A/N: So here's the last chapter I've written so far. I'm sure you guys have noticed I'm holding some things close to the vest right now, but anything I've alluded to but haven't explained will be cleared up in later chapters. I'm trying to be more subtle, cause usually (as you know) I'm a total sledgehammer. I can never let anything simmer for a while!
Thank you again to everyone who took the time to review. I wish I could give you all huge hugs!
3.
Sofia ran through the halls only half sure she was heading in the right direction. Wholly sure if she got lost, or ran into a guard, or one of Carl's friends, or her ladies, she'd end up marched back to her rooms to face Duchess Dusselstein's disapproval. For some reason that thought caused her more anxiousness than if she were face to face with a feral wooly wombeast.
She'd been alone in Freezenburg for almost three weeks now and she was quickly burning through the very last of her reserve of quiet perseverance, unfailing kindness, and boundless optimism.
She didn't feel like she could take another moment of inane chatter from her ladies about the latest fashions, the most eligible bachelors at court, or the upcoming winter flower festival. Nor could she take a single minute more of the passive aggressive planning sessions for the festival which, she'd been informed only days ago, she was entirely responsible for. Sessions during which Duchess Dusselstein assured her she should do everything to her own liking only to have her cluck and tsk until Sofia gave in and allowed her to choose more 'traditional' options.
And she was absolutely sure she could not stand one more awkward, awful public encounter with her husband.
He had taken to visiting her chamber almost every night, at least when he wasn't lured out to whatever unsavory carousing his obnoxious friends would dream up to amuse him. And except for the first time he hadn't hurt her. Thus far he hadn't forced her either, but he'd made it clear refusing him wasn't an option. Sofia found herself so dreading his visits that some evenings she had a hard time getting through dinner knowing what was to come.
Given his complete disdain for her she hadn't made any effort to hide her distaste for him or his attentions. Yet on the few occasions they had, unfortunately, crossed ways during the day he acted as though she was purposefully putting herself in his path. That she was a silly young wife so besotted with her new husband, and all the carnal pleasures he'd introduced her to, she couldn't help but seek him out to have just a few more minutes in his company.
She tried to act aloof during these uncomfortable, and frankly humiliating meetings, without letting herself descend into outright rudeness. But inside her anger was boiling over. She knew his friends were laughing at her, and could only imagine the self-aggrandizing lies he was spreading about their private interactions. Yet she knew she couldn't do anything about it publically or otherwise.
Perhaps sensing Sofia had it in her to want to see her odious husband brought down a peg, Duchess Dusselstein had felt it her duty to pull the young princess aside. She reminded Sofia, in the most condescending manner, of the duties of a royal wife. None of which included loving or liking one's husband, but did include patient, demure toleration of him at all times. To do anything else, the older woman lectured her, would risk not just the prince's anger, which Sofia was fairly certain she could handle, but the King's as well.
Sofia didn't need to have it explained to her that though he was a kindly old man, King Henrik had the same hands off approach to his children that his son was now using with her. Everyone was expected to put a smile on their face and act happy whether they were or not. Letting one's personal feelings break the façade of royal perfection was considered an egregious lapse of protocol.
And so at every turn Sofia was denied the right to be herself, to stand up for herself, or even assert the authority to pick party streamers on her own. The drowning feeling Sofia had been living with the past weeks was quickly reaching a critical point. She felt herself slipping away under the strangulating atmosphere of her new home, and in a moment of desperation had turned to an unexpected source for help.
Sofia made one more left turn and finally found herself outside the castle, in a deserted little courtyard that looked as though it hadn't seen anyone's attention in decades. Standing in the middle of it, holding the reigns of two spirited flying horses, and wearing a riding cloak pulled tight over her glossy blond curls was Countess Ormandy.
The countess smiled at her with that same glint of mischief she'd seen the first night at dinner and handed Sofia the reigns of the white horse. The two women silently swung up into their saddles and then they were off, soaring through the frigid skies, leaving the palace behind them.
"Where would you like to go, your highness?" Elena asked, her voice straining to be heard.
Sofia didn't look over at her as they flew. Instead she closed her eyes to enjoy the wild feel of the wind in her face and the illusion of utter freedom it brought. But she did consider the countess's question as well as another matter that had been nipping at her the last week.
When she lived in Enchancia she would always escape to Dunwitty for a break from royal life, taking off on Minimus, or walking with Clover, or in later years, transporting herself by magic.
Tamping down on the bitter little voice that told her she'd been a fool to ever consider castle life in Enchancia overwhelming, she decided it was time to see the country she would one day be Queen of.
"Why don't we go to one of the nearby villages." She offered.
Sofia could practically here the wrinkle nosed, crooked mouth expression the countess was making in the distasteful sigh she let out.
