Kael Frost's Arc

Chapter 1 of 4

Kael Frost stood on the north balcony of his ice-cut palace and watched a foreign banner ride through his gates. The rider wore no cloak. That told him everything. A man from a warm country who refused winter's respect had come to make demands, and Kael had no time for demands. He had a wife to get with child before the year turned, or his line ended with him. The prophecy had been read to him twice. He believed it the second time. Elara Frostborne came up behind him and set a hand between his shoulder blades. Her hair was still loose from sleep, curls dark against the white fur of her robe. She was the only warm thing in the palace and the only person who could touch him without asking. "Southern colors," she said. "They rode hard." "They rode stupid." He turned from the rail. "Get dressed. I want you seen, not heard." She didn't flinch at the order. She squeezed his arm and went. He met the envoy in the audience hall in red and black, the colors his father had worn to funerals. The envoy was small, sun-browned, and already sweating in furs that didn't fit him. He bowed the shallow bow of a man testing a king. "My queen requires an answer on the northern passes," the envoy said. "She has waited three months." "She waited because I let her." "She sent me to say that patience has a price." Kael snapped his fingers once. The side door opened and his frost-bonded direwolf padded in, claws ticking on stone, ice crystals bristling along its spine. Behind it came the smaller shadow-coated wolf, black as wet slate, blue eyes fixed on the envoy's throat. Both animals sat at Kael's boots without being told. The envoy's hand went to his belt and found no sword there. Guards had taken it at the door. "Tell your queen the passes stay closed until the thaw," Kael said. "Tell her I fed two of her scouts to these last week. Tell her the next envoy who rides in without a cloak will not ride out." The envoy swallowed. "That is a threat I must repeat exactly." "Good. Repeat it exactly." Elara entered then, gowned in white and silver, and stopped beside Kael's chair. The envoy's eyes flicked to her stomach before he could stop them. Kael saw it. So did Elara. The envoy was escorted out before noon. The banner rode back through the gates faster than it had come. Kael waited until the hall emptied. Then he took Elara's wrist, not gently. "He was counting," she said. "They all are." He pulled her toward the private stair. "The south knows. Which means the south is waiting for me to fail." "Then don't fail." "I don't intend to." He climbed the stairs with her, and the doors of their chamber shut behind them at midday.