Queen Glaciana Frostborne Alpineglow's Arc

Chapter 2 of 33

Three days after the ball, Glaciana still had no way to see Victor alone. She had said yes to meeting him outside formal halls. But a queen was never outside anything. Courtiers followed her through every corridor. They counted her steps and read her face. She could not learn a man's heart with an audience watching. She needed one hour without eyes on her, and she did not have it. On the fourth morning, a snowy owl beat against her study window. She opened the latch and let it in. A folded paper hung from its leg. She untied it with cold fingers. Victor's hand was plain and small. "The old smithy below your mountain. Tonight. Come alone if you can." She knew the place. A blacksmith worked there, a grey-haired woman famous through the frost lands for her steel. Glaciana had bought hinges and blades from her for years. The smithy sat off any road, warm from its own forge. No courtier would think to follow her there. That night she wrapped herself in a servant's grey cloak and walked out a side gate. She took the path down alone. The forge glow leaked around the smithy door. When she pushed it open, heat rolled over her face. Victor stood by the fire, not in his crown, only heavy travel clothes. The blacksmith stood at her anvil, hammer in hand. She did not bow. She looked Glaciana over and grunted. "He said a friend was coming," the smith said. "Didn't say a queen." She set her hammer down. "You've bought good steel off me for years. I'll trade you an hour of quiet for your silence about it after." She jerked her chin at a back room and walked out into the snow, pulling the door shut behind her. Then it was only the two of them and the fire. "You came," Victor said. "I climbed down my own mountain in a servant's cloak." She let the hood fall. "No one is watching us here." He nodded once. He did not fill the silence with charm. She asked him small, true things. How he took his throne so young. He named the boundary plainly and set the question aside. She did not push. She saw a man who guarded his own, who answered short and meant every word. They talked until the forge burned low. She learned the shape of him, and he learned hers. When she finally stood to go, she was certain in a way the ball had only promised. "Again," she said. "But not in secret forever. I want you at my table. Openly." Victor met her eyes. "Then I'll come to your mountain. In daylight. With my crown." Glaciana walked back up alone. She had the private hour she needed, and she had spent it well. Now she would bring him into the light, before her whole court.