The Ascension

by Kailin Gow

  “I don’t care if you are my aunt’s messenger.

  Take that tone with me and I’l feed you to the bears.” The penguin edged back, then waddled over to Gem, hiding behind her. Gem found herself smiling.

  “Leave it alone. It’s sweet.”

  “You would not think that if you understood its message,” Devon muttered. “The abridged version is that we are not to keep the Winter Queen waiting, but must meet her at once in the throne room.” That made Gem bite her lip. She had known that this would come, but truthful y, she would have preferred a little more time to prepare. Devon, seeming to sense her discomfort, slipped a hand into hers.

  “It wil be al right,” he promised in a whisper.

  “I wil carry you off myself, whisk you away before I let her hurt you. Together, I suspect we could elude even my aunt.”

  “You’d give al this up for me?” Gem asked, jokingly, looking round at the effulgent surroundings of the castle. When her eyes met Devon’s again, his gaze was more earnest that she had thought it might be.

  “If it would keep you safe. You have saved my life against the wolf, and I…”

  He tailed off, but Gem could guess at the rest of it. The question was, with Sparks, Rio, and even Goolrick looking for her attention already, did she need another man enamored of her? Wouldn’t the kindest thing to do is to push him away now, while she could? Some part of her held back from it, even as it seemed to be the sensible thing. But there was something about Devon that made her hold back. In the short amount of time since they met, she found that she real y did care about him. Gem found herself interrupted by the press of something in her other hand, which turned out to be the penguin’s flipper.

  “It wants you to fol ow,” Devon said. He sighed. “We should hurry. Since she sent me out to fetch you, you wil probably receive my aunt’s clemency, as Word did, but making her wait wil not help.”

  That made Gem hurry, at least until they reached the throne room. At the door to it, she paused, staring, because she couldn’t do anything else. The room was a capacious vault of a place, high arches held up by pil ars of solid ice. More ice ran down the wal s, reflecting light in crazed angles.

  Here and there, it had been carved, or had simply been grown with magic, forming statues, pictures, and even furniture such as the benches around the wal s.

  The middle of the hal was clear, and snow formed a carpet across the floor, leading up to a dais on which sat a throne built from the bones and tusks of ice-bound creatures, whales and polar bears, walruses and snow leopards. Gem didn’t need to see the frozen crown that sat on the head of the woman sitting there, because everything from her regal bearing to her pallid features said exactly who she was. Courtiers waited close by, along with a clutch of serving maids and heralds, but Gem didn’t look at them as she stepped closer. She was too busy staring at the Winter Queen.

  Gem stopped at the edge of the dais, and Devon stopped with her. He had switched his grip to a light hold on her forearm, presumably to make it look more like the grip he might have on a prisoner.

  The penguin waddled off to one side. The Winter Queen looked at them for a long moment before she spoke.

  “Ah, nephew, you have done wel . Your men shal , of course, know my munificence.” Devon bowed his head.

  “Thank you, My Queen.”

  “Thank you, My Queen.”

  “You, girl. Shouldn’t you be curtseying?” The reminder was delivered gently, but Gem could hear the threat. Stil she decided to be obdurate. She suspected it would be the only way to get the Winter Queen to respect her, and in any case, she wasn’t about to give in to bul ying.

  “Do queens curtsey to one another?” Gem asked. The Winter Queen nodded, as though Gem had scored some sort of point.

  “Oh, of course,” she said it like she had only just remembered. Gem didn’t believe it. “You are some kind of queen yourself, aren’t you?”

  “I am Queen of Anachronia. But then, you know that.”

  There was a chorus of gasps from the courtiers. Apparently they didn’t like Gem accusing their queen of playing games. Judging by the way Devon squeezed her arm, he didn’t like it either.

  For her part, the Winter Queen laughed.

  “You are right, of course. Ignore my courtiers.

  They are such a vapid bunch. Timorous too. Why, I turn just a few of their number into ice statues, and suddenly they are afraid of me.”

  Gem could understand the feeling.

