Frost Fever Read online

The woman at the reception desk confirmed my appointment and sent for a security man in a black suit who had the look of a veteran. He escorted me deeper into the offices, past rows of cubicles, men in suits and women in blazers with Serious Business expressions on their faces walking back and forth while holding papers. If someone wanted to make a comedy about the offices of an Elven noble, they could have done worse than copy this place.

  Alexandra Ross’s office occupied a corner on the third floor, though she did not have a view of the Capitol itself. Everything looked sleek and modern, and she had the obligatory portraits of the High Queen and Carothrace upon the wall. The desk was quite full, though the stacks of paper were in orderly piles. A cluster of picture frames occupied the space around her computer monitor. Most of them showed Alexandra biking or jogging with a Hispanic-looking man of about thirty. In some of the pictures he wore the formal uniform of an Elven nobleman’s man-at-arms, and in one of the pictures Alexandra stood next to him a brilliant white wedding dress.

  Alexandra Ross rose to greet me, smiling. She looked exactly as I expected – athletic and pretty and very blond, dressed in clothes similar to mine, albeit with an expensive-looking wedding ring. She extended a hand and offered a firm handshake.

  “Irina Novoranya?” said Alexandra.

  “I am,” I lied. “Mrs. Ross. It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Let’s get started,” said Alexandra. The security man withdrew. “Would you like some coffee? I’ve only got the pods, I’m afraid, but it will be fresh.”

  “I would.” That, at least, was not a lie. A little coffee maker occupied a stand in the corner, and she busied herself making two cups. I reached into my purse and drew out my folder of falsified documents, and we made inconsequential chitchat as the coffee drizzled into the cups.

  “I’m so glad Gail could do the centerpieces for this,” said Alexandra, handing me a cup. The coffee wasn’t bad. “They’re just beautiful. I hired her for my own wedding.”

  “You’ve been married long?” I said.

  She smiled. “Two years. He’s a sergeant in the Duke’s men-at-arms. I might even get to see him soon. I think he’ll be part of the Jarl’s escort.” She blinked and went back to business. “Now. Do you have the documents?”

  I passed them over, and she scanned them into the computer. They would pass muster. At least, I was pretty sure they would pass muster. If they didn’t, I was going to have to get out of here fast and think up another plan.

  “How long have you worked for Gail?” said Alexandra.

  “Oh, a few weeks,” I said. If she called Gail, this whole thing would fall apart. I noticed she had a little cross necklace resting against her throat. “I met her through church. Well, my mom did. I sort of flunked out of nursing school and needed a job, and Gail hired me. I really hope I do well at it.”

  “I hope you like the work,” said Alexandra, clicking through some forms on her computer. “I know how hard it is to find work you can enjoy. I didn’t know what that felt like until the Duke’s office hired me.”

  Huh. I would have expected condescension. Weirdly, I found myself liking Alexandra. I had expected someone like a female version of Rusk.

  Of course, if she knew what I really was, if she knew I could work spells of illusion magic, she would call Homeland Security and the Inquisition so fast that some of her perfectly coiffed hair might fall out of place. Someone in my position couldn’t afford to have friends, especially friends who worked for an Elven noble.

  Especially when a single mistake might cost Russell his life. Mine as well, come to think of it.

  “Everything checks out,” said Alexandra. She picked up a smartphone from her desk. “If you’ll let me take a picture?” I offered a sunny smile, and a moment later the printer next to coffee maker spat out a security pass with my picture and Irina Novoranya’s name on it.

  “Thank you,” I said, tucking the little plastic card away in my purse. “I hope that wasn’t too inconvenient.”

  “Not at all,” said Alexandra. “I’ll be grateful for your help. This reception is important, and everything must be perfect for the Duke.”

  “Oh, yes,” I said, thinking of the Ringbyrne Amulet. “I’ll look forward to it.”

  Chapter 3: A Former Friend

  I spent the remaining days before Rimethur’s arrival in preparation.

