Winter Cursed

by NIcki Chapelway

  Elisabeth whirled on the dwarfs, her eyes narrowed. “You fought for Mooraven?”

  The dwarfs shifted uncomfortably. Fergus blushed.

  Finally Lucius nodded. “Aye, we worked for him. Many years ago he came to the Skalvanian mountains looking for warriors, promising wealth and glory to those who would serve him. We're all that remain of the company of dwarfs who joined his cause.”

  “Bad man his father was,” Fergus added adamantly.

  Gabriel huffed an angry breath. “Blasted man hired us at the end of the war, after he had already lost. All those dwarfs died because he simply couldn't admit defeat. We finally had enough of the bloodshed and deserted. If we hadn't we'd be amongst the dead from the battle of Moor's Keep. Not a dwarf made it out alive.”

  “He was a murderer,” Alban added with a dark look.

  The other dwarfs nodded in agreement. Gabriel spit on the ground.

  She had heard of the carnage of Moor’s Keep, that was near the end of the war just before her father finally marched his army into Mooraven and defeated the dark king. If they had lost comrades in that battle it would give the dwarfs a reason to hate King Morren, enough that she might even trust them- save for one important fact. They appeared to be working for his son now. She shook her head. “I do not understand. If you hated the father so much, why do you serve his son?”

  “For survival,” Gabriel answered simply.

  “We serve him and he protects us from the darker entities of this forest,” Kenrick added.

  Lucius nodded. “Your father banished us into these woods as he did the wee prince at the end of the war. He did not wish to spill anymore dwarfish blood, but he didn't trust us to continue to go free even though we only served Morren because he paid us--”

  “Nothing personal at all,” Aldrus added. “Just a little business.”

  Lucius rested his hand on the short sword hanging from his belt. “Well, King Stephan didn't see it that way. He decided that we were too dangerous to continue on in our line of business, taking missions when we pleased, so he banished us here--”

  “Completely unreasonable of him. We're perfectly harmless.”

  Lucius cleared his throat and shot Aldrus a silencing look. “As I was saying, when we were first banished to this forest, and learned that the prince had been banished here as well, we thought about killing him--”

  “Bitter we were.”

  There was a scuffle as Gabriel grabbed Aldrus and tried to gag him. Lucius continued like this was a regular occurrence. Perhaps it was. “But we decided against it. He was a boy, nothin' like his father. Just as much a victim as we.”

  Cedric clapped his hand on Lucius's shoulder. “And I am thankful you came to that conclusion, before you killed me.”

  Elisabeth pressed her fingers to her temples and paced away. “What am I to do about my stepmother now?”

  “We will keep our end of the bargain, don't ye fret, lass,” Lucius assured.

  Elisabeth shook her head. “How can you expect me to trust you when you fought for the enemy?”

  Lucius held out his hands almost pleadingly. “Surely ye can't hold it against us when we've already paid our penance during the years of our banishment.”

  “Eleven years it's been,” Fergus said sadly.

  Aldrus nodded wearily. “That's an awful long time, when all we did was pick the wrong side.”

  Elisabeth released a frustrated breath and resumed pacing until Cedric stepped in her path. “Have a heart, Lizzie. They're good men- well, dwarfs- but I’m sure you understand what I'm saying.”

  “Yeah, we won't double cross you or nothin',” Aldrus said.

  Elisabeth jabbed a finger into Cedric's chest. “First of all, do not call me Lizzie. Secondly, why would I listen to you? You are the enemy.”

  Cedric clucked his tongue. “Now let's not be so nasty, love, we've only just met. I hardly think I deserve the title. I'm sure we can both agree that Ismena is the true enemy. However, you are entitled to your opinions. Believe what you will. But I think it only fair to inform you that if you refuse to make a deal with me then there is really no reason for me to keep you alive.”

  Elisabeth inhaled sharply and backed up several steps. The air around her began to drop in temperature as her magic surged, wanting to protect her. Unfortunately, she had no idea how to use it in her defense. “You say we are not enemies and yet you threaten to kill me?”