  “I believe you have my father here, your majesty,” she said. “Henry Word?”

  “Oh yes, I’m sure he’s around somewhere.

  You wil have plenty of time to look for him, as my guest. I fear that I wil not be around to act as a proper host. You wil have to forgive me for that.” The Winter Queen said it lightly, as though she were occupied planning a dinner party, not a war.

  “I had heard of your preparations,” Gem said.

  She thought about leaving it at that, but she couldn’t.

  Not when she thought about al the people who would die. “People have told me several times that war is coming. There is one thing that they were not able to tel me though, your majesty, and I was hoping that, as a venerable and respected ruler, you might be able to enlighten me.”

  The Winter Queen leaned back on her throne, smiling a faint smile.

  “What is it you wish to know, child?”

  “Wel … why are you having a war?” The smile vanished.

  “It is necessary.” The Winter Queen stood.

  “Summer, with its blasted heat and endless sunshine, must be subjugated for the good of al my subjects. I wouldn’t expect a mere girl to understand.”

  Devon gave Gem’s wrist another warning squeeze. Gem tried to pul free, without success.

  “Oh, let her go, Devon,” the Winter Queen snapped. “She doesn’t need you holding her hand and trying to truncate every sentence. Step back from her, I said.”

  For a moment, Gem thought he might not do it, so she turned, giving him the faintest of nods. The Winter Queen’s sigh was audible.

  “I remember when I was young and beautiful, and could steal men from their loyalties. No, don’t deny it. I know when I have lost a knight. If he were any more zealous in your protection, my nephew would be throwing himself in front of you.”

  “It was sort of the other way around,” Gem said. The Winter Queen made a dismissive sound.

  “Just say what you were going to say, before.” Gem knew that she couldn’t stay silent, so she did just what she had been asked.

  “I was going to say that you were right. I didn’t understand how you could justify kil ing so many.”

  “Do I have to justify myself to my prisoners?” the Winter Queen demanded vehemently. “Very wel then. They took my children. They stole them from me and left me with nothing.”

  “And you took the Summer Queen’s in return,” Gem pointed out.

  “It wasn’t enough!” The Winter Queen stepped forward, until she was just inches from Gem.

  “What would you have me do, you sil y excuse for a sovereign? Make peace? I bet that everything is flowers and laughter in your kingdom.” Gem shook her head.

  “Not yet, but I’m working to make it better. I’ve already ended a war, tamed a Dragon, and helped a lot of people. If I can do al that, what might you do?”

  “Just this.”

  The cold hit Gem with the force of a hammer, seeming to undulate through her from the ground up. The sheer force of it was enough to knock Gem to her knees. It was the coldest thing Gem had ever felt. Cold enough to hurt. Cold enough to stupefy.

  Cold enough to burn. Gem did the only thing she could do, and screamed.

  “Aunt!”

  Whether it was the threat in Devon’s tone, or whether it was simply that the Winter Queen felt that she had made her point, Gem didn’t know. Whatever it was, the intense cold passed, leaving Gem kneeling at the Winter Queen’s feet. Part of Gem wanted to lash out with a ruler word, but aga
inst someone of the Winter Queen’s power, would it work? With her teeth chattering, would she even be able to say it?

  “You want to know why I want war?” the Winter Queen asked softly. “I want it because this world deserves Winter. A sublime, perfect Winter that wil never end. I wil raze everything that stands outside the snow, because it stands outside the snow. I wil give my children a perfect Winter home.” With that, she glanced over at Devon. Without waiting for his Aunt’s permission, he ran to Gem, cal ing to one of the serving maids.

  “You, help take Queen Gem to her quarters, and find a way to warm her up.”

  The serving maid looked tremulously to the Winter Queen.

  “Yes, yes. Go and help her. Get her out of my sight. She has started to bore me almost as much as the rest of you.”

  Devon bent down to pick Gem up, but the Winter Queen shook her head.

  “Not you, Devon. You and I wil talk about loyalty, and about whether you are fit to lead my troops.”

