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It was dangerous, coming like this … but it wasn't the most dangerous thing Fyia had done, and risks were sometimes necessary. If she wouldn't put her own neck on the line, then why should she expect anyone else to?

A figure in a black cloak, their hood up, stepped onto the path ahead. 'Halt,' said a bored male voice.

Edu and Fyia gave each other a look that conveyed so much, and then they smiled, because now the fun would begin.

They reined in their mounts, Fyia and Edu at the front. 'We mean no harm,' said Edu, his calm voice carrying far. 'My Queen requests an audience with your leader, that is all.'

'And yet you sent no word of your visit,' said the man, 'nor request to enter our lands. You merely … invaded.'

Fyia laughed. 'Sir,' she said, 'I hardly think a party of twenty counts as an invasion. Or if it does, it is a foolhardy one.'

'It is foolhardy to ride into the lands of another with no warning, and without permission,' said the man. His words weren't hostile. He seemed to be testing them.

'And yet here we are, and I am no fool,' said Fyia. 'As my guard said, I merely request an audience with your leader.'

'Come to ask for his hand in marriage?' said the man.

'Ha!' said Fyia. 'Marrying the King of the Black Hoods is the very last thing I intend.'

'You insult my King?' said the man. His body morphed from a relaxed stance into something altogether more deadly.

'Of course not,' said Fyia. 'I have not met your King. I know him not, even by reputation … the Black Hoods conceal themselves so admirably. But I do not plan to marry anyone, despite the many proposals I have received since uniting the Five Kingdoms. Marriage is the furthest thing from my mind.'

'This way,' said the Black Hood. A horse stepped out of the trees, and the man swung up into the saddle, then spurred his mount into a canter.

Fyia was glad to increase their pace. A run was exactly what she and her horse needed, and if they were headed for a trap, at least she'd die with exhilaration in her veins.

They rode for no more than a turn of the clock, but the ground became more treacherous with every passing pace, the trees sparser, the air cooler, the freeze harder.

The Black Hood slowed his mount to a walk as they approached a small town. It was a strange mix of wooden huts and stone buildings, but whereas the huts sat atop the snow, the stone buildings were half submerged, some so deeply that upstairs windows were now at ground level and being used as doors.

Fyia gaped.

'Close your mouth,' Edu said quietly in her ear.

She snapped out of it and pulled herself up, so she looked regal on her impressive steed.

The Black Hood led them to a building in the center of the town. Fyia assumed they were in the town square, although it would've been more obvious before the dragons had disappeared and the north had frozen.

She'd never given much thought to what it would be like up here. Her own homeland, which had once enjoyed a temperate climate, now had long and arduous winters, but nothing like this.

'Leave your horses and guards here,' said the man. 'They will be looked after.' He nodded to a stone building to the left—a tavern. 'They will have rooms there.'

Fyia inclined her head. 'Most generous,' she said, 'thank you.' The tavern looked nice enough, at least the part she could see above the snow …

Fyia dismounted, and handed her horse to a guard. She slid a reassuring hand over the beast's sweaty flank before following the Black Hood inside. Edu trailed behind her, and she could feel her wolves in the woods, wary, but not alarmed—a good sign.

'Wait here,' the man said to Edu. Fyia nodded as the man climbed deftly through a window, then she followed, trying to make it look as easy as he had—trying to maintain her dignity—unsure who watched from within.

The window led to a hall, her feet landing on a stage of sorts, and the Black Hood headed for a set of steps off to one side.

Fyia paused, casting her eyes over the large open space, with its flagstone floor, beautiful vaulted ceiling, and stained glass windows—at least the ones above the snow line, the ones below were covered with boards.

At the far end of the room, a fire raged in a hearth big enough to stand in, a circle of comfortable-looking chairs beside it. Two of the chairs were occupied, the occupants teasing a litter of four fluffy puppies with tidbits. The Black Hoods laughed at the puppies' adorable exuberance, and Fyia couldn't help but smile.

'Your Majesties,' said the Black Hood escorting Fyia, 'may I introduce Queen Fyia Orlightus, the fire-touched ruler of the Five Kingdoms.'

The two in the chairs looked up—one man and one woman, both around thirty years of age. Fyia didn't have time to dwell on the use of fire-touched in her title. Did that engender respect in these parts? Maybe it had once in her own kingdoms too, but those days had long since passed.