The Snow Queen's Shadow

knew what was happening.
    As the crew reacted to this betrayal, Snow moved on to another crewman, showing him not a maiden of ice striding toward his ship, but a drowning girl. He threw down a line to help her even as one of his companions rushed to stop him.
    By the time Snow’s feet touched the main deck, her slave had fallen, but it no longer mattered. He had protected the line long enough for her to board. A sailor rushed her from the right, cutlass raised. The blade bounced from Snow’s forearm. A single punch from her gauntleted fist sent him sprawling into the boats lashed to the deck.
    She touched her hip, allowing her fingers to reach through the ice to the pouch at her waist. Most of her mirror shards were locked away on the Snow Queen, but she needed only a few. When she pulled her hand away, a knife of ice and broken glass followed. The blade was long as her forearm and frosted white. The edges were jagged glass, like silver teeth.
    Another sailor grabbed her arm and tried to wrest the knife away, but the hilt was bonded to her grip. She clubbed him on the side of the head, then sliced her knife along his forearm, allowing a single sliver of glass to break away.
    “Keep back.” Captain Hephyra stood with a wooden cudgel in one hand. To Snow’s eyes, she was all but glowing with rage and magic that flowed through her and the ship both.
    “Tell me about the girl.” The ice helm muffled Snow’s words, but Hephyra appeared to understand.
    “Funny. I never thought you were interested in girls.”
    Snow jabbed her knife. “Your crew belongs to me, body and mind. I can see their memories. Who is this girl Danielle and Talia brought along? She feels familiar. I want her.”
    “And I want the fairy queen’s body fertilizing my roots, but we can’t have everything we want, can we?”
    Snow circled, studying Hephyra. Red scratches showed where the wasps had tried to sting her, but not one had penetrated to the blood. Or sap. Whatever it was that flowed through the dryad’s veins. “Tell me where they’ve gone, and I’ll—”
    “Rot it all, just shut up and fight.” The cudgel slammed Snow’s knife out of the way, then struck her forehead, sending white cracks through Snow’s vision. But the ice healed itself as fast as Hephyra could attack.
    Snow’s weapon should be strong enough to pierce even a dryad’s skin, but every time she tried, Hephyra knocked her arm aside. Chips of ice flew from Snow’s armor with every blow. Snow stepped sideways, trying to regain her balance, but Hephyra stayed with her. Had Snow been unprotected, her bones would have been shattered a dozen times over by now.
    The spray of the waves gave her more than enough water to repair and maintain her armor. “What did they do to earn such loyalty?”
    Hephyra smashed Snow’s arm hard enough to spin her around. The next attack landed between Snow’s shoulder blades, driving her to her knees. “I like the prince. I met him last fall.” Heavy blows punctuated each sentence. “He said I was pretty, and he liked my ship. Also, you hurt my cat.”
    Snow swung at Hephyra’s legs, but the dryad jumped back, avoiding the knife with ease. Snow yanked a second knife from her armor, keeping Hephyra away long enough to regain her feet.
    “So what is this all about?” Hephyra asked. She wasn’t breathing hard, but she pressed a hand to the capstan as though drawing strength from the wooden wheel. “What are you after in Allesandria?”
    “Allesandria has always been corrupt. A place of chaos and bloodshed and ugliness.” She thought back to the nobles who always fawned over her mother, scheming and squabbling like beasts to gain her favor. She had fled that ugliness for so brief a time, hiding in Roland’s cabin in the woods, but there was no escape.
    “So you mean to fix that by killing everyone?”
    Snow glanced at the crew, who had gathered in a ring on the main deck. Hephyra remained free, but the crew were no longer hers. “Allesandria banished your kind. Lorindar enslaved you. Why do you care?”
    “I don’t, particularly.” Hephyra’s next blow struck the side of Snow’s helm and made her vision sparkle, but it wasn’t enough.
    Snow dropped one knife and grabbed the end of the cudgel. Hephyra ripped it away, but not before frost began to spread over the wood. Snow smiled as the cold seeped into the weapon. The next time Hephyra attacked, the end of her cudgel broke away.
    Hephyra cried out. “Damn, but