Page 47

“Cooks love to feed people who’re blue,” Kora said with a careless wave of one hand. “Shall we go put it to the test? I’m feeling a bit peckish myself.”

Rig bounded to his feet, but then whirled around to give Anrid a quick hug. Kora gave her a You’re Welcome wink before leading the bouncing youngster toward the kitchen.

Anrid wasn’t sure what she had to be thankful for, exactly: what Rig needed was love and boundaries...not trips to the kitchen to raid the pantry. But maybe some one-on-one time with a big brother figure would do him some good.

Although, now that she thought about it, Kora was probably the last person in the world she would choose to set an example for any child.

She remained seated for several minutes, allowing herself a blissful moment of peace. The rock felt solid behind her, friendly and supportive somehow. But, no, that wasn’t it. She could sense something within the rock, and that presence offered the feeling of comfort.

Was this the Bifrost? The magic that wound through Agmon?

Her heart skipped a beat, excited at the prospect of having access to magic, even if it only meant she could feel it. But this elation quickly clouded with uncertainty. What business did she, a human girl, have meddling with magic?

A surge of despair flooded her senses. It came out of nowhere and brought the prick of tears to her eyes. She hadn’t been thinking about anything that should have made her feel so…so…

The emotion had an alien feel, she realized, something not her. She focused on the despair to understand where it had come from or who it belonged to. Was it the Bifrost? No, the magic had a sharper, brighter feel. This was something else, something warmer and more solid. She probed at the emotion that had taken root inside her thoughts. While the Bifrost’s presence had a feminine quality to it, this felt more masculine, she realized. A stone table and paper sprang into her mind. No, not just paper, but books. She could almost see where he was…

Oh.

Heat flooded her face as she withdrew from her introspection as if she’d been bit. This wasn’t the magic or strange voices or anything like that.

It was Jael.

Wrestling the children into bed took much longer than she would have liked. They were hyper from the rock candy drops Kora had pilfered from the kitchen.

Bless his stone-cold heart.

She should send the children to sleep in his bedroom for the night. It had taken her and Trap half an hour to scrub all the sticky faces and fingers and even longer to wrestle the little dears into the spare tunics that served as their nightclothes.

But at last, she had them all spread across the floor and collapsed into her own bed with little Medda tucked against her chest, who caught a fistful of Anrid’s braid and sucked on the end.

“Thig thog,” Medda whispered around the braid between her lips.

Anrid twisted her neck to see the girl’s face, wondering if this was a goblin expression of some sort. “What was that?”

Medda tugged the hair from her mouth with a giggle. “Silly! Sing song! Uh-NEE sing song!”

The other children joined the clamor, so Anrid shushed them with a laugh and sorted through her nursery repertoire for the perfect song. She loved that most nursery lullabies were not only soft and beautiful but also deeply haunting. After a little thought, she chose her sister’s favorite lullaby, the one Anrid used to sing to her after their parents died.

As soon as she started singing, the children tumbled from their beds on the floor and crowded around hers, leaning over one another to get as close as they could.

When winter’s blade blows through the trees,

When the sky-fire sets on a crimson breeze,

Close your eyes and hear the song

Of sweet twilight, soft and long.

When the ship of night glitters bright

In the darkness of Skadi’s night,

Close your eyes and snuggle close

For winter comes, and Skadi knows.

She knows the shadows and the cold,