Nathan stared up at the Winter Queen’s castle. He stood a ways off, but the stark castle was alive with movement. Fae poured into it. He could see a group of goblins at a distance marching up the frozen, snowy slopes. A squadron of pixies flew past him, the colors of their wings melting together with the speed of their flight. Several trolls were entering the castle gates with a regal group of sidhe walking sedately ahead of them. Nathan could barely make out the normally frozen lake where he assumed the water fae were massing for some kind of attack. How the queen would use them, though, he wasn’t sure. Most vampires showed up in mountain caves, not underwater ones.

Warriors probably crouched next to the narrow slits in the walls, ready to shoot any enemy who dared approach full of arrows. Ice and snow covered the entire landscape, the cold more than Nathan had ever felt in his entire time in the human world.

Elves came up from behind him.

“Aren’t you going to go in?” One of them asked even as he kept walking.

Nathan nodded, but didn’t move.

“Well come on, then. The queen calls.”

Nathan could feel her call. It was like a yearning that he himself had, deep inside his bones, though he knew it didn’t come from him. It was the call of winter, that of one’s lineage and history pouring through the queen’s magic, cutting through all winter demesnes in Faery. Only the most shielded ones would not feel the queen’s call and even then, they would have to be shielded by the rulers of different sects of fae. Nathan wondered if Myra could feel it, wherever she was.

The old ruthlessness, viciousness welled up inside him. Nathan struggled to fight off the need to attack someone. Winter was almost constantly at war with someone, whether it was the vampires, other winter fae, or the summer fae. The need to defend. That was one reason why winter fae parents drilled fighting lessons into their children so intently. One never knew when an attack was coming and one had to be prepared no matter what happened. At some point, though, defense turned into preemptively attacks to unprovoked encroachment of innocent people. It was what happened with their old teachers.

There was no other way to find Illa, though. Nathan had to go in there, resist the queen’s call, and find a way to have Illa throw it off herself so she could leave.

An insurmountable task.

How was he supposed to ignore the call partly of his own making, if only by the sheer fact of what he was? How was he supposed to get Illa to do the same?

Nathan shook his head.

He had to try, for Myra and Illa and even Summer. Perhaps this would show her that he really wasn’t who she thought.

He approached the castle cautiously even as the other fae around him moved with quicker, more resolute purpose. They overtook him and some shot him wondering looks. He knew what they had to be thinking. Why would he even want to be slow when responding to the queen? She could destroy anyone within her ranks who dared defy an order. That was what the summons was. An unspoken, silent, but all consuming order. They couldn’t see why he would even tempt her wrath, especially when she called her people to her to march on the enemy in war.

Another group of pixies flew by next to Nathan, one of their razor sharp wings almost cutting into him. He flinched aside and glared at the pixie, a ball of pure energy instantly forming in his hand. Nathan was a second away from incinerating the pixie when a cold sweat broke out of his face.

He made a fist, extinguishing the energy and looked away in disgust. Such casual destruction should not be a power of who he was.

The pixie didn’t notice in her fever to enter the castle and discover where the queen wanted her.

Nathan passed through the gates, climbed the stairs, and entered the castle with the others. Inside, the fae remained grouped into their races as some proceeded to practice their battle skills right in the hall and others stood nearby simply waiting for the queen’s instructions. She was nowhere to be seen and neither were the sidhe that Nathan had seen. He had to go further into the castle. The summons was still pulling him onwards, but logically he knew that Illa wouldn’t be here with the lower castes of fae.

Climbing another set of stairs, Nathan let his eyes freely roam. From his higher view point, he did see sidhe generals giving orders to squadrons before moving onto the next one and giving them their orders. Most of the groups did then leave the castle, presumably to do as they were ordered, but some stayed and were ignored by the generals. Maybe the queen would tell them herself.

The staircase opened up into a long hall. Mostly sidhe and elves were here, their robes swishing whenever they moved. They whispered amongst themselves unlike the mostly silent fae down below.

Nathan caught a conversation of five fae as he walked near and stopped, seeming to peer out a window. He was conspicuous enough dressed as he was.

“-this fight is about. The queen hasn’t told us anything yet.” One of the sidhe was saying. He had on bright green robes of mottled colors, the better to hide near the caves that vampires frequented. The others dressed similarly, though they had brown in their mixtures as well.

“Any way to know if this will be different than the last battles?” Another sidhe asked. She was shorter than the others and actually looked worried. The others’ faces held mostly restrained aggression.

“Not until we talk to the queen,” the first one answered. “No telling if she will give us enough information though and you know, she probably won’t tell us everything.”

The others didn’t disagree.

“Perhaps something has changed,” said the second sidhe. “Something that the queen has acquired? Otherwise, most of us will be going to our deaths.”

