Page 13 of Out of Time (The Ice King Chronicles #3)

Glori

It was early the next morning when we left for the Quendi kingdom. Early for me and my father, anyway, because Ethan had been up for hours. He had slid from my arms early that morning, not long after the first rays of morning light had shone through my windows. I was half awake in a way, but still caught up in dreams. I think he must have gone for a morning walk, because when he returned he brought with him the fresh morning smells and the cold of the outside. He sat down beside me and kissed me awake then and I managed to “talk” him back into bed.

It was much later that morning when we finally climbed into my father’s golden carriage and set off down the road toward the Quendi kingdom. My father’s carriage was luxurious and stacked with thick furs that we’d need once we entered the frozen forest of the Quendi tribe of Elves. For now, as we traveled north, there began to be snow on the ground, but the roads had been cleared, so we made good time, even with a small troop of my father’s soldiers following along behind us.

Inside the carriage, the seats were lined with fur. Heavy drapery covered the side windows, and all was in an attempt to keep the king and his passengers warm. My father, who suffered from the cold, had a foot warmer, a heavy wood-framed box with heated rocks inside. If the heat began to wear off after a few hours, the coachman and footman would stop to give the horses a rest and to build a fire, where they’d heat up the stones again. My father would need his warmer as we got closer to Quendi land. It was a slow method of travel, and I began to wish we’d left much earlier after all.

As for me, I pulled my fur more closely around me and snuggled up to Ethan, whose body always seemed to as hot as a furnace. He not only allowed it but put an arm around me to pull me close. Despite the fact that we were headed back to Tarrak’s kingdom, where I’d been so unhappy, I was content in Ethan’s arms.

It wasn’t too many hours before the trees and other terrain began to look different. They grew thickly together, and the oaks and elms were joined by tall birch and spruce trees, their limbs heavy with ice that rustled and crackled in the cold wind. We stopped to build a fire and reheat the stones, as well as to give the coachmen and the footmen time to warm themselves by the fire and prepare a hot meal for us. It was only stew they heated up over the fire, but it warmed us and the heated mead they gave us helped too.

Not long after we started up again, we began to come across the Ice Poles that lined the broad trail leading into the Quendi forest. Most everyone had heard the legends about the Poles being stolen from the North Pole and brought there by the Ice Giants. Over the centuries, the wind had carved away at them until they'd they were as smooth and featureless as polished glass. It was said they marked the beginning of Quendi territory, and I remembered that they stretched all the way along the wide track to the king’s Ice Palace.

The Quendi seldom used carriages and preferred to ride huge reindeer stags they kept and trained as their mounts. Thus, the trees brushed either side of the carriage as we traveled through them. I peeked through the curtains to see the trees reluctantly give way but close again behind us as quickly as they could.

A few of them with limbs hanging low, weighed down by ice, had long white skirts sweeping the snow. They stretched out an occasional long, icy limb to scrape along the sides of the carriage as we passed them. A full moon, partially covered by darker clouds, had come out to watch us pass. Ethan pulled me away from the window and kissed the top of my head when he saw me trembling.

“Relax,” he said, murmuring in my hair. “Everything will be fine. We’re only here to talk, and at the first sign of trouble, I’ll pull us all out of there.”

I nodded, reassured by his closeness. I must have dozed off then, lulled by his presence, and the rocking darkness of the carriage, because the next thing I knew Ethan was gently shaking me awake.

“Wake up. The carriage has stopped.” I could hear a note of alarm in his voice that brought me instantly awake.

I jumped up and saw my father already awake too and straightening his tunic. He smiled at me reassuringly. “Be calm, Glori. King Tarrak is aware of us coming, so it may just be a tree across the road. You have nothing to fear.”

Beside me, Ethan squeezed my hand and nodded with confidence. Easy for him to say.

He hadn’t witnessed the fury on Tarrak’s face the last time I saw him in the Dokkalfar kingdom. Admittedly, I had just cast a small spell to freeze his lover Sergey in place, but otherwise, he was unharmed, and I was only trying to back up King Stefan at the time. When Tarrak cursed me and charged me with his newly acquired Sword of Light, I realized I should have stayed out of the fight, but Stefan had looked to me for help. Besides that, Tarrak, badly outnumbered, was threatening everyone around him. One or both of the kings could have been killed, and it would have been my fault for bringing Sergey there to the Dokkalfar.

In the end, Stefan’s tackling me to the ground had probably saved my life. Now I was about to meet the fierce Quendi king again, along with his now-consort, Sergey. I didn’t expect a warm welcome, no matter how many assurances my father and Ethan gave me.

Squaring my shoulders, I took a deep breath as the carriage door opened and the captain of my father’s guard stood framed in the doorway.

****

Ethan

“Your Highness, there is a large Elven camp ahead in the woods. They seem to have been waiting for us.”