  Cedric stepped after her and wrapped his gloved hand around her elbow, keeping her in place. “Now, I never said I'd kill you. I simply stated that there would be no reason to keep you alive. It would certainly be very inconvenient for me to allow you to live, though. You could spread all sorts of vicious calumny about me.”

  Elisabeth clenched her teeth until her jaw ached. “It would not be calumny if it were true.” She jerked her arm out of his hold and he let go of it easily with only a shake of his head.

  He let out a deep sigh as if he were in pain. “You have proven my point.” He turned to the dwarfs. “You are my witnesses. You see how difficult she is being.”

  Elisabeth wrapped her arms around herself and backed away further. “If you kill me, I cannot free you from your banishment.”

  Cedric turned back to her and raised his eyebrows. “But if I don't kill you then I still will not be freed from my banishment, because you are so tastelessly stubborn, so I'm really at an impasse.”

  Elisabeth licked her lips. She didn’t like her odds in the prince’s territory. She was truly going to end up murdered and her body would be left for the Garmrs. Unless she made a deal first. She couldn’t let Cedric see that he had the upper hand, if she was going to make a deal with the dark prince then she was going to make certain that she got an advantage from it. “Even if I were to lift your banishment, I cannot return to you Mooraven until I defeat Ismena and have freed my kingdom.”

  Cedric rolled his eyes. “So, I will help you reclaim your kingdom. And now we are right back to where we started. To save us another roundabout discussion, why don't we seal the deal now?” He held out his hand. “Do we have an accord, princess? Your kingdom in exchange for mine? Your freedom for my freedom?”

  Elisabeth hesitated, but what choice did she have? If she refused he would most likely kill her. Then no one would rescue her people from Ismena’s rule. If she said yes, he would help her defeat Ismena, but at what cost? His freedom? What if she unleashed a worse evil on the world than even her stepmother?

  But she was the princess of snow and she would not be coerced into this. She would use Cedric until he was no longer needed. Then she would do what her father hadn’t the strength to accomplish. She would end Morren’s line once and for all.

  “Deal?” Cedric prompted, his hand still outstretched. “Come now, you won't get a better offer than this. Least of all from Ismena.”

  Elisabeth clasped Cedric's black gloved hand with her own pale one. “Deal.” She said with a firm jerk of his hand. She prayed that if there were some entity overlooking their deal, that they would not strike her dead for her lies.

  Chapter

  Four

  Elisabeth squeezed her eyes shut as she leaned against the stone wall. But she quickly opened her eyes, not trusting to remain long without her vision. Not here in this dangerous place. She peered out at the bleak forest around her. There were no signs of any creatures nearby, she wondered if that was the prince’s doing.

  The prince…

  Dear sunlight, what had she gotten herself into?

  She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself to stave off the cold, but she knew it would be no use. No matter how cold she was outside, she was even more so inside. She hated that she planned to do something exactly like the dark prince or Ismena herself would do. To use someone simply to betray them. And yet, looking at Cedric’s satisfied smirk as she dropped his hand, she had felt almost glad that she would soon betray him. Perhaps finally that would wipe the smug expression off his face.

  But how on this fro
zen world was she going to actually betray him? Cedric was obviously a powerful person, a force to be reckoned with. He wouldn’t have survived in this forest if he were not.

  How was she possibly going to manage killing him?

  Never mind the fact that as much as she despised him, she found the thought of betraying him detestable.

  She raised her numb fingers to her lips and blew on them. She needed to get inside before she froze.

  As she turned to go, she tripped to avoid walking into a rosebush that had not been there when she made the trek across the courtyard several minutes ago. She frowned roses were an uncommon sight in the dead of winter. She looked up to see that she was standing in the middle of a garden. A garden that had unmistakably not been there before. A garden that was made of shadows.

  “I like to imagine what this world would look like if it wasn't dead,” a voice said.

