Fantasy of Frost

by Kelly St Clare

  My mind won’t rest. I turn my thoughts to Kedrick’s assassin to distract myself. There is only one other lead I have left.

  Tomi had said the Seedyr wood was harvested in the first sector. The assembly would leave for the first sector in two days. The timing was perfect. I could travel with them most of the way. This way I didn’t have to escape the castle and I wouldn’t get lost. The King was also away and he was the only other person who knew what I looked like, which would make it easy to escape. I would be back before him. His anger would be placated with the information I uncovered about the arrow. I had to go. I had promised Kedrick I would avenge him, but I also needed time to myself. I needed to gather myself and formulate some plan for my own future. I was done relinquishing control to my mother and Jovan.

  Everything I would need to survive the cold, I had gotten from my birthday party all those months ago. The weather would be a great deal warmer in the first sector, too. Food was the only item I did not have. I would stockpile it over the next two days.

  And I do exactly that. I’m glad Rhone is not here, he would have noticed straight away. I pack all my belongings into Kedrick’s bag, which I still have from our Oscala journey. It seems like an eternity ago. The assembly is meeting in the courtyard. I stuff the remaining part of the arrow shaft and fletching into my boot, then shoulder my bag and whistle to Kaura.

  Only half of the assembly is present.

  “Where is everyone?” I ask Roman.

  He jumps down from helping to pack the sled. “Only half of the assembly goes at a time. There aren’t enough sleds. The people closest to the King’s table go first. The others are collected in a week.” He helps another man to load a large chest.

  It would have been easier to disappear with more people.

  We start out soon after. I get in the sled with Adnan, Roscoe and two other advisors I don’t know, hoping for quiet. I’m wedged between Roscoe and Adnan, their body heat and my fur clothing keeps me toasty warm.

  A shout stirs me from a deep sleep. I open my eyes and shift a little, before realising I have fallen asleep on Adnan’s shoulder.

  “Sorry,” I mumble, still half asleep. I hadn’t gotten much sleep since seeing myself in the mirror. I kept having a nightmare where I was standing in front of a whole bunch of people without my veil on.

  “No problem,” Adnan says. Even if it had been a problem, he would not have told me. He was too nice.

  “You slept nearly the whole way. We will be stopping soon,” Roscoe says from my other side. I nod and straighten my veil, pushing the band down.

  We stop at a place called an Inn. As foretold, the assembly proceeds to get roaring drunk. I sip away at a goblet, pouring the drink out when no one is looking. I’m still not comfortable with the drink. Malir comes over and sits with me. He is not drinking tonight.

  “You know. If you get caught tipping that out, there are harsh penalties,” he says.

  “Penalties? Like what?” I ask. I had not though this would be considered a crime.

  “See that large urn over there?” he asks. I nod. “You have to drink all of that as fast as you can. Believe me, you don’t want to do that.” He shudders.

  “Thank you for warning me.”

  He chuckles, I am close enough to see the laugh lines around his eyes as they crinkle. I can’t believe how different my view of him is now. I used to be slightly afraid of him. I still wouldn’t want to get on his bad side.

  “Adnan waters down his brew. He thinks we don’t know, but we do. You might want to do this instead. There are no rules against it. Yet,” he adds and gets up as Sadra yells at him from across the room.

  I take his advice and fill my goblet with water. It’s much more manageable. I almost enjoy it.

  The next day passes quietly because everyone is hung over. I ride with the same group who don’t seem too worse for wear. I think Fiona and Jacky may be a bit hurt I’m not riding with them, so I try to make up for it by spending the next evening with them. We are now on the edge of the first sector in the middle ring. This is my chance to run. The inn is surrounded by buildings. It will be an easy matter to lose anyone on my trail. I keep Kaura close the whole evening. I will have to leave her behind. It feels like I’m betraying her, but she is too young and I don’t wish for her to get injured. They will find her tomorrow and I’m sure one of my friends will look after her for a few days. I hug Jacky and Fiona again that night. They are too drunk to wonder why and I listen to their conversation for awhile. They are discussing the King’s tour. He is supposed to be in the fifth sector right now. Perfect.