The king glanced over at me in alarm. “What do you make of this, sir?”

“It remains to be seen. It’s possible Tarrak didn’t like the idea of hosting your guard inside his courtyard walls. Let’s get out and see, shall we?”

I went ahead of the king, just in case. The ground was now covered in a thick crust of ice and snow. It was all very picturesque as I got down from the carriage looked around. A sliver of moon hung overhead like a scythe, with a field of impossibly bright stars behind it. In the woods ahead of us were more star-like lights—the lights of campfires dotted all over the woods. Tarrak had come in force, it seemed.

The captain of the guard helped the king to alight, and I turned and held out a hand for Glori, as he stepped down to join us. His hand was trembling a bit, so I squeezed it tightly and kept it in mine as we considered what to do next.

“Should I take some of my men and approach the camp, Sire?” the captain asked nervously.

When he didn’t answer, I took charge myself. “Your Majesty, I think it might be better to let them come to us. Let’s let them make their move so we’ll know how to respond.”

It didn’t take long. In a few minutes I could see torches moving down the track toward us, at least twenty or more. Glori was practically vibrating beside me.

“Be calm, Your Majesty,” I told him, since I could sense his anxiety too. “They’re not going to attack without cause. Captain, tell your men to stay ready but to lower their weapons. Don’t give any of their soldiers a reason to overreact.”

He nodded and bowed, then hurried off toward his soldiers. In another minute or two, they were upon us, moving unnaturally fast, I thought. I suspected King Tarrak himself was in the lead, with several other men in attendance, standing near him. One, in particular, a young mortal, had his hand on the hilt of his sword and was staring at us with great interest. He stood to the right side of the king, but slightly to the rear. On the other side stood a fierce Quendi warrior, dressed all in white, with a smaller, more handsome man with dark hair standing behind him. That man also looked mortal.

It was the Elven king that drew my eyes, though, King Tarrak, himself. He was tall and well built, with pale blond hair falling down to his shoulders, and an elegant, haughty face. Both he and the other fierce looking warrior beside him looked as if they might be bad tempered, but I couldn’t sense any real hostility coming off either of them. Curiosity, yes, and even a bit of grudging admiration as they glanced at the exquisite Fairy prince beside me. I saw them both notice me holding tightly to Glori’s hand. No strong passions either way though, which eased my mind. They neither hated nor desired Glori overly much. As for the mortals, I sensed mostly curiosity, tinged with caution. They weren’t sure of us in any way and were literally prepared for anything.

King Tarrak bowed slightly in greeting the elder King Lorimach. “Good to see you, my old friend,” Tarrak said.

Lorimach had regained a bit of his color and smiled cordially at the Elven king. “It has been too long since we last met. You remember my son, Prince Glorfindel, I trust. And this is his intended, Lord Ethan of the Sidhe.”

Tarrak’s glance skipped over Glori and landed firmly on me. He inclined his head, and I could sense a strong curiosity he was too well bred to express. He half-turned to extend his right hand to the young man who was standing beside him.

“My consort, Sergey.” He turned back toward the men on his other side. I could sense his pride in the young man and could see that he took great pride in him, though he was only passably good looking. So, this was the Sergey Glori had turned in to the Dokkalfar as a purveyor of dark magic. To his credit, the young man didn’t seem to be holding a grudge against Glori. I couldn’t sense any angry intent in him. I might not have been so magnanimous myself in the same circumstances.

“This is Lord Juul, along with his consort and my royal wizard, Pavel.”

Lorimach smiled at them and both men bowed correctly to us, but I sensed some hostility radiating off them, particularly Lord Juul. Not so much with the other young mortal, whom Tarrak had introduced as Juul’s consort Pavel, though. He was paying avid attention to everything going on, and I felt his strong, but mostly unskilled magic touch me lightly, probing me a bit. The other mortal, Sergey, began doing the same, and I opened myself to it, allowing them to bypass my wards. I had nothing to hide, and I wanted them to be aware I was not without a great deal of power myself.

Both of them had magic of a much different nature than mine. Theirs was not quite dark, except maybe a little around the edges, but it wasn’t all perfectly good either. I thought whoever they’d inherited their magic from must have been more or less demonic, but the basic decency at the core of who these young men were, kept them from acting on any truly dark impulses. I knew right away that neither of them had anything to do with sending something demonic to the future after Glori. I could sense the elder of the two draw his magic back sharply as he fully recognized just what I was, and he gave his brother an alarmed glance.

“When your message about coming to see me reached me, Your Highness,” Tarrak said. “I was already on my way to my hunting lodge near the border. I decided to meet you here and save you the much longer journey to my palace, even though you’ve already come far. I hope that meets with your approval.”

