Prisoner of Ice and Snow Read online

  For Lauren

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  Acknowledgments

  CHAPTER 1

  “Valor!”

  I ignore my name, called from behind me, and slide faster through the crowd, releasing the earflaps on my ushanka to hide my face. I’m almost running by the time she catches me.

  “Valor.”

  Mother plucks at my sleeve, snagging my arm, and I have to stop and face her. Her hands are gloved in the blue-tinged white fur of a winter hare, her cheeks pinched pink by the bitter cold. There are lines around her dark eyes, shadows under them that weren’t there a month ago.

  “Didn’t you hear me?” She tugs on one of the leather laces dangling from my hat.

  I scuff my boot over the snow packed between the cobbles and try not to look up at the clock tower. I don’t have time for this now.

  “Where are you going? Your father and I think it would be better if you stayed close,” she says, gesturing at the crowds filling the square. Market vendors trundle their carts along, wafting the smell of hot cocoa and roasted chestnuts into the air. Peasants and nobility alike mill around us, all looking for the perfect viewing spot for the royal parade. They won’t find it. I already have it marked out for myself.

  I force a smile, though she’s probably not expecting it. It’s been decreed that every one of the queen’s subjects attend today—even my parents, who are in disgrace, banished to our estate outside the city. “I’m only looking for a better place to stand. Today will go down in the records of the great library as a historic one for the realm.”

  She nods, though I’m simply parroting what my father said yesterday. I try not to think about the discussion, about Father still trying to put the good of the realm first no matter how much pain it causes him. I can’t afford to get distracted now.

  “Mother, please, I just want to see the ceremony.”

  She blinks the hoarfrost from lashes as long and dark as my own, weighing up whether she should agree.

  The cobbles are cold under my boots, even through the two layers of fleece lining them. I open my mouth to say something, anything that will excuse me from standing at my parents’ sides when I need to be elsewhere, but Mother does it for me, reaching out to touch my arm. Neither of us can feel it through layers of heavy embroidered dresses and coats, but it doesn’t matter.

  “You’re right. You’ve done nothing wrong, and here I am acting as though you have.”

  I’m not used to hearing my mother be so uncertain of herself. She shouldn’t have to be here like this after the shock of what my sister has done. She doesn’t even look the same, stripped of the gray furs that signify a royal official’s position.

  “Find us again when—”

  “I’m quite safe with the whole Guard out in force. This is … it’s important to me.” My chest aches from lying to her like this, but I can’t let anything stand in my way.

  A cry of delight goes through the crowd as the first ice sculpture is unveiled on the palace steps. It’s a dancer, her sparkling arms outstretched, her body flung from a giant open palm behind her as if she has exploded from it. She’s caught in mid-movement, her legs arced gracefully and her hair spilling in frozen liquid waves as if moving to music we can’t hear.

  The palace rises up behind her, glittering in the morning light, its towers and bright domes cutting into a snow-white sky. Barriers have been erected to form a pathway from one end of the huge square to the other. They lead right from the golden curlicued gates at the end of the palace gardens to the frozen fountain that dominates the middle of the square and on to the market that lies at the far end. On either side of the square, shops and businesses hem in the crowds—a florist, a bakery, a goldsmith. They’re all closed to observe the spectacle.

  Mother squeezes my hand for a moment. I think she’s going to say something else, but she lets go, and I release a breath as she returns to Father, who stands staring steadily ahead, his bronze face unreadable. Behind the gates, the towering arched oak doors of the palace open, their inlaid gold runes and patterns shining in the frozen sunlight. The parade begins. I should go now, take my chance, but I linger for a few seconds as the queen’s Guard marches onto the steps, clad in black fur with gold sashes, swords glinting at their sides and crossbows braced to their backs. The royal family will follow.

  I tear my gaze away and slip through gaps in the crowd back across the square until I’m in front of the ballet school, its turret rising above me almost as high as the palace itself.

  Every business, school, and tavern is empty right now, as I knew they would be. Despite the fact that the music box is still missing and the peace treaty won’t be signed without it, Queen Ana has declared today a public holiday. I silently thank her as I enter the narrow cobbled alley alongside the ballet school and run for the back door.

  I’ll have to be fast. I strip off my mittens and the cold surrounds my hands, chasing blood and warmth back into my body. I have seconds before my fingers become slow and clumsy. I pull a small, soft leather pouch from the folds of my skirts, then select two long, thin metal tools from the kit inside and insert them into the lock. My hands shake, and I glance behind me.

  The crowd lets out another sigh of amazement. There are ten ice sculptures along the route the queen will walk, and they’ve just revealed the second. My heart beats fast, but I’m on schedule. The lock gives a satisfying snick, and I pull my mittens back on before I slip through the door. My hands are too important to risk.

  Inside, I drop my kit to the floor and give it a little kick so it lands halfway under a rack holding countless pairs of satin ballet slippers. It pains me to lose it so, but it would only be taken away from me later. I hurry along the ground floor past changing rooms and through the pale wooden-floored studio that still smells of polish to the spiral staircase at the back.

