“You will be doing no such thing,” Cedric mocked. “You will be staying here. We have no need for you. You would simply get in the way.”
“I know the palace. You will need me as a guide.”
Cedric shrugged, unconcerned. “You could draw us a map then.”
Elisabeth crossed her arms. “The map could get lost.”
Cedric's lips lazily turned upward as he continued sauntering down the path. “I'll be sure to take good care of it.”
Elisabeth hiked her skirts and hurried after him. “You mean to double cross me. You plan to slip off the second you are free of the forest, and it would be easier for you to do so with me no longer there.”
“You insult me so, princess. I like to consider myself a man of my word. I made a deal and I intend to see it to its end. And I don’t tend to modify it either.”
“Why are you so insistent that I not join you then? I know it is not because of care for my safety.”
“Quite the contrary, princess, that is exactly why I wish for you to stay here. I would rather you not die before you had a chance to become expendable. It wouldn’t do me any good to defeat your stepmother and have you perish anyway. I'd be just as trapped as before.”
Elisabeth drew to a halt. “Why are you so certain that I would die? I hardly find that flattering.”
Cedric also stopped walking and looked her over. “Maybe not, but it's realistic. I mean, just look at what you're wearing!”
Elisabeth glanced down at her torn white dress. “What do you mean? What's wrong with my dress?”
“I believe you answered your own question. It's a dress. You cannot wear a dress into battle.”
Elisabeth jammed her hands on her hips. “A woman can wear whatever she pleases into battle.”
“Not if she wishes to remain alive.”
Elisabeth narrowed her eyes. “I would manage just fine. Besides, it is not as if I am defenseless.”
Cedric had the audacity to laugh.
Elisabeth huffed. “I will have you know that I have magical powers over ice and snow that I inherited from my mother, who was an ice nymph.” Not that she knew how to use them to her best ability.
Cedric tilted his head. “Indeed? So are you the person I have to thank for this dratted winter?”
Elisabeth gasped. “How dare you say such a thing! Of course I have nothing to do with this winter. It is because of this non-ending winter that my people suffer,. Why would I do that to them?”
“Perhaps not willingly, but what if this winter is because you do not have complete control of your powers?”
“My powers are not the reason for this winter,” Elisabeth repeated slowly, past her clenched teeth.
“And how old are you, I wonder?”
Elisabeth blinked, taken aback. “'Tis rude to ask a lady her age.”
Cedric sighed and glanced up at the heavens. “Let's see, my father lost the kingdom eleven years ago, and that was after a seven years war that started the day you were born. So that would make you what? Eighteen? The winter started eighteen years ago, if I remember correctly. Of course, I was only three at the time so my memory may be faulty, but I distinctly remember the feeling of the summer sun.”
“My magic did not create this winter. I’ve barely ever used it. However, I believe I know whose did. It is not well known, but my stepmother shares my powers over ice and snow. She is probably the one behind this.”
Cedric raised his eyebrows, a triumphant smile pulling his lips upward. “And I wonder how she got these powers? I thought you inherited yours from your ice nymph mother?”
“I-”
“Mayhap my father did not kill your mother as you believe?”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing, everything, whatever you take it to mean.” Cedric released a breath. “Well, your powers are still not enough to entice me to bring you. You admitted yourself that your stepmother shares the same powers, and she must be more powerful than you if she is able to create an eternal winter that you cannot end. So even with your magic you are still at a disadvantage. And I do not care for disadvantages.”
“I am going and you cannot keep me here,” Elisabeth replied hotly.
“I’m certain that I could. And that I would, if need be.”
She inhaled sharply. Cedric offered her a friendly smile, it was a complete contrast to his dark words. “You’re in my territory now, princess, I would be careful where I step if I were you.”
Chapter
Five
Elisabeth blew out a breath. What had she been thinking? Cedric couldn’t be trusted, not even long enough to defeat Ismena. He was a wild card, one that if she played she feared would kill her.
