A golden ray of light shined inside the carriage; the birds danced in the sky while singing. I rested my head on the back of the carriage, trying to enjoy my last moments of peace. The second that I entered Ice Peak's castle, I sat up and lifted my head.

The royal gardens stretched before me. Pure white stones patched the ground, sparkling like diamonds under the warm sunlight. Statues made of marble and gold towered over the footpath as if to grandly welcome guests — or intimidate the enemy.

Beyond them, four sectors of different flowers divided the garden: white roses to the north, red roses to the west, pink lilies to the south, and lavenders to the east. At the center, I could see a gardener clipping leaves of the topiaries that created the three intertwined snowflakes of the Whitehill crest. 

Beautiful, I grudgingly thought. It was a wonder that a cruel, ugly kingdom could sport such beauty upon its lawn.

I allowed myself a moment to enjoy the smell of roses and lilies as it reminded me of my beloved home, Kaerndall.

Once I stepped out of the carriage, all eyes were on me. The Ice Court lived up to its name. Every inch of my skin prickled from the cold, icy hostility glaring down at me from the stands. I was a mouse trespassing into a bear's cave, scrutinized under their watchful eyes for a misstep that would send me spiraling into their open mouths.

My eyes darted in all directions taking quick notes of the guards positions. My eyes finally rested on the tall blonde boy, who was standing in front of me. He had a small smile of his own.

The guards observed every single move the prince made. None of the guards seemed to think of me as a threat. That was their first mistake. After a few moments, the prince approached me and I bowed.

"Welcome to the Ice Court Princess Aelyn," Prince Dylan said with amused sincerity as his eyes, still fixated on mine, attempted to capture my heart as he took my hand and kissed it. "May I guide you to the throne room, my lady?"

As the doors opened, my eyes scanned the enormous room. Two life-sized stained glasses windows picturing the King and Queen were flanked by three foot high arched windows. The Whitehill's banners and crest covered the wall behind the thrones. Surrounding the room where hundreds of royal portraits, showing each generation of the Whitehill's dynasties. The two thrones were on top of a little stage, and in front of it, there was a small space in which I found myself standing.Behind me stood hundred of nobles, ladies and servants.

Silence reigned over the throne room, not even the servants dared to whisper. The Royal Council were probably hoping that I'd make a fool of myself. Some nobles were expectant and a few ladies glared at me.

The majority probably already hated me. Not because I had given them a reason, but because of where I came from. At least that's why I hated them. I knew they wouldn't dare insult me to my face, but they didn't have to. I could see how they felt towards me due to the expressions in their faces.

Dylan took his place next to his father. The queen's throne was positioned behind the monarchs, she gave me a cordial but sweet smile. I was welcomed into the cout. Small talk was made and finally, the dreaded subject was carefully approached. I wondered if he would outright address our countries' tension.

"Princess Aelyn may our countries end our disagreements during your visit," said King Deron. "Nevertheless, there will be plenty of time for that. Right now, the maid will accompany you to your bedchamber. You must be exhausted from your travel."

I nodded while displaying a big smile. I was annoyed that the king hadn't set a meeting to address the plenty of disagreements that Kaerndall and The Highlands had. Nonetheless, I left the throne room.

One the maid from my entourage was already waiting for me. She bowed, I knew she was talking to me but I couldn't truly process her words, my frustration was all I could focus on.

My breathing accelerated, my hands curled into fists. I despised when arrogant people dismissed me without consideration; that what Deron had just done. He treated me as if I was a small child. I wanted to scream, let the anger out, but I couldn't. I had to keep my composure.

I would make him regret his decision.

"Your Highness, are you okay?" Rose's voice was incredibly soft, her head was tilted down, as if she was scared to look me to my face and her fingers were always fidgeting.

"Of course I am, Rose. I just wish we were home. I already miss it." Thinking of home, my parents, Austin... it allowed me to calm down.

"Maybe you miss someone in particular?" Her poor face turned red, her hands covered her mouth.

I couldn't help but chuckle at the poor girl's reaction to her words. "Wouldn't you love to know, Rose." With a sincere smile in my face I followed her.