  I read everything I could find about Rimethur and the frost giants and their embassy to the High Queen, looking for any possible edge. The Jarl and his guards and attendants would stay at the Meridian-Kohler Hotel, the finest hotel in Madison, a twenty-story tower a few blocks from the State Capitol. Renting a room there was out of the question. The place would be crawling with Homeland Security and Inquisition agents, maybe even a few Knights of the Inquisition in their long black coats with the silver lightning bolts upon the collars. Fortunately, the hotel had not secured its network properly, and I stole a copy of the employee database over anonymized connection. If necessary, I could masquerade as one of the maids with a Masking spell, and snatch away the Ringbyrne Amulet while I pretended to clean his rooms.

  Or maybe I could steal the amulet at the reception.

  And maybe a flying purple unicorn would give me a vial with a cure for Russell’s frost fever, along with a giant pot of gold coins and a magic wand that could free me of Morvilind’s control.

  Somehow I thought that more likely than a turn of good luck.

  I would have to watch for my opportunity, and I would have to be quick. If I was careful, I would find a chance to snatch the amulet and make my escape. I might only have one chance, so when it came, I would have to seize it.

  There was one other way I could prepare, and I used it.

  Specifically, I made myself useful to Alexandra.

  In preparation for the Jarl’s arrival, she was working eighteen hour days, and she was enough of a control freak that she tried to do everything herself. Since I claimed that Gail only could afford to have me work sixteen hours a week, I had plenty of time to help Alexandra. I started doing a few errands for her, laundry and getting the mail and the like. Then I started doing things for her at the Duke’s office, dropping off letters and making copies and other things. By the fourth day I spent almost as much time at the Duke’s offices as Alexandra, helping her out with this and that.

  In doing so, I learned a great deal about how Duke Carothrace’s office functioned, about his security people and his procedures. I also learned every single planned detail of Jarl Rimethur’s visit.

  Well. If Alexandra hadn’t wanted me to read those papers, she shouldn’t have given them to me to photocopy.

  “You should come work for me once the visit is done,” said Alexandra as we set up tables in the vast auditorium of Battle Hall, where Jarl Rimethur would come for the reception after exiting the rift way on the Capitol steps. Just for today, Alexandra had discarded her skirt and blazer and heels for an athletic shirt and pants and running shoes.

  “Oh?” I said. “I suppose I could work as a janitor anywhere.”

  Alexandra laughed. “Not as a janitor. As my assistant.”

  I made myself look confused. “What would I be doing?”

  “What you’ve already been doing.” We flipped another table onto its legs. The guests in the cheap section would get folding tables. The Jarl and the Elven nobles would have actual wooden tables. “Helping me out. Running errands and so forth. I could use the help. The Duke has so many events, and I have to coordinate them all.” She grinned at me. “And maybe we could find you a husband.”

  I laughed. “You want me to become an office bride, is that it?” It was a common phenomenon. Most Elven nobles used human women for their administrative staffs and human men for their men-at-arms, and when the office women and the men-at-arms mingled, nature tended to take its course. It was such a common scenario that any number of comedies and romantic dramas had been made on the topic.

  Of course, I took a more cynical view of it. Even the most ben
evolent Elven nobles viewed their humans as cattle, and they took care to ensure that ample children would be available to serve as future men-at-arms and workers

  Not that I could tell any of that to Alexandra.

  “Well, it’s not so bad,” said Alexandra. “When Robert first asked me out, I laughed. It was like something out of a comedy. The office worker and the man-at-arms, you know? But it…it turned out well.” Her voice trailed off. She didn’t like talking about her husband, probably because feared for his life. “Maybe we can find someone for you, too. Why don’t you think about working for me? We can talk about it more once the reception is finished.”

  “I’ll think about it,” I lied, and helped her set up the tables. I liked Alexandra, as much as I was capable of liking someone I planned to betray. For a moment I did think about it, or at least I wondered what that kind of life would be like. A life where someone like Morvilind did not have a hold over me, where I could find a husband, settle down, and have some children…

  No. Alexandra was a sheep, even if she didn’t realize it. I didn’t want a pleasant life. I wanted power, enough power that someone like Morvilind would never threaten me or Russell again. I didn’t want a romantic entanglement, either. That would give someone power over me, and I refused to surrender any more power over myself. My one romantic relationship had started out pleasantly, but it had ended so badly I had almost been killed.

