Faerie Winter - Janni Lee Simner [36]
“It is not the first time.” Karin smiled, as if it were a small thing.
It was not a small thing. “That’s twice you’ve saved me.”
Karin frowned, and the green leaves around her wrist stirred restlessly. “I would not declare either of us saved yet. The Lady is a powerful enemy, and she’ll not soon forget the insults we’ve exchanged this day.”
She’d done worse than insult me. “I won’t forget, either.” I reached for my knife and remembered that the Lady had it. Until I’d met her, I’d had no idea how helpless I truly was.
Panic shuddered through me, and once I started shaking, I couldn’t stop. I thought of the Lady’s fingers brushing my hand, my hair, of how I’d smiled as she’d talked about killing my mother, of how I’d slept at her command. I would have done anything she asked of me—anything. Even now it would take but a word from her, and I’d be nothing more than a weapon in her hands once more. I stumbled, nearly fell.
Karin’s hand caught my shoulder, steadying me. “Liza.” She took my face in her hands, making me meet her eyes. “You are safe for now. You must believe that.”
Safety was an illusion. I’d always known it. Matthew had, too. I thought of how he’d snarled at me, how he’d flopped down at the Lady’s feet. “Nothing’s safe.” Even my voice shook. He’d forgotten me, for no other reason than that the Lady wished him to.
Karin’s gaze hardened, and I saw anger once more. She wrapped her arms around me, her posture more protective than comforting. “I am so very sorry for all she has done to you.” There was steel in Karin’s words, and for the first time, I almost believed she had fought in the War. “You have my word that I will do all I can to shield you from her.”
She didn’t promise that it would be enough. I wouldn’t have believed her if she had. I managed to still my shaking. “I will do what I can not to need protecting.”
“I know that.” Karin nodded respectfully as she drew away. “I watched you set off to rescue your mother, though you had little chance of success. I heard of how you brought her out of dying Faerie, and brought my brother back from beyond death as well, at no small risk to yourself. You need not convince me, Liza, of your strength or your will to face hardship. I’ll do what I can just the same.”
The snow grew steadier as we started walking again, away from Clayburn and my town both, toward Karin and Caleb’s town. I wanted to stop, to turn around—I couldn’t bring myself to take a single step back toward the Lady. I hadn’t thought myself a coward before.
A length of brown kudzu broke through the snow, reached for Karin, then sighed and fell still. “Understand, Liza, that my people take the bond between teacher and student quite seriously, as seriously as that between parent and child. The Lady is no more free to directly interfere with that bond than anyone else. This gains us some time, if nothing else.”
I reached once more for the knife I didn’t have. “Who is she?”
Snow landed in Karin’s clear hair and froze there. “My mother has gone by many names—the Lady of Air and Darkness, the Ruler of the Realm, the Queen of Faerie.”
I hadn’t known that Faerie had a queen. Even Before, my town had been ruled by the Council. The Council had been ruled by a governor, the governor by a congress and a court and a president. There were queens in the old stories, though. “She’s truly your mother?”
“She truly is.” There was sorrow in Karin’s voice.
That made Caleb the Lady’s son. The children of powerful people, Liza, nothing more. But it didn’t tell me who Mom was, or what role she and Caleb had played in the War. Cold bit my fingers and the tips of my ears. My hat and gloves were still in my pockets, along with the dried meat. I tugged the hat down over my ears, pulled my gloves up beneath my ruined sweater sleeves.
I tore a strip of meat in half and offered some to Karin. She took it and chewed slowly. I bit into my half more fiercely. The taste of smoked goat steadied me. My scarf remained around my neck, looser