Winter Spell

by Claire M Banschbach

Tonya rubbed the blanket’s furred edge between her fingers, wondering what it would have been like to have been raised in the north, with her magic free.

  “Kostis took you to the Reef?”

  Tonya nodded. “Aunt and Uncle looked after me.”

  Thalia’s face brightened. “I’m glad.”

  Tonya didn’t have the heart yet to tell her that it hadn’t been all that wonderful.

  “They have a daughter, Sophie. I didn’t know if you knew that.”

  Thalia gasped. “A daughter! Oh, I can’t wait to meet her! Tell me everything about the ocean and the Reef. I’ve missed it so much. And Freyr says you have ocean magic as well. We’ll have to see what you can do. And—”

  She pressed a hand to her cheek. “I’m sorry, I’m going so fast. I’m just—I can’t believe you’re here and grown up.”

  “It’s all right.” Tonya smiled. The panic was abating, to be replaced by the urge to tell her mother everything about her life, and in turn hear everything about her mother and ocean magic.

  “Where do you want me to start?”

  Thalia reached for her hand, squeezing hard. Tonya kept hold of her hand when she made to release. Thalia smiled and tucked a bit of Tonya’s mismatched hair behind her ear.

  “From the beginning, maybe?”

  *

  Tonya stared at the cave ceiling and the patterns the flames cast on the craggy surface. Diane shifted beside her and nudged her side with an elbow under their blankets.

  “All right?” she whispered sleepily.

  Tonya slowly nodded. She and her parents hadn’t talked long. Her father had walked back in, stomping snow from his boots, and come to sit beside her mother.

  “Started without me?” He’d smiled.

  Tonya had suddenly become tongue-tied sitting next to them, watching Freyr’s arm draped around Thalia’s shoulders, while her mother snuggled into his side like they hadn’t been parted for the last seventy years.

  She’d finally complained of fatigue—not so much a lie. More blankets had been found, the fire stoked higher, and they’d turned in to join the boys in sleep.

  That had been nearly an hour ago. Her parents’ soft murmurs had died down across the cave where they slept together. Despite the fatigue that weighed at her, magic still thrummed through her, keeping her awake.

  “It’s just—strange,” she admitted softly.

  “Give them some time.” Diane yawned. “I’m sure they don’t know what to do with the daughter who went and grew up without them.”

  Tonya half-turned towards Diane. “What if they don’t like what they see?”

  Diane rolled over to face her. She arched her eyebrows.

  “I think the only thing you have to worry about is them absolutely smothering you in affection. Freyr would have spoiled you rotten.” She poked Tonya’s side.

  A small smile curved Tonya’s lips.

  “Get some sleep,” Diane said, and rolled back over.

  Tonya stared over Diane’s shoulder at the bits of sky visible through the cave opening. Freyr had warded it against the cold and any malicious magic since they’d left Steinn still bound outside. The stars winked back, cold and bright and reassuring.

  She closed her eyes, letting the ebb and flow of her magic around her heart lull her into sleep.

  Chapter Thirty-three

  “Will you two be able to head back to Konungburg today?” Diane asked August and Dorian over breakfast.

  August sat up against the wall, slowly eating some bread. He’d kept two blankets wrapped around him. Tonya didn’t like the paleness that lingered in both their faces.

  “I can try,” August said. Dorian looked like he might argue, but he finally just shrugged his uninjured shoulder.

  “As long as you ride one of the caribou,” he said.

  “It’d probably be easier if it still weren’t so cold outside,” August muttered, tugging the furs around him.

  Tonya bit her lip. She had her magic, but still no idea how to break the ice.

  “I think we can probably do something about that.” Freyr looked to her. She rubbed her jacket sleeves, afraid to voice her complete and utter lack of ability to use her magic other than in uncontrolled bursts.

  “I’ll walk you through it,” he said, as if sensing her fear.

  She slowly nodded. Her mother sent her an encouraging smile. It bolstered a bit of confidence in Tonya.

  “What about Steinn?” Diane asked.

