Princess Rainy's Arc

Chapter 12 of 12

Rosalee led Rainy down a wide stair and through tall doors. The great hall opened before them. Firelight caught the high stone walls. At the far end stood the king and queen, and their voices had stopped the moment the doors swung wide. Rainy felt the silence press on her. She was the reason they had been shouting. King Ramsey stood near the hearth. His dark curls fell around a heavy crown, and his fur cloak swept the floor. He looked at Rainy the way a man studies a storm on the horizon. Queen Rochelle sat in her chair, her dark hair pinned high, her pale blue gown pooled at her feet. Her green eyes were red at the edges. She had been crying, or close to it. "So this is the water princess," the king said. "You mean to take my son across the ice shelf." "I do," Rainy said. "But I won't force him. I came to ask, not to steal him." The queen rose. "No one crosses that ice and comes back whole. It took travelers before. It will take Rowan." Her voice shook. "I have one son. I will not bury him for your journey." Rainy understood then. This was a mother afraid, not a wall to break through. She had bent storms. She could not bend this. She stepped forward and knelt near the queen's chair. "I know what it is to be a mother's whole heart," Rainy said. "My mother let me go and it broke her. She let me go because staying would have broken me worse." She looked up. "I don't want Rowan to die. I want to learn who I am. But I would rather find the tribe alone than take your son against your will." Rosalee tugged the queen's sleeve. "Mama, Rainy made a storm go around us. Rowan told me. She kept everyone safe." The queen's hand found the child's braid. She looked at Rainy for a long moment. Then Rowan spoke from the doorway behind them. "I already chose, Mother," he said. He crossed the hall and stood at Rainy's side. "I've studied that ice my whole life. If anyone can cross it, we can. Together." The queen closed her eyes. When she opened them, the fear was still there, but something firmer sat beside it. "Then I cannot stop you," she said. "But you go with my blessing, not my silence. Come home to me." King Ramsey set a hand on his wife's shoulder. "You leave in two days time," he told them. "I'll see you both supplied before then and fed well." Rainy stood. The rift had not broken the family. It had bent, like water around stone. But the ice shelf waited now with a mother's blessing tied to it, and every step across it would carry the weight of a promise to return.