  I stopped dancing a few months ago when I started my apprenticeship, but I know the school well. Sasha and I had lessons for years. When we were very little, I scuffed a brand-new pair of dance shoes in this studio and Sasha felt every part of my childish panic, knowing that our mother would be annoyed. She rubbed spit on the scuff for me, and when that didn’t work, she risked borrowing our teacher’s own resin to work out the marks while we hid behind a pile of furs on the coatracks.

  That night I wasn’t asleep when I should have been. But I pretended to be when our parents opened the bedroom door and a stripe of light fell over my bed. My mother said something I couldn’t hear, and then my father said, “She loves her more than she loves herself.” I never knew which one of us he was talking about, but it didn’t matter then, and it doesn’t matter now. I’m doing this for my sister because I know she’d do the same for me.

  I climb the twisting iron steps quickly. On the first floor I fly down narrow corridors, then up small flights of stairs, up and up, until I reach the trapdoor to the turret.

  The slats of wood are bound with black iron hinges, and a ring of black iron hangs down above my head. I grasp it and push. The door should swing open, but it doesn’t. There’s a weight against it. I push harder. Any second now they’re going to unvei
l the third ice sculpture. The royal family will be at the palace gates, about to step out into the square. From the other end of the square, Lady Olegevna, steward of our closest neighboring province, Magadanskya, will arrive, and the two leaders will meet in the middle—at the fountain built by Queen Ana’s great-great-grandmother—to signify the peace between our nations. I should be up under the onion dome in the bell tower with my gear already assembled. There is no time.

  Cheers go up from the crowd outside, their applause reaching me in a narrow, dusty corridor that smells of musty old costumes and stage makeup. My breath is coming too fast, and I fight to control it. I get underneath the trapdoor and throw my back at it, heaving as hard as I can. I’m starting to sweat. The wood gives with a sickly crack, warped by time and lack of use. I give thanks that I am tall and strong, and haul myself up into the frigid air of the bell tower.

  I fasten the trapdoor behind me and peek over the edge onto the scene below. The square is filled with the queen’s subjects, from beggar to lord. I’ve never seen such a sight before. I wish my parents weren’t here.

  The ice sculptures along the path glisten. Seven of the Guard march out in front of the family. Queen Ana walks slowly toward the fountain in middle of the square. Behind the queen is her husband, King Fillip, and their son, Prince Anatol, both in gray furs. Bringing up the rear, though it would have been her right to stand at her mother’s side, is Princess Anastasia. She might even have been given the honor of carrying the music box.

  If my sister hadn’t stolen it.

  The public part of the ceremony is going ahead as a sign of good faith, but my father says that the treaty won’t be signed unless the box is found. Sasha told me many times that it’s said to be the most beautiful thing in all the realm and worth so much it’s practically priceless. She knew the history of it by heart too—how it belonged to Magadanskya but had long ago been stolen from them in battle and kept by us in Demidova since. None of the details would ever stick in my head—names and dates of queens and champions from long ago. Queen Ana returning the music box to its rightful owner after all these years was going to seal the peace treaty and save the country from war. Father says now she is nervous that the alliance will fail and the cold war will become an actual battle. Wars have been waged over less.

  The royal family and their entourage pass behind the fourth sculpture—a giant pair of phoenixes with interlaced tail feathers, wings spread as if about to take flight—and it briefly distorts my view of them.

  The queen is dressed in pure white, the diamonds and pearls on her kokoshnik shining like a halo around her head. Even at this distance, the elaborate black filigree around her eyes stands out. The royal kosmetika artist must have been up early this morning.

  I turn away, place my back against the curved inside wall of the tower, and start pulling items from their secret hiding places. Two sections of metal from concealed compartments on either side of my boots. One thin section of wood from against the inner length of my calf.

  I remove it all quickly, from every place—hat to necklace to soles of my boots—and assemble the parts into a whole. Every movement is precise, slick with three weeks of night-and-day practice. I wish my thoughts were as easy to click into place, but they’re flying every which way.

  The part with my clothes comes last. I won’t be going back the way I came, and I can’t run in skirts. I wrestle my way out of my coat and pull the yards of embroidered material away until my skirt and bodice are puddled on the floor. Underneath I have on my hunting gear, newly presented to me a month ago by my mother on the occasion of my and Sasha’s thirteenth birthday—the official beginning of my apprenticeship to Mother and Sasha’s to Father. Sasha got a set of Demidovan history books. I could barely convince her to put them down and share the birthday pastries with me.

  I turn back to the parade in time to see the queen approach the fountain, which features a great stone mare galloping straight out of the ground and up into the air. Frozen plumes of water spray all around the animal as though it had burst into existence from some magnificent geyser hidden among the maintenance tunnels under the city.

  I slide my fully assembled crossbow onto the ledge in front of me. Across the square, the clock tower strikes eleven. The sun is high over the domes of the palace, picking out the blue, gold, red, and stark white of their patterns. A light dusting of snow sits on the bulb of each dome like sugar icing on buns. The queen takes the hand of one of her guards and steps up onto the wide rim of the fountain. The giant back hooves of the stone horse and the jets of ice glint as she walks beside them.