I thought that was bullshit, personally. But so far at least, he hadn’t been openly hostile. It was clear that he didn’t relish the idea of us inside his palace or even in his territory, however, which was fine by me. It would save us time.

“Would you like to come to my fires and take refreshments after your long journey here, Lorimach?” Tarrak asked. “A tankard of brandy, perhaps, against the cold?”

Lorimach glanced at me, and I nodded slightly. He turned back to King Tarrak, who had missed nothing of the exchange. “That would be most welcome. Thank you, Tarrak,” Lorimach replied, and Tarrak nodded and held out a hand to him.

“Allow me to escort you.”

He took Lorimach’s arm and helped him navigate the icy track. Glori and I fell in behind them, and the others in his party closed the ranks behind us all.

I could hear Tarrak and Lorimach making small talk ahead of us. “You must be fatigued after traveling such a distance,” Tarrak was saying.

That was the second time he’d mentioned our long trip from the Fairy kingdom to the Quendi forest. It indicated to me that he was burning with curiosity but was waiting for us to tell him our reasons.

We trailed along after the kings to the Elven camp. Their temporary dwellings were low, rounded affairs heaped with furs. There were some smaller ones and then the king’s and Lord Juul’s, side by side. Perhaps fifty of them in all. One massive bonfire was blazing in the center, though each separate dwelling had its own smaller fire.

Tarrak led the king to some camp chairs by the blazing fire in the middle of camp and invited him to sit down. They gestured for the rest of us to join them. Servants came in right away, all beautiful Elves with hair in varying shades of blond and all with milky white skin. They kept their eyes respectfully down as they poured silver tankards of wine and laid out trays of food that had obviously been previously prepared, on small tables near the fire. They sneaked fascinated glances at us though, when they thought we weren’t looking.

They finally cleared out and Lorimach took a long sip of his brandy, before turning to Tarrak.

“You must be wondering why we’re here.”

Tarrak smiled graciously. “It’s always pleasant to receive old friends, Your Majesty, though I must admit I’m curious. Does this have to do with my broken engagement to the prince, by any chance? And the subsequent...unpleasantness...between Prince Glorfindel and Sergey?”

Beside me, I could feel Glori practically vibrating with tension. I turned to Lorimach and smiled. “Your Majesty, if you’ll allow me?” He nodded, looking relieved.

“I’m the one who suggested this journey, Sire,” I said. “My name, as you’ve heard is Ethan, and I’m mostly mortal, like these other two gentlemen beside you here. I am descended, however, from the Sidhe tribe of Fairies, and my grandmother is Lady Drogheda, of the Seelie Court. Like my grandmother, I’m a Timeroamer.”

I could see the Elves recognized not only the name of my grandmother but also the term I used. Timeroamers were among the most powerful of all practitioners of magic and the most skilled of them, like my grandmother, had a well-deserved reputation. Some of it good, but some decidedly not. The Sidhe were feared as much as they were respected. They glanced at each other before looking back at me.

“I see,” Tarrak said. “And you wished to speak to me? About what exactly?”

“Before I elaborate on that issue, I believe Prince Glorfindel has something to say to all of you.”

I gave him an encouraging look. We’d talked about this a little the night before, and he’d agreed to do the right thing. But that was then—it would be much more difficult to speak now, with all eyes trained on him. I was proud of him when he squared his shoulders and lifted his eyes to Tarrak’s.

“I owe both you and your new consort an apology,” he said, darting a look at Sergey. “Though I want you to know that I truly did fear that Sergey’s magic was demonic in nature and might be harmful to you.” The king frowned at that and tightened his grip his consort’s hand. “However,” Glori continued. “It’s also true that I was jealous of your regard for him. I was your intended consort and yet you fell in love with him.”

He sighed deeply. “It was wrong, Glorfindel, I admit it. But I never intended it to happen.”

Glori held up a hand. “I’m not here to recriminate, Your Majesty, or to cast blame. I’m truly in love now myself, and I realize how quickly and unexpectedly such things can happen, whether you will them to or not. I really want to apologize for how I betrayed Sergey.” He glanced over at the young consort. “I’m sorry, Sergey. I hope one day you can forgive me.”

They all looked surprised. Sergey smiled and nodded tentatively at Glori. He did seem to be an amiable young man and had a charming smile. I began to see what the king saw in him. “Thank you, Glorfindel” he said. “If you truly mean that.”

Glori nodded. “I do. And I understand it will take time to trust me again, if you ever do. Still, I wanted to apologize for my actions.”

I took over the thread of the conversation again.

“What Prince Glorfindel isn’t saying is that he was under a curse at the time, and he has been for years. It was a wicked one that influenced him to do things he now regrets. I’ve managed to free him from it, but there still appears to be something demonic inside him. Something unrelated to the curse and not so easy to dislodge.”

