The Fairy Letters: A FROST Series(TM) Novel by Kailin Gow Read Free Book Online Page A

yet met Rodney, and she had maintained my
mother's patriotic spirit far more than I had. She resented bitterly that I was
to be king, feeling herself far more suitable to the task, and did her best to
prove it to my mother and father by outstripping me on the battlefield.
Considering her eagerness and my apathy, it was easy at first.
    And
then came the Battle of the Silver Bridge. Shasta and I were leading a company
of cavalrymen down south, by the Birchwood pass near the border between Summer
and Spring, and my father likewise was leading the infantry further up the
cliff, across the Silver Bridge which had not yet, by virtue of the tragedy
that occurred that day, received its terrible name. Redleaf and Flametail – for
it appeared that he had little success in stopping Redleaf's war, for she held
all the real power on the throne – had sent forth their greatest army yet – not
only Summer fairies, but all their traditional allies: flame-flanked phoenixes
and lava imps, and even a few Red Unicorns, who had left behind their
traditional cloisters of peace and meditation to take part in a war that they
saw as just.
    My
mother, standing with her troops at the center of the battlefield, commanding
the other regiments, allowed herself a gasp. “We'll never take them,” she
whispered, horror in her voice. “There's too many.”
    We
could hear the shouts now – bloodshed and agony all around us. We could hear
the cries of phoenixes exploding in mid-air, the neverending wail of dragons
whose scales had been sliced to the earth; we could see nothing but bursts of
silver for miles around us.
    My
mother's eyes fell to the “bridge” - a narrow rock walk stretching out over two
miles over which it was necessary to pass to enter into our regions – a pass
between two mountains that stood high like a tightrope over the rushing
waterfalls of the Birchwood Valley. She looked up at me. “If we could only
destroy the bridge,” she said. “As they're crossing...”
    “Mother!”
Shasta frowned. “It would take powerful magic to do that...”
    “Do
not doubt my magic!” my mother's voice was high and strong. “Round up our
troops, tell them to retreat from the bridge, tell them to wait on the other
side – in case we fail...”
    “Fail?”
Shasta put her hand on her sword. “We'll not fail!” She kicked the sides of her
horse, and sped away into the winter forest.
    “You
too, Kian,” my mother said, fixing her blue eyes upon me. “Hurry!”
    I
did as she commanded, hoping as I did so that I would not spy upon the bridge
any of the Summer Courtiers whom I knew – willing myself to, if I saw the faces
I recognized, be strong enough to let them die, hating myself all the while for
my cruelty.
    Shasta
and I whipped through the crowds of soldiers, ordering them to retreat,
ordering them off the bridge. One by one, the regiments retreated – much to the
confusion of the Summer armies, who chased them down the bridge. Soon, the
bridge held beneath its rocky weight nearly all of the Summer armies – and the
Winter fairies, clad in blue, remained at the other end.
    “They're
planning to fight us off at the other end of the pass!” I heard one summer
soldier say. “We'll get them.”
    I
rode back to my mother. “Do you have the magic to do it?” I asked her.
    She
nodded. “It will take all my strength – but it is the only way. If this army
gets past they will have nothing stopping them from getting to the Winter Court
and taking us over completely. I have no choice.”
    We
looked up at the bridge, as my mother took a deep breath, waiting to unleash
the fury of the Winter magic she held upon the bridge, sending the rocks
tumbling into the rushing rapids of the waterfall.
    And
then she stopped short. There, upon the bridge, was one group of soldiers clad
in blue – one regiment of Winter fairies who had failed to get the message. And
there, among them, was my father, valiantly fighting against a phalanx