Without thinking, I shot out of my throne, shrieked, “Stop!” and dashed to the stairs that led to the scaffold.

I didn’t make it. Stephan caught me first and then I felt myself transferred to Frey’s arms but I continued to screech, “Stop! Stop right now! Stop right now!” as I struggled against his hold.

“Finnie, wee one,” he growled in my ear with a rough squeeze, “calm yourself.”

I totally ignored him, kept struggling and kept shouting, “Stop right now!”

And that was when I noticed it and Frey did as well for he stopped trying to pull me back to my throne. He stood still and stared as those closest to the platform heard me, saw me and stopped throwing their snowballs and started staring up at me in shock. This, too, shifted through the crowd with amazing speed and they all quickly become motionless and silent as I kept screaming, “Stop!”

It took only moments for the entirety of the crowd to stop and stare and I stood there, in the curve of Frey’s arm, my chest rising and falling and I returned their stare.

Then, I don’t know what came over me, I started yelling.

Or, more accurately, lecturing my subjects like I was an honest to God princess.

“It is a measure of a nation their cunning! It is a measure of a nation their strength! And it is a measure of a nation,” I leaned forward and screeched, “their mercy!” I leaned back and surveyed the crowd and for some bizarre reason kept right on shouting. “The condemned you see before you have been tried justly and meet their sentence fairly. They have done wrong and they will pay for it. But I am not the Winter Princess of a nation who does not see that even the condemned deserve to be treated with respect as they face death. You may think they do not deserve it but it is your duty as Lunwynians to rise above their actions not fall to their depths. They will hang for their crimes and you will watch this sentence carried out. How could that not be enough for you?”

I tore my eyes away from the now whispering crowd as those close sent my words far, feeling Frey’s arm still tight around my middle but I ignored it and looked down at the scaffold.

“Bring her to her feet,” I ordered the guard standing around Viola and they shifted and stared up at me in stupefaction so I snapped, “Bring her to her feet!”

They jumped toward Viola who I avoided looking at as they helped her up and moved her to her noose. Instead, I looked back to the crowd and, yep, you guessed it, kept right on shouting.

“Today, you witness something infinitely sad. Three people who have gone wrong somewhere in their lives, done wrong because of it and therefore are paying the ultimate price. Do not stand there shouting and jeering, demonstrating that they were right to move against this great nation, those fortunate enough to inhabit her ice-bound earth and those privileged to wear her crowns. Stand there and, as the Lunwynians I know you to be, stand strong, stand proud and stand filled with mercy.” Then I turned in Frey’s arm, looked up to him and snapped, “I’m done.”

He was staring down at me with an expression I wasn’t in any mood to read and luckily he didn’t give me time to do it. Swiftly, he guided me back to my throne and I went, sat and looked back out at the now silent crowd, hands clasped in my lap, trying to deep breathe.

“Commence without delay,” Atticus barked from my left side and I watched silently (as did the crowd) as each of the condemned were allowed their last words. Berg Enger and Viola Milstrom both declined, Enger clearly shaken by the events and Viola obviously so. Hernod Grieg strangely lifted a fist and shouted, “Unite Lunwyn!” and that was it from him.

Their heads were covered with black cloth sacks, the nooses were pulled over their heads and tightened around their necks, a man in a white robe with the band displaying all the gods’ colors dangling said a few words in the ancient tongue and then Father shouted, “Lunwyn!” and the hangman walked down the length of them kicking a high wooden lever behind each of the damned and down went Enger, down went Grieg and I couldn’t help it, I closed my eyes but it was bad enough just hearing her short, sharp, heartbreaking scream that stilled abruptly when down went Viola.

Then the hangman turned and shouted, “It is done, my king!” and Frey had me out of my throne so fast, I got lightheaded. Then we were down the platform, the soles of his men’s boots sounding behind us. Then I was on Tyr, Frey was behind me, his arm tight around my ribs, he leaned us to Tyr’s back, dug his heels into Tyr’s flank and shouted, “Yah!”

There was no avenue anymore and before us the crowd jumped away, parting on their own as Frey, me, Tyr and his men all galloped straight through them and away to Rimée Keep.

* * * * *

It took half the time to get back to the Keep than it did to get to the platform because Frey rode Tyr hard all the way there. Once we arrived, he dismounted and, while doing it, dragged me down right along with him.

Then he dragged me up the steps.

Then he dragged me through the doors that were opened by a footman before we arrived.

Then he dragged me right by my hovering girls who all rushed forward at the sight of me.

Then he dragged me down the hall and into the room we’d been in earlier with my parents.

The girls followed as did, by the sounds of the hustle and bustle, every one of his men as Frey pulled me inside then turned on me.

I took one look at his face, knew he was pissed and did not care.

So I yanked my hand free, lifted it palm up toward him and shouted, “Don’t start!”

He looked beyond me (and my hand) and barked, “Go!”

I looked over my shoulder and shouted, “Stay!”

Both men and women looked between Frey and I and Frey repeated, “Go!” so I fired out, “Do not dare go! Stay!”

“Gods damn it, Finnie,” Frey growled and I looked back at him.

“They were pelting her with snowballs, Frey, right before she was to hang from the neck until dead!” I shouted. “She’d done wrong but wasn’t her sentence as it stood bad enough? Did she have to endure –?”

I stopped talking because suddenly I was crushed in Frey’s arms and his mouth had slammed down on mine whereupon he laid a hot and heavy one on me.

I was clutching his shoulders and blinking up at him dazedly when he lifted his head and started speaking, “It would have been nice to have privacy when I told you how gods damned proud I was of my wife this eve but since you seem to wish a continued audience for your night’s performance, so be it.” I blinked again, realizing vaguely that he wasn’t pissed, the intensity of emotion I read on his face was something else altogether. He gave me a squeeze and stated, “I’m proud of you, Finnie Drakkar. What you did took courage and showed compassion and if your people didn’t already love you, witnessing that, they will.”