“But the Fate Maker—” Gunter said. His normally pink cheeks were pale with fear, and he gripped the pinned-up sleeve of his jacket with his remaining hand. If he hadn’t lost the other one he’d have been wringing them together.
“Has been seen.” I sat heavily on my throne. “Now, before everyone freaks out we need to find out as much as we can. Then we can figure out what to do.”
“Do?” Mercedes asked from across the room where she was standing with the rest of the Nymphiad, staring at me from near the buffet table. “What do you mean what we’re going to do? A wizard has come back from the dead. What do you think we’re going to do?”
“Sapling,” Darinda said, her voice a low growl as she gripped her staff tightly. “Contain yourself.”
“Where was the Fate Maker seen?” Winston asked, his attention focused on Madrave.
“Bekal, Your Highness,” Madrave said, his voice unsteady. “He was seen in the wizarding stronghold at Bekal, near the White Mountains.”
“A two-day ride from here if he’s on horseback and not dragon,” Rhys added. “In the Borderlands. On the Bathune side.”
“Near Bavasama’s palace?” I asked, glaring at my new ambassador.
“Less than a day from the Palace of Night,” Eriste said, “but you can’t think that your aunt would—”
“I don’t think anything yet,” I said, turning back to the ballroom full of people. If my aunt was conspiring with the Fate Maker I really didn’t want to talk about it in front of everyone—we’d have a riot on our hands. “But since you’re here now, as my ambassador, you can explain to me why my aunt is allowing my enemy to remain in Bekal.”
“I’m sure she had no idea he was hiding there,” Eriste said, not meeting my eyes. “We thought he was gone, and I can assure you, we have no wizard in Bathune with the power to bring him back from the dead.”
“Sure.” I turned away from him and back to my advisers and the rest of the guests. “So what we know is that the Fate Maker isn’t dead. Not only is he still alive, he’s two days from here. That gives us time to get ready. We can send dragon messengers out to the villages and start raising an army.”
“I don’t understand,” Mercedes said, her voice high and panicky. “How did he get here? I thought you killed him when you smashed the mirror. He’s supposed to be dead. He can’t be dead and here at the same time. It doesn’t work like that.”
“Obviously, smashing the mirror didn’t kill him.” I shoved my hands underneath my armpits to get them to stop shaking.
“You told us you’d killed him,” Gunter’s mother, Lady Arianne, current steward of the Veldt, said, her eyes wide.
“I thought I had.” My eyes darted quickly to Winston, trying to figure out how to admit that I had never known for sure. “The Fate Maker was swallowed by the light from the mirror. I had thought it had killed him. He disappeared. Nothing left. Just totally gone. Poof.”
“If he’s alive, then what would stop him from coming here? From attacking us now? What would stop him from bringing an army with him?” another woman yelled. Everyone stared at me, like they were waiting for me to save them, to save us, because somehow I was supposed to be telling the adults what to do. Me, sixteen-year-old Allie Munroe. Yeah, that was just a fabulous idea.
My stomach rolled as I remembered the sounds of battle from that day. The cries of men dying around me, the screams of combatants as they tried to destroy each other. I could hear the ear-splitting shriek of the Mirror of Nerissette as it splintered, tearing apart the link between this reality and my own. I tried to ignore the sweat trickling down my back at the memory of Esmeralda—the mirror’s guardian—howling in pain as she and the magical portal she was bound to disappeared.
“Queen Alicia?” Winston reached over to touch my hand. “Allie?”
I nodded and tried to swallow, my throat dry. “I’m fine. I’m okay.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, his voice gentle.
“I’m okay,” I said, my voice steadier this time. “We’re all going to be okay.”
“I hardly think that’s likely,” a man from near the back shouted.
“We’re going to be fine.” I stood and tried to project calm over all the people. “The Fate Maker of Nerissette has forgotten one thing.”
“Oh, I don’t think I have,” a loud, familiar voice boomed above our heads. “I think I have everyone exactly where I want them.”
“It’s him,” Carolina of the Veldt screeched. People turned and began pushing toward the door again.
“It’s simply a spell. A trick he’s doing to scare you.” I tried to reason with my nobles as they all ran around in a panic, getting nowhere.
“Yes, I’m very good at spells, aren’t I?” the voice said, closer this time.
He stood in front of me now, his black and silver robes sweeping the floor, and his dark hair curling around his pale face as he shimmered into existence. He was glaring at me, his eyes a vibrant, glittering obsidian.
“You,” I snarled as I found myself face-to-face with the wizard who’d haunted my nightmares with Kuolema.
“Since you mentioned spells.” He brought one hand up and snapped his fingers. Instantly everyone froze, locked into place by dark magic.
“How dare you come here and use magic on my people? You have three seconds to release them and get out before I send my army to—”
“My darling girl, do shut up.” The light around the Fate Maker receded, and he stood in the middle of the room glowering at me with his hands on his hips. “We both know that no one can hear you pretending to be brave.”
“Who said I was pretending?” I lied.
The Fate Maker pointed his bony finger at me. “Oh, be quiet. If there is one thing I cannot tolerate it’s a sassy, know-it-all queen. I had enough of that with your idiot of a mother.”
There was a flash of light as dark magic forced my lips shut, sealing them together, while a sudden pressure formed around my voice box like it was being held inside an oversized toddler’s fist and squeezed like a grape.
“That’s better.” He brought his hands together in front of his chest like he was praying and then tapped his fingers together.
I felt a slight push and my body toppled backward onto my throne. I scrambled upright, but before I could stand again the pressure on my mouth spread across my entire body, pushing me firmly back into my seat, pinning my arms and legs so that I couldn’t move. Trapping me.
He gave me a wicked smile and stepped closer. “Now you can do what I’ve needed from you since the beginning. Stay silent, sit still, and listen to what I have to say. Exactly like the good little girl I would have raised you to be without your silly mother’s interference.”
I tried to scream, but the rush of air through my throat felt like flames. I made nothing more than a muffled grunt as I squirmed on my throne, trapped. I took a deep breath through my nose and tried to scream again.
“That’s not going to help you.” He shook his head at me indulgently. “No one can hear you, and even if they could there’s nothing they can do about it. They’re frozen.”
I let out a strangled yelp and he responded with a self-satisfied grin.
“I could kill you right now, and no one would stop me. Lop off your head and leave you here for them to find. I won’t, but you should remember that I could have. One of these days I might just”—he pinched his fingers again, and I felt my throat tighten—“change my mind.”
I tried to shriek, terror flooding through my system, desperate to get a sound out or get free or do something. If the Fate Maker wanted me dead, right now there wasn’t much anyone could do about it. My people were frozen, I was trapped, and he had all the power. Just like when I’d first come here.