"You're joking right?"
Sofia did turn now, and for the first time since she'd been informed she was being married off and shipped to Freezenburg, she didn't let someone else's displeasure stop her from doing something she wanted.
"No." Her tone made it clear she wasn't open to entertaining any alternatives.
"As your Highness wishes." The countess sighed again pulling her reigns hard to the left, leaving Sofia to follow.
When Sofia had steadied her mount alongside the other woman's once more she turned and looked at her directly.
"Thank you," she said, more gently. "And call me Sofia. If you took the risk of breaking me out of jail we should at least be on a first name basis."
The other woman smiled at her, and this time there was no hint of mischief in the expression.
"It's my pleasure, Sofia."
They road on in silence for a little longer, the whipping wind making any real conversation impossible, and then Elena began to bring her horse down over a quaint little village about ten miles from the palace.
From the air the little town had looked as adorable and inviting as Dunwitty, though covered with a great deal more snow. From the ground it was a different thing altogether.
Sofia looked around and her face fell.
Seeing her reaction, Elena gave her a cocked eyebrow and a knowing smirk, misinterpreting Sofia's shock for distaste.
"We should go to Freezenburg city, there's lots of fun to be had there. But this is just a little village, there's nothing here but snow and peasants."
Sofia turned to glare at the other woman.
"I'm not interested in fun. I want to know about my people." She said, beginning to walk through the muddy, brown colored slush that seemed to pass for a street, leading her horse behind her.
There weren't many people out of doors, but the ones who were gapped at her openly.
Sofia hadn't thought her outfit ostentatious. Underneath her cloak she wore a simple purple riding habit, one with a skirt instead of the pants she'd favored as a child, but even so there were no jewels, no embroidering, and no fancy accents like fur or brocade.
Still, her simplest riding outfit stood out like a swollen, sore thumb when compared to the matted furs, patchwork wools, and careworn boots of the humble people around her.
"Is this what all villages in Freezenburg are like?" She asked Elena, able to see even with all their many layers that the people in front of her were ill fed, unhealthy, and frankly miserable.
"If you hadn't noticed it snows here twelve months out of the year. It's hard to make anything grow in soil that's eternally frozen solid. We have some pine trees, Nettle blossoms, and a few tough animals the peasants breed, but even then we have to import the grain to feed the animals. One epidemic of pig flu, or oxen pox and an entire village will starve."
Sofia looked at her with wide, disbelieving eyes.
"But there's so much food at the castle…." She offered rather stupidly.
Elena raised an eyebrow till it disappeared behind her fashionably curled bangs.
"We import that food." The countess said, her voice somewhat astonished, though Sofia wasn't sure whether it was because she didn't understand such things, or that she was disturbed by them.
"With all the riches Freezenburg has." She mumbled, more to herself than to her companion.
"The pretty gowns certainly aren't the only reason every little girl dreams of being a princess." Elena offered.
"Do King Henrik and Prince Carl know the state their people live in?" She asked, feeling anger start to bubble over in her.
"Do your Enchancian peasants live any better?" Elena laughed a little, no longer trying to hide her amusement at Sofia's naïveté.
Just as the countess said it, they turned a corner and Sofia saw a few little children, thin as rails and not even properly dressed against the freezing wind, huddled together, playing with scrap fabric dolls. Rounding on the other woman Sofia pinned her with enraged eyes.
"I used to be a peasant," the crown princess spat, "and I was never hungry or cold. We had enough money to put a roof over our head, food in our stomachs, and buy descent shoes and fabric for clothes. This is disgraceful! Surely there's something that can be done. Sorcery," Sofia volunteered when the countess just shrunk from her anger, "why can't the royal sorcerer use magic to make some of the land arable? Why can't food be conjured?"
"Freezenburg doesn't have a royal sorcerer at the moment." The countess squeaked.
"Someone has to do something!" Sofia all but screamed, garnering the attention of the inhabitants of the nearby houses. When one particularly brave man stuck his head out of a door Sofia turned to him.
"Do you know who I am?" She asked, her voice ringing commandingly, in tones she'd never used before, but had learned from her father.
The man just nodded his head and doffed his cap, making a small bow.
"Do you have a town hall in this village?" She asked.
"We...we do your highness." The man's tone was awed, but Sofia had the niggling feeling it was actually fear and not any sort of admiration that made him seem so struck.
"Where?"
The man lifted a trembling finger and pointed to the large, rather shabby looking building at the end of the street.
"Tell everyone that the Princess is here and she wishes them to present themselves in the hall in half an hour."
The man blanched now, but bowed to her and mumbled something that sounded like 'yes highness'.