  Elisabeth narrowed her eyes as Cedric strode out from behind a crumbling tower. He paused and leaned against it.

  “What are you doing here?” she demanded. How long had he been watching her? If he had any idea of what she had been thinking...

  Cedric glanced around the courtyard as if seeing it for the first time before finally releasing a breath. “I’m going to let you in on a secret, Liz, I hope I don’t regret giving you this information but here is it...” He hung his head as if bracing himself for the impact. Elisabeth straightened wondering what he could possibly have to say. And if it would be any help in her killing Cedric when this is all over.

  “Are you ready for this?” he asked at last.

  “Stop stalling and spit it out already,” she snapped.

  He grinned, wagging his eyebrows. “This is my castle.”

  She furrowed her brows. “Excuse me?”

  His smile grew wider as he strode toward her. He came to a stop only a few feet away. “You asked what I was doing here. That was my answer. This is my castle. I’m free to roam where I may. Though I would like to know what you are doing here?”

  “I wanted some solitude,” Elisabeth said, crossing her arms, but she quickly dropped them fearing that she was being too defensive with her body language.

  “Yes, because it’s not like you were raised in solitude. I would have thought that you would have appreciated some company after having spent most of your life lacking it.” He leaned closer, is lids lowering. “Especially the companionship of a peer.”

  Elisabeth shook her head. “I would not wish for your company.”

  Cedric placed his hand over his heart as if he had been wounded. “Such abject cruelty.”

  Elisabeth rolled her eyes. “Besides, I actually enjoy being alone.”

  Cedric clasped his hands behind his back as he stared out over the forest in the direction she had just been looking. “You’re rather fortunate then. Because solitude is not too hard to find here.”

  She could imagine that it was not. “Is it only the eight of you?”

  Cedric dipped his chin. “Not counting the Dragrs or Garmrs or overly friendly Giant Spiders? Yes, well, actually it’s nine now I’d say.”

  “Well, I have no intention of remaining in this wood very long,” Elisabeth replied quickly.

  “Nor do I,” Cedric said, turning to her, his ice blue eyes seeming to peer into her soul. “And if you keep your end of the bargain. I shan’t have to.”

  Elisabeth licked her lips and forced herself to nod. She needed to be better at deceiving. She would not fool the trickster prince if she was not.

  Cedric continued to watch her for a long moment. Her mind grappled to find something else to say that would change the subject. Distract him. However, instead, it was Cedric who changed the subject.

  He tilted his head and the corner of his mouth turned up as he plucked a shadow rose from the bush and handed it to her. “The dwarfs are quite distraught at the fact that they may have angered you. I don't know how you did it, but somehow you've managed to entangle each and every one of my supposedly merciless mercenaries around your dainty fingers. Even Gabriel, though he'd probably rather die than admit it. And you've barely known them a day. You work fast. I will give you that.”

  Elisabeth arched her eyebrow, keeping her hands firmly at her sides. “Flattery and a flower. Tell me, noble prince, what more do you want from me?”

  “Nothing.” Cedric twirled the flower between his fingers before flicking it over his shoulder. “I'm simply trying to have a conversation. Is that not how you people outside the woods generally get to know each other?”

  Elisabeth finally gave in to the urge to cross her arms. “All you want is to converse? The moment I believe that is when the winter ends.”

  “Then do believe it. It would be splendid to feel the sun again.”

  Elisabeth looked up at the thick, grey clouds which had hid the sun from her view the entirety of her life. She didn't even know what it looked like, though she had read in her novels that it was bright and warm. Like a large furnace in the sky. She turned her attention back to Cedric. “Once the sun comes out you will scurry for cover like the creature of shadows you are.”

  The corner of Cedric's mouth turned up showing that she had failed to insult him. “Such unjust words, Princess. Don’t you know, shadows cannot exist without light.” He released a breath that was half a laugh. “Come now, just because our parents were enemies does not mean that we have to be. Let us put our disagreements behind us. And perhaps we can be friends as well as business partners.”

