We didn’t sleep. Instead we took turns pacing and glancing anxiously at the door, until we both ended up huddled together on the floor in front of the fire.

We had agreed that at dawn we would venture out and find the elders. Demand to know where Oliver was being kept and what his punishment was to be. But the hours dragged endlessly, and with every one that passed, the heavy weight of my stupidity and arrogance grew. This was all my fault.

Dawn brought no lessening of my guilt. But at least we could finally act. Silently we picked ourselves up and left the house.

Even though they refused to acknowledge his authority, I could only hope the villagers would hesitate to deal too harshly with the crown prince of the kingdom in which they sheltered. Except, of course, that these people had already shown they didn’t think like other people. I bit my lip.

As we left the house, I saw our full packs lined up next to the door. The sight drove a fresh shot of pain through me. For all her disapproval, Giselle had obeyed my orders. She had been ready to flee with the object.

As the sun rose higher, we made our way to the central square. I don’t know if I had expected to find the full council of elders in attendance, but I didn’t expect to find it empty, with no sign that anything at all had happened.

Blinking, I took in the entire village. Nothing I could see looked out of place. People moved about their daily business, as they had done the morning before. None even looked at us with any special curiosity.

When a woman passed close by, I reached out and grabbed her arm, forcing her to stop. She looked at my fingers with distaste, but I didn’t let go.

“Where’s Prince Oliver? Where are they holding him?”

This time she looked at me in surprise, and the emotion seemed genuine. “Didn’t you hear? He broke our laws.”

“Yes, I know,” I said, barely restraining my impatience. “But where are they holding him?”

Her brows lowered, and she looked between me and Giselle. “Holding him? What do you mean?”

I held back the urge to shake her with difficulty. “Prison, jail, the stocks…whatever it is you use for those who break the law.”

“Oh, we don’t hold them,” she said.

Her words surprised me enough that my grip slackened, and she managed to pull herself free. I turned frightened eyes on Giselle as the woman marched off, her gait indignant.

“They can’t have…surely they can’t have…already…” I couldn’t seem to get the words to come. Giselle looked equally stricken.

When the elder from the day before appeared, as if from nowhere, I rounded on him so fiercely I was actually baring my teeth. He looked unintimidated, his gaze hooded and impossible to read.

“Where is he?” I demanded. “Where is Oliver?”

“He broke our laws,” the man said, calmly.

“Yes, we know,” snapped Giselle, her patience clearly wearing as thin as mine. “But where is he?”

He looked between us. “He is gone.”

I fell back a step, my heart stuttering. Surely he couldn’t mean…

“You dared kill the crown prince of Eldon for breaking down a door?” asked Giselle, and I had never heard that tone in her voice before.

He shook his head once, and I managed to breathe again.

“No, of course not. We do not kill. But neither do we keep lawbreakers among us. Those who transgress must leave immediately.”

I tried to comprehend his words. If Oliver had merely been banished, I felt certain he would have found a way to sneak back in by now to find and reassure us.

“I don’t understand. Where has he been taken?”

The man’s eyes strayed to Giselle, although I was the one who had spoken. “We told you that we do not fall under your sovereignty. But you never asked who it is that we serve.”

A horrible, creeping cold swept over me. “Who do you serve?”

His eyes bored into mine. “She calls herself the Snow Queen.”