“Quiet!” The first sidhe hissed. “Gillie, this is no time to be worrying the lower castes. Not all of them know how the other battles went. They were smaller pitched and overwhelmed by the vampires. Perhaps this time it is the numbers that are different and will change the heart of the war and stem the vampires once and for all.”

Gillie looked abashed. “I only meant that-”

“I know what you meant and I know you are afraid.” His expression softened. “You have reason to be, but you must also trust in the queen.”

Must we? Nathan thought. The queen was infalible and if their conversation was to be believed, they had lost many fae to the vampires in the years that Nathan had been gone. He wouldn’t trust her either.

“I do trust the queen.” Gillie said. “It’s only that I don’t want to go needlessly to my death.” She barely whispered the last.

“You won’t go needlessly to your death.” A third sidhe spoke up. He had been staring off as if he wasn’t paying attention to Gillie and the one she was arguing with.

“Do you know something, Thedren?” Gillie asked.

Threden took a moment before speaking. “I do not know anything specific, but I have my suspicions that this time will be different. Already I can feel the queen shift the time dilation. She would not do that lightly or easily. She is preparing for something. Perhaps there is another part of the war happening away from the battle, but will influence it nonetheless.”

Gillie took a moment to digest that. Nathan did, too.

Changing the time dilation? Slower or faster? It had to be slower, otherwise why would she want to change it? Unless the queen was preventing the vampires from accomplishing something. If that were true, then she would march the whole of her forces on theirs that were tasked to whatever it was. Right?

Nathan stole a direct look at the other sidhe. They were all deep in thought, just like himself. They all wanted to come out of this whole, but they couldn’t ignore the will of the queen. If she wanted them to fight and die, that is exactly what they would do.

When none of them spoke for several long moments, Nathan carefully moved on. He had to find Illa. She didn’t seem to be in this landing, however big it was, but there were chambers nearby in which he could see other sidhe. He chose the left one and went inside it.

Small groups of sidhe were gathered here. From the tone of their whispers, Nathan thought they were questioning their purpose and the queen’s orders, too. In the far corner, he spotted Illa. She was gazing out the window, seeming to ignore everything going on around her. Nathan knew that her mind had to be swallowed up in the fog of compulsion.

It wasn’t like that for all the fae under the queen and king’s command. Normally they grew up with the compulsion and learned to define their own path within it and to challenge what they thought wrong until the queen or king forced their will on them. Ill had escaped the queen’s influence. She was a small enough player that the queen hadn’t focused on the wayward charge going astray.

But now that she had come back to Faery and the heart of the winter realm, that compulsion came back roaring in full force. It overtook Illa’s mind, her will, and replaced it with that of the queen. Even the queen should know that a warrior like this wasn’t an ideal tool to use. Illa would only be a mindless drone.

“Illa,” Nathan muttered as he came up beside her.

“Nanadiel,” Illa answered.

Nathan wasn’t surprised she called him by his real name. More surprising was that she answered to her bastardized human name.

“Preparing for the queen’s instruction?”

“What else?” Illa asked, her voice soft and far away.

“How about returning to your charge? The one you were sworn to protect?”

“I will be protecting her in the war. Don’t you see that? Going to war and ensuring the survival of the fae protects everyone.”

“But she’s not in Faery. Or she shouldn’t be. Killing vampires or getting killed yourself won’t protect your charge if she’s not in Faery.”

Illa startled, but she didn’t meet Nathan’s eyes.

“Ibrihim tasked you to protect her, to keep her out of Faery. Can you do that from here?”

“The queen’s call overrides my task. If I survive the war, I will protect my charge.”

One of the generals entered the room. The whispering stopped the second he did so.

He was taller than most of the others there. Instead of long, flowing robes, he wore a short cloak of mottled green pushed onto his back to reveal a tank top and pants in the same colors. He had a dagger strapped to his hip, a mace on the other, and a sword across his back.

“All of you must be outfitted. You will leave your robes in the amory. Take a cloak if you want. Any bare skin should be smeared with tar. You will receive further orders after you have gathered your weapons and outfitted yourselves.”

Illa moved to follow the others out.

“Lucilla,” Nathan said. She kept walking. “Illa, Myra needs you. She’s lost and she needs her guardian.”

He followed her.

“Illa, stop. Myra and Summer need you.”

“What are you trying to do ?” One of the other sidhe asked as she walked by. “You know what will happen if you are caught defying the queen like this.”

“Illa doesn’t belong here. I don’t belong here. We don’t have to serve in the queen’s war.” Nathan protested.

“You know that’s not true.” The female sidhe said. “We all belong here. We have to protect all of Faery from these intruders. They take our land, our food, kill wyldfae. We have to fight them and take back what is ours. The queen’s compulsion isn’t why I’m here. I believe in our cause.”

“But Illa, you don’t believe this. You never wanted to be caught up in a war. That’s why you fled. That’s why we all did.”

They started down a hallway.

“Illa, remember who you are.”

“I have, Nanadiel.”