  “Let no one harm her,” Devon instructed the maid, before turning to Gem. “I wil try to come to you soon. If I cannot, I wil send… another you can trust.” He didn’t get a chance to say more than that.

  The serving maid helped Gem to her feet and led her hurriedly from the throne room, then out along a circuitous route that ended at a suite of rooms.

  Once there, she helped Gem into a bath whose water had to be about the only warmth in the whole castle, then set about laying out a fresh dress of dark blue silk on the room’s bed. The servant hardly said a word as she helped Gem into that, and Gem guessed that she was probably terrified of the Winter Queen’s anger. She certainly hurried off quickly, Queen’s anger. She certainly hurried off quickly, shutting the door again with a definite click that said to Gem it wouldn’t open easily.

  She wasn’t going to let something like that stop her. Nor was she just going to wait around for something to happen. At the very least, she could look for Henry Word. After al , the Winter Queen had actual y said she could, even if a locked door didn’t exactly fit with that. Remembering the trick Jack had used to escape the Spurious camp back in Anachronia, Gem whispered the word “ephemeral”, waiting until the door disappeared before stepping through the space it left.

  She made it through just in time to bump straight into a large, red-haired figure in the dark clothes and snowflake insignia of one of the Winter Court knights.

  Chapter 15

  Jack looked down, hardly able to believe that Gem was actual y there, despite what Devon had said to him in a snatched moment beside the throne room, pressing a ring with the Winter Court seal into his hand. Jack had thought that he might have misheard, especial y since the Winter Queen al but dragged Devon back inside, starting up a tirade about his behavior. It was a side to his apparent mother that Jack had seen little of, but he’d known enough to go, searching for Gem before he could attract any of her anger.

  And here Gem was.

  “Gem.”

  “Jack?” She al but threw herself at him, hugging Jack tightly and placing a kiss on his cheek.

  “I didn’t recognize you. I stil keep looking for that little kid you were two months ago. I’ve missed you.” Jack found himself reciprocating the feeling.

  After al , he’d only come to Myriad in the first place because he’d thought Gem was going.

  “Al this time with just Kat for company hasn’t exactly been fun,” he said with a wry smile. “She gets pretty restive when she is bored. You heard about us being the Winter Queen’s long lost children?” Jack tried to keep it light, but it wasn’t easy. “Now imagine having Kat for a sister.”

  “It probably has its moments,” Gem said, knowingly.

  Jack nodded, keeping a careful eye on the corridor, though he found himself distracted from it quite a bit by the fact that Gem hadn’t pul ed back from her hug yet. There was a little rancor in him at that too, because he just got that, while Rio, Sparks, even that treacherous wizard Goolrick, got more from Gem.

  “I should take you to see Kat,” Jack suggested. “It might not be safe for you here.”

  “Why not?”

  “My mother is angry. It probably isn’t a good idea to be where she can find you to hurt you, Gem. I thought she was angry before, when Kat wouldn’t eat her stupid food, but apparently that was her on her best behavior, not wanting to frighten us. This is something else.”

  That was enough to get Gem moving. Devon hadn’t had a chance to tel Jack everything that had gone on in the throne room, and now Jack found himself wondering exactly what had happened there.

  He had heard about his new mother’s proclivity He had heard about his new mother’s proclivity towards violence. Thanks to long hours with nothing to do but talk to the castle servants, work his way through the library and practice his lessons, Jack had heard far more than he wanted to.

  He led Gem down the icy corridors, keeping a careful watch for guards. In theory, the ring Devon had given him should have ensured their protection, but Jack didn’t want to risk it, not when the Winter Queen could revoke Devon’s orders any time she chose. The men seemed to revere Devon, but that didn’t necessarily mean that they would disobey commands for him.

  Twice, the two of them had to hide. The first time, they just ducked into the nearest room. The second, Jack and Gem had to press close together in an icy alcove to avoid being seen, staying there as stil as possible until the sound of booted feet passed. The whole time, al Jack could think of was the nearness of Gem to him, and how much he wished they could stay that close for longer. Though possibly without the threat of guards looking for them.

