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Horde Thief
Interlude 7 - Winter's Duty
I'd come to appreciate the stark beauty of Arctis Tor in a way that I'd never thought I could after the first time I'd been dragged there. Looking back at that so much younger version of me, it was hard not to smile, and harder still not to mutter curses on the stupidity of youth. There was an undeniable presence here at the heart of Winter, the icy beauty and blood-red ferocity both given form, and it resonated deep within the Mantle I bore. The second time I'd seen it, that feeling had almost overwhelmed me. Now it was less than a single cinder amidst the howling storm of ice and fury which was my Mantle, and for once I was entirely in agreement with it.
The spirit world, what wizards refer to as the NeverNever, isn't like the world I was born in. It's a place where power isn't just something you have, it's something you are. That's especially true when you have a connection to a part of it as deep as I did. When you walk in Faerie as a Power of it, your very thoughts shape the world around you, and lesser Fae who once would have terrified me fled from my path. The gates of the great fortress did not bar my way and as I passed through them I felt the presence I'd come to speak with high above, tugging me towards the great tower which held Winter's wellspring. Of course she'd choose there, the bitch.
No one opposed me as I entered the tower, and I took the silence of the climb to try to look at what I was doing. The Mantle seethed within me when I did, not wanting to let go of the agreement I felt, but I did all I could to force it down and think. Mab had sent me to that village to ensure that Winter's Tithe would be ready when the time came, and nothing myself nor the healers I had called had been able to halt the affliction. That last part was why I'd believed Viserys when he'd come to the place. But Mab also ordered me to remain there, in the village, until such time as I was successful, which meant I was now defying the Monarch of Winter and my direct superior in its Court. I knew that you could do that and live, Harry had more than once, the challenge was doing it in the right way.
It wasn't just the fact that convincing Mab to change her mind was hard, it was that she'd always have a different way she needed to be convinced, and if you couldn't work out what it was you were done. Giving me a private location would push me towards defiance, something I could truly imagine now with the ring on my finger, but there would be consequences for that. I shook my head as the top of the staircase came into view. Trying to predict Mab was like trying to predict which way the wind was going to blow in a tornado. Unless you picked exactly the right spot to test it, you'd be torn apart.
Nothing for it now, though, I was committed and the Mantle with me. On some level, I knew that Mab would feel that, but that couldn't be what she wanted, agreement was too easy. My thoughts had carried me to the landing, a small hallway cut from glacial ice which I only barely remembered from that nightmarish experience which had been my first exposure to the true dangers of magic. The door was shut, but I could feel that it wasn't barred, the magic of it passive. My mother had shattered the last one when she came to rescue me, and I could feel the scars she'd left in the place that night, wielding steel to open the way to the heart of Winter. Nothing so needlessly dramatic for me, though. I touched the door lightly with my hand, and it swung soundlessly open and I stepped through into…how to put this?
When I was a little girl, my father read 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' to me and the Jawas when he was home. Stepping into Mab's garden was like how I'd imagined walking into the White Witches' courtyard of statues would feel. Except worse, because all of these ice statues were real. They'd been people once, or at least alive, and there was no one coming to free them. Now they passed the years within sheaths of Winter ice, and I truly hoped they weren't aware within them. Ahead of me was a clearing with a fountain at its centre, and behind it a tree which I still had nightmares about when I could afford to.
And between the two, waiting for me in a monument built from all those who'd ever truly defied her, stood Mab. She wore a gown of dark blue, edged with black, and I forced myself not to linger on the colours as I approached. My feet made no sound as I stepped onto the wide platform that extended around the tower, yet she turned just enough for her to see me, and the dark ribbon along the outer lines of her gown thickened. She didn't say a word, but her disapproval of my presence was an icy wind down my spine, cutting through even the possessive rage of the Mantle, and I almost, almost faltered.
"I gave you a task, Lady Carpenter," her lips didn't move, the words were simply there around us. They weren't even cold, that would have implied emotion. "You have not completed it, and yet you are here."
