true they haven't allowed any vedhmas to heal him?"

"I think they want the village to see how he's suffered."

"If they really loved him, they wouldn't let him suffer a moment longer than he had to." Aesylt breathed long and deep. "How bad is it?" She hated how small she sounded.

"Do you want me to describe..."

"No. No, I'm only being..." Her throat caught on the word ridiculous. She was being ridiculous, sneaking out of Fanghelm and into Hoarfrost in the middle of the worst tensions the village had ever experienced—thinking she could... could somehow learn something and salvage the situation, as if reason had anything at all to do with why the Barynovs were readying to march on their steward.

In a rush, Aesylt spun and faced the bed. She managed not to gasp, but only because she forgot how to breathe. Oh, Val. His face was scratched but relatively unharmed, but though the blanket fell right under his breastbone, no inch of skin was exposed. It was all wrapped under layers and layers of bandages. She didn't need to pull the blanket back any farther to know they continued all the way down. Monsters, all of them, leaving you like this. Leaving you to suffer.

"I'm here, V," she whispered. Her hands patted along the edge of the bed, but she couldn't sit. Her body wouldn't obey the command. "I'm going to fix this. I know it's what you would want." She breathed deep and rested one knee on the bed. "I haven't done this in years. I told you I never wanted to ever again. Think you might have mentioned you'd one day get dragged out of the forest by a damn wulf, so I could prepare myself?" She reached for the only place she could see exposed flesh, his face. Her palm cupped his cheek. "Tell me how it happened. Tell me how to help you."

Behind her was a creak and then a sharp, startled intake of breath. Aesylt stiffened, her body catching up to what her mind had already registered.

"I knew you were up to something. You let this koldyna into our home?" A door slammed. Boots smashed against stone, rattling the candelabras.

"Marek, wait. Wait." Niklaus's hurried steps blended with the furious ones of Valerian's older brother. "Listen. Please. You've known Aesylt her whole life. Just listen to what she has to say. Marek!"

Aesylt steadily turned, knowing there was only one chance to say the right words, but a fist around her throat stopped them cold. She gasped for air, kicking her feet as she was lifted off the bed.

"Marek!" Niklaus cried.

"You fucking witch," Marek hissed. He spat in her face, hitting her right between the eyes. It slid down the side of her nose.

Aesylt squeezed hers closed and tried to twist out of his grasp, trying to remember what her brothers had taught her.

"Ota will never believe you just handed yourself over." His chokehold tightened. Rough heat patched her cheeks, her vision hazing. She swatted at his hands, but they may as well have been stone. Distantly, she heard Niklaus's panic, felt Marek's solid form shifting slightly in intermittent recoil.

Aesylt had been visiting the celestial realm for so long, it was almost second nature, but when she attempted to shift, to escape, nothing happened. She tried again, focusing harder and imagining herself sliding from one world to another, but still nothing.

Marek slammed her to the stone wall, squeezing the last of the breath from her. Her legs slowed their kicks and then stopped altogether. Darkness eclipsed the edge of her vision, closing... closing until she could only just make out the jade irises in Marek's crazed glare. Her hands fell away, limp at her sides.

The floor rose to greet her with suddenness. Her head hit the stones, bouncing, and she barely made a sound before she was falling again.

"You'd draw steel on me in my home?"

"You lay hands on a woman, Marek, I'll draw steel on you anywhere."

Aesylt gulped inward when something connected with her gut. The pain was immediate, blinding. It stole any air she'd regained in the few merciful seconds since Marek had released her.

In her boot she had a dagger. She always had a dagger. But a hard swoon took hold when she reached for it, and she went sprawling across the stones, wheezing.

Marek started to scream, but he was abruptly cut off.

"If you call your family in here, you may as well say good-bye to half of them. Drazhan will strike before he thinks. He'll raze this entire village before he pauses to consider an alternative. Do you want to be responsible for that?"

"Me? She's the one?—"

"Lower your fucking voice."

"Nik..." Aesylt croaked. She lost track of the discussion echoing around her. The next words she heard seemed to be a continuation of a different conversation.

"Tak. That's what I said. And you know it's the right thing to do—the only thing to do, if we don't want blood on our hands." Niklaus.

"You're mad. If my father found out she was here? And I let her go?"

"Your father needs to think rationally. He needs to contemplate his next move. Until Val wakes, we can't know what happened."

"I know what happened. The bitch took him where only the dark witches go."

