Page 54 of Heart’s Rescue

I remember standing in the pantry at Rowan's house, listening through the thin wooden door as someone named Aloserin begged Rowan to travel to the king’s court to work some magic with a heart. You’re the only one who’s ever breached the king’s inner towers, he’d said.

“Then I guess it’s a good thing you’re the only one who’s ever breached the king’s inner towers,” I say.

Rowan laughs. It’s a soft, hopeless sort of sound. He rubs a mittened hand across the back of his neck.

“Look, that—” he begins. “About that. I didn’t do it alone.”

“Phaedron?” I ask.

It’s not really a guess. Of course Rowan had help from his brother, and of course he told whoever caught him that he was alone so that his brother could escape.

“Well, what did he do?” I ask. “Because I could probably—”

“No!” Rowan snaps.

He glares at me, and for a moment I see his magic churning in the shadows beneath him, in the fire of his pale eyes. My own anger flares in response, that constantly simmering rage I’m always trying to wrestle back below the surface.

“Fine!” I snap right back at him. “I guess I’m too useless to follow simple instructions, then?”

“It’s not that.” Rowan is still scowling at me, and it looks like every word out of his mouth hurts. “It’s— Look, I told you about the heart thing?”

“Yes,” I spit. “I do have the ability to recall conversations that happened an entire two days ago.”

He’s still watching me like he’s in pain. Some of my anger leaks out, leaving the familiar downward tug of guilt in its wake.

“Yes,” I say, softer this time. “Your king needs a heart for some magic something.”

“There’s a little more to it than that,” Rowan says, with what almost looks like a wince.

I cross my arms over my chest and wait. I’m not moving until he tells me what in the stars he’s talking about. Rowan rubs his mitten over his face, blinks, and then stares back up at the glowsoft orbs.

“So, maybe you know this already,” he begins. “Your, uh, prince wasn’t the first person from the Worlds Above to fall down here.”

I make a noncommittal sort of grunt, but my heart leaps in my chest. Is he talking about Princess Elanerill? Didn’t they say she’d had her heart stolen in the Lands Below?

“There was another, um, woman,” Rowan says, speaking slowly. I get the sense that he’s dragging these words out from somewhere hidden, somewhere they’d really prefer to stay. “From the Worlds Above. She came through in about the same place. I saw her once, when Captain Orryen dragged her through town.”

“Dragged?” I try to keep the shock from my voice. It doesn’t work very well.

Rowan winces. “Well, she tried to kill him. His uniform was all sliced up, and he was kind of a bloody mess.”

That fits; Petya said the princess was a fighter.

“But, she came back to the Worlds Above,” I say.

Rowan meets my eye. “Yeah. That’s what they say.”

I realize what I’ve done and fall silent. Ice hits the ground between us, hissing against the snow and the rumpled folds of the canvas shelter. Rowan is silent, watching me with his arms crossed over his chest and an eyebrow raised, and I slowly realize I’m going to have to tell him my side of the story before I hear anything else.

“That was before my time,” I begin. “The princess disappeared before I was even born. They say she fought her way home, but the Lands Below still hold her heart hostage. So she’s sleeping until her heart is restored.”

Rowan makes a sound like he’s trying not to laugh. I scowl at him.

“No,” he says, waving a mitten in front of his face like he’s trying to apologize. “It’s just, that’s what they say down here, too. About Captain Orryen.”

“About who?”

“Orryen,” Rowan answers. “He’s one of the orphans the king adopted. The king’s favorite of the whole bunch of ‘em, actually. Orryen was Captain of the Royal Guard and the heir to the throne. Real asshole, too, of course.”