Assuming this frostbitten cold didn’t kill her first.
Elisabeth sat up, wrapping her cloak further around herself. She was in one of the old chambers of the palace. It could very well have one been the queen’s chamber- Cedric claimed that it was- but now it was nothing more than four crumbling walls, and a ceiling that was only half there. She would freeze in this room if she spent the entire night here.
Perhaps that was the prince’s plan all along.
She should have listened to Luk’s words all along. Now she could only hope that she wouldn’t pay the ultimate price for her folly.
She could still make this right. She could continue on with her quest to free her people, with only a small setback. But first she had to get away.
Elisabeth groped the floor seeking her boots in the dark. After she had found them and put them on, she slipped across the floor that was covered in worn carpeting and snow that had somehow managed to make it through the holes in the ceiling.
She slipped out into the dark hallway. She didn’t know where Cedric or the dwarfs were staying, so she crept quietly. She slipped down the halls that Lucius had led her down earlier on her way to the bedroom.
The halls were dark. She hoped that was a good sign that meant that Cedric and the dwarfs were nowhere nearby and were actually sleeping.
“I would prefer it if you didn’t step on me.”
Elisabeth skidded to a stop, just as a shadow dropped away from the fireplace and the roaring fire within cast light upon the room. Two shadow people sat at a shadow table, playing some sort of shadow game. They looked to be completely engrossed in it.
But they were not ones who had spoken. Lying sprawled out in the middle of the floor just inches from her feet, was Cedric.
He grinned, his eyes glinting in the firelight as he sat up on his elbows. “Did you really miss me so much already that you just had to come find me?”
“What are you doing out here?” she demanded.
“Well, as you seem to keep forgetting- this is my castle I have a right to be wherever I choose to be. But if you really must know, the center of the castle is warmer. So to answer your question of what I am doing here.” Cedric sighed and lay back down, placing his hands behind his head. “Well, my dear, I am not freezing to death, that’s what I am doing.”
“Oh.” Was all Elisabeth could think to reply. His being here certainly ruined her plan to slip off in the night, never to be seen by Cedric for the dwarfs again.
He slid his gaze to her. “It looks like you’re not doing a very good job at even that. For someone who has control over ice and snow, you would think that you would be able to handle it better. Or to even be able to make the cold leave you, to create your own bubble of warmth where the cold is forbidden to enter.”
Elisabeth snorted. “Ah yes, what a simple way to use my magic.”
“Who says it isn’t. I do the same thing with my shadows, but very well, if you want to continue setting limitations on yourself then by all means keep doing what you’re doing.”
His eyes shifted back to the ceiling as if the conversation was over. Elisabeth glanced up to see what he was looking at. He was actually lying right under a hole in the ceiling, snowflakes drifted down around them.
“I miss the sun,�
�� he said, breaking the silence. “I miss being warm, I miss the light it gives, but I would say that the thing I probably miss the most are the stars.”
Elisabeth planted her hands on her hips. “I already told you, I didn’t cause this winter.”
“I wasn’t saying that you did,” Cedric replied, still staring at the dark clouds above. “You say that your stepmother is responsible for it, and if that is true… well, you can be assured that I will do everything I can to stop her. I wonder if these ice-crusted clouds would finally leave if she died.”
Elisabeth shifted her weight and glanced at the door leading from the room.
While she wasn’t looking at him, Cedric sat up enough to grab her hand, before lying down pulling her down beside her. “Now that I have appeased your suspicious nature, come join me. There’s no need to slip off tonight. I told Gabriel that he wasn’t allowed to slit your throat while you slept.”
“How comforting,” Elisabeth said trying to sit up.
Cedric pulled her back down. “It is. Which is why you now have no reason to leave.” He slid his gaze to her and lifted his eyebrows.
“I wasn’t leaving,” Elisabeth said, but she couldn’t hold his gaze as she murmured it. She studied the worn red and gold inlaid carpet instead.