  Elisabeth narrowed her eyes. “I think that’s exactly what that means. And we will never be friends.”

  “Never is a word that extends into eternity, I would steer clear of using it overly often if I were you.”

  “In this case, I believe that it can be used without much fear of it proving untrue,” Elisabeth replied stiffly. “We must work together, because it benefits us both.” Until she no longer needed him that was… “But any other amicable relation between us, I fear, is impossible.”

  “Posh, if you really look at it, there’s nothing actually holding us apart.” He spread out his arms. “In fact, if you look closely enough, you would see that we are very quite similar.”

  Elisabeth stiffened. “There is no similarity between us.”

  “We are both royalty, banished from our homes to this forest. We’ve both lost our families, our kingdoms, our lives as we knew it to Ismena… that seems awfully similar to me.”

  “But you are missing a very key fact in all of this. Your father deserved what happened to him. Mooraven deserved to fall. And you deserved your banishment.”

  Cedric placed a hand over his heart and shook his head. “Nasty, nasty accusations. I could very well say that your father deserved to be killed since he was responsible for destroying my life, but I am, it appears, far more forgiving than you.”

  Elisabeth tapped her finger against the crook of her arm and arched her brow. “You have proven my point. Our families are enemies, Prince Cedric, your father is responsible for the death of my mother. That is a tarnish on your bloodline that I fear I could never- nor would I ever- look past.”

  Cedric ran his hand through his hair, before turning back to her and leaning back against the wall completely at ease. “Look, Liz. Even if your mother died because of the wight attack, my father did not create the wights. Therefore he had no control over them.”

  Elisabeth frowned. She did not know much about wights, they had all been wiped out in the beginning of the Seven Years War. But it was odd that Cedric would know this much about them.

  As if having decided to once again abruptly change the subject, Cedric held out his arm. “But enough of this dreary subject. Come, join me for a turn around the courtyard.”

  Elisabeth remained where she was.

  “Do not forget that once you uphold your side of the bargain we will be neighboring rulers, so we should learn to get along now while neither of us have armies at our disposal.”

  Elisabeth sighed and accepted his arm. Even if
she had no intention of them being neighboring rulers, she could not allow that to show.

  It was true that the people of Mooraven were close to revolting anyway. They had always remained loyal to Morren, even after his defeat, but then Ismena had taken command and they had bucked under her tyrannical rule. In fact, it would be much easier to simply pass off Mooraven rather than deal with its dissatisfied citizens. If only the person she was giving Mooraven to was not Cedric.

  With a self-satisfied smirk, Cedric turned and began strolling through the garden. After a moment of silence, he leaned closer and whispered in her ear, “I'm going to tell you another secret.”

  Elisabeth shuddered, but refused to step away and show to him how much he was affecting her. It was probably his goal to make her as uncomfortable as possible.

  “I cannot actually make my shadows solid. You were not in any danger of dear Gertrude,” he continued in a low tone as if they were co-conspirators.

  She turned to him and arched her brow. “So, you lied? Why does that not surprise me?”

  He shrugged. “I like to think of it as embellishing the truth.”

  She snorted. “You would.”

  “Pray tell, what is that supposed to mean?”

  “Only that the likes of you never admit to what you do wrong. You lie and you are embellishing the truth. You steal and you are simply helping someone to be generous. You break your word and you are only modifying it. You murder and you are naturally aiding another soul in their journey to the otherworlds.”

  Cedric laughed. “Ah, Liz, you've hardly known me more than a half an hour and already you are forming all sorts of unfavorable opinions of me. I shall miss you while I am away.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” Elisabeth pulled her arm from his. “Away where? And do not call me that.”

  “When I am storming the castle, with the dwarfs. You, of course, shall remain here while we- how did you put it? Aid your stepmother in her journey to the otherworlds?”

  “I will be doing no such thing. When you leave, I shall join you.”