  Malir is not on duty tonight, he’s drinking with the others. Guards have been placed around the Inn. My guard has decreased with the watchmen needing to divide between the two groups of assembly members during the migration. I still have two personal guards, thankfully not the older guard who is more experienced than the others.

  I sit in my room as the night goes on and silence falls, signalling the end of the festivities for another night. When the dark sky becomes darker still, I stand and stoop down to pick up Kaura.

  “I love you, girl,” I say and kiss her on the nose. She whines in response. Still in my nightgown, I move to the door and swing it open.

  “Sorry, I think she needs to go out. Do one of you mind?” I ask. The younger guard takes a whining Kaura from me and walks away. The other guard and I watch him go down the hall. I wait until the door swings shut behind the guard before hitting the remaining guard in the side of the neck and helping him to the ground. I heave him inside the room and close the door.

  I dress in record time, pulling on the heavy coat and gloves. I rip off the veil and stuff it deep into the bag, then pull the fur hat on.

  I deal with one more guard before reaching the outside gate to the Inn.

  “Halt,” a voice says. There are three sets of footsteps.

  Veni. I turn around to face the watchmen. “Yes?” I ask.

  “What are doing here?” the tallest one asks.

  I gesture at the building I have just left. “I was looking for a room at the Inn, but it’s bloody full,” I say.

  The man glares at me. It is amazing what I can see without my veil on. “You shouldn’t be wandering around by yourself.”

  “You my father now?” I ask, giving him a narrow look.

  The watchman isn’t happy with that. He waves me on. I turn and walk away keeping my steps relaxed, just like I used to in the dining ring.

  “Isaac, go and see where the fuck Rik is. The Commander will have his head if he finds out someone got in.” That’s my cue to get out of there.

  I have no choice but to stick to the pathway as I leave. It is the most obvious route, but speed is my strategy for the moment. I start running once I hit the cobblestones and then begin zig-zagging between parallel lanes at random. The cold air stings my eyes. They water from the sensation. I can feel the air on my skin. I keep to the shadows, knowing nothing except the further I get from the Inn and the closer I get to the outer rings, the lesser my chance of being caught before I get my information.

  Hours pass. The houses get smaller and closer together. The large lanes running between the blocks of homes turn into narrow pathways until eventually I’m creeping down an uneven cobbled space only wide enough for two people. Low ceilings jut out a couple of metres above my head. Jovan would have to stoop to walk down here. Half of the houses, if they can be called that, are in ruins; roofs caved in and gutted. Dark alleyways branch off at intervals. This must be the outer rings. Finding somewhere to stay until morning is my next priority. I have never been anywhere new by myself. How do I go about this? Do they have Inns here? Uneasiness twinges under my ribs.

  My instincts have me stopping regularly to listen for noise. The hairs on the back of my neck start prickling. Someone is watching me.

  There is a whistle to the side of me. Several other whistles break the silence of the night air. The whistles surround me in a circle. I can guess what that mean
s. I take off at a sprint, winding through the narrow spaces.

  I come to a fork in the path and dodge to the left. Hope flares as the path opens into a larger space. I slide around a collapsed building and slow, my hope replaced by dread at the large wall in front of me.

  Chapter Thirty

  Laughter fills the alleyway behind me. Looking over my shoulder, I see five shapes of varying heights. I need to scale the wall. I turn back, but pull short as I find there are now two shadows sitting on top of it.

  I take off my pack and hold it in my hand.

  “Look, the child’s gonna fight us.” A small man smiles, he grins at me and my eyesight is so clear now, I can see he is missing most of his teeth.

