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“Is it?” he snarls. He appears to wilt slightly where he stands. The day grows oppressively hot, and Alvira imagines this new pure-Glacian has not grown used to its toll. “I rather thought your guards might be expecting me, Your Majesty.” And indeed, Adrik seems somewhat put out. As though insulted by the lack of due precaution.

Alvira treads carefully. “With our current understanding in place, I had come to think the extra fortification… unnecessary.”

“And I thought you would have known I would come, what with the sudden growth in your populace.”

Alvira’s mouth closes with a snap. Whatever she had expected the beast to say, it hadn’t been that.

Adrik’s pale eyes swivel between Alvira, Cressida, and – annoyingly – Ruby, as though she were a noteworthy thing. “Where are they?” he asks slowly, dangerously.

Alvira swallows but lifts her chin. “I assure you; we are putting every effort into recapturing the Sabar girl, and–”

Adrik growls, effectively cutting her off. Within a moment he has approached the round table and swiped a hard-backed chair out of his way. It splinters as it hits the wall. “Nother.Where the fuck are myhumans?”

The silence that follows is broken only by Adrik’s harsh breathing. He sucks air through his bared teeth with growing intensity. “The only thing saving your skin is the existence of more convenient stock, Queen. Have you forgotten?Where are the Ledge-dwellers?”

Alvira’s throat closes. A dark, insidious cold seeps through her. It makes her next words brittle. “Are they…” she hesitates. How shehatesto hesitate. “They’ve escaped?”

“Mother above,” Ruby mutters, and the awe in her voice grates on Alvira’s skin.

Adrik is riddled with it – this calamity. Ropes of veins stand prominently along his neck and down his collarbone. His eyes exude the urgency of a man strung out. He is desperate.

No danger more grave than a desperate man,Alvira’s father once told her. Now she knows how wrong he was, for surely no other danger could equate a desperate Glacian.

Where are the Ledge-dwellers?Alvira thinks, and then:She succeeded.

“WHERE ARE THEY?” Adrik roars, and the table beneath his hands gives an alarming crack as its legs begin to buckle.

“In case our dumbstruck expressions weren’t answer enough,” Cressida says, in a voice far more superior than it ought to be, “we are no wiser to their whereabouts than you. Though I assume we can thank Dawsyn Sabar and her band of miscreants for their absence?”

Adrik seethes for a moment, his jowls positively trembling with rage.

“You look rather worse for wear,” Cressida remarks now. “Thoroughly trounced. Am I to take itthatvictoryis hers too?”

Adrik rounds the table in the space between heartbeats. He has Cressida’s throat in one hand and his eyes on Alvira’s in a moment. Something unhinged pulses behind his eyes. Something deranged.

“Where. Are. They?”

“Not here!”Alvira exclaims, her hands raised uselessly, as though they might protect her wife. Should this Glacian decide to flick his wrist, she will be no more. “I swear it! If they walk on Terrsaw soil, we have not been wise to it!”

“We’ve searched the entire mountain,” Adrik continues, the manic glint in his eyes remaining. “Turned over every boulder and searched every cave. There is nowhere else they could seek refuge.”

Alvira bids herself to think, to speak, and all the while, Cressida’s face colours from pink to red to purple.

This is what Alvira does best. She acts. She does not stutter in the presence of adversity. She stomachs what she must. She, alone, untangles the messes of this kingdom while the rest scurry away and quail. She thinks of Kladerstaff, who was decisive when no one else dared to be. She thinks of King Sabar, who neglected to protect his own people from the Glacians, and then she watches Cressida’s eyes implore her. Beg her. Alvira opens her mouth and says, “I know where they have gone.”

Adrik’s eyes narrow. His lip curls back over his teeth.

“I know where tolook,” Alvira amends. “I did not know they had been freed from the Ledge, but if what you say is true, then I know where to find them.”

“Where?”

“I will have them returned to you. But…” and here, Alvira ignores the bile in her throat, the rapidity of her pulse. “If you kill my wife this night, your livestock will run free.”

Adrik laughs wickedly, though his hand loosens around Cressida’s throat. “You make threats?” he says. “I could rid this palace of its souls this night. I could pluck the strays from the streets if I wished. I have no use foryouat all.”

“Except, you are weakened,” Alvira retorts, the words coming faster now. A plan forming. Her eyes sweep to the Glacian’s torn wing. “You are battle-weary. Just being here, so close to sea, taxes you further, does it not?” Alvira awaits an answer that does not come, so she continues. “You cannot endure our climate for long. If you could, you’d search for them yourself. You do not fool me, Adrik. You are not here to reign terror on Terrsaw. You are here to have me do your bidding, of which I have just pledged my willingness to do. Do not insult me with empty threats. Besides,” Alvira does not allow herself a smirk; she should only push the beast so far, “knowing they are out there – Dawsyn, Ryon – it would be intolerable for a…beingin your position. You would live out your reign awaiting their return to Glacia, awaiting the day they come to seek your throne.”Just as I wait,Alvira thinks.

Adrik’s eyes tighten, as does the fist at Cressida’s neck. Cressida make a strangled whimpering sound.