Ensnared (Sorcery and Science Book 5) (20 page)

“Did no one think to keep him warm?” Jason spoke to the echoing room.

Not waiting for a response, he marched right up the platform, pulled a folded blanket off a nearby chair, and wrapped it around Cameron’s shoulders. He took the platter and set it into the queen’s hands, who viewed him with a look of complete fascination.

“What is the meaning of this?” he demanded of her.

“The boy was caught stealing from the kitchen. As though he didn’t get enough to eat after one of
my
banquets. How ever shall I live down the shame of such an insult?”

Her words were harsh, but the twinkle in her eyes told Isis she was just playing it up for effect. When it came to dramatics, these Everlast Elitions were as bad as the Selpes.

“I’m sure you’ve survived worse,” Jason replied coldly.

“Naturally. I am no newcomer to this world,” she said with a congenial smile, raising her eyebrows at Isis. “Still, a queen must keep up appearances. As you know, Elitions are such idle gossips. Word of this slight would reach the ears of the other kingdoms’ rulers.”

Isis doubted it. The only people who knew about this incident were the queen’s guard and the three of them. The Everlast Elitions wouldn’t broadcast it, and Jason wasn’t about to alert anyone that Cameron was anywhere but safely tucked away behind a protected portal. Cameron certainly wouldn’t volunteer the story of how he was dragged in his pajamas before the queen of Everlast for trying to filch a plate of cookies.

“They would take this incident as a sign of weakness,” Queen Gale continued. “I would lose their respect. That is, unless I dealt out a suitable punishment.”

Jason’s eyes narrowed. “What sort of punishment?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said, leaning her cheek against her hand. “Seven years of servitude ought to do it.”

“No.”

“Would you rather I cut off a hand? Those take awfully long to grow back, you know, and I hear it’s quite unpleasant.”

His glare could have frozen a volcanic eruption solid. “Select something else.”

Her full lips spread into a smile. “Well, I suppose I could be convinced to reduce the punishment to banning him from use of our portal. And he would have to leave my castle at daybreak, of course.”

Which meant they’d have to trek out across the storming tundra tomorrow morning. Or Cameron would have to turn back and go home to Eclipse. Jason seemed to consider the proposal.

“You and your…friend are still free to use the portal.” The queen looked past him at Isis, her stare razor-sharp. “Though I suggest you send the girl home. The Tundra will swallow up such a sweet and innocent treat.”

Oh, fabulous, another staring contest.
Isis held the queen’s gaze.

Jason moved to make himself a visual wall between them. “Your price?” he asked.

With Queen Gale, everything seemed to come with a price.

“Nothing too painful, I assure you. Maybe you’ll even enjoy it?” she added, smiling. She reached out and tapped Jason in the chest with her index finger. “You will spend the remainder of the night here, in the great hall. Entertaining me with your witty tongue.”

Queen Gale stood, sweeping her cloak behind her as she stepped forward. Bare skin peeked out from behind the red curtain. Beneath the cloak, the queen wore nothing but a lace-trimmed silk camisole and short lace shorts that made Isis’s nighttime outfit look like a full-length gown. Crisscrossed satin slashes climbed her bare legs, ending in bows just below her knees. The queen of Everlast was standing before them in her naughty lingerie.

“No,” Isis ground out.

“Yes,” Jason told Queen Gale.

“No,” Isis repeated. The queen was clearly interested in Jason’s tongue for something other than its wit.

“Since when does Jason Chanz make decisions via committee?” Queen Gale asked with piercing sweetness.

“I don’t.” He looked coldly at Isis. “Take Cameron back to his room. Try to warm him up. The queen will have a cup of hot chocolate sent to his room.”

“Of course.” Queen Gale smiled, the satisfaction positively sticking to her lips.

