They set for the capital as soon as the castle was put in order. Daliya had no desire to anger the mad emperor. The knight’s order seemed well-acquainted with the road, so she left all the logistics to them. Haitham sat on the carriage with her for her protection, he had insisted. He had sent the emperor’s emissary a wide grin as he offered Daliya his hand to help her up the carriage, winked at the affronted man, and climbed after her.

  “What?” he asked, feigning innocence.

  Couldn’t Haitham see he was alienating the emissary when they couldn’t afford to make any wrong move lest their schemes get discovered by the emperor? She quite liked her head to remain right where it was, on her neck, preferably attached to the rest of her body. She was already dreading their meeting. What if he found out she wasn’t his real daughter? Would he allow her to keep her life on the off chance that he might find a way to bring the real princess back?

  Haitham waved his hand at her. “Don’t worry too much about it. He might be the emperor’s emissary, but his status is lower than your head of the knight’s order, or any knight for that matter.”

  Daliya sighed. She looked out the carriage window. Mazin nodded at her from where he was sitting astride his horse.

  Haitham scoffed, muttering something under his breath about pompous, flashy bastards. Daliya wondered whether he was referring to himself.

  Their travel was relatably quiet. All along the way, her eyes were glued to the sights outside her window. Sometimes, Haitham gave some commentary about this place or that. A town that was famous for its lemon cakes, they needed to visit the first chance they got. Some other towns they needed to stay clear of. Apparently, the emperor had forcibly conscripted a man from each family for his wars. None of them returned.

  “The worst thing a ruler can face is someone who has lost so much they no longer have anything else to lose.” He looked out the window, his eyes unseeing, lost in some faraway memory. He blinked, then looked at her. “I’m afraid they won’t see much difference between you and the emperor. After all, you do share the same blood. Nothing else would matter to them.”

  After a moment of silence, Daliya pointed at something else, asking for more information. It wasn’t that she wanted to know, she merely wanted to get him out of his gloomy state. Try as she might to hide it, she didn’t enjoy seeing his pained expression when he remembered something that had happened in the past, something that was still haunting him, something that the emperor—and maybe even the princess—had a hand in. He smiled, grateful for the distraction she was offering him.

  Up ahead was a giant mountain range that reached the northern side of the empire, which was once the Lyrian Kingdom but was now merely called the frozen lands.

  The late empress’s birthplace.

  Daliya wondered whether the ice wielders in the north would see her as another threat, as another of the emperor’s bloodied hands, instead of the daughter of their last princess.

  No matter. It wasn’t like she intended to step foot into the northern lands. She had her hands full with the empire.

  That was unless the mad emperor sent her there.

  Dismissing the thought, daliya watched the white peaks spearing through the high clouds. There was no need to waste time on things outside her control. She would cross that bridge once she reached it. Now, she needed to think about how to deal with the princess’s father.

  Who knew, maybe he would never find out about the soul switch. After all, not all fathers could recognize their own children. She would know.

  The Eternal Mountain was the highest peak on the range. According to Haitham, right at the heart of the mountain was an endless stairway that led to the top, where a crystal castle sat amongst the clouds. Daliya doubted that was true. Then again, the existence of many of the things here wouldn’t even have crossed her mind were she not to set her eyes on them. She glanced at the clouds obscuring the top of the mountain. Who knew, maybe Haitham was right.

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  “Tell them to stop here for the night.”

  Daliya’s brows furrowed. There was still light, which meant they could still walk a fair distance before night fell, and they sought shelter against the darkness and the freezing cold.

  “Why?” she asked.

  He grinned. “There’s something I want to show you.”

  As Daliya followed Haitham deeper into the frozen forest, leaving the knights and her attendants behind to get the tent ready, she couldn’t help but feel a slight sense of dread at delaying her arrival to the capital. After everything she had heard about the emperor, she didn’t want to antagonize him at their first meeting.

  She let the crunching ice under their boots lull her into a false sense of calm. She would cross that bridge once she set foot into the golden castle. She looked up at the dangling branches; the leaves were encased into a thin film of ice. If she squinted her eyes, she could still see the faint green color of the foliage. It was as if the tree didn’t have time to face the sudden winter. The forest looked frozen in time, as if once spring, the ice would melt, and life would resume as if nothing had happened. Maybe so.

  “We’re here,” Haitham announced, stepping to the side to allow her to see the clearing beyond.

  Daliya blinked.

  “How–”

  The sight that greeted her eyes was ethereal. Purple crystalline flowers spurted from the frozen ground. They didn’t look like frozen flowers—no, not like the trees surrounding them. The flowers were made of ice or maybe crystal.

  They reminded her of the Moonshade Blooms. But while the Moonshades also had crystal-like petals, they looked sturdier than these flowers. These petals looked more fragile than a thin sheen of frost.

  She crouched before them and touched the stiff petals of the closest flower. It was indeed made of ice. Daliya jerked her hand back as the petal cracked and crumbled under the slight force of her touch. She looked mournfully at the white fragments scattered on the snow.

  “They’re called Ice Whispers. This is the only place where these flowers bloom. Once spring, they’ll disappear as if they were never here. But come winter, they’ll bloom again.” Haitham joined her. He kneeled next to her and, using his dagger, plucked one of the flowers. The motion of his hand was so fast that if she had been to bling, she would have missed it. He handed it to her. She cradled the stem between her fingers, afraid of breaking it again.

  “It’s beautiful,” she muttered, quickly drawing it away from the white fog. It was so fragile that she thought that her mere breaths would be enough to melt it.

  “It’s fine. I’ll get you another one.” He reassured her, smiling.

  He cut a handful more and handed them to her.

  “Your special training starts now.” He winked.

  “Training? I thought we were resting!” she protested.

  “Your task is to coat them in a protective layer so they can survive the travel to the capital. And only use your own energy.”

  “And let all this ice go to waste?” She motioned to the snow surrounding them.

  “You won’t always have that advantage.” He shrugged.

  She shot him a look. He was right. She knew he was right. She was lucky she found herself in her element. But she couldn’t always rely on luck.

  The petal had crumbled with the mere touch of her fingers. How would she take them to the capital, where the weather was significantly warmer?

  He slapped his thighs, grinning. “You better start now. You only have one night to figure it out.”

  Daliya groaned.

  Haitham burst out laughing. She glared at him, but her glares only seemed to intensify his laughter.

  It took her hours, but eventually, she presented the cocooned flower to Haitham, a triumphant smile splitting her face in two.

  “Here.” Her grin widened if possible. “A gift to remember me by.”

  He gleaned at the flower, a complicated expression flitting over his face. Daliya blinked, trying to decipher it, but it disappeared as soon as it appeared.

  He put his hand over his chest, a teasing smile pulling at his lips. “A gift from my knight in frosty armor.”

  Daliya huffed. “I trained hard to achieve this perfection. You better not damage it.”

  “I wouldn’t dare.” He grinned.

  He looked strangely at the flower, then gently put it in his pocket. Daliya wanted to tell him that it wasn’t that fragile but stopped. Somehow, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she had stumbled upon a secret she wasn’t privy to.

  She had seen that look sometimes directed at her when he thought she wasn’t looking. He would have this strange expression on his face, staring at her as if he were searching for something. Something hidden.

  Before she could ask him what was wrong, Mazin stumbled into their hidden training grounds and announced their imminent departure.

  Another time, she thought. She would get whatever secret he kept from her, even if she had to trap him in her ice.