Kristian Frostborne's Arc

Chapter 7 of 9

The six poisoners were dead, but the greybeard still moved free. Kristian believed the keep was clean until a page brought him news at dawn. A gift had come to Eira's chambers overnight. No one had seen who carried it in. Kristian climbed the ice stairs two at a time. Eira stood by her window, a small box open in her hands. Inside lay a locket carved from clear ice. It glowed faint blue in the morning light. "A courtship gift," Eira said. "The note said it came from you." Kristian did not touch it. He watched her fingers near the clasp and felt his chest go cold. "I sent nothing. Set it down." She set it on the table. He crouched and studied it. The locket was beautiful. That was the danger. The greybeard knew Kristian had made Eira his weakness. He had aimed straight at it. "It is a trap," Kristian said. "Open it and something inside will kill you. Poison dust. A frost needle. I cannot know which." Eira's hands were steady. That steadiness had let her watch six people die in the snow without flinching. "Then we open it a different way," she said. She fetched her fire tongs from the hearth. Kristian took them. He carried the locket to the far corner of the room and made Eira stand behind the stone pillar. Then he pressed the clasp with the tongs at arm's length. The locket sprang open. A puff of black powder burst out and settled on the floor. No needle. Just the poison the duchess's people had used before. It would have killed Eira the moment she opened it herself. Inside the ruined locket, behind the powder, lay a folded scrap. Kristian lifted it with the tongs and read. The words were scrambled, half in some cipher, but two lines came clear. *You cannot guard her forever. I choose the hour.* Eira came out from behind the pillar. She looked at the powder, then at the note in Kristian's hand. "He wanted me to read that with my last breath." "He wanted me to find it after," Kristian said. "He is telling me he can reach you inside my own walls." He crushed the locket under his boot. The ice cracked to slivers. Eira did not weep or shake. She took the note from him and read it again, slowly. "Then we stop hunting him and make him come to us," she said. "He gave us his hand. Now we know how he thinks." Kristian looked at his wife. She was no longer a piece he protected. She stood beside him as a partner in the fight. That changed everything and frightened him too. But the greybeard had made one mistake. To send the locket, he had used a hand inside the keep. Someone had carried it up the ice stairs. Kristian would find that hand, and it would lead him home to the greybeard at last.