  Tonya’s gut twisted at the name. Can we just leave him?

  Freyr’s features hardened. “He goes with us to answer to the king and the council.”

  Thalia rested a hand on his forearm. He looked down at her, a faint smile barely softening his eyes.

  “So, seven of us, two caribou.” Diane arched an eyebrow at August. “Plenty of blankets…” August halfheartedly glared at her from his mound of furs.

  “Dorian, how are you feeling?”

  Dorian opened his mouth, then sighed and slumped back against the wall. “Tired. I could probably walk for a bit.”

  “He gets the other caribou,” Thalia interrupted. “You gave up too much of your magic.” She jabbed a finger at Dorian as if lecturing a small faery. He looked slightly taken aback, and Tonya stifled a small smile.

  “Freyr, you and Tonya go do something about that ice. I think Diane and I can handle the rest of this.” Thalia made a shooing motion at Freyr.

  Diane beamed at Thalia and scooted over to her, already rattling off a list of their current supplies.

  “Come, I think we’d better leave them to it.” Freyr extended a hand down to Tonya. She hesitantly took it and let him pull her to her feet.

  She followed Freyr outside. He ignored Steinn where he sat against the cave wall. Tonya paused, having half-expected him to have disappeared sometime in the night. He shivered a little in the icy chains, but Tonya couldn’t muster up any sympathy for him. He glared at her and she walked away.

  Her father led the way from the copse of trees and back out onto the tundra. He propped hands on his hips and took a deep breath of the chill air, tilting his face up to the sun. Tonya shyly came up beside him.

  “I don’t really know how to control my magic,” she admitted. “I don’t know what to do to break the ice.”

  Freyr opened his eyes and looked down at her. “Half of it is knowing what you want. You seemed to do all right last night.”

  Tonya tucked her hair back. “I was just panicking, really.”

  He nudged her shoulder gently. “Some faeries take years to master what you did in a panic.”

  Heat tinged her cheeks before the breeze whisked it away. She took a breath and squared her shoulders.

  “So what do we do?”

  Freyr knelt and placed one hand in the snow. He beckoned her down beside him.

  “What do you feel?”

  Tonya closed her eyes, settling her fingertips against the snow. Beneath the initial chill, swirls of her magic lay with the ice. But over-lacing it all was a warding and a warning to stay away from the ice. From me.

  “My magic and the warding you and mother placed on me.” She looked to him for confirmation.

  He nodded. “We thought it would just hide your magic from anyone trying to find you. We didn’t know it would hide your magic from you. I’m sorry.”

  Tonya blinked hard. What a difference that would have made.

  “It’s all right.”

  Though her entire past screamed that it wasn’t.

  Freyr rested a hand on her shoulder. “No. And we shouldn’t have left you like that.”

  “He took you away from me.” Tonya forced the words in a trembling voice. That she knew for certain. “You were just trying to protect me the only way you knew.”

  He brushed a hand over her hair and pressed a kiss against her temple. “I’m still sorry.”

  She leaned into his touch. “I forgive you.”

  Freyr blinked a few times and smiled.

  “It told
me about this place,” Tonya said. “The warding. I’ve dreamed of seeing the north for as long as I can remember. Seeing you.”

  “I hope the north won’t disappoint you.” A bit of her fear shone in his grey eyes.

  She squeezed his hand. “Never.”

  His quick laugh sounded more like a faint sob. He kissed her forehead again before turning back to the ice. He cleared his throat once and indicated she should touch the ice again.

  “Just like before, find the starting point.”

  “Wouldn’t that be all the way back in the ocean where I was attacked?” Tonya tried to convince her ice magic to come forward and investigate the ice. Her ocean magic rushed in and out of her fingers like the tide.

  She waved her hands in irritation.

  “What?” Freyr asked.

  “It’s just—I can’t figure out how to make both magics cooperate!” She frowned at her fingers as if they were responsible.

  He pressed her hand. “It’ll come, trust me.”

  Tonya raised an eyebrow. “How do you know? No one’s ever been born with two different kinds of magic before.”

