Mirrored Snow [novel]

Chapter Thirty

I sat alone in her room, not noticing as minutes turned to hours. They could have slipped into days without me realising. The sun continued to beam down onto the glass coffin which had been placed in the courtyard, entombing Snowdon's body with a speed which must have sent whispers across the palace floors.

I was a thread unwound from its spool. Everything I'd ever believed, about my life, my personality, my dreams, lay in tangled knots around me. Nothing. The queen's words echoed through my head. I was nothing. No one. There was no family for me to return to. I wasn't a missing princess who needed rescuing by a prince. I wasn't even human. I was a construct. An illusion. A reflection of the girl I wished I could be.

Nothing.

"Hello?" My ears perked up the voice, familiar if unexpected. "Your majesty?" Lyona poked her head around the door, letting out a sigh of relief when she found the room empty. I had no idea what she could possibly be doing – admittance to the queen's personal rooms was strictly prohibited. I didn't know how she'd even made it past the guards, or how she had avoided being taken with the others. She must have been the only one who wasn't down in the cells or with Marianne in the courtyard.

That meant she was the only one left. What was she doing here? If the queen found her... No, I couldn't even consider seeing someone else get hurt; not that I'd see it while stuck in here.

Her eyes were red, her face blotchy. "Okay," she said, taking a tentative step forward onto the room. "Here goes nothing.

"Hi, Mirror?" She approached my frame tentatively, looking not at me, as Snowdon used to do, but at her own refection. She couldn't see me. But she did think I was there, and had been willing to risk the queen's wrath to say something to me. "I don't know if you actually exist," she said, speaking more to herself than me. "But Zeus swore that you did and Cook said I'd find you in here." I startled at the name. Cook didn't know anything about me; no one in the palace had known I was here before Snowdon. Had they? "And she's never been wrong about anything before, even if this is above her usual level of crazy..." Lyona trailed off, shaking her head. "She gave me a batch of coffee laced with sleeping potion to keep the guards busy so I could get a message to you, so she must be pretty certain you're real – and sure that you're important." So that explained the guards. She shot a nervous glance over her shoulder as she spoke, as if expecting them to appear behind her at any moment. When she turned back to the frame she peered in, not at her reflection, but through, straining to see someone she wasn't sure existed. I willed myself into existence; perhaps if I just wanted it enough... "Nothing," she said with a sigh, relaxing her gaze.

Nothing; all I was. All I would ever be.

"They've all been taken, Mirror. Even Col," she broke off with a sob. My heart twisted at the thought of Zeus's timid younger brother being thrown into a cell and left alone in the dark. "She's rounded them all up like errant sheep. If Cook hadn't insisted I stayed with her in the kitchen this morning, I would be with them too. The queen hasn't said what she's going to do with them yet, but I know it won't be good. You're their last hope." She broke off to wipe the tears for her eyes. I wished I could do the same, wished I had tears to wipe away – some way for the sadness welling inside me to pour out to the floor. Tears were cathartic. They were healthy.

"Now, this means nothing to me," she continued, "but Cook said you needed to hear it." I looked up sharply. Perhaps there was still some way I could help; some way I could leave this frame to roam the palace once more, perhaps a way to make others see and hear me. "Here goes: words uttered in anger are rarely true; your family has been lying to you." She shook her head, shrugging. My heart sank. That was it? Cook's big important message? The one that was going to help my remaining friends and somehow make up for Snowdon's loss? A message about lies and family? "I really hope that means something to you. We need your help." I stifled a laugh. Help? With that?