The guards encircled Isis and Cameron, nudging them toward the exit. The double doors closed with a resounding thud, leaving Jason alone with the queen in the great hall.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

~
Winter's Gate ~

526AX August 23, Ice Palace

THE NEXT MORNING, the storm was still going at full force. The castle walls creaked under the bombardment of snow and wind, but they hadn’t held up for centuries simply to be taken down by a mere August blizzard. But that didn’t mean it would be prudent to trek through the storm. They could wait it out in the castle, but that could take days, even weeks. Jason couldn’t sit idly by that long, not when he knew Terra was nearly within reach. Not when he knew what manner of people were after her. Besides, the queen had made it clear that Cameron was no longer welcome in her castle—an overreaction to be sure, but it was what it was. If Cameron had to leave anyway, there was no point in waiting around in Everlast.

At the rate the queen was provoking Isis, it wouldn’t be long before she snapped and got herself banned as well. That would be…inconvenient. Winter’s Gate was a labyrinth of tunnels. If he broke in, it could take hours to search for Terra. By the time he made it out of there with her, there would be someone waiting—the Crescent Order, Selpes, Avans, or even Elition guards sent by King River. The priests at the temple would notify him immediately if there was a break-in. Even Jason couldn’t sneak along unnoticed forever.

No, he needed to be invited in, and for that he needed Isis. No one would invite a notorious assassin inside a temple secretly housing Elitia’s insane.

Just before dawn, Queen Gale had fallen asleep on her throne, allowing Jason to slip out of the great hall. He kept to the shadows in the corridors, a task made easy by the early hour. The wall torches had long since gone out for the night, and the windows let in only darkness—especially with that storm brewing outside.

Jason found a staircase zigzagging downward and took it. He’d never visited the castle’s sand pit, but he figured it ought to be on one of the underground floors. That’s where it could be found in most Elition temples and castles. The castle of Queen Gale proved to be no different. Half an hour later, Jason had contacted Lana in Eclipse, asking her to send someone competent to wait for Cameron in the Forest Frozen, right at the exit end of the portal they’d used to jump across to the Western Continent. Queen Gale’s head of guards would escort him to the portal entrance on this end. Jason had promised the queen that if any harm came to Cameron, he would cut off the heads of all her guards and hang them on the barren walls of her great hall. It was the sort of threat a Phantom would appreciate—and take to heart.

When Jason returned to the great hall, Queen Gale was gone, and Isis was waiting outside. For a passing second, he wondered whether she’d cut the queen’s throat while she slept. The idea faded as quickly as it had come. Isis was no assassin. She’d never killed anyone, whether or not they deserved it. She even felt bad about hurting her sparring partner during training. That mental block—her inability to deal damage—was the only thing holding her back from being as accomplished a fighter as Queen Gale. Or even better. On the other hand, that same block made her the compassionate soul she was. She should hardly try to emulate a vicious cutthroat like Queen Gale…or, even worse, a cold-blooded pragmatist like him.

Leaning her shoulder against the doorframe, Isis watched him with cool detachment—a far cry from the woman last night, who had come to his door in her underwear. Like Jason, she was fully dressed in her black coldsuit. She wore twin Versatile swords on her back and held a torch in her hand.

“The queen left to put on some clothes,” she told him. “The guard who’s supposed to show us to the portal will return shortly. If you can bear to leave without saying your goodbyes to her, I suggest we go as soon as he’s back.”

There was no edge to her tone—no jealousy—nothing but grim determination. Good. She was trying to distance herself from any emotions that would incite her to attack the queen.

“Do you need to eat first?” he asked her. He didn’t, but she’d often reminded him that others didn’t appreciate the habit of skipping meals for the sake of efficiency—and that he should at least ask before pushing them to get back on the trail.

If she appreciated the gesture, she didn’t show it. She didn’t show much emotion of any sort, in fact. Considering she was one of the most expressive people he’d ever known, that was odd.

“No, let’s just get on with it,” she replied, sounding about as thrilled as she would be at the prospect of yanking a bullet from her own flesh. “I’ve put some hot tea for us into your pack. We can drink it after we go through the portal. No need to offend our hosts by drinking our own beverages under their roof.”

There was no time for further words, for the guard turned around the corner and ushered them down five underground levels to the portal entrance.

Five levels beneath the surface
, thought Jason.
And Cameron had grumbled about the lake portal of Eclipse.

