The Winter Duke by Claire Eliza Bartlett

Author:Claire Eliza Bartlett [Bartlett, Claire Eliza]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2020-03-02T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

I woke from dark, heavy dreams full of ice and roses. The night outside had cleared up; the moon had set, and the sky was a deep blue, with stars dotting it like snowflakes.

“What time is it?” I whispered.

I expected Aino to answer, but a stranger loomed over me. I jerked away, adrenaline rising. One of my sisters had sneaked in; one of them was going to kill me—but then she shifted, and I saw the dark waterfall of her hair, and I remembered all that had happened.

“I am sorry,” Inkar said, and for a moment, I thought she was sorry for marrying me. “I agreed to the shooting contest this morning. I did not mean to wake you.”

“Well, you did.” I tugged on the blanket. My eyes felt as if I’d opened them in salt water, and my skin was slick with sweat.

I heard the soft thuds of her slippered feet as she went over to her trunk. “You may come with me, if you like.”

“I’d rather go back to sleep.” My pounding heart might make that difficult.

Aino opened the door a crack. “I thought I heard you,” she said in her steel-cold, for-Inkar voice. “Good. A grand duke’s schedule starts before dawn.”

“No, thank you,” I muttered.

“Eirhan’s already here,” she continued, as if I hadn’t said anything at all. “He has your order for the day.”

Of course he did. Precisely defined by him, determined by him. He had my schedule fixed from the moment I rose to after I should collapse in my bed. And I had no say in it whatsoever.

I turned to Inkar. “I’d love to watch you shoot.” And Inkar’s grin, conspiratorial and triumphant, gave me the flash of warmth I needed to ignore Aino’s pursed lips.

The training yard was a patch of ice on our western side, maybe thirty-by-thirty feet, packed over with snow and circled by a low wall. A guardhouse, more decorative than anything else, held weaponry and targets that the weapons master hauled out and propped against the wall. Kylma Above’s standing army was a joke compared with the monstrosity that lined the lake’s edge, but our soldiers took pride in their work. And Below gave us the advantage we needed in times of siege.

As I sat on a bench with my coffee, Inkar handed her overcoat to Viljo and went over to the weapons master, rubbing her arms. She’d braided her hair into a long, silken rope that highlighted the length of her neck. She shook the weapons master’s hand.

The Baron of Rabar arrived in a magnificent yellow cloak embroidered with red and blue poppies. He approached and knelt before me, smoothly enough that I almost missed the surprise on his face. “Your Grace honors us with her presence.”

“I want to see what my wife can do,” I said. I didn’t mention the pleasure I got from defying Eirhan. It didn’t seem like ducal behavior. “And how is your wife this morning?”

The baron’s face clouded momentarily. “She is well, I assure you,” he said.

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