“Stay near the fire,” Karigan told her, dodging an ice sword that swiped by her head. She returned her focus to the fight before her. The creatures were now taller than she was, and getting harder to kill. She dispatched one, and another was there to replace it. Where were they all coming from?

When she was on her third, she began to feel the heat of the fire against her back. Her opponent backed away. Good. The fire should help keep Anna and Estora safe and prevent the creatures from attacking from behind.

A trio of blurs leaped into the fray, and Karigan wondered what new threat these were until she realized they were Eletians. Lhean had returned! They made even the Weapons seem sluggish in comparison as their swords smashed through the creatures with ease. One by one, in quick succession, they destroyed the enemy until there were no more left to fight. Shards of ice bones lay melting on the floor. Karigan, like the others, leaned on her sword breathing hard.

King Zachary saluted the Eletians with his poker. “Thank you for your timely arrival.”

Lhean nodded. “After we left the city, we sensed the unnatural weather gathering around your castle.” He and Idris were protected by the strange pearlescent armor of the Eletians, prepared for battle. Curiously, Enver was not similarly armored. He wore only the travel clothing she’d seen him in before.

“We must ascertain if there are more of the creatures out—” King Zachary was cut off by a rending howl and a blast of wind so powerful that it forced Karigan back toward the hearth. She felt her limbs tightening, beginning to freeze, but the fire behind her kept her from turning to ice. The others in the chamber, even the Eletians, struggled to move.

“Sir Karigan!” a forgotten Anna cried, and Estora shrieked.

A towering figure of ice and snow loomed over Estora. It gave off a haze of frost so thick that it was impossible to make out its features. It reached for Estora. Neither the Weapons nor the king seemed able to move. Karigan, too, was numb, but not frozen. She leaped past the hearth, onto the sofa, and hacked off the thing’s arm. It howled, and she was thrown to the floor by the force of the wind, a blizzard of snow and ice.

And then it receded. She sat up blinking as flurries alighted on her. Everyone in the room remained in a momentary stupor. King Zachary was the first to recover, and he helped his shocked wife to her sofa. He murmured softly to her and draped a blanket around her shoulders.

“Is everyone all right?” the king asked.

“Fine here, sire,” Fastion said, and Ellen and Donal chorused they were fine, too, as they flexed their limbs.

“Karigan?” the king asked. “Are you all right?”

“Yes . . . Yes, Your Majesty, I think so.” She rose to her feet and realized Daro’s saber had shattered. Only the hilt remained with a small jagged fragment beyond the guard. The rest lay in pieces on the floor. So much for her promise of returning it in good condition. Lhean strode over to her and examined it. The king and his Weapons also came over to look.

“Do you know what happened here?” the king asked Lhean. “What attacked us?”

“Aureas slee,” Lhean replied softly. “A major elemental of the north.”

“An elemental?”

“Yes, Firebrand. A manifestation of nature. It would not have likely attacked on its own, however. It was probably summoned.”

The king paced back to where Estora reclined on her sofa and placed his hand on her shoulder and gazed down at her. “We will try to understand this attack later, but now we must attend to our wounded. Can those who were frozen be thawed?”

“It is best,” Lhean said, “to let them thaw naturally. To interfere with elemental magic may do more harm than good.”

The king nodded. “We must figure out how we may protect ourselves from another attack. It came for the queen. If not for Sir Karigan . . .”

Karigan saw the gratitude in his eyes, and she glanced away.

“Elemental spirits are often attracted to beauty and power,” Lhean said, nodding toward Estora. “When etherea was more powerful in the world, those such as the aureas slee were more present and delighted in the stealing of human and Eletian children alike to raise as their own, to make their own. They would find your queen and the young she bears irresistible.”

FOLLOWING SIR KARIGAN

Anna tried to remain as inconspicuous as possible beside the hearth, but she was getting too hot. She took a few steps away, hoping no one noticed her. Never in her life would she have ever imagined tending a fire in the queen’s sitting room, much less being there with not only the queen, but the king, Weapons, Eletians, and, of course, Sir Karigan. Why, there were special household staff who attended the king and queen and looked after their fires. Down in the servants quarters, they’d never believe what she’d seen and done today. Of course, she did not know if her fellow servants had survived the attack.

The Weapons moved out of the room, out toward the corridor, followed by the Eletians. Anna had never seen Elt so close up. One time, a bunch of them had camped outside the castle gates, and like so many city dwellers, she’d gone down to gaze upon their colorful tents billowing in the breeze. Up close, the Eletians seemed to shimmer with enchantment. When they left the room, the light dimmed, the world grew more mundane.

“Young lady?” the queen said.

Anna looked over her shoulder, searching for the young lady.

Sir Karigan nudged her. “She means you.”

Me? Anna quailed. Sir Karigan propelled her toward the queen on her sofa. Anna could not meet her gaze.