Niklaus didn't respond for several long seconds. Aesylt had almost enough breath to interject, but he spoke first. "You don't know what you're talking about. And throwing around an accusation like that, without proof? It's dangerous, Marek. For you."

"The place eats your soul. It marks you. Only the dark ones survive. She marked him, and the wulves rejected him."

"Aye? Then let a tribunal decide so. You remember what the punishment is for falsely accusing someone of being a koldyna? Your father is already guilty of that crime." Niklaus's boots screeched on the stones. "If something happens to her, I'll tell the whole bloody village how the Barynovs treat unarmed women."

Aesylt dug her fingers against the mortar and tried to pull. Her breath was trapped in her throat with her voice, and a terrible thought struck her. Marek had crushed her windpipe. If she couldn't get more air soon, she was done.

"Ten minutes." Marek pushed the words through a tight jaw. "I'll give you a ten-minute head start before I tell the guards she was spotted on our land. If you can't get her far enough in ten minutes? It's on you." He lowered his voice to a sinister pitch. "And I hope you do tell him, Niklaus. Don't miss a single detail."

Aesylt's head came up off the stones, whipping back. Her arms, her legs, and the rest of her followed. Through slow blinks, she saw Nik adjusting her in his arms.

"Let's hope this hoist can hold two of us, Aes." He released a shaky breath and set her inside before climbing in behind her. She looked up and saw Marek's shadowy form holding the rope. "And that no one follows us. I've never killed a man before, but I don't think I'll hesitate if I need to."

"Clear a path! Clear a path!"

Rahn started to tell Tasmin to stop screaming, until he realized it was himselfgiving the orders. He was the one racing in the blind dark through a row of trees, with Aesylt bouncing in his arms, his pulse thundering between his ears like a sea of endless waves.

"The barn... The barn is just there," cried Niklaus, panting and pushing his pace. "Tasmin, find a vedhma!"

Tasmin looked at Rahn for direction.

Rahn tightened his hold on Aesylt when she slid from his arms. His gaze flitted between Aesylt's restless stirring and the sincere worry on Tasmin's face. Once Drazhan was involved, there'd be no containing the situation, but he needed to know the Barynovs had attacked his sister. He deserved to decide what happened next. "Go find Drazhan and the first vedhma you see."

Tasmin nodded and disappeared into the night.

Niklaus waved both arms, running sideways toward the barn. Rahn lowered his head to protect against the chill wind and pushed the rest of the way.

One door was already open. Rahn kicked the other one, turning to take the brunt of the backswing, to keep it from hitting Aesylt. He quickly assessed the options available, deciding on a loose stack of hay to the right.

Rahn nestled Aesylt onto the hay. One of her arms was still hooked around his shoulder, her lips moving in wordless murmurs. "Shh, it's all right, Aesylt. I have you. You're all right now. You're safe. Help is coming." Reluctantly, he peeled away and stood with a measured sigh, but he didn't move from the spot. His chest clenched when she whimpered. Tears choked his throat. "I'm not leaving you. I promise."

He turned toward Niklaus, who paced in a semicircle, swaddling himself. "I need you to tell me who did this to her and why."

Niklaus stared at him with a disorganized frown. He looked dazed, lost. "I told you, it was the Barynovs. It was... It was—" He bowled over and breathed in.

"Specifically which one?" Rahn inhaled through his nose, digging deep for patience. "Which." Fucking. "Barynov."

Niklaus looked up, his expression breaking, a sob bubbling on the end of his words. "Marek. Val's brother."

"Marek." Rahn only knew the man by reputation. He was renowned as a brute, the family muscle. The Barynovs never had to shake down their tenants because none wanted to tangle with their ox of a son.

And that ox had put his hands on Aesylt's neck.

Rahn pressed a hand to the wall to fend off a white wall of rage. Breathe, he reminded himself, but the available air was inadequate to meet his demand.

He released the wall, flexed his hands until he felt the blood return, and knelt by the hay. Aesylt's breathing had steadied, but she was no longer conscious. The deep-purple scores on her neck had him clenching hard enough to scrape his teeth together. There was blood on the back of her head too. Gods give me strength. "Niklaus," he said, aware of how not calm he sounded. "Walk me through what happened. All of it."

"Shouldn't I... I wait for Drazhan?" Niklaus's teeth clacked.

"You'll only get two words out before he takes over." With a shaky inhale, Rahn smoothed a sticky band of hair from Aesylt's eyes with his thumb. He fought the innate urge to plant a soft kiss on the spot. "Start from the beginning."