"What are you doing?" Elena asked slightly breathless as she jogged to catch up to Sofia's now determined gait.
"Someone has to do something."
When they reached the meeting hall, Sofia tied her horse to the little post outside and stormed through the door.
The hall was empty, a few trestle tables and benches folded up against the far wall, the chandelier and wall sconces bare of candles, the fireplaces empty and long unused. Taking out her wand, a gift from Cedric she always carried with her, she began transforming the room.
Candles were conjured, benches and tables floated into their proper places and were magically wiped clean of dirt and dust. Wood appeared in the large grates and began to crackle giving the room a rosy glow and bringing the temperature in the room to a more bearable level.
When everything was as nice as it could be, Sofia pointed her wand at the tables. The next spell made her heart clench. She didn't eat meat any longer, but the smell that filled the room made her yearn in a way that had nothing to do with hunger. Nostalgia, homesickness, and a longing more deeply private rose up like waves, trying to beat her down.
She squelched the feelings as best she could, clutching the beautiful wand she counted as her most prize possession, and knowing there would be time a plenty when they returned to the castle to indulge the sudden intense need to grieve that had overtaken her.
"Doppler Duplicato!" She said, again, and again, and again, till every table was filled to overflowing with perfect replicas of the enchanted feast.
She had just finished when the townspeople began pouring in, initially timid, and obviously frightened.
"Please come in!" Sofia called, beckoning them in with an urgent wave of her hands.
"Princess…what…?" An older man seemed to push through to the front, walking ahead of the others as they stared, looking hungrily at the food yet seeming to fearful to touch it.
"Are you the town elder?" She asked.
"I am." The man's voice trembled.
"I'm Sofia." She replied holding out her hand.
He looked down at her gesture of friendship as though it was a poisonous snake and finally Sofia dropped her hand, knowing insisting would just make them all more afraid of her.
"I'd like very much for you and your people to sit and eat, and tell me about your lives here in…?" She realized she had no idea where exactly they were.
"Helgaburg, your Highness." The man replied, his voice a little stronger this time.
"Life here in Helgaburg."
Hours later Sofia and Elena were saying their goodbyes to the villagers when a wave of exhaustion and dizziness washed over her with such force the world went black….
A hand reached out and grasped her wrist, causing Sofia to jump slightly.
"I called your name but you seemed lost in your thoughts."
Turning slightly, her wrist still caught by long, gloved fingers, Sofia found herself staring up into warm brown eyes that were crinkled slightly in embarrassment.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Sofia could feel the blush heating her cheeks, even as she was desperate to hide the effect his unexpected touch had on her. "I was just visiting the village and I guess I got caught up thinking about the…comparisons."
Cedric nodded sagely as he released her, either not noticing her reaction to him or being uncharacteristically gentlemanly and choosing to ignore it. Instead he held out his arm for her to take and they began walking again together.
"There's a lot less to find unfavorable in the comparison these days I think," he began after a few moments. "You've done some wonderful things, Sofia."
The blush was back in her cheeks at his praise and she found herself turning her head away, pretending to study the flowers on the path, so he wouldn't see.
"We both have," she finally replied. "You're something of a hero in Freezenburg you know?"
Cedric snorted, the sound brimming over with sarcasm.
"Hmm, who knew all I had to do to finally get the acclaim I was always so desperate for was move some dirt around a frozen hellhole."
Sofia couldn't help but laugh. She knew exactly what he thought about her adopted land having heard it all before.
"Well, if it makes you feel any better I always knew you were sensational, even before the dirt." She waited a beat, turning back to see him smiling with uncharacteristic pride before continuing. "Which is why I need to ask a favor of you."
Her words were greeted with another caustic chortle, and a shake of his head.
"I knew it was coming." He said, something that sounded a bit… bitter in his voice.
"Are you implying I only asked you for a walk today to get something from you?" She countered, feeling an old bitterness of her own.
They had been friends now for over twenty-five years, but that didn't mean their relationship had always been sunshine and roses. Sofia had come to a sort of calm acceptance of what they were to each other in the past several years but it was obvious the old hurts were still there, laying just under the surface for both of them.
"If you were to look back over the years could you say the times you've come to me in hopes of nothing more than my companionship outnumber the times you've come needing something?" His words were measured and precise as though he were exercising a great deal of self-control.
"I was under the impression that, for quite a while in the beginning, you weren't open to my simply seeking out your companionship." She answered back, her words matching his for measure and precision.
"I can't deny that," he conceded with a heavy sigh. "But as I told you yesterday, as I hope you've known for some time, I value your company above any other."
It was Sofia's turn to snort, and she knew he was slightly shocked to hear such an unladylike sound from her.
