by Lauren Quick
Realizing Honora was escaping, Trix howled with anger, the sound propelling Honora forward. Once out of the clearing, she raced deeper into the woods and higher off the ground, leaving Ren behind. Her heart ached. It was their only hope. She flew above the trees and out of the witch’s reach. Within a few minutes Barnaby coasted to her side, his distraction a success.
Making her way back to Ren’s cabin, Honora ached all over, including her ego. She wasn’t accustomed to retreating, but her rational side won out over her competitive one. Plus, the ice witch had kicked her butt and she needed to regroup.
Honora remembered what Ren had said about the winter thaws and refreezes and contemplated how that could have contributed to the Trix’s illness. Her mentor and member of her flying club, Slader, had warned her about the terrible side effects of winter sickness before she made her first trek to the North Woods months ago.
The winter of the deep northern woods was brutal. Even hardened witches living in the north for decades could suddenly fall victim to the illness. The combination of the cold brought on by the harsh ever-changing climate plus the duration of shorter days and longer nights took its toll. Studies also found that the intense natural magic of the north added to the sickness.
Winter sickness. It made sense. Honor sighed. Ren was right: Trix was sick, very sick. And if she wanted to get Ren out of her encampment any time soon, helping her was the best option. Now she had to figure out how.
There were two snowcrafts parked outside of Ren’s cabin. Relief flooded through Honora when she walked inside and saw Rosalyn and a tall bearded wizard attending to Timber, who was resting on his haunches and appeared to be in much better shape than when she’d left him.
“You got my message,” Honora said, joining them and stroking the animal.
“Sure did,” Rosalyn said. “Jansen here is a local animal healer. He’s taking care of Timber. Says he should be good as new.”
Honora and the wizard exchanged nods. “Thanks for coming on short notice. We really needed the help.”
“Good thing you found him when you did. A couple more hours and there wouldn’t have been much I could have done. He’ll need time to rest and recuperate, but with the medicine I brought, he should be fine.” Jansen tapped a leather brown pouch.
Rosalyn turned her attention to Honora. “The sheriff won’t be out here for a couple more hours. You look like a dog that’s been in a fight and lost.” She arched her brow and inspected the cut over Honora’s eye.
Honora pulled up a chair and sat down, the energy draining out of her body. Her legs felt like jelly. “Lost badly,” she said, wincing as Rosalyn dabbed a cotton pad with a noxious smelling tincture onto the open wound on Honora’s forehead where Trix lassoed her. “Ouch.”
“It stings and stinks, but it works. Now are you gonna fill me in on what happened out there? I’m assuming your boyfriend has gotten himself into a world of trouble.”
“Tell me about it. Do you know anything about an ex-girlfriend he used to have? Some ice elemental. She’s gone mental and taken him hostage in a huge ice fortress she’s built for the two of them.”
Roslyn whistled. “You mean Trix. Know her and try to avoid her as much as possible. She’s one tough witch and a wicked ice elemental. Hard as nails if you ask me.” She shuddered. “I knew they wouldn’t last, but I had no idea she’d go this far.”
“I think this is more than just a jealous girlfriend gone crazy. If I had a guess, I’d say she was suffering from a bad case of winter sickness,” Honora said, drawing Jansen’s attention.
He glanced up from the wolf, worry in his eyes. “That’s not good. Winter sickness is tough to treat in the best of circumstances, but even harder on someone who’s acting irrationally and probably won’t agree to treatment.” The wizard was more than just an animal healer.
“What kind of treatment are you talking about?” Honora asked.
“I’ve only treated winter sickness in a few wizards trapped out in the forest, but it’s a warming potion of moonflower. I usually prescribe three doses over a week. You might want to check with a healer in town to get a correct dosage and remedy brewed to treat her properly. It sounds like you’ll need an accelerated dose,” he said.
“Moonflower? Does that grow up here?” Honora asked.
“It’s harvested in the summer months,” Jansen said, patting Timber’s head.
“We need to get our hands on some and fast.” Honora rested her elbow on the table.
Rosalyn shifted on her heavy boots. “That means heading back into town to see the doc. He can create an emergency moonflower potion in a flash. I’ve been lucky and never needed it, but I know many a wizard who’ve been trapped out in the woods and have. It’s part of life up here. There’s always a risk.”