  “Maybe, maybe not.” Freyr shrugged. “I sensed a few drops of ice magic in August last night.”

  “What?” Tonya stared at her father.

  “It’s probably happened before, but not for a very long time. I’ll help you figure it out.” His hand tightened around hers. “Try again.”

  Tonya shoved away memories of instructors saying the same thing to her, albeit in a more weary and frustrated tone. They hadn’t been at this long enough for her father to feel the same way yet. No. She shook herself. I can do this now.

  She closed her eyes again, imagining the tide withdrawing into the ocean. The whispers of waves and breezes and currents obeyed this time, making way for the ice magic in a surly rush. The magic of ice and lights and glaciers leaped eagerly from her fingers into the ice, scurrying around the warding to find the weakness she needed.

  It resided in a swirl of her magic, where the ocean and the ice clashed together, repeating their fight over and over again through the spelled ice.

  “You found it,” Freyr said.

  Tonya nodded, afraid to open her eyes and lose it.

  “My warding was specifically against an attack from Steinn, so it’s the strongest warding magic in the ice. I’ll cast against it and you target your own magic.”

  Tonya nodded, hoping she understood what to do.

  “When you’re ready.”

  She felt a rush of strange, yet familiar, magic ripple into the ice, shaking off the warding and letting the swirls of her magic move more freely. She focused on the nearest weak point. Find the right words.

  Gently nudging the fighting magics apart from one another, she whispered break. Melt.

  A crack startled her eyes open. The ice ripped open in front of her, exposing a long swathe of green and a few purple flowers that lay flat against the ground.

  “Good!” She looked up into her father’s smile. “That’s a start.”

  A surge of triumph filled her. “How far did you cast?”

  “All the way to the Strait. You can work as we go.”

  She shook her head. This was what she’d come to do. Her magic roared in agreement. She plunged her hands back down, sending out tendrils and pushing them over the hills and tundra, as far as she could sense the ice. Then she commanded it to break.

  Dizziness swept over her and she nearly smacked her nose against the ground, but her father’s arm encircled her and pulled her up.

  “Easy!” He half-laughed.

  But Tonya smiled, watching spiderwebbing cracks spread out in every direction, widening as the ice shrunk and melted.

  The air warmed noticeably. A sweet scent overtook the air and she inhaled deeply.

  “What is that smell?” she asked in wonder.

  “Summer on the tundra,” Freyr replied.

  Green spread out in every direction. Swathes of vibrant reds and purples lay across the clumped grass. The trees behind them shook free of the snow clinging to their branches.

  Tonya turned further. The mountains freed themselves from the ice and snow in a rippling wave rushing up to the peaks.

  She staggered to her feet. “I think I used too much magic at once.”

  Freyr laughed. “Aye, you did, but I wager you cleared the ice all the way to the Strait. The Lights must have given you some extra strength last night.”

  He let her lean on his arm as they began to walk back to the cave. Tonya barely had time to brace before Diane hurled herself forward in a hug.

  “I knew you could do it!” she squealed.

  Tonya laughed. “I had some help.”

  Diane leaned back, her hands on Tonya’s shoulders. “Doesn’t matter. You’re amazing!”

  “I didn’t clear it all,” Tonya said. “Everything past the Strait is still under ice.”

  Diane’s face fell a little. “All the more reason to start heading back.”

  She turned back to the cave, a spring to her step that had been missing since they’d first set out from Chelm.

  Under Diane’s direction, Freyr and Tonya readied the caribou. Then Freyr helped August from the cave to slowly mount Steinn’s caribou. Thalia followed to make sure blankets were tucked around him. Tonya watched anxiously as he sat slumped in the saddle, nothing like the confident, careless posture he’d ridden with only a few days ago.

  Dorian limped outside by himself, blinking a little in the sun. Arvo cornered him until he had to mount just to settle the animal. Tonya caught a little grin from August and shook her head at the faery. August shrugged and blinked innocently back at her.

