Todos los capítulos de The Duchess of Frostmane: Capítulo 41 - Capítulo 50

"Don't move, Your Grace.”Nella's voice reached me before I opened my eyes. Something cool rested against my forehead. When I finally looked up, the ceiling above me slowly came into focus.My room. At least I knew where I was.I shifted, and a dull ache spread from my temple into my jaw."You're awake," Nella said as she replaced the cloth with a fresh one. Agnes stood at the foot of the bed with her hands folded."How long was I out?""The better part of an hour," Agnes said. "Elias has already been in twice.”"I don't remember coming back.""You wouldn't. You were unconscious when they carried you in."I pushed myself higher against the pillows. Nella placed a hand on my shoulder to steady me."Slowly.""I'm fine."Agnes gave me a look that told me she disagreed.The door opened before I could argue further. Elias came in with his slate and a candle, holding the flame close to my face. I had to resist the urge to flinch."Follow the light. Don't move your head."I followed the ligh

The ink on the grain steward's letter had smeared where I'd rested my sleeve against it, and I was still trying to decide whether the number he'd written was a four or a nine when the door banged open."You're going to want to see this." Nella was already halfway into the room before I'd set down the letter. "Actually, forget that. Drop everything and come see this. Right now.”"I'm reading a letter from the grain steward at Ashvale.""The grain steward at Ashvale can wait. The tree can't."I set the letter on the desk, weighted it with the little iron fox Evren had given me for exactly that purpose, and followed her out before she'd finished explaining."It's doing it again," she called over her shoulder, taking the stairs two at a time. Agnes would've scolded her if she'd been there to see it. "The bud from before, the one from snowman day. It's opened wider. And there's another one lower down, on a branch nobody was even looking at.”"Another one?”"Another one. Cedric noticed it f

"You fell asleep on my arm."Evren's voice was rough with sleep, close enough that I felt it more than heard it. For a moment, I didn't know where I was. I only knew I was warm, with an arm wrapped around my waist and Evren's chest rising steadily behind me. Then I remembered the book I'd been reading by candlelight. The last thing I remembered was fighting sleep and losing.He must have given up on the chair sometime after that."You could have moved me," I said, my voice still thick with sleep."I did. More than once. But you held on every time I tried to move, and after the third attempt, I decided it was easier to let you keep it.”I turned my head enough to glare at him, though it was hard to look intimidating with my cheek still pressed into the pillow. "If you tell anyone, I'll have you exiled from your own bed.”"I have no plans to tell anyone. Some things I'd rather keep to myself.” He said it plainly, without the teasing I'd expected. Somehow, that affected me more than a jo

"You're limping."Kael didn't deny it. He came down the front steps two at a time anyway, favoring his left side. He reached the carriage before the footman could open the door.“My horse threw a shoe near the eastern watch post. I walked the last two miles.” He nodded to Evren, then to me. “Welcome home, Your Grace. Both of you.”"You could have sent someone else to meet us."“I could have.” He glanced at Evren. “But I wanted to tell you myself.”Evren helped me down from the carriage, but his attention stayed on Kael. “What is it?”“Nothing happened, but we found something.” Kael glanced at the servants unloading the trunks and lowered his voice. “The patrol found tracks past the northern boundary marker two nights ago. A dozen horses, maybe more. They'd come along the ridge and then turned back. We found no Valdris colors, but nobody rides that close to our border in the middle of winter without a reason.”“Rurik?”“It might not be him. They could be men who heard him at the summit

By morning, frost had settled over the tree again, thin and pale, as though the night had left nothing behind.I pressed my palm against the bark, waiting for the warmth I'd felt at the Gathering to return. Nothing happened. Cold seeped into my skin, and the warmth I remembered already felt distant, like something that had never been mine to keep.“You won't get an answer out of it that way.”Agnes stood a few paces behind me, a shawl folded over one arm. She had been watching long enough to know I wasn't going to stop on my own, but she didn't question me.“I thought it might still be warm,” I said.“Not after sunrise.” Agnes stepped closer and settled the shawl around my shoulders. “Whatever happened didn't come from the tree. It came from you.”I turned to her. “You're not afraid of me.”Agnes gave me a measured look. “I didn't say that. I know the difference between someone who means harm and someone who doesn't understand what she's capable of. You haven't given me a reason to th