* * *

526AX August 23, The Tundra

Isis patted her hands together a few times. Unlike in Everlast, no blizzard was blowing across the Tundra—yet—but the cold seemed to finally be catching up to her. She walked behind Jason and zipped open the top pouch of his pack.

A red canister appeared beside his shoulder, and Isis’s voice said, “Here, drink this.”

“What is it?”

She zipped up the pouch and walked back around him, holding a white canister in her hand. “Something to keep you warm. I brewed up some fire mint tea for you. It has just a little kick to keep your blood pumping. Good for keeping warm. And for keeping an alert mind.”

“Fire mint, you say?” Jason unscrewed the lid. “Why not?”

An explosion of hot mint cascaded across his tongue.
The drink appeared to work instantly. It was well below freezing outside, but he felt a warm tingle in his fingertips and a fiery burn in his chest.

Isis watched him drink, then asked, “How’s your tea?”

“A bit more than just ‘a little kick’. But I suppose I could use it. Out here especially.”

Isis nodded in silence, then lifted her own canister to her mouth.

“What’s yours?” he asked.

“Strawberry vanilla tea. No kick. No bite. Just as Silver ordered.”

He surprised himself by speaking again. “Have you been carrying these around since Eclipse?”

“No,” she said. “I stored the dry ingredients in a small box but only added the hot water this morning. After last night, I decided it might not be a bad idea to ask the kitchen staff for the water. They seemed happy to oblige. In fact, they said…” Her voice drifted off. She pressed her lips together. “I apologize. I was boring you with my babbling.”

Jason hadn’t thought he’d listened with anything other than interest, but his default expression did tend to confuse others. They frequently translated the neutral expression accompanying his request to pass the salt as a ‘give it to me or I’ll slash your throat’ glare. Isis usually read him better than most, but she hadn’t been entirely herself since her escape from the Selpes. She could go from happy laughter one second to wallowing in despair the next. That was extreme, even from a Prophet.

A Prophet with a sound mind, anyway. Jason’s thoughts drifted to Terra—and to Isis’s statement that his friend had gone completely mad. He could not believe it, but even if it were so, he’d find a way to lead her back to sanity. All that mattered right now was getting her out of that asylum and back to the safety of Eclipse.

* * *

526AX August 23, Winter's Gate

It was an hour past sunrise when they
reached the gates of Winter’s Gate—the Shroud—but the cloudy murk of grey that filled the sky blanketed out most of the sunlight. The round and squat structure resembled a gigantic slate-grey snail shell. It was so completely monotone that even the arched entrance blended seamlessly into the rest. Still, drab as it was, the building stood out dramatically against the frosted nothingness of the white Tundra.

Jason motioned Isis forward, and she stepped ahead to take the lead through the front doors as he filed in behind her. From the other end of the hallway, a priest with indigo eyes and wrinkled robes noticed their entrance and hurried to greet them. Isis lifted her hat and unwrapped her scarf to expose her face, while Jason remained cloaked in shadow behind her.

“Welcome to Winter’s Gate, the temple of the north. What brings you to this remote place, fellow Elition?” the priest greeted Isis.

“I have come here, to the
Shroud
,” she emphasized. “On a very important matter.”

“The Shroud? No, you must be mistaken. As I said, this temple is called Winter’s Gate,” the priest stated. His tone was steady, but Jason could feel the skip in his heartbeat.

Isis stepped up closer to the priest and in a lowered voice said, “King River sent me regarding a very special resident you have here. Shall we speak somewhere more private?”

That was the plan they’d devised—for Isis to pose as King River’s messenger as Jason remained silent and cloaked in case his infamous face was recognized. The frazzled priest seemed to buy it. His body relaxed slightly, and he showed them down a side corridor. From there, he split off the hall several more times. Jason memorized every turn they took, just in case.

Finally, they came to a dark corridor. The rooms on either side were open and empty.

“People have been seeking her out for the better part of a decade, you know, but she’s been hidden away all that time. She came to us, the best hiding place of all, one-and-a-half years ago,” the priest recounted with melodramatic flair, as though he were performing in a play. “No, they’ve never found her. They don’t even know where to look, you see. Well, I guess you know since King River arranged the whole thing. But no one else does, I can assure you.”