“Very well, if you would like for us both to pretend that you weren’t trying to slip off then I suppose I can humor you.” He nodded his chin toward the shadow figures sitting at the table. “Never fear, Harris and Reginold won’t tell anyone.”
Elisabeth shook her head, but she wasn’t exactly sure what else she was going to do. He knew what she had been planning. What was the use of denying it?
Cedric sighed deeply and turned his gaze back to the sky. “You know, my father used to teach me the constellations. He would take me to the palace observatory every night and we would spend hours in there going over our star charts and gazing up at the sky.”
Elisabeth snorted a breath. “Ah, yes, what a wonderful father. After wreaking havoc on the known world and fighting his wars, he spent his nights looking at stars with his son.”
Cedric shrugged. “I never said that my father was a good man. I never even said that he was a good father. But he had his moments. Everyone has their moments.” He stretched his legs languidly before crossing his ankles.
Elisabeth began to push herself to her feet. “Well, I shall be going to bed if you don’t mind--”
Cedric shook his head and made a tsking noise, she stilled but he didn’t even glance at her. Instead he said, “Ohh, Reginold, bad move, my man. Bad move indeed.”
She huffed a breath, He wasn't even listening to her- the insufferable man! Cedric lazily turned his gaze back to her. “He’s been trying to beat Harris for some time, but somehow he always ends up losing.”
“How fascinating,” she said dryly.
Cedric sat up with a clap. “It is, in fact, but not half as fascinating as actually playing ourselves.” He twirled his hand over the space between them. Reginold and Harris melted and the shadows slid across the floor, coming to a stop between them and taking the form of a board with pieces.
Cedric waved his hand. “First move is yours.”
“I’d rather not,” Elisabeth said. She had enjoyed this game plenty of times with her guards, namely Luk, and while she wouldn’t mind playing, she would not do so with the likes of him.
Cedric dipped his head. “All right then. I suppose I shall take the first move.” He grasped a shadow piece and moved it across the board before he looked back up, tilting his head so that a shaggy lock of hair fell into his face. He grinned. “Have some sort of strategy worked out that makes it so you don’t need the first move?”
“No. I mean, I don’t want to play with you.”
“Nonsense. It’ll be fun. It can be a bonding experience. A way that we can destroy each other’s pieces without actually involving any armies.”
Elisabeth crossed her arms. “It will not be fun,” she scoffed. “You’ll cheat.”
Cedric blinked, pulling back with a look of surprise on his face. “Of course I will! What would be the fun if I did not?”
She gestured down at the board. “I don’t even have a queen!”
“If you want a queen,” he said picking up one of her pawns and placing it at the end of the board where it grew, becoming a queen. “Then make yourself one. Don’t complain about not having the power to do something when, in fact, you’ve always had the power to do it yourself. Because that means it’s either fear or insecurity holding you back and I cannot abide either of those.”
Elisabeth pushed to her feet, glaring fiercely at Cedric. “I think that I shall retire now.”
Cedric rolled onto his back, blinking up at her. “What? Did I say something to upset you?”
“Goodnight,” she said curtly before turning and hurrying back to her room.
“We’ll have to finish our game sometime!” he called after her.
Elisabeth had absolutely no intention of playing chess with him, though as she swept into her room and pushed the old wooden door, that barely fit in the doorway anymore, shut behind her, she half wondered if he was speaking of chess. Or if he was speaking of their bargain. Because, from what she knew of Cedric, it seemed that to him, everything was a game.
Chapter
Six
Elisabeth strode into the grand hall. She released a breath as she saw Cedric sitting on the throne there. She had searched the ruins of the castle since she had woken, for him. First she had looked where she had seen him last night. But he hadn’t been there or anywhere else she searched.
Because apparently he had been at his shadow court residing over the affairs of his “kingdom”.
She shook her head as she strode forward. “I need to speak to you.”