"Actually what you said was that you love my company." She took a deep breath, screwing up her courage, because even the tiniest of confessions was hard for her now, even with him. "And I love yours. But there's no one else I can ask, no one I could possible trust the way I trust you."
He turned to her for the first time since they'd started walking, wearing a look that sat somewhere between shocked and genuinely pleased.
"Come back to Freezenburg with me?"
The look changed to just shock.
"It's Frederick," she hurried to explain. "Henrik took him out of Royal Prep after Carl died. A move which I initially agreed with. Everything happened so suddenly, it was such a shock, he needed time to grieve and come to terms with the fact his father was gone. But it's been six months and as far as I can tell the King has no intention of letting Freddie return to his normal life. He's hired tutors to take over his studies, and he's even started giving Freddie some of Carl's old responsibilities.
He's only fourteen. He's lost his father, now his grandfather wants to keep him away from all of his friends and pile him with the duties of an adult. It's too much for him." She said, her voice becoming shaky as she talked about her beloved child and all the weights being heaped on his thin shoulders.
Cedric's arm twisted underneath hers and instead of laying as a rest for her own she found their hands clasped together, his gloved fingers squeezing hers in a way that spoke of his sympathy.
"I agree with you. It sounds as if he's pushing the boy too much, but I'm not sure what it is you think I can do."
"He's been having accidents." She said by way of answer.
"Accidents?"
"It was just little things at first, something would fly off a shelf and break, or a mirror or window might shatter. But it's been getting worse and worse. Last week he set a room of the palace on fire."
Cedric stopped them now, turning to look at her full on.
"Are you sure?" He asked, searching her face to see if she was completely certain of what she said.
"I am, I'm positive."
He raised their joined hands now, studying her fingers intertwined with his.
"Sofia, you're a gifted sorceress. Couldn't you...?"
She only shook her head in angry frustration and ripped her hand out of his.
"You know how hard things are between him and me!" Fury poured out of her suddenly, though none of it was really aimed at him. "Carl always had all the power and he used it to keep Freddie and I apart as much as possible, to poison him against me at every turn. It's almost like he knew he'd die first and this was his way of making sure I'd always feel his boot on my neck choking the joy out of my life." She looked up at him now with angry tears shimmering in the corners of her eyes. "Why did he hate me so much?"
Cedric's hands came down gripping her shoulders firmly as though he were trying to physically ground her mind here in the present with him. When it seemed likely she wouldn't fall apart a sad smile lit his features.
"Because you wouldn't love him. And because he was a spoiled prick who couldn't stand the thought of anyone seeing him for what he truly was."
Sofia nodded feeling as defeated now as she had all those years ago when it dawned on her there was no way to escape marrying a man she already despised.
"I've been trying so hard these past few years, since Freddie got older and Carl had less influence on him, to make up for the past, but he won't listen to me. I'm still the mother he resents. But he might listen to you, he's always been in awe of you."
Sofia looked up to see the wheels in Cedric's head turning.
"I have begun thinking of retiring in the last year or so. Calista will become the next royal sorcerer of Enchancia after me, as you know. She's been coming for a week a month the past half year to get acquainted with the routines here. I think she might be ready to handle things on her own for a little bit."
"Really?" Sofia felt herself smiling up at him with wide eyed hope.
"I'd have to get the King's approval mind you, and make sure Calista can spare the time from her duties at the Hall of Masters, but yes I might be able to accede to your request. When are you planning on leaving?"
"I was hoping to return tomorrow morning." She answered, her smile becoming contrite.
"Your timing is as grand as ever I see."
She gave him her most beguiling, wide eyed look now, the one she always used in tandem with her greatest weapon:
"Please Mr. Cedric?"
He huffed, and crossed his arms over his chest in mock grumpiness.
"Oh all right you infernal girl. You already knew I couldn't say no to you, even if I wanted to! I'll make sure the king agrees and meet you on the steps in the morning."
Throwing temperance to the wind she threw her arms around him and squeezed him close, bouncing a little as she did.
"Thank you Cedric! Thank you," She knew he must have heard the new tears in her voice because instead of pushing her away he pulled her in just as he had the day before.
She hoped he understood these tears were from relief.
"Infernal girl," he whispered into her hair, giving her a squeeze of his own.
After more minutes than were probably proper they both pulled apart. Sofia wiping her eyes and Cedric brushing down his robes.
"Now, I believe you promised to pick me some thorny blackberry." He said, as though they hadn't just been embracing on the boarder of the garden.
"I did didn't I?" She brushed her hair back and put a sunny smile on her face.
"You did and now that you're putting me out like this I'm going to insist you pick me some rose hips too! The ones from the particularly thorny rose bush!" There was a teasing glint in his eye and she matched it with one of her own.
"Of course Mr. Cedric."