***

When my eyes opened, it was still dark outside. I let out a loud groan while I crawled out of bed. Staying curled up in my bed sounded extremely desirable, but I had a mission. I unlocked one of my empty trunks and graced my hand along its right side.

When I found the secret compartment I opened it and took out my lock picks, two candle sticks and three matches. The secret compartment to the left side hid a white belt. I put the candles and matches in the belt; hiding the lock pics in one of its secret pockets.

After grabbing the black cloak from one of the wardrobes, I ventured into the cold halls of the castle.

While preparing for the mission, I had spent two days studying the castle's layout. Master Adler and Austin had provided me with several maps of Ice Peak's castle. My room was located in the West Wing. In the West Wing were located all female guests who had important titles and weren't married. The Royal Family chambers were located in the North Wing. All the bedrooms of the important people were in the second floor. The servants and guards residences were in the first floor.

I hated this place. The Ice Court was everything I swore to eradicate. It was the complete opposite of Kaerndall, my kingdom. It was what I had been taught since I was little. They were the enemy, and eventually there would be a showdown.

The Ice Court was based in fear instead of loyalty, cruelty instead of mercy and kindness, greed instead of generosity. Everyone would try to obtain power by any means necessary. Maybe I was being prejudiced, but did it really matter?

It was frustrating almost everyone undermine me. I was tired of being dismissed and not taken seriously. I was no damsel in distress. In every single undercover mission I had done with Austin, wherever we went, I always had to try to get their respect. Meanwhile, he had it from the get go. The more rural the areas or villages were, the harder it was to be somewhat respected.

My jaw was so tense my teeth started to ache. I had been here for only a day, and hadn't really had any bad experiences. I still don't care, I didn't expect the Highlands to be different. Whether they showed it or not, they would undermine me; and once again, it would play in my favor.

Their stupidity would be their downfall. I took some deep breaths trying to calm down. Anger wasn't a useful emotion right now. I needed to focus.

According to the maps I had memorized before my arrival, I should be standing in front of the library. My eyes widened as I entered. It was a massive room full of the most beautiful color-tinted windows and books carefully organized in wooden shelves. The most gorgeous paintings and tapestries decorated the stone walls. Huge wood tables with gold flakes were located around the room.

My eyes scanned the different books. They had a magnificent variety of books: fairy tales, The Highlands history, heroic deeds of armies of past battles, books about the different noble houses, crop growth... everything you could desire and more.

A book caught my attention. The leather was soft and well preserved. It seemed like it was not a very popular book, it usually happened with romance novels. They were seen as girly and stupid. They were my favorite genre of books. A big part of my training had been the art of manipulation. I would never admit it out loud, but some of my best tricks came from these novels.

Women were generally underestimated, hiding in the shadows of cleaning the windows or cooking meals. As spies, we easily snuck around under the pretense of the weakness attributed to our femininity, but that's when we struck to show what we could really do — to show that we could be just as deadly as a man clad in armor.

In theory, thanks to a royal decree absolute equality between sexes had been implemented throughout Kaerndall's lands in all aspects of life, even in the military decades ago. This was true for the most part in the court and in the main cities, but not so much in the countryside.

Plenty of rural areas still abided by the old laws, where the males were the most capable, strong and intelligent; while women were only for housekeeping and raising the children. The old laws were still upheld in The Highlands.

I roamed the different aisles. It was highly ornate, displaying The Highlands' wealth in its beautiful display of beautiful illustrations and rare books. Hundreds of paintings, portraits and banners hanged in the wall. There was a series of illustrations that told the highlights of The Highlands history and it's most epic battle victories.

It seemed that I had reached the end of the library, but that couldn't be posible. As of now, everything I had seen was in perfect conditions, including the books and the decoration. I wanted to find the old part of the library. In a narrow space between two bookshelves, I found a wooden door. It didn't have any decoration and was the same color as the wall.

I took out the lock picks and knelt. Even though the torches light was dim, the lock was opened in fifteen seconds. I lighted one of the candles, since there were no torches light in the old library.

The paint on certain parts of different portraits was faded. Books were much more ancient in this section, full of dust and cracks, titles and words on the leather faded. Nonetheless, it was the tapestry that had caught my attention. I lifted it and found a stone wall, despite that, the burning sensation in my chest didn't go away.