This time it was the fierce Lord Juul who spoke up, his voice raised in anger. “And you think Sergey has something to do with that?”

“Actually no,” I said, sending a wave of calming energy his way. He blinked and reeled back a little as it hit him.

“Now that I’ve met him, I can sense nothing of harm in the king’s consort. I was merely trying to explain why it was that we came.”

I stood, holding out my hand to Glori, and the others all got to their feet as well, looking a little surprised at how quickly this little meeting had been resolved. Glori took my hand, breathing a little too hard and looking a bit dazed. “We’ve imposed on your hospitality long enough,” I said, “and any questions I had have been answered. Thank you.”

I gave King Lorimach a little mental nudge to get him scrambling to his feet.

“Yes, indeed,” he said. “We should get back to my kingdom.”

Tarrak frowned. “But it’s getting late, and the roads might not be safe. You should spend the night here and travel on in the morning. I can provide accommodations for you.”

“We would gladly take advantage of that offer if not for some urgent business we have to attend to at our home.” I turned to the Captain of the king’s guard, who had come along with us. “We’ll be traveling ahead. Please bring the coach and your men and follow us.” He looked a bit confused, but he nodded and hurried away to attend to his duties.

“I have faster means of travel,” I said, by way of explanation, glancing over at the Elven king. “The king’s guard and his coach will follow us, but for the king’s health and comfort, I think it better that I take him home more quickly.”

I took the king’s arm in one hand and held tightly to Glori’s with the other. I was showing off more than a little, I admit. But it would be good for Glori’s reputation, not to mention my own, if they witnessed just how fast I could travel.

“Thank you, Your Majesty, for giving us the chance to speak to you.”

“Yes, indeed,” Lorimach broke in heartily. “And congratulations on your marriage, and you as well, Lord Juul. King Tarrak, I wish you and your consort much joy.”

“Wait.”

We all turned to look at Sergey, who had stepped forward, pulling his hand away from his husband’s. “I-I have something to tell you.”

Up closer and out of the fallout from the Elven king’s glamourous appearance, I could see the young man was actually quite handsome. He had dark hair and eyes and a much larger build than the others. His eyes shone with intelligence.

Glori and I both turned toward him as he took another step forward. “There’s no demon inside Glorfindel. There is something, but it’s not a demon. I would know if there was.”

Interested, I inclined my head to him. “If not a demon, then what, sir?”

“It’s a...I’m not sure what to call it, exactly. A sort of spirit or ghost, who died feeling very angry and bitter toward Glorfindel. A person who wanted revenge.”

Glori gasped and clutched my arm tightly. “Can you see who it is?”

He shook his head. “No, but it was someone who hated him.”

“That doesn’t exactly narrow the field,” Lord Juul said in a tone that I thought he meant to be under his breath.

I gave him a look that he returned defiantly. Both his consort Pavel and Glori pulled at both of our arms as we faced off, but Tarrak stepped closer and got between us. “Enough of that, Juul. The prince has offered his apologies, and they’ve all come a long way to give us their compliments. They have our regard. Now, sir, I hope my husband’s information can help you.”

I nodded, “I do too. Thank you.”

Lorimach gave a little bow in Tarrak and Sergey’s direction, and with another little wave from Glori, I pulled us all out of there. The last sight I had of them all was the king’s wary and startled face as we winked out of sight. He was pulling his consort protectively behind him.

I had to put one arm around the king’s waist, because he clutched at me in fear, though I was a bit afraid of taking such liberties with him. But as we landed with a thump in his throne room, he gazed at me with undisguised joy and admiration.

“I love this mode of travel. And now that you’re in the family, perhaps I can call on you from time to time to do this again. It does make for a most impressive entrance and exit.”

I grinned at him and then bowed. “Of course, Your Majesty. I’m at your service.”

“My men will be all right? They’ll follow us?”

“Yes, Sire. I sensed no lingering hostility at all directed toward any of us. The Elves were merely curious and didn’t necessarily want us inside their castle walls. It’s why they came to meet us.”

“Yes, Elves can be quite suspicious creatures by nature. Glori’s mother was Elven, you know.” He shook his head as if his memories of that time weren’t pleasant ones. “A beautiful woman, but so difficult. Most intolerably so.”

Glori, who had no doubt heard this before, smiled at him and patted his shoulder. “You must be tired, Father, and we’ve upset your routine enough, I think. You should go lie down in your bed and get warm all the way through.”

“An excellent idea. Will you be staying?”

Glori looked to me, and I shook my head. “We need to get back and begin exploring this information Sergey gave us. I’ll bring Glori home again soon, though. I promise. After all, we have a wedding to plan.”

With a beam at me that almost took my breath away and a final kiss to his father’s cheek, Glori stepped back beside me, and I took us back to Salem.