I didn't speak. That hadn't been a question, and I knew the rules of Mab's court. Even if there was no one else was present, breaking that rule here would not be wise. She blinked once, and for a moment I glimpsed something in her eyes. Had it been approval? I couldn't be sure, but a moment later she inclined her head towards me in a fractional nod.
"There is a working upon all firstborn children of the tribe, draining their lives away. Nothing I, nor the healers of Winter have done has stopped it," the Mantle surged against my calm delivery, possessive and fierce. The lives of those souls, it hissed, were Winter's to use and sacrifice. Not another's. "I have information from a source who has proven trustworthy that this is the act of a hostile power, targeting far more than just these children."
"I see," Mab's mouth actually moved this time, but I couldn't count that as a victory. "And why, exactly, do you believe this excuses you from the task I set?"
The strength of Winter's rage was like a hurricane, my own no less potent beneath it, and my breath hissed through my teeth as I forced it away. Mab was all that power and more, and I knew she couldn't be immune to the same outrage. Yet her perfect façade did not flicker, leaving me only two other options. The Queen of Air and Darkness was more than just the raging power of a blizzard, she was chill darkness and, above all, clarity.
"I cannot complete the task you have given me to secure Winter's reserves if I am bound to their side," I replied, grinding my voice down until it was as empty of emotion as I could possibly make it. "I know from where and by who this working is being directed. If you would grant me it, I would join the attack to be mounted against them."
"Who?" A robot would have put more passion into that question.
"The Knights of the Blackened Denarius."
Something flickered through Mab's eyes, but it was gone too swiftly for me to tell what it had been. "Those who crippled your mortal father."
"Yes," she wouldn't get anything from me for that.
"And where?"
"The ritual completes in three days. There is a convergence on that day, when hundreds of firstborn were killed. Knowing that, it is simple."
"Oh yes," something that might have once been a sardonic smile touched Mab's face. "That little holiday for the freedom of the White God's chosen. At least some remember its cost in blood." Again, I did not reply. Nothing I could have said would have mattered, and Mab had not asked a question. "But why should I release you from my command? The Winter Lady need not take the field when my Knight will be there."
I restrained a growl and forced myself to think. What was she looking for? I'd given her rules, but those had proven insufficient. If not clarity, then what? Purpose, I answered, and I suddenly knew what I needed to say. "It was not against you alone that this slight has been made, my Queen."
"Truly?" No emotion leaked through, but I felt something, an instinct perhaps, pushing me forward. This had to be it. Nothing else made sense.
"I am the Winter Lady," I let the icy chill of my Mantle fill my words, but nothing of its current anger. This was a test. Of course it was a test. It was Mab and Faeries and Winter and even when it wasn't a test it was one. "This attack was against one of my responsibilities in Winter. It is my duty to secure the reserves of Winter. And so it is my duty to stop this assault."
Mab met my gaze.
I dropped my eyes away from hers; I had no desire to meet the gaze of one of the most powerful of all Sidhe, across the wellspring of our shared Mantles. But not too far away, or too swiftly, either.
"And if I ordered you to return to the task I gave you?" Mab said. "Would you go anyway, even though it would mean defying me?" This is mine, my Mantle hissed, but I didn't let it speak.
"Yes," I told her, the Queen of Air and Darkness, in the heart of Winter, and at the centre of a garden of icy statues that were testimony to the fate of those who might defy her. "I would. And you wouldn't stop me."
It wasn't spoken as defiance. Simply fact. The Queens of Faerie wield tremendous power over their vassals, yet with my Mantle in agreement and the ring Viserys had given me, I probably could defy her. But that wasn't the point, either. This was my fight. I'd just needed to prove that my reasons for demanding it were appropriate to my station.
"No," Mab inclined her head a fraction again, and there was something a human would have called satisfaction in her eyes. "I won't."
[BeepSmile wails: What does this mean!?!?]
