25.6

The bitter cold of early January cut through Castle Blackpool's walls. The few hours of dim, northern half-light did nothing to warm it. Blizzards blew in from the Land of Storms and lasted for days. Fierce, icy winds drove the snow so hard as to make all roads to the castle impassable.

Only Zyrdicia's magical portals connected the castle with the outside world. One portal opened to Geshna, allowing fresh food and other supplies to be delivered. Another opened to Castle Tronin, the winter quarters of most of the northern army. Without those portals, Castle Blackpool would have been entirely cut off from the world - as it normally was every winter.

Zyrdicia sat alone in the dark in the throne room, curled up in Dirk's royal chair. She was wrapped in one of his cloaks. Large flame-filled kettles of burning oil were positioned on either side of the throne on the dais. She still found herself shivering.

She sighed miserably. It had been a very bad week. Without Kai and Portia, there was no one to manage the quotidian business in the castle and Lyr. She had been tormented with questions and requests for direction from midling servants whom she had never, ever personally supervised in the past. To her, overseeing such affairs was not only mind-numbingly boring but beneath her. She wanted bring someone from Lyr to manage the castle's domestic affairs - but without Portia, she had no idea whom she should contact to make that happen.

And worst of all, she could not embark on her quest to eradicate the last of the Lyrian Priests without leaving Karteia to fall into chaos. She had waited far too long to find them, and now that they were within her grasp, she could not bring herself to leave Karteia.

She had not thought it possible to be any unhappier than she had been when Dirk had fallen into the coma, but the despair that filled her seemed to grow unimaginably worse with each passing moment. She felt as though she were dying slowly from within.

Her responsibility to Karteia felt like a fetter. She kept imagining how disappointed with her he would be if he woke up to find his kingdom in ruins. She was trapped.

Teetering on the edge of a dark psychological precipice, she felt emotionally wrecked. Without Dirk, the icy castle was loathsome. Her misery worsened as she became plagued by daily bouts of nausea.

She felt poisoned by the parasite growing inside her. She cursed it silently for its slowness in spawning the soul whose magic she wanted. Commonplace scents in the castle now made her ill. Often the stench of unwashed, grimy soldiers caused her stomach to turn. Disgusted by how sick she felt and despondent in her loneliness, she settled into an abysmal mood. She tried to avoid thinking about what she would do if Sindra failed to revive Dirk.

She had already spent many hours grilling Kendall about every detail he could recall about Lemica. She had insisted that he tell her everything he remembered about his years living in the Dark Continent. Her rooms were littered with maps annotated with locations where he had seen Lyr's Priests. As she made battle plans to annihilate Lemica, the thought of tearing the Priests to shreds was all she had to keep her warm through the North's long, frigid nights. Impatient to attack Lemica, she felt as though the wait to be free from Karteia might kill her.

25.6.1

Geoffrey arrived in the throne room shortly after midnight. She had summoned him from Tronin, and he was visibly nervous.

He looked around at the throne room silently, noting that there were no guards or servants present. Zyrdicia was alone, waiting for him.

She twitched a finger toward the room's entrance, and the great double doors slammed shut behind him. He stood near the door and did not approach her. He had learned of the plot to assassinate him when she had seized power, and he was afraid.

"Are you going to kill me?" he wondered, his voice quivering.

"Of course not," she said wearily, trying to force a smile. "I asked you here because I wanted to ensure there is no ill will between us, Geoff. That's why I did not permit the conspiracy against you to proceed."

"Oh," he said warily, staring at the floor.

"I know that you are disappointed over not becoming Regent. So I thought I would offer you something to boost your spirits."

"What?"

"Princess Ariel."

Geoffrey's eyes widened at hearing the name of the southern princess whom he loved from afar. He stammered, "Have you captured her?"

"No, you are going to do that."

"I am?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"You are going to go into Castle Baldorf through the underground tunnels from Tronin."

"Those are full of the plague."

"I can give you magic to protect you - and Ariel - from that. You just have to walk in and get her. Everyone in that castle is on the brink of starvation. You would be doing her a favor to rescue her from her family's circumstances there."

"Why are you doing this for me?"

"A gesture of friendship. I don't want you plotting against me, or the child I carry Geoff. I'd have to kill you then. While I know Dirk would forgive me for that, there's something a little rude about killing a member of his family in his absence. So I'd rather you and I be at peace with one another."

"Of course," he said, trying to pretend as though it all made perfect sense to him.