  The Duke’s slaves helped my mind harden further.

  Humans were not allowed to own slaves in the United States, but Elven nobles had no such limitations. Criminals who could not pay their fines on Punishment Day were instead enslaved, and Carothrace had hundreds of them. His slaves were men and women, white and black and Hispanic and Asian, young and old, all wearing bright red uniforms (hard to escape in a bright red jumpsuit). The slaves helped Alexandra set up Battle Hall and decorate it for the reception, hanging the banners of the High Queen and Carothrace and Rimethur from the rafters. Alexandra was competent and cheerful and hard-working…and she ordered around the slaves without a second thought.

  She would have done the same to me, too, if I had been arrested, flogged on Punishment Day, and enslaved.

  I wasn’t a Rebel. I had known Rebels, and the best of them were self-righteous assholes and the worst of them were the sort of psychopaths who would enjoy detonating a pipe bomb full of ball bearings in a maternity ward. Yet watching Alexandra order the slaves about, I understood some of the Rebels’ grievances.

  At least Alexandra was not cruel to the slaves, not by any definition of the word. Still, the very fact the slaves existed was cruel enough, I suppose.

  I pushed the thought out of my mind. The High Queen and her nobles and the rest of the Elves could go to hell, and as far as I was concerned the Rebels could go to hell right next to them. All I cared about was Russell, and James and Lucy Marney, who had looked after Russell all these years.

  The rest of the world could burn.

  The dark thoughts chased themselves around my head as I smiled and chatted with Alexandra, and made ready to steal away the Ringbyrne Amulet.

  ###

  August 13th, the day scheduled for Rimethur’s arrival, dawned hot. It was at least seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit when I woke up at six in my shabby little hotel room, and the Internet claimed that it was going to get up to a hundred degrees by noon. I laughed a little at that as I got dressed in my office outfit of skirt, blouse, blazer, and heels. The frost giants came from a colder world than Earth, so of course Rimethur would visit on the hottest day of the year.

  Maybe he would keel over from heatstroke, and I could steal the amulet then.

  I had a plan. Hundreds of people worked at the Meridian-Kohler Hotel, and they couldn’t all possibly know each other. Using the stolen database, I had falsified myself a name badge, and used that to steal a cleaner’s gray coverall. Once Rimethur was ensconced his guest suite, I would enter the hotel, slip into his suite, and make off with the amulet.

  If I could.

  Rimethur would know magic, and so would any other frost giants that accompanied him. That meant I couldn’t Mask myself to get past them. I would have to use stealth and Cloak myself if any of them got too close. If I was quick and kept my wits about me, likely I could snatch the amulet.

  Or get myself killed.

  There was only one way to find out.

  I drove to downtown Madison and stashed the van in a nearby parking structure, paying a ridiculous rate to do so. Thankfully, I had already set up my centerpieces at Battle Hall the night before, so I didn’t have to listen to the damned things rattle around the back. I grabbed a courier bag, two cups of coffee, and went to work.

  Rimethur wouldn’t arrive for another hour, but the square around the white dome of the Capitol was already packed. Homeland Security had cordoned off the entire square, blocking the streets with concrete barriers, and checkpoints monitored the pedestrians entering the square. Homeland Security officers in their blue uniforms and mirrored black shades were everywhere, and a few of them stared at me as I passed. That set off all sorts of alarm bells in my head. Still, they probably had no idea who I really was, and they were staring because I was a twenty year old woman in high heels, a tight skirt, and a form-fitting blazer. Pity I couldn’t have worn my cleaner’s coverall to this. No one ever paid attention to janitors, a fact I had exploited more than once.

  I stopped at a checkpoint. A grim-faced Homeland Security officer stepped forward, his eyes hidden behind mirrored shades. The officer’s frown deepened. I had the sense that he was measuring me with his eyes, or…

  Or he was trying to remember me from somewhere.