  “This is getting ridiculous,” Gem said when they were gone. “Are we even sure that the Winter Queen wants to hurt me?”

  Jack shrugged.

  “I don’t know it for certain, but Devon seems to think so, and it fits with what I have heard about my mother. The rumor among the servants is that she kil ed her husband the Winter King, my father, then proscribed any mention of him at al . Anyone who speaks about it ends up as one of her ice statues, and I know they are real, because I have seen them.”

  “She kil ed your father?”

  Jack could hear the shock of it in Gem’s voice.

  “She won’t hesitate to hurt anyone who gets in her way,” Jack said, he glanced around the corridor, checking for more guards. “I heard that you argued with her about this war she wants. She won’t be happy.”

  “She wasn’t,” Gem said. Jack shook his head sadly.

  “The only reason I can imagine for her not hurting you is because she has this twisted sense of propriety. She can’t attack you openly without it causing trouble, but what’s to stop her staging an causing trouble, but what’s to stop her staging an

  “accident” for you? She could say you slipped from some precipice or other, and who would know?

  You’re just lucky that she hasn’t attacked you already.”

  Gem took a step back.

  “Jack, she has attacked me. She half-froze me in the throne room.”

  “But I thought you were the one who was uncertain about whether she would hurt you?”

  “I just meant that, after that, why would she?” Jack shook his head.

  “Why wouldn’t she? I wish Devon had told me the whole story.” Jack reached into his pocket, pul ing out the ring Devon had given him. “Maybe this wil help a little. In theory, having it should make me second to him in authority over the guards. I was wondering what was so bad that he would give it to me, when he doesn’t exactly respect my abilities.

  Perhaps we can procure some help.” Gem put a gentle hand on his arm, presumably intending it as an emollient gesture.

  “Jack, don’t you think you might be over-reacting.”

  “Honestly, Gem, I don’t think I’m reacting enough. One ring won’t stand against the enmity of a queen. You’ve upset her, you’re the Queen of a land she wants to conquer, a n d you’re everything that she isn’t. She can’t control you, and just by leaving
you alive, she would be storing up problems for later…”

  “Ok, I get it,” Gem said. “She’l want me dead.

  What can we do about it?”

  “Maybe we could circumvent the problem if there were something we could do so that you weren’t a threat…”

  An idea came to Jack. One that would almost certainly protect Gem. One, unfortunately, that also seemed brazen and doomed to failure.

  “What are you thinking?” Gem asked. Jack paused, then fel to one knee in the time-honored fashion, holding up the ring he held to her.

  “Marry me, Gem.”

  “Marry you? Jack, stop kidding around.” That hurt, but Jack could see why she might think he wasn’t serious. He stayed where he was.

  Maybe the abnegation involved in kneeling on a floor of ice would convince Gem that he was serious.

  “Gem, just think about it. I’m her son, and she has been careful not to show that side of herself around me. If you marry me, she won’t dare to hurt you. You wil have taken away one of her worries about you too, because it would mean that her kingdom was linked to yours.”

  “Jack, this is-”

  Jack put a finger to Gem’s lips. Why couldn’t she just accede to his plan?

  “I can handle her kil ing a father I never met, but the thought of her hurting you, Gem…” Jack steeled himself, knowing that if he didn’t say it now, he never would. “I care about you, Gem. I-I’ve never been able to put it into words properly, but I wish you would look at me the way you do Rio or Sparks. I didn’t think I have a chance before. You’re out of my league, but I can’t help what I feel for you, too.” Jack found that met with silence. He moved back from Gem. He should have known better than to think that a simple declaration of his feelings would make Gem evince any of the same emotions.

  “I don’t know what to say,” Gem said. “I don’t want to hurt your feelings, Jack, and it’s not because want to hurt your feelings, Jack, and it’s not because I’m what you cal ed ‘out of your league’. I care for you, too. It’s just lately, it seems that almost everyone I meet is tel ing me that they love me.”