Behind her stood two guards wearing masks of dyed fabric: one red, one blue.
“Morning, darling,” she purred, sauntering to my side. “How can I help you? What can I do for you?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I croaked.
“I just want you to get in the habit of hearing that every morning. Though it will be coming out of your mouth… not mine.” She winked. “Boys? Let’s unfasten this Missy’s chains.”
“It’s Mrs. now,” I corrected her blandly.
Michelle didn’t say anything, but her countenance shifted into an even colder expression. The two guards stepped forward, one seizing each manacle, opening them and letting my arms fall down. They both snatched one arm up in their hands and guided me forward. My legs were about to fail.
“Is Lethe okay with this?” I asked. The two guards led me up the stairs behind Michelle.
“He’ll be all right,” Michelle said.
“That means no,” I grumbled. The door to the dungeon opened and, for the first time in about twenty-four hours, natural light spilled over the floor. In spite of my fate, I was relieved that it was an escape hatch from the prison downstairs.
Michelle turned on me and smiled. “Just be relieved that you’re able to use the facilities upstairs now.”
“My, my,” I muttered. “Haven’t we gotten comfortable in the palace.”
Michelle smirked. “You’re not one to judge, Mrs. Aena. Guards? Can you take her to get cleaned up? I have high standards for my servants. I wish to see them as a… lesser reflection of my own grandeur. And this…” Her nose crinkled and her mouth soured as she surveyed me. “This simply won’t do. Go with them, Nell. Get yourself cleaned up.”
Theon
The harpy moved with such speed to escape me, she faltered in the sky and went end over end into the waves, nothing but a spray of sea foam and a tumble of feathers. The sky behind us was turning shades of dusty pink and molten purple with the dawning sun. I flew over her, pinning both wings down easily with my talons—she might have been massive for a bird of Earth, but was obvious prey to any dragon. It was lucky for her that the camps remained slumbering in the distance. “Was your trade with my mate, the very same mate you attacked on the shoreline of Beggar’s Hole?” I demanded.
“It was her offer, not my request,” the harpy spat. “Like with the ice dragons.”
I knew it! If only I had realized that the ice dragons were a threat when the harpies had first attacked me, and later attacked Nell, I would have realized then what had happened. But their people had been a quiet—albeit surly—battlefront for my entire lifetime.
“What did you barter with the ice people?” I asked, dragging her body across the wet sand. Her wings flailed and her eyes rolled as she thrashed against my grip, and her shriveled arms swung toward me.
The harpy narrowed her beady black eyes at me. “The prince came to us,” she sneered. “He had seen you in his talisman: the shard of magical mirror procured from your castle’s floor. The deal he wished to strike was simple. We were to watch you, and, if we had the opportunity, we were to attack you, to distract you, but to never incite you to return to The Hearthlands. Or shall I say… Everwinter?” Her bird mouth grinned. “We saw you ascend the balcony of your mate’s home, and began to watch her, too… your mate, who offered up her young to me.”
“Perhaps she tricked you, harpy; don’t be coy and pretend that you are unfamiliar with treachery. Even if she did not trick you… I can assure you that, no matter what her promise, you will both need to fight me in order to take my firstborn into your nest.” I breathed out a plume of smoke into her face and she cawed. ”What was your end of the bargain with the ice prince… or did you agree for free, for the sheer delight of murdering a man?”
“My people—we are called ‘the snatchers,’” she reminded me acidly. “We strip clean, spoil, and torment. It is a joy to us. In spite of this, we have our own small pleasures. Great altitude. Rocky terrain. Heavy snowfall. For this reason, we chose Thundercliff as the settlement of our nest. We have seldom traversed this portal, for its winged creatures are large and often unkind. The ice dragons made a pact that this would no longer be so. They would respect us, and grant us usage of the great mountains which lie to the north of your country—or what used to be your country.”
“And you believed him, did you? Perhaps your people should not be titled ‘the snatchers,’ but ‘the tragically gullible.’ Do you know nothing of the ice dragons? Their words are meaningless. A pact with an ice dragon is as good as a pact with the devil.”