Hackii's Arc

Chapter 6 of 7

The court still watched Hackii kneel. Titania had turned from him to the wolf. She wanted his stolen name now, not the man who once owned it. Hackii saw only one path left. He would take the name back from Frostwhisper himself. Then he could give it to the queen and become worth loving again. He rose. "My queen. Let me win my name back. If it is a thing you want, let me be the one who brings it." Titania studied him. She lifted a hand. From beside her throne floated a sword of clear gemstone, its facets flashing red and blue. She held it out. "Frostwhisper will not give a name for words," she said. "Take this. Try." Hackii closed his fingers on the crystal hilt. The blade weighed nothing. Frostwhisper's blue eyes did not move. The wolf sat calm, the way a thing sits when it knows it cannot lose. "You want the name," Frostwhisper said. "So does she. But I want something too." It padded forward. "Names are not won by blades, courier. They are traded. Put the sword down and hear my price." Hackii did not put it down. He raised it. If he could not buy the name, he would cut it free. He swung. The wolf slid aside like smoke. The gem blade struck stone and rang. Hackii swung again. Frostwhisper let the blade pass through empty air each time. The court laughed, low and cold. Hackii's arm burned. He understood then. A name lived inside the wolf. No edge could reach it. He stopped. His chest heaved. The sword shook in his grip. "Now you listen," Frostwhisper said. It looked past Hackii to the throne. "I will not sell your name to you, courier. I will give it to her." Hackii went cold. "What?" Frostwhisper faced Titania. "You seek the Amberveil. The tapestry that vanished from your house before you drew breath. I know which corner of the world it hides in. His name is worth little. My knowledge is worth more. Take his name as a gift, and I will lead you to the thing you truly want." The queen leaned forward. Her amber eyes changed. For the first time she was not bored. "Say that again," she said, quiet and hard. "The Amberveil," Frostwhisper repeated. "I can bring you there." Titania stood. She did not look at Hackii. She looked at the wolf, and at something far beyond the hall. "Then his name is yours no longer," she told Frostwhisper. "It is mine. And you have my ear." Hackii dropped the sword. It rang once on the floor. He had come to win the name back. Instead the wolf had handed it to the queen and made himself her guide. Titania held his name now. But she wanted a lost tapestry more than she wanted him. To reach her heart, Hackii had to find the Amberveil first.