King Sammy's Arc

Chapter 1 of 4

King Sammy read the letter twice before he believed it. A rival winter court claimed Christmas Wonderland belonged under its rule. His palace, his snow, his dozens of children — all of it would answer to a distant throne unless he proved otherwise by nightfall. He ruled a kingdom of orphans he had gathered himself, one child at a time, every winter. Now a stranger's seal threatened to take away the only home those children knew. The letter named a condition. Sammy needed a lord of the realm to vouch that Christmas Wonderland already stood as its own protected land. He knew only one such lord. She lived past the frozen orchard, and she did not answer letters. He took Molly with him because Molly refused to stay behind. She was seven, wore a small Christmas crown, and had planted herself at the door with her arms crossed. "This is my family too," she said. "I'm coming." Her red curls stuck out of a messy bun. Sammy did not argue with her. They reached a small cottage with a thatched roof and ivy climbing its walls. Clay pots crowded the stone path. Sammy knocked. The door opened, and there stood the lord of the frozen orchard — an old woman with flour on her sleeves, a spoon still in her hand. "I don't sign things," she said, before he spoke. "Whatever it is, I've signed enough." She began to close the door. Molly stepped forward. "Somebody wants to take our home. We have thirty-one kids. They all call him dad." Her voice shook. "Please." The woman stopped. She looked at Sammy, then at the child. "Thirty-one," she repeated. "And you'd take more." "Every winter," Sammy said. "I won't stop. That's the one thing I can't trade away, even now." He expected her to close the door. Most people softened when he said it, then quietly left. She set down her spoon instead. "My orchard borders your land," she said. "For thirty years no one asked me to speak for it. Now a stranger wants both." She stepped inside and returned with an old seal and a candle. "I'll vouch that Christmas Wonderland is protected. But understand — the moment I sign, that court knows I stand against them. They'll come for my orchard next." Sammy hesitated. "Then I'm asking you to lose something for us." "No," she said. She pressed the seal into hot wax on his letter. "You're asking me to finally have a fight worth having." Sammy rode home before nightfall with the sealed letter in his coat. The rival court's claim collapsed against a lord's word. His children kept their home. But he had bound his kingdom to a stranger who now had enemies of her own. That court would not forgive her. And Molly, watching him from the sleigh, asked the question he had no answer for. "Dad — who's going to protect her?"