House of Winter

Chapter 40

Ari

Outside, a winter storm was picking up, but within the drawing room, the storm was already here.

Virani had fled out into the gardens as soon as she had realised that Lumi had slipped away, leaving Osvald to face Queen Lisbet, who was still refusing to surrender to Osvald's coup.

Now that Virani was gone, Sanna was standing before her father, while Katja and Tom flanked Queen Lisbet. And Ari was once again in the middle of something that was far above her station.

"Please, Papa," Sanna begged her father. "You've said enough. This is the end. There is no coup. You must lay down your arms."

"It's too late, Sanna," Osvald said. "The wheels are already in motion. They have been for years."

"And you'll live the remainder of your years in a damp prison. I hope those years of planning have been worth it, Osvald," Lisbet said. "The storm is picking up outside. I doubt the fire army will get through such a gale."

Ari glanced out the windows at the snow. The wolfguard's defense was in motion. The palace was nestled within the fjord that allowed the winter starrlings to create a catastrophic winter storm to push back any attack. It would be almost impossible to fly in these conditions, meaning the fire army would be forced to approach on foot, through the thick snow.

She was terrified of the looming presence of the fire army, but she was also just as terrified of the knowledge that there were Lombardian ships in the bay. The Lombardians were here, and Ari was completely unsure which side they would take.

But before all of this had started, when it had just been Queen Lisbet, Osvald, and Ari in the drawing room, Queen Lisbet had calmly sipped her tea as she had told Ari the most surprising twist of all. The Queen had a plan. Ari was here for a reason, now. She was not a martyr. She would carry out the Queen's plan, if was the last thing she did.

"Sanna," Tom said, his voice calm.

Sanna stepped back without even glancing at Tom. She lowered her hand, which was holding the ice weapon she had created.

Where she had stood, Tom now stepped forward. Among all of them, he was the fighter.

"This is your last chance, Osvald van Dael," Tom said. "If you do not surrender peacefully, I will be forced to attack."

Osvald's wolf growled, and Osvald glanced around the room, apparently deciding his chances.

"Very well," Tom said. He reached up to pull himself onto the back of Kobuk. He was a kinncharger, a fighting champion who had battled against far stronger men than Osvald van Dael. But the kinncharging arena was a battlefield of rules. Within this beautiful drawing room in the palace of Vulfholm, all rules had been left behind.

Because when Tom was momentarily distracted, trying to mount his wolf, Osvald van Dael lashed out with a slice of ice as thin as steel, directly for Tom's neck.

Sanna was there, a shield of ice matching against her father's. She screamed out in frustration, blocking her father's magic with her own, until Tom was able to join his strength to hers.

"Ari, get back!" Sanna screamed out, as she flung snow and ice towards her father. Somehow, in the chaos of a battle, Sanna was still thinking about Ari's safety.

"Ari," Katja hissed. "We need to go."

Ari was transfixed by the explosive battle between Tom, Sanna and her father. They clashed in ice and snow stronger than anything Ari had ever seen at the school. Osvald fought harder than Ari had expected him to. He had seemed to her like a quiet, respectable man, but he fought like a starved wolf.

Katja grabbed Ari's hand and pulled her out of the way just as the battle broke across the sofas, wolves tumbling over each other. There was an explosion of glass. Ari wasn't sure if the snowstorm outside had broken the glass, or the snowstorm within had, but either way, the drawing room was now its own storm of ice and snow, and the outside was inside.

Katja pulled Ari across the glass. Katja's wolf and Ari's dragon followed them.

"The Lombardians," Katja said. "We need Matthias Stone."

Katja pulled herself onto her wolf and Ari onto her dragon, and Katja raised her hands in the air to control the snow around them so the two of them could take off into the sky. Ari could feel Warrah's disgust at the snowy conditions, but she urged him onwards.

The flew away from the palace, and as they did, the snowstorm disappeared behind them, until they could see the ships on the harbour, waving their Lombardian flags.

"Can you see his falcon?" Ari asked.

"There," Katja called out, pointing, and with a lurch Ari saw it too. The falcon swept through the sky towards them.

Beneath her, Warrah gave a shudder, and Ari felt a surge of power from the beast.

"Calm, Warrah," Ari said. "He won't hurt you."

The falconrider had sighted the dragon, and sped into a sharp dive to meet them. There was a clap of thunder as the falcon sped towards them in a dive that seemed like it could only end in death, but the falcon miraculously spun out of it and banked alongside them.

"Ariane Domez!" King Matthias Stone of Lombardia said, and his voiced boomed like the man spoke inside her ears.

She held her breath, terrified. Here was the man who wanted her dead.

"Greetings, King Matthias," Katja said. "I present to you Ariane and the dragon responsible for your son's death."

"Princess Katja," Matthias said. "What a wonder you are. You would have made a beautiful bride."

"Thank you, sir," Katja said, but Ari heard the cold tone in her voice. "Ari, how is Warrah?"

"I'm holding him," Ari said, but she hoped the princess heard the panic in her voice. Ari was gripping onto the dragon, but she knew from experience that if the dragon decided to attack, Ari could not stop him. It was only that she whispered soothing words to him in Vastien that the dragon was remaining calm.

"It's not too late," Matthias said. "I was married once, but it's not too late for me to marry again. It's not too late for you to bear your air starrlings. I find I am in need of an heir."

Ari shuddered, looking at the man in front of her, who was oozing out of his suit. Where Raphael had been respectful, kind, charming, his father was nothing but a sleaze.

"You flatter me, sir," Princess Katja said. "But where are my manners? I must take you to see my mother. She has quite a story, I can tell you. Please bring as many of your lion Garde as you wish, and follow me."

"Into that storm?" King Matthias asked.

"Nothing an air starrling cannot handle, I'm sure," Katja said demurely, and without waiting for a reply, she flew off into the snowstorm, back towards the palace.

Warrah, beneath Ari, was fitful and aggressive, but Ari was soothing him as best as she could. It was the only thing she could do. But it had proved the very thing that she had suspected.

Warrah was aggressive towards air starrlings. For some reason, Warrah hated air starrlings. No, it was more than that. He wanted to attack every air starrling he came into contact with. Air starrlings were so rare, but the dragon had encountered two in his life - Raphael Stone, who the dragon had attacked, and Matthias Stone, who the dragon would have attacked if Ari had not soothed him and urged him not to.

Why did Warrah, a dragon, hate air starrlings so much?

Ari remembered how she had found him. Chained in a cave beneath the city of New Hamilton, kept there by Tai. She had never considered the dragon. She had never considered why Tai had kept him chained.

But now she knew. Tai, somehow, had trained this dragon to hate air starrlings. He had trained the dragon to attack air starrlings on sight. So when Warrah had seen Raphael, he had attacked.

It was, as they had always known, always a part of Tai's plan for the dragon to attack Raphael. It had allowed everyone to think that Vastier was responsible for Prince Raphael's death. It had always been Tai.