Thirty-Eight

 

"Sleeping on tables is not a wise thing to do. What was Kai thinking? My fool of a husband should have offered you a bed," a woman grumbled, far too loud for Amani's liking.

He lifted his head from his distinctly uncomfortable pillow, glad for the dimness of the taproom. "I was not sleeping. I was merely resting my pounding head for a moment," Amani announced. He reached into his pocket, plucked out a coin and tossed it on the table. "For some quiet while I rest it a little more."

She laughed. "You'll get no quiet here. Last night's blizzard has blown itself out, and as soon as the old men of the village have nagged their sons into shovelling a path, they will be gossiping about whatever war they fought in that everyone else has forgotten, it was so long ago."

"I need to find the queen. In her icy castle...and her icy bed." So much for forgetting. He hadn't drunk enough, after all. "No. What I need is more wine."

"What you need is breakfast and some water, for you are not right in the head. The Snow Queen has been dead these fifteen years and more."

Amani shook his head. "No, that can't be possible. She lives, I am certain of it." Maram wouldn't have lied. Not to him. Djinn couldn't die.

The innkeeper's wife folded her arms across her chest. "I stabbed the bitch myself. She kidnapped Kai, and nearly killed him."

Briska? Kidnap some innkeeper? Why?

But Amani knew the answer. He'd been a slave himself, forced to obey every stupid order he was given. She'd done it because someone had ordered her to.

"Even if she'd somehow survived being stabbed in the heart, she'd still need to eat. And no one's seen her come down from her mountain since the day she kidnapped Kai," the woman said firmly. "She's dead and she deserved it."

Punishing a slave for her master's crimes? Despicable. If this woman had truly tried to kill Briska, then Briska deserved justice. But first he had to find her.

"Which mountain? Where?" he demanded.

She narrowed her eyes. "You're a bigger fool than my husband, if you plan to go up there in winter. You'll die for certain, for no one will venture up the mountain until the snow melts in spring."

Amani seized her shoulders. "Tell me, and I will let you live." He should not be offering this woman her life, not when it was already forfeit for her attempt to murder Briska. Then again, he was no king or lawmaker, and meting out justice was not his job.

She thrust out a hand and pointed. "Step through the door and you'll see it. Look for the frozen waterfall, and it's perched on the crags above it. Impossible to reach, even in summer, unless you have a witch to help you. If you go up there, the shepherds will bring your body back for burial come spring." Tears formed in her eyes. "If she had not taken Kai, I would not have gone up there. As it was...we almost didn't make it back. My family would have mourned us both. If you go up there, think of the family who will come here searching for you. Who will die on the mountain for you?"

Amani released her. "No one will die for me. I have no family left. She is all the family I ever wanted, and..." He blinked, forcing back what could only be tears. He would not cry in front of this strange, violent woman. "I must go after her, for she is all I have left."

"Wait until spring. Maybe I could show you the path I took..."

Amani shook his head. "She has waited long enough. So have I." He rounded the table and headed for the door.

Without even a backward glance toward the innkeeper's wife, Amani headed out into the snow. His breath froze in his throat, but he strode on, not even pausing as he conjured one layer of fur and then another over his winter clothes. When he reached the outskirts of the village and could be certain there was no one watching, he cast a portal to take him to the top of the glittering waterfall. Mere ice and stone would not keep him from Briska. Not now he was so close.