Then I rushed to the door and had my hand on the skeleton key in the lock when I stopped dead.
“Sjofn, open this door this instant,” a cold, imperious, achingly familiar woman’s voice demanded through the door.
I closed my eyes as warmth spread through me.
“Mom,” I whispered.
Then I opened my eyes, smiled huge and turned the lock. Now I was frantic to get the door opened but when I pulled at it, it didn’t budge. I stared at it and saw three, thick wooden planks, one on top, one on the bottom, one in the middle, all thrown to in iron latches, bolting the door shut.
How weird.
I shoved them all aside and yanked open the door.
Then I froze again, the smile fading from my face as I saw my mother’s body jolt, she blinked then she glared at me.
I stared at her.
Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.
There she was.
My Mom.
Looking at her I thought, Absolutely, definitely, one hundred percent worth a million dollars. Absolutely.
I took her in, all of her and I felt my stomach get warm.
I got my light blue eyes from her and I was looking right into them; looking into them again for the first time in fifteen years.
I felt my eyes fill with tears. Me! Seoafin Wilde about to cry.
Impossible.
But there it was.
I was a freak of nature, where I got my unusual hair, I did not know. My mother and father were both dark and Dad had dark brown eyes. Both of them were tall, lean and straight. I was average height (a little less than that, if I had to admit it, though not short) and curvy.
And now, standing before me in a gown much like mine but a deep red with a glossy, brown fur ruff around her neck, her still dark hair (there were only intermittent shafts of gorgeous silver) pulled up in twists, curls and braids with tiny, gold clips in the shapes of butterflies everywhere, her own crown, gold with diamonds and rubies, a dripping, gold necklace scattered with rubies covering the skin that her scooped neckline exposed and long, gold and ruby earrings hanging from her ears, skimming the fur around her neck was my… freaking… Mom.
“Mom,” I whispered, blinking away the tears and even doing that, I saw her eyes narrow in annoyance over dark, elegant, arched brows that snapped together.
“I’ll countenance none of this nonsense, Sjofn,” she snapped with cold irritation. “We should have left fifteen minutes ago. The Drakkar awaits and all know he is impatient and doesn’t want to be where he’s standing right this very minute in the first place.”
She turned, lifted a hand at four young women who were hanging about, all wearing gowns made of soft wool, nowhere near as grand as Mom and mine and all in dark colors, navy, burgundy, forest green and dark gray (to be precise) and all, weirdly, staring at me intently. I didn’t get a chance to wonder about that because Mom flicked her wrist and then started down a wide, wood paneled hall with more carving and intermittent pieces of glossy, dark furniture.
She kept talking as she floated down the hall, not looking like she was walking but drifting.
But doing it quickly.
I rushed out behind her, the girls rushed behind me.
“It took some doing for your father to talk The Drakkar into this, as you well know. You give him reason, he’ll be gone. We can only hope he already hasn’t mounted his horse and rode away. Then what would we do?”
She turned and disappeared down a flight of steps and I followed.
“I should have known you would try something like this. Your father did know. He warned me. If you anger The Drakkar…” she trailed off, her tone dire, making it to the bottom of the stairs that had a banister the entirety of which was an elaborately carved hunt scene.
I made it to the bottom too to see Mom turn to me on a whirl of heavy skirts, another woman already with her, throwing over her shoulders a long, lustrous cloak made of dark brown pelts of some fur.
“Well!” she snapped. “If you anger The Drakkar, who knows what will happen to the realm?”
“Uh –” I started.
“I’ll have none of it!” she retorted sharply, having closed a frog at her throat, she tore a pair of gloves out of a hovering woman’s hand and whirled again, gliding quickly to the door while pulling them on. “To the sleigh!” she ordered.
Sleigh?
I felt something heavy settle on my shoulders and looked down.
The four girls were encasing me in a cloak of dazzling white, furry pelts that was so long, the bottom, which was a hem of what looked like tails tipped with dove gray fur, skimmed the floor. One girl stood in front of me and shoved the furred, tall collar of the cloak up my neck and it went so high, it covered my earlobes. She deftly and swiftly closed the frogs that went from chin to just below my breasts as two girls at either side of her reached through some slits in the fur and pulled out my hands. Then they shoved a pair of elegant, winter white suede gloves on them, the inside of which was a soft, plush fur that felt like rabbit.
Then they started pushing me to the door.
“Sjofn,” one whispered to me as we went, “if that is you or if it isn’t, I must tell you that your trunks have been packed. They’ve been loaded on your sleigh. We did the best we could.” She stopped me for just a moment, looked up at me with what appeared to be sad but searching eyes then she whispered, “If you are our Sjofn, or not, but mostly if you are ours, please try, at least, to be happy. And if you are not, we wish you the best of luck on your adventure.”
I blinked at her then opened my mouth to ask a question but she shoved me out the door into the freezing cold air. I saw a deep red sleigh with a coat of arms painted on the back sides and curlicue trim. It had two black horses at the front. Mom was sitting in the back against a high, button-backed seat covered in what looked like black suede and a man in a cloak and furry hat was sitting on an elevated seat some ways in front of her.
Before I knew it, I was rushed down the steps of the building I was in and up the steps of the sleigh, the small door closed behind me and I hadn’t gotten my bearings yet when Mom’s hand snaked out, grabbed mine, she yanked me to sitting and threw a heavy, fur blanket over our laps.
“Go!” she snapped at the driver and off we went and we didn’t do it slowly.
I turned to her, taking in her beloved profile, gripping her hand in mine and opening my mouth to call to her name when she snatched her hand from mine and turned her head to look to the side.
“Atticus is likely livid,” she noted then, “Would that I’d given him a son.”
I blinked at the back of her head.
Uh… ow.
“Mom,” I whispered.
“Quiet, Sjofn, I must prepare in case The Drakkar has stormed out. I must try to plan what I will do to stop your father from throttling you.” Her head turned slowly to me and she pierced me with her ice blue eyes which were, even in the torchlight, icy. “Or, perhaps, this time I won’t bother,” she remarked frostily.
Ow again.
“Uh –” I mumbled and she lifted a gloved hand.
“Quiet!” she ordered and turned her head away. “The one time she can do something to help her father, help her mother, help her country instead, yet again, my Sjofn creates a nightmare.”
Oh jeez.
Something was not right. I really needed to read that note.
We swiftly slid through the town or city like place and then came to a bone-jarring stop in front of a big building. I was so wrapped up in what was happening, and the fact that it didn’t seem good, I didn’t pay much attention nor did I have the time to pay much attention. Without delay, Mom threw off the blanket, took my hand and dragged me from the sleigh and then we were out of the cold and in a somewhat warm building lit softly with a huge number of candles everywhere.