  She held her breath as Freyr approached Steinn and undid the ice that held him to the ground. Steinn said nothing, just started walking when Freyr gestured. They all fell into a little procession. Diane stepping out in front, Freyr guarding Steinn several paces away from the rest of the group as they walked. Tonya shyly walked with her mother beside the caribou.

  After a half hour of walking, she rolled up the sleeves of her coat. Thalia unbuttoned hers as well, letting her arms swing free by her sides.

  “I barely knew that time had passed in the ice, but I feel like I still missed the sun for every minute of these years.” She lifted her chin to the sky with a sigh. “I can’t wait to see the ocean again.”

  “Father taught me some ice magic. Will you show me some of our ocean magic?”

  “Of course!” Her mother waltzed forward a few steps.

  “I hope I’m a little better with it now that the warding is gone. I can’t even fix coral,” she admitted sheepishly.

  Thalia chuckled and wrapped her in a hug. “Can I tell you a secret?” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “I can’t either.”

  Tonya drew away in shock. “What? But fixing coral is the easiest use of magic. That’s what everyone told me!”

  “Maybe for some. But I find it boring. I’d rather dance with the waves any day.”

  Tonya giggled. “That sounds wonderful.” Her ocean magic surged in agreement. “I wish there were something you could teach me right now.”

  “Me too. But I will as soon as we get back to Konungburg and the salt water.”

  “Freyr?” Diane’s cautious voice sounded.

  They looked up to see figures approaching. They morphed into six faeries riding caribou. Tonya watched with bated breath until her father visibly relaxed. He waved them to a stop to wait for the riders.

  Within minutes, the caribou slid to a halt. The foremost rider jumped to the ground, and Tonya stared at King Birgir.

  “Steinn, what is—” His jaw dropped. “Freyr?”

  “Birgir! Still king?” Freyr’s voice came oddly light.

  Birgir shook himself and hauled Freyr into a hug. “You’re alive?”

  “No thanks to my brother,” Freyr said as they pulled apart.

  Birgir cast a glance over them and half-turned to the closest rider. “It seems you were right
, Lilja.”

  Lilja dismounted, scowling at Steinn. “I wish I wasn’t.” She looked past him and her expression brightened. “Thalia!”

  Thalia accepted a hug from the faery before curtseying to the king.

  “Tonya, it looks like you succeeded, then?” Birgir smiled at her. “Was it you who undid the ice this morning?”

  Tonya nodded. “Father helped.”

  Birgir smiled. “I’m glad to hear it.”

  “What are you doing out here?” Tonya finally blurted, unable to keep the question at bay.

  “Lilja has long had some suspicions concerning what really happened to your parents. She had an eagle follow you. August was supposed to send in reports with other animals, but you look a little worse for the wear, lad.” Birgir nodded at August, who still sat hunched in the saddle and wrapped in the furs despite the warmth.

  “Had a little run in with some ice.” August mustered a smile. “It kept me busy. Sorry.” He looked to Lilja. But the faery commander had turned a stormy glare on Steinn.

  “You dared to attack them with ice spells you learned from us?” She lunged forward, and only Birgir and Freyr grabbing her arms halted her advance. Steinn said nothing, just turned his face away.

  “When we didn’t hear from you by yesterday’s noon, we rode, fearing the worst. Then this morning, we caught trace of a magic we thought long vanished.” Birgir looked to Freyr. “When the ice vanished beneath our feet, we didn’t know what to think, except to ride faster.”

  “Are those extra caribou I see?” Diane pushed up on her toes to look past the other riders.

  Birgir laughed. “They are indeed.”

  “Perfect.” Diane beamed. “I was dreading walking the entire way back.”

  “Aye, mount up,” Lilja said. “It looks like there’s a long story to be told after we get back to Konungburg.”

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Tonya tiptoed over to Dorian and August’s room. Upon arrival back at Konungburg, they’d been once again housed in the same quarters.

  She knocked softly on the open door. She hadn’t had a chance to see either of them since arriving back at the city two nights before as they were immediately taken to the healer. No answer greeted her, and she gingerly opened the door a little further.