  Come to think of it, he looked familiar. But where? I couldn’t quite place it. He looked about forty, with a clean-shaven, gaunt face and a hard, unsmiling mouth.

  “Security pass?” said the man. His voice was flat, with no discernable accent. I handed over the little plastic card Alexandra had made for me. The officer scanned it with his phone, which made a satisfying little beeping noise. He produced a metal detector wand and ran it up one side of my body and down the other, and waved it over my courier bag. It didn’t beep once, and he returned to the wand to its holster.

  “Your name is Irina Novoranya?” he said.

  “Yes, sir,” I said. A dozen different smart remarks danced upon my tongue, but I held them back. This was not the time to mouth off to a Homeland Security officer.

  “Have you ever been to Los Angeles?” he said.

  A little chill of alarm went through me. “Yes, sir. When I was a girl. My family came to the United States after the Archons destroyed Vladivostok. Then we came to Wisconsin when my father got a job at a meat-packing plant, and…”

  “Go,” said the officer, waving his hand. “Next!”

  For a moment I hesitated. I was sure I had seen that officer someplace before. He had mentioned Los Angeles. Had he been near the Silver Dollar, or part of Mr. Rojo’s gang? Or had he been working with the anthrophage? The officer started to scowl at me, and I felt the annoyance of the line forming behind me.

  “Thank you,” I said, and hurried through the checkpoint.

  The crowds inside the barricades were mostly local dignitaries – politicians and businessmen and the like, along with their bodyguards and assistants. None of the chief Elven nobles had arrived yet, and a large portion of the Capitol’s front steps had been roped off for them. I did see several lesser nobles standing in the crowd, along with a few Knights of the Inquisition in their black coats.

  Right. That meant using no magic. If I used magic in front of them, they would take me in for questioning. If I used illusion magic in front of them, they would kill me on the spot.

  I found Alexandra near the velvet rope cordoning off the stairs. She wore a charcoal-gray blazer and skirt over a white blouse, along with a golden necklace and earrings. The earring tapped against her phone as she talked into it, and she finally sighed and hung up. She was wearing more makeup than usual t
oday.

  “Irina,” she said. “There you are. The Duke and his guests will arrive soon. What do you have for me?”

  “The last of the contracts for the rental cars,” I said, handing over one folder. “Just have to sign them. Um…a bill from Homeland Security for overtime hours, and one from the city of Madison for the street closures. They’re all set, you’ll just have to sign. Oh, and this.” I handed one of the coffee cups over.

  “Irina,” said Alexandra with a smile. “You are both a miracle worker and a saint.” She took a sip of coffee and sighed. “Seriously, if we get through this, you can work for me. Full-time, benefits, everything. The Duke even offers two weeks of vacation a year.”

  “Thank you,” I said, cursing myself. Maybe I had been too helpful. If I stole Rimethur’s amulet and disappeared, it would be obvious. I would have to steal the thing, hide it someplace, and then feign a reason to depart a few weeks later.

  Though I would have to steal the amulet first. Fortunately Morvilind’s mansion was only about two hours from Madison. I could slip away with it, drop the thing off with Morvilind, and then return to Alexandra’s office the next day with no one the wiser.

  “Did you happen to bring a pen?” said Alexandra, sifting through the papers.

  “Oh, of course,” I said, pushing aside my dark musings. For the rest of the morning, I just had to pretend to be Irina Novoranya, the young woman who only wanted to impress her boss, get a good job, and maybe find a nice man-at-arms to marry. It was a pleasant dream.

  But not one I wanted. Even if I found a way to cure Russell and free myself of Morvilind tomorrow, I could not settle for a quiet life. I wanted enough power to make sure no one could dominate me again. I wanted to learn more magic, learn the skill to wield the fire of the elements with my will.

  Someday, maybe. Not today, though.

  “Oh, hell,” muttered Alexandra, glancing at her phone. “The representatives from the mayor’s office want to set up in the space reserved for the governor and his staff. We’d better go talk them down.”