Mirrored Snow [novel]

Chapter Three

I shifted to the back of the carriage, to the mirror mostly covered by an abandoned cloak. My pounding heart echoed in my ears, so loud I wondered if the ebony-haired boy would hear it.

He had seen me.

I couldn't remember anyone other than the queen ever being able to see me. I'd forgotten what it was like for eyes to meet mine instead of looking through them.

But he couldn't have seen me. The queen's curse prevented it. I must have been imagining things.

Ebony wasn't acting strangely. He wasn't glancing around in confusion.

The boys travelled without further comment. I started to consider moving on – it didn't seem as though I was going to discover anything else. But it was hard, so hard, to leave the presence of someone else who might be able to see me.

I wanted to shift again to the mirror beside the door. To test him. To work out if I'd been imagining things. But if it turned out that I had been... the disappointment would be more crushing than the ache of not knowing. At least this way I could pretend. I could hope.

I needed to leave. To see the kingdom before it was too late. The boys wouldn't be passing any other mirrors for a while, so I would have to return to the palace and travel from there. I took a steadying breath and closed my eyes.

My shift was halted by a bump.

The whine of a horse.

Then the carriage came to a shuddering stop.

"What's going on?" Ebony was up, voicing the question that was still forming in my mind. His hand hovered over the sword hilt at his belt. Perhaps he was less a companion, more a bodyguard. A bodyguard who could see me. Possibly.

I remained at the back of the coach. I couldn't leave now. I wanted to find out what was holding them up, but I needed to stay out of the guard's line of sight.

The prince hadn't risen to his feet, but his own hand had gone to his weapon. Neither boy was defenceless then.

Before the coachman could answer, a low, keening howl echoed through the woods.

"We need to move!" Ebony shouted up to the coachman.

"We can't, sir," came the reply. "The wheel's broken off. We're not going anywhere until it's fixed."

Another howl. Closer this time.

"We need to get out of here," the prince echoed. He was on his feet now too, peering out of the carriage window. "Fae-wolves prowl these woods."

I shuddered. I'd never seen a real fae-wolf before, but I'd seen pictures of them in the palace and I'd heard the terrified accounts of servants who'd come face to face with them. They were three times the size of an ordinary wolf, with eyes that glowed silver as the moon. They were the pets of the fae that lived through the mountain pass, to the north east of the queen's territory, and occasionally prowled our forests for food and sport.

While the people of Rosenberg hated the queen, they did begrudgingly admit the fae had been less troublesome since she ascended to the throne. The fae-wolves kept to the forests, avoiding the palace and the inhabited spaces around it. But within the trees' shadows, they remained as deadly as ever.

Ebony nodded. "Hard to move with a broken wheel though – think you could put that woodwork module to good use?"

I startled. I didn't have a lot of experience with royalty – the queen being my only point of reference – but I didn't think princes fixed their own carriage wheels. Then again, if the alternative was to wait in the carriage with help far further away than the prowling fae-wolves, perhaps even the queen would assist with the repairs.