Cedric glanced at her and waved aside some shadow figures who had been speaking to him with the garbled voice of his shadow courtiers. She noticed that he was wearing his shadow crown again. He was following right in the steps of his father, craving power. Elisabeth faltered her step. What was she doing dealing with the likes of him?
Cedric tilted his head and nodded toward her. “Your apology is accepted.”
Elisabeth blinked, snapped out of her tumultuous thoughts. “I beg your pardon?”
Cedric flicked his wrist dismissively. “You already have it. I accepted your apology, you can run along now and do whatever it is exiled princesses do.”
“Why in Illesya would I be apologizing to you?” Elisabeth asked, scrunching her nose at even the thought.
Cedric shrugged. “I wouldn’t know why. You must know I held no ill feelings toward you about the way we parted last night- or more the way you stomped off in a self-righteous fit. But I understand how delicate a woman’s conscience can be so I forgive you.”
“Delicate?!” she demanded. “My conscience is most certainly not delicate!” Though even as the words left her lips, her conscience decided to suddenly pang her, informing her that it was not as okay with the task she had given it of reconciling that she would have to kill Cedric, as she would have liked.
“Careful,” Cedric said, holding up one finger. “Or you might just start sounding like a calloused dark lord such as myself.”
She was nothing like him! Why did he have to keep insisting on their similarities?!
She shook her head, swallowing her bitter retort. She didn’t come here to argue with Cedric, though that appeared to be exactly what he wanted to do. Which gave her the strength to ignore his jab. If doing so would disappoint him, then she would do everything in her power to rein in her temper.
She forced a smile and said as sweetly as she was able, “When are we planning on leaving?”
Cedric stretched his legs in front of him, crossing his ankles. “I suppose before I answer that question, it would be best if you tell me where we are going?”
“Remember?” she asked through gritted teeth. “Our deal?”
“Of course I remember. I was wondering
if you did, considering that you were trying to leave last night.”
Someone behind her gasped and she turned to see the dwarfs congregated there. Fergus blinked at her with a hurt look on his face.
Elisabeth quickly turned back around. She shouldn’t care. They had fought for Mooraven, they were her enemies, just as much as Ismena was. It was simply to protect herself from what would happen if they decided that she was no longer necessary that she found herself glaring at Cedric and saying, “I did not try to leave.”
“Oh right. That was our secret wasn’t it?” Cedric smirked. “My bad. But back to the conversation at hand. I will play your game. Suppose we leave this very second. Where exactly would you want us to go?”
Elisabeth crossed her arms. “To the winter palace. To kill Ismena.”
“Well, if that’s where you think we are going then you had better change out of your traveling cloak because we aren’t going today.”
“Whyever not?” Elisabeth demanded.
“Today, I tasked my ravens with the job of scouting it out. I thought it would be best if we knew what was waiting for us before we blindly got ourselves killed. I would rather not walk right into her waiting arms so to speak.”
“So we wait till tomorrow?” Elisabeth asked slowly. Tomorrow might be too late. Ismena might have already escaped by then. Or discovered that Elisabeth was still alive, and what would she do to Luk if she did?
Cedric shrugged looking bored. “Perhaps, perhaps not. Depends, I suppose, on the weather.”
The weather?! What of the weather?! It never changed! Either it was snowy, icy, or cold. Most of the time it was all three.
“If we wait much longer, my stepmother might choose to return to the capitol and our opportunity would be lost,” she spat out.
“And wouldn't that be unfortunate,” Cedric said dryly.
“If my stepmother leaves before we can strike then there's no knowing when we will have another chance to strike.”
Cedric pushed himself to his feet and strode down the steps that led down from the throne, glancing at her over his shoulder as he went. “I have spent the last eleven years banished in this forest. If I have to wait another few years to be rid of it, rather than recklessly getting myself killed because I rushed into things, so be it. I am nothing if not patient.”
Winter Cursed Page 5
