Sisters Three (Completed)

38. Adair (1/2)

Silver staggered into the throne room, his face white and his chest heaving. Adair jumped to her feet, heart spluttering, and held her hand out.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

Silver took her hand as he reached her, and bent over a moment to regain his breath. Adair watched him with drawn eyebrows, thinking of all the manner of troubles that could cause him to look so.

After a few more seconds, Silver straightened and ran a hand through his messy curls. "I was watching near the pass that you blocked, when I noticed something. There were men climbing over the snow. Lots of them. They're climbing over the pass."

More? There was no possible way that the soldiers could be so idiotic as to try and gain access to her kingdom after the amount of times she'd driven away. In fact, it had been blessedly quiet for so long that she wondered why they chose to return now.

"Show me," she said to Silver.

He led the way to his observation room and the stone bowl where the image of the snowed-in path still rested in the shimmering liquid. Adair peered at the small black smudges moving across the white, and passed her hand over the surface to draw closer.

There were more than there had been before, at least twenty men. All were armored, but lightly enough that it would not impede their movement. Their leader stood at their front, motioning for his men to keep up, and forging the path through the treacherous pass. Adair felt a shiver go down her spine at the sight of him. Something in his lean face and restless eyes gave her the impression of a hungry wolf, waiting to give his command to the pack.

To distract herself from the unease the young man brought upon her, Adair snorted and shook her head. "This is ridiculous. The snow hasn't settled yet. They could fall through, or start another avalanche. Sheer stupidity."

"I can only see until a little before the pass due to..." Silver paused and glanced at her from beneath the curls that fell onto his forehead. "...Due to your lock on the bowl, so I can't tell how many more of them are out of the range."

"There can't be many more. They're not geared up for a whole army," Adair said, hoping that it was true. She had the animals and terrain on her side, but if this band of men were insane enough to try and get through the blocked pass, they may well be insane enough to reach the castle. And if they brought any army with them, Adair was not sure she could fight them all off.

Adair stared at the image in the bowl, waiting to see if the group would disappear into the soft snow. They never did. Pressing on relentlessly, they reached the halfway point of the pass. A few yards more and they would reach the other side, which afforded them an easy route to her castle—if they knew where to find it.

"I'm ending this before it gets out of hand," she suddenly said, raising a fist.

In the image a wind whipped up from nowhere, battering the men and forcing them to guard their faces against the flurries of snow that were swirled up from the ground. Even in the rough conditions they marched on, and Adair clenched her jaw as she brought up a snowstorm to hover above them. She saw the leader look up and spot the gathering cloud that would soon burst forward with a blizzard strong enough to bury them within minutes. He looked around, eyes squinted against the wind, as if he were looking for something. Or someone.

Unease rippled through Adair's body again, and she spun her hand to hurry the cloud into formation. The sooner these men were dead and buried, the sooner she could be rid of this feeling.

Just as she was summoning up the snow to fall, Silver jostled her side and pointed to the image.

"I think he's trying to say something," he said.

Though she didn't want to, Adair paused and followed Silver's direction toward the leader of the group of men. He stood erect in the battering wind, his sword drawn and raised into the air like a beacon. His mouth moved, shouting words lost to the chaos of the storm.

Adair frowned. "I'm finishing them," she said, bringing her arm down in a sweep. The snow immediately obscured the image, washing the men from the view of the ice castle. Relief already filled Adair's stomach, but Silver looked anxious.

"I think we should have listened to him," he said.

"Why? He probably was cursing whatever vile creature created a storm from nothing," Adair said, meaning it as a joke but hearing the edge behind the words.

Silver shook his head slowly, still staring at the now white image. "I feel like he knew we were watching him. Like he was trying to talk to us."

"Nonsense."

He didn't try to argue anymore, but Adair saw that dull desperation behind his eyes that seemed to be there more and more often lately. His lips flattened and his knuckles went white along the edge of the bowl.

Sighing, Adair lifted her arm and unclenched her fist, dispelling the storm and wind as easily as blowing out a candle. "Fine, we'll see what he has to say. For your sake only." She brushed her fingertips across the surface, making it so they could hear whatever noises were present in the image.

The men were huddled together, blinking now that the sun suddenly was back on their faces. Their leader stumbled to his feet, shaking snow from his hair and spinning as he stared at the sky. Searching for them.

"Adair? Are you out there? Adair!" he shouted.

Adair staggered backward, jostling the bowl so hard it nearly toppled from its stand. Silver's mouth gaped open. The man in the snow continued calling her by name, frustration showing on his face.

How did he know her name? How did he even know she was up here? Fear like ice water raised the hairs on her body, setting her on edge and making her want to run back to her throne room where no strangers would call her name.

"He knows you," Silver whispered, awe on his face.

Adair shook her head, unable to speak.

"We need to go see what he wants. He knows your name, Adair."

She wanted to say no. She wanted to finish what she'd started and bury the man under snow. But she knew even her curiosity could not be quelled with this mystery in the air. So she swallowed her fear and wrapped her fur cloak closer around her shoulders.

"Fine. Fetch the sled."