  The queen’s family follows her onto the same wide stone brink Sasha and I used to play on until they are all raised above the people, facing a sector of the city. Prince Anatol is closest to me, the spot he stands in directly in line with my turret, as I knew it would be.

  I try not to think about the time he offered me his hand when I fell from my horse. Still breathless, with a bruised leg and a crop of nettle stings, I had let him help me up. I let go of his hand as soon as I could. I’d been proud that my mother worked for his, that my family served his. It had felt strange to let him help me when he was a prince—like it should have been the other way around.

  But some things are more important. I had to choose one of the royal family today, and my sister wouldn’t want me to aim at the princess.

  Lady Olegevna approaches on horseback, her deep-purple cloak sweeping the ground, her entourage on smaller mounts. They ride around the outer rim of the fountain, the crowd cheering, waving, clapping. This alliance has been hard won.

  My finger hovers over the trigger of my crossbow as I take careful aim at Prince Anatol. I tried to teach Sasha to shoot on my target in our garden when we were ten. She did her best, but she didn’t have the strength, and the bolt flew wide—straight through a pillowcase the housekeeper had hung on the washing line. Sasha’s shocked face made me giggle, and we both ran away to the orchard, laughing fit to burst.

  I’m not aiming at a practice target now. The prince’s cloak is clasped at the throat with a golden fist, revealing the high-collared peacock-blue tunic he wears underneath. I’ve seen him in this apparel at a state function before—gold embroidery covers the front of it all the way up to the collar, which stands stiffly around his neck. As I steady my hands, lining him perfectly in my sights, he glances to his right and then yanks at his collar quickly before returning to waving at the crowd. If I wasn’t where I am right now, that might make me smile. He’s only a little older than I am, not yet fourteen.

  The queen steps forward to address her subjects, and the crowd goes still and quiet. Little tremors pass all over my body. I tell myself they’re because of the cold and take a deep breath. This is the hour that I’ve been waiting for. This is the minute that I’ve planned in secret for three weeks.

  I shift the aim of my bolt a fraction to the left, just past Prince Anatol’s shoulder, then I hold my breath, pray that he doesn’t move, and shoot.

  CHAPTER 2

  The bolt sails through the air, whistling over the heads of the crowd. I peer above the ledge and watch it fly. My muscles tense. I can hardly bear to look, but I can’t rip my gaze away either.

  A couple of people in the crowd glance up, catching the movement above them, but the bolt flies true and lands with a thunk in the thick jet of ice behind the prince. I let out my breath in a relieved rush even as I’m lowering the crossbow to dismantle it.

  For a few seconds, no one reacts. I gather up the pieces of my crossbow, tossing one to the floor and sliding another not back into the hidden compartment but just inside my boot instead. Then, as I pull my coat on and begin to tug my mittens onto my frozen hands, the prince spins to look behind him. Someone in the crowd points, and voices start rippling toward me.

  I drop one of my mittens and snatch it up again. I want clues found, but it won’t be a glove I leave in the trail. The queen pauses in her speech. Lady Olegevna’s horse makes a soft noise, and the
sound of its hooves on the cobbles carries above the rising voices as it moves skittishly.

  The Guard bursts into life, and so do I, my chest tightening painfully. Half of the guardsmen draw their swords, the sound of metal on metal ringing out. I leap over the side of the turret and land on the tiled roof below. The other members of the Guard swing their crossbows into place, and I drop another section of my own weapon. It skitters over the tiles down into the gutter, and my heart goes straight over the edge with it as people start turning, looking, shouting, scattering.

  I don’t wait to see more. I run. I know that the rest of the Guard will pour from the palace and the royal family will be spirited away. I will be hunted.

  The roof is crisp with frost on the shaded side. My boots slide, throwing me off balance. I catch myself, arms flailing in the air as I lose another piece of the crossbow. A little cry escapes me and I bite it off. Regulation Guard-issue boots thunder in the streets below. Orders are shouted that the queen’s subjects are to clear the streets.

  I launch myself onto the adjoining roof. On the adjacent side of the square, members of the Guard start scaling fire escapes. My breath comes out in steady streams of freezing mist as though I’m some kind of anti-dragon. I run. Straight across the florist’s roof, with the sun at its zenith in the sky.

  At the far end of the florist’s, there’s a drop to the next roof. I expected it, but I pull up short. A loose fragment of tile clatters away and breaks as I reel on the edge. I look down at the shattered tile, then over to the Guard swarming through the streets and across the roofs toward me.

  The ground is a long way down. But I can’t have anyone questioning me about this later. If I’m to end up in Tyur’ma, my escape attempt has to look convincing.

  I hold my breath, blood pulsing in my ears, and jump. I land hard on the cold tile. The shock shoots lightning fast through my bones and then I’m up, running, running to the next building and away down to the ground.