The Snow Queen's Shadow

stone rail, but she saw no sign of Queen Odelia.
    The fighting wasn’t limited to magic. Talia spied one figure running along the rooftop, only to fall when an arrow took him in the thigh. She heard the clang of metal from somewhere behind her.
    “Can you make it up to that balcony?” Danielle asked.
    “Without knowing what’s inside?” Talia studied the wall. The bricks were smooth, with only the thinnest lines of mortar between them. She could probably climb it, but not quickly. “Maybe.”
    The lightning had finally stopped, though thunder still rang in Talia’s ears. Either the other Stormcrows had wrested control of the storm away from the queen, or else she had accomplished whatever destruction she intended. Given how things had gone thus far, Talia’s money was on the latter.
    She spat on her hands and wiped them on her trousers before approaching the wall. As she stepped out of the doorway, a swarm of ice wasps burst from the balcony overhead. They spread throughout the courtyard, seeking every window and open door.
    Talia shoved Laurence back and yanked the door shut. “New plan. We get the king out of here before we lose him, too.”
    Laurence started to argue. “The queen. My children—”
    “Are gone,” said Danielle. “Along with whatever Rose Curtana left behind for controlling this demon. Did you see how the fire and lightning were concentrated upon one particular part of the palace? The secret is probably nothing but ashes now.”
    Talia knew how the king must be feeling. She had retreated from Snow twice before. As a result, Snow had taken Prince Jakob. Now she had Queen Odelia and the power to conquer Allesandria. “You can’t protect your nation if this demon enslaves you.”
    Laurence turned toward the rubble. Talia could see the thoughts going through his head.The stairway wasn’t completely impassible. The noise of the fighting would cover the sounds of their approach. If they could take the queen by surprise, they might have a chance. “Ermillina has my wife,” he said. “My children—”
    “Are with her,” said Talia. “I smelled them. It’s too late.”
    Laurence straightened. He tapped his scepter against the wall and closed his eyes, his lips moving silently. “I’ve ordered all who can to abandon the palace.”
    “What then?” Gerta stared at the door. “With my mother’s secrets destroyed . . .”
    They had no way of stopping the demon. No way to save Snow. “First we worry about getting out of here,” said Talia.
    “And then?” asked Gerta.
    Nobody answered.

CHAPTER 15

    K ING LAURENCE LED THEM TO A HIDDEN passage that emerged into a small, circular garden filled with marble obelisks. Danielle guessed there were close to a hundred. The walls here had no windows, no doors save the one they had taken. The sounds of battle were muffled here.
    Talia scowled. “Unless I got turned around, we should be in the northern part of the palace.”
    “We are.” Laurence stabbed his scepter into ashdusted earth. The top of the scepter flared to light like a lantern with too much wick. He pointed to the new-formed shadows of the obelisks against the wall. “This garden is hidden, partly by magic and partly by architecture. The shadows will form a doorway. The spell was designed to allow the king and his family to escape the palace.”
    Danielle approached one of the obelisks. Each was slightly different from the next. This one was black as ink, its six sides polished smooth as glass. Specks of green sparkled within the stone. “What are they?”
    “Monuments to the dead.” Gerta was standing before a smaller obelisk, round and trimmed with gold. She pressed a hand against its surface. “This is my mother’s. Her ashes are worked into the stone. Why was she given a memorial here?”
    “She was Queen of Allesandria,” said Laurence.
    “She was evil.”
    He tilted his head in acknowledgment. “So we should pretend she never existed?”
    “Argue later,” Talia snapped. “Finish the spell.”
    “The portal is almost ready.” Sweat beaded Laurence’s forehead. The light was brighter now. Two of the shadows were sharper than the rest, forming the sides of a doorway. He adjusted the scepter until the tips of the shadows touched the next row of bricks. The mortar darkened, forming the doorway’s upper edge. The stones within began to fade.
    Behind them, the door swung inward. Danielle pulled her sword free and ducked behind one of the obelisks for cover.