Princess Rainy's Arc

Chapter 5 of 12

Rainy woke before dawn, ready to ride. She dressed in her sky-blue clothes and pulled on her pale hide boots. But when she stepped into the courtyard, the wind hit her like a wall. Snow fell sideways. The blue-green domes of the castle vanished in the white. The storm had not passed. It had grown worse. The tiger waited by the stable door, saddle white with frost. Her lynx crouched low, ears flat against the wind. Rainy set her hand on the great cat's flank. She meant to ride anyway. Rowan waited at the north road. She would not make him wait longer. Her father found her there. King Anthony stood in the storm with no cloak, his dark hair whipping, his silver crown wet with snow. He had run from the hall the moment a guard woke him. "Get down," he said. His voice was hard. "You will not ride into that." "Rowan is waiting," Rainy said. "I gave my word to leave at dawn." "The passes are choked with ice." He gripped the tiger's reins in his fist. "Men die in storms like this. Their horses fall through the crust and freeze. I lost a friend that way, in this very range." His hand shook, not from cold. "I will not lose you to a single day." Rainy looked north. The mountains hid behind the white. She knew the cost of forcing what should wait. The truth about her hair, her powers, her people would still be there when the sky cleared. "One day," she said. "I will wait one day." Her father's shoulders dropped. He pressed his forehead to hers. Snow melted between them. "One day," he agreed. They led the tiger back into the stable. Rainy rubbed frost from its fur while the lynx circled her boots. The storm howled against the roof. She was worried about Rowan and she did not even know him. By afternoon the snow thinned. By evening it stopped. A messenger returned from the north road, boots caked in ice. He knelt before Rainy and her father in the hall. "I could not reach Prince Rowan," the man said. "He did not wait at the road. A herder saw him ride into the passes at first light, alone, before the storm broke." He swallowed. "No one has seen him come out." Rainy stood. The fire cracked behind her. Rowan had gone into the ice without her, and now the man who knew every pass was lost somewhere in the white. Her guide was gone. She would have to find him herself. Tomorrow she rode north not just for the truth, but to save the one meant to lead her to it.