“Getting the potion won’t be hard, but getting her to take it is going to be nearly impossible. Not to mention breaching the ice fort she’s built. Ren’s ax barely put a dent in a small lock. I don’t know how we’re going to break through her stronghold.”
“Let’s get the potion first, then worry about getting through her fortress.” Rosalyn said. “I have a few friends back at the bar who can help us with that.”
“We can use all the help we can get.”
Taking one of the snowcrafts, Honora and Rosalyn hurried back into town, leaving Timber in the animal healer’s capable hands while they located the healer who could brew them a cure for Trix’s sickness.
The office was a cramped room behind the general store filled with wooden shelves overflowing with bottles of supplies, knives, bandages, and mortar and pestles. A medicinal smell permeated the room, causing Honora’s nose to twitch. The healer was a spindly wizard with a long red beard, which he rubbed like a nervous habit as he talked.
“Winter sickness is really just a buildup of clogged magic that keeps the witch’s energy from flowing. It can cause strange behavior, paranoia, and sudden outbursts. Violence is an extreme symptom. I’ve seen witches go from being docile creatures to raging bulls when stricken with the sickness.”
He turned his back and grabbed a few items off his shelf, continuing to talk. “The intense magical stagnation or sickness calls for a counter spell to balance out the magic that your friend is building within herself. The best remedy would be warming magic, a potion to spark a fire to counter the ice elemental magic she’s harboring.” He uncorked some bottles and began mixing ingredients.
“Can you create something powerful enough for a witch in an advanced stage of the illness? She’s in dire need. She’s already hurt one wizard and nearly killed his wolf, and I’m afraid she might go further if not treated immediately,” Honora said. The surroundings reminded her of her sister Vivi’s potion shop and would have been comforting under different circumstances.
“I normally like to treat patients in my office to monitor them. But I’ve treated many out in the wild. Unfortunately, it sounds like you may have to use your flying skills to get close to the patient.”
Rosalyn dropped a leather pouched filled with gold on the table. It made a loud clank and spoke volumes. “You know I wouldn’t normally ask, but this one’s a bad one. Worst I’ve heard of. I’m afraid we need the potion as quickly as you can make it,” Rosalyn said, spurring the healer on.
“You’ve always been the pushy type,” he smiled at Rosalyn while lighting a fire under a small copper cauldron and pouring in some chopped ingredients. He worked quickly, his long fingers moving swiftly over the potion that he had bubbling within minutes. He’s done this many times, Honora thought.
“Now we just need to figure out how to get her to take it,” Honora said.
“I’ll go get the crew. They can help. For a case of winter pine whiskey, they’ll do just about anything.” Rosalyn headed out.
With the flask tied to her hip, Honora flew
above the rest of the crew. Getting through Trix’s ice fortress wasn’t going to be the real challenge of their mission—getting close to the angry witch and then getting her to swallow the medicine would be. They’d need Ren’s help. He was the only one who could reason with Trix or at least get her calm enough to take the medicine. Honora’s stomach twisted at the plan, probably because his concern for his ex made her a little jealous, if she were being totally honest.
But first they needed to breach Trix’s stronghold. That’s where Rosalyn’s friends came in. Having a bar populated with ax-wielding wizards had its advantages. Besides Vanderkin Archwood, there was Candy, the six-foot-tall witch with the massive white braid trailing down her back, wearing a bandolier holding a half-dozen hand-held axes, and the robust dark-skinned wizard named Z who had two thick curved blades strapped to his back and two more strapped to his thighs, which were the size of tree trunks. Last but not least was a wizard they called Dick, just Dick. He had no beard and wore a gray knit hat with a pink pom-pom ball on top. “You don’t want to mess with Dick,” Rosalyn said, cryptically, but she didn’t elaborate.
Rosalyn and her crew of wizards bounded over the land below in three snowcrafts while Honora and Barnaby coasted overhead. They rendezvoused under the hanging cage where Ren was once held captive, now empty.
“She’s taken him inside the fortress,” Honora said after doing a quick surveillance sweep. Illuma lights glowed from inside and the glassy ice walls were thin enough for her to see shapes moving on the other side as if she’d peered into a green house, but it was hard to tell who was who.
Since Honora had been there, Trix had erected a twenty-foot ice wall that surrounded her throne and fortress. Her paranoia was obviously growing. Honora lowered to the ground. “We’re going to have to go through the wall. It’s too high to scale and the other side is slick as glass.”
“The wall is no problem