  “Do y’think they’ll take ‘er?” one asks. “She’s small.” I shudder in revulsion, whoever they plan on selling me to, it can’t be good.

  He mistakes my shudder for fear.

  Aquin is always telling me to use my height to my advantage. I slump my shoulders forward. “W-what are you g-going to do to me?” I ask, keeping my voice shaky and high as a child’s voice would be.

  “Have you run away from home, little love?” the tallest man in the middle speaks. “We have found many like you. Young ones, lost and afraid. We’ll show you somewhere warm to sleep. We’ll give you food to fill your belly.”

  This man is the creepiest by far, I sense danger emanating from him and wonder if anyone, even a child, could fall for his words.

  “Somewhere w-warm?” I ask in a small voice.

  “Sure, sweetie,” Creepy says.

  “You’ll keep someone warm, anyways,” another mutters. They all snigger and start to move closer. I let them surround me. The space is too wide to force them into single file. The pathway I left might have been a better fitting space. At least here I don’t have to worry about attacks from above. It might be the only place with high roofs I had passed out here so far.

  The two up on the wall do not move. All they see is a little girl, they don’t think they are needed to help capture this one. I throw my bag half heartedly at one of them. He catches it with a laugh and starts rifling through it with the man next to him. Two distracted.

  The first move comes, very predictably, from behind me. I cross one leg over the other for momentum and lean to the side kicking my foot high, the kick is full force and straight to the middle of his face. There is a crunch as his cheek bones and nose are broken. It had been six months since I had trained and the movement was not as precise as my kicks usually were, still, it had still done the job.

  There is a moment where the remaining four are frozen with shock. The two men drop my pack, spilling the contents onto the ground.

  I take advantage of their shock and run to the man on my right. I grab the hand he punches towards me and roll my back to his body, I use his momentum and crush my elbow into his throat. I hear the snap of the small bones through his throat and know he will die soon. I spin behind him as I hear the ting of a dagger being released. The dagger thuds into his chest. I rip it out with a squelching sound, throwing it into the forehead of the man who I threw my pack to. Three down. The two men from the walls are on their feet about to jump down the wall. They have realised this isn’t going as planned.

  I run at the next man to my right. The dagger thrower. He launches another and I spin above it, catching him just as he is retrieving a third. I land and jump high to level a punch straight to his eye. His head hits the wall behind him and he bounces back towards me, I kick high under his chin. He crumples to the ground. I hear a whistle of a weapon behind me and roll sideways. Someone grabs at my legs as I do, but I kick them away and roll my legs back over my head, then jump to my feet. The two men from the wall have landed now. Three to go.

  The remaining three stand in a line and look at each other.

  They rush me at the same time. I run to the side and take a few quick steps up the alley wall and flip over their heads. A knife scrapes my back as I do so. I land behind them, sweeping the legs of the creepy man from under him. I round house one of the wall men in the face and slit his throat with his knife and then throw the same knife into the skull of the other wall man, who is trying to run away. I don’t hesitate. They won’t have a chance to bring more friends.

  The leader finds his feet. “Wh-who are you?” he says. It’s his turn to stutter. I know his is real.

  I shrug. “It doesn’t matter. It does not change anything.” He tries to run, I knew he would. I launch up and land on his back, then twist his neck and feel him go limp. I drop his head and it lands with a thud on the ground.

  I rest my hands on my knees. My punches had been slow and my muscles were burning. The last six months had taken a lot of my endurance. But there was no time to rest. If more came, I might not be able to fight them off.

  There are seven bodies around me. I check the first and confirm it is dead. I go to the fourth one who threw the daggers at me and push a dagger under his ribs when I feel his heart is still going.

  A part of me is surprised at my ruthlessness, considering I have never killed anyone before. But the actions are almost automatic. It was them or me, and I chose me.

  I have probably prevented them from selling children to become whores or slaves in the meantime.