I carefully knocked on the wall  nothing happened. I moved my hand and repeated the movement, nothing. I gave myself two more tries before declaring this a waste of time. My knuckles crashed against the wall and there's it was. The fatigue, the pain; cold were all replaced by a warm fuzzy feeling.

The biggest smile appeared on my face and I had to suppress the urge to let out a small laugh. I pushed the wall with all my strength, and it finally gave up. A small door opened, a dark corridor extended in front of me.

I stepped inside, silence reigned the secret passage, these tunnels most likely went across the entire castle. I wondered if its residents knew of their existence, hopefully, they didn't. After a bit, I decided to turn around. My candle wouldn't hold for much longer, on top of that, the sun had probably risen already. As much as the curiosity was killing me, the smarter choice was to investigate at night.

As I made my way back I memorized every turn, every bookshelf, making sure I would be able to remember the location of the secret entrance. After entering the main library, I made sure to lock the door again.

When the adrenaline vanished all that remained was exhaustion, but a faint smile still lingered on my lips. I wasn't ready to go back to the court, to put up with all the nonsense, so I took the romance novel I had seen earlier and started reading.

I was engrossed in the book. The plot was surprisingly good, but the characters fascinated me. They were so well constructed, and their actions and reactions were so realistic and human. I would be learning lots of tricks from them.

Although I was concentrated in my reading, I still heard footsteps approaching the library door. A slim figured appeared, he stood tall and confident. His moves were concise, but he wasn't paying real attention to his environment or what he was doing. I was sure that knowing this bit of the prince's routine would be useful in the future. I couldn't be sure it was indeed a routine, but when people's movements were so automatic is usually meant they were relaying in muscle memory.

He stopped walking quite abruptly. For a split of a second, his eyes widened, and his mouth opened a bit. The surprised expression quickly faded into a small polite smile.

"Good morning, My lady."

"Fancy seeing you here, Your Highness. I didn't know that the Crown Prince was a book lover." I stood up and approached the prince, stopping once I was in front of him. He mimicked my smile.

"Indeed I am, there's lots of knowledge in them, I'd be a fool if I dismissed them, on the other hand, you don't strike me as the reading type, My lady"

"Because I'm a girl?" I raised my eyebrow and his cheeks immediately turned pink from embarrassment.

"My lady, I didn't mean that–" he took a small step back and talked faster than usual, his hand scratched the back of his neck.

"Oh please," I let out a small laugh, "I was just teasing. Please, there's no need to repeat my title in every sentence that comes out of your mouth. You may call me Aelyn," after a second I added a quick "Your Highness."

"Very well then, Aelyn," he purred my name accompanied by a smirk, "I like straight forward and brave people, they are not abundant in Court, you see."

Before I could speak up he added, "You seem to check both categories, My lady.

"You may have the honor and pleasure," he had the audacity of winking, "of calling me Dylan."

I was taken aback by the Prince's behavior, I wasn't sure on how to respond to his advances. Was he trying to seduce me to tarnish my reputation?

We had just met, he's advances couldn't be genuine. Maybe I could use his interest in me, to my advantage.

"Oh my, the great and handsome Crown Prince has allowed me to call him by his name, oh I might faint." The sarcasm in my voice was obvious.

I faked a bit of dizziness, grabbing a nearby chair as if I needed it to maintain my balance.

We both laughed, with a long careful stride; I made my way to the door. When I turned around Dylan still hadn't moved, still staring at me.

"I look forward to seeing you again... Dylan." I glanced over my shoulder, gave him a seductive smile accompanied by a wink.

I didn't wait for his reaction and left the room without turning my head.

I could not stop grinning. I had come to The Ice Court to discover its secrets and weaknesses, specially in the military.

The tunnels would be useful, but the intelligence I could gather if I seduced the prince would be invaluable.

Author's note:

Thank you so much for reading my story. This is my first novel and I'm quite excited about it. English is not my first language but I revise my work to make sure I make as fewer mistakes as possible.

I'm open to suggestions and I love interacting with you guys.

REMEMBER: IF YOU LIKED MY STORY PLEASE:

- VOTE

-COMMENT

-SHARE

Reviewed by Nico610