Rosalind Emberheart's Arc

Chapter 6 of 7

Rosalind rode out at first light with the burnt journal strapped across her back. The tribe watched her go without a sound. She had one day of hard flight before Blazen Emberwing's border, and no token of peace to carry. A scout's message was not proof. Fire fairies did not treat a spoken word as safe passage. She needed something Blazen could hold in his hand and read as truth. She stopped at the frozen creek that split the border woods. The ice court sat two ridges north, and the ice court's exiled king was said to be trading favors again. She had met him once, long ago, at a summit her mother attended. He owed no debt to her. But he owed a debt to anyone who could move against a fire tribe, and Blazen's fairies had chased him off a lake not a season past. She found him at the edge of a ruined temple of ice, wings folded, the white and gold of his old court still on his shoulders. Two small ice-furred creatures circled his boots. Behind him, the two-headed fairy she had heard about crouched on the temple step, both heads watching her at once. "I need a witness token," Rosalind said. "Something Blazen Emberwing will accept as peaceful intent. I have gold. I have a favor to trade." Angel Frostborne studied her. "He will not accept ice from me. He hates my court." One of the twin's heads spoke then, the female. "He hates us more." The male head cut in. "We crossed his lake. He wants us dead." The body did not move while the two heads settled. Then the female spoke again. "But we have a knife he gave us before he knew what we were. A guest-knife. Fire tribes honor it." Rosalind's hand went to the hilt at her hip before she thought. She pulled it back. "Name your price." The twin looked at Angel. Angel looked at Rosalind. "Passage," he said. "When you return, you carry a letter from me into the ice court's north gate. One letter. No reading it." The twin added, "And you tell Blazen the knife was given, not stolen. Say our name when you hand it over." Rosalind agreed. The twin unwrapped a small blade from a cloth at their belt and set it on the temple step. A pair of small winged kittens drifted past her shoulder, drawn by something in her chest she did not answer. She took the knife. She bowed once to Angel, once to the twin, and turned her wings toward the fire border. She had a token now. She also had two new debts, and one of them was blind. She flew east before the sun cleared the trees.