  “Thank you, Aquin,” I mutter. I pillage the bodies, collecting several daggers which look to be of decent quality and taking any coin they have on them. Which is a lot. I find it sewn into their clothing and hidden in their boots.

  I leave them with their clothing on, which is more than they would have left me with. I go back to my bag and quickly repack it. I grab the wooden band from my veil and feel around for my veil. Where is it?

  I walk back and forward along the alleyway. The veil is my ticket back into the castle. I will not be able to return without it. My fingers sweep across some cloth in the far corner of the alley. I sigh in relief, but it is short-lived. The veil has been torn in half. It is ruined beyond repair. I stare at the pieces in horror.

  “So where to now?” a voice calls.

  I whirl, a dagger drawn in front of me. A tall figure stands on top of the wall. I scan behind me and along the roof tops to make sure there is no one else. I stand up once confirming it is just one person. Though, I remind myself, I was only one person and look what carnage I had just created.

  “None of your fucking business,” I say. I knew when I left the assembly I would have to be a bit rude. A lot more, if I took those men as an example.

  “Well I would advise that you may want to make it your fucking business,” the voice retorts. The voice is feminine, which surprises me. It doesn’t make me trust her for one second. Again, I’m female and look at what I had just created. Plus, the pure fact she is brave or stupid enough to be out alone in the outer rings tells me a great deal.

  I take the bait. What have I got to lose? I can’t return until I get another veil.

  “And why is that?” I put a few layers of sarcasm into my voice.

  “Because you have now alerted most of the outer ring you are here. There are eyes everywhere. Actually, there are eyes watching and listening to this very conversation.” I peer side to side. I cannot sense anyone. Is she bluffing?

  “What is it to you if everyone knows?” I say aggressively, trying to mimic Jovan’s voice when he had erupted about the sleds.

  “It means a lot less to me than it should to you,” she responds cryptically, tossing her head. “What you just faced were the whore-hounds. An unskilled group. They’re the poorest of thugs. The men who are coming next, however, they’re the real deal. We are talking about men who have trained and who have spent their lives fighting. There are many among these who could easily rival what you just displayed.”

  This catches my attention out of everything she has said. Suddenly my plan of run until morning, find out who makes Seedyr weapons, find a new veil somehow and make my way to the castle in the first sector seems impossible. I had thought the outer rings would be similar to the villa
ges back on Osolis. It wasn’t. Veni! I had bitten off more than I could chew. And I had not counted on there being fighters better than the level of the thugs who had beaten me in the castle.

  I say nothing. It is encouragement enough for her.

  “Do you have anywhere to go?” she presses.

  I still don’t answer. I’m wary of the ears and eyes she mentioned before and I do not want them to know that I am not familiar with the area.

  “I have a place you can stay,” she says.

  I scoff aloud. “And you would just offer this out of the kindness of your heart?”

  She snorts. “Don’t be fucking hilarious. I’m a business woman. Before, I mentioned I don’t have as much interest in your safety, but I do have some.”

  “I’m not a whore, you bitch. So don’t even try that shit.” I smile at using so many bad words, though the moment is tense.

  “As you look to be a child, I sincerely hope you are not a whore.” She spits this out and I know the concept is disgusting to her. Or she’s a good actress.

  “I’m a business woman,” she repeats as she walks along the wall. “I make my money by placing the fighters I own into competition fights held throughout the outer rings.” She lets this soak in. “If you come with me I will provide you with food, shelter, relative safety and clothing. In return you will train daily and, when I deem you ready, you will enter the pits and win my coin.”

  I can hear shouting in the distance. The woman looks nervously towards the sound. If this woman, who lives here and owns a fighting business is scared, I definitely should be. Her offer doesn’t sound too bad.

  “How do I know you are telling the truth?” It is the only thing holding me back. I would imagine being a paid fighter is probably the most respectable trade I can get into out here and, if she is sincere in what she has offered, I would see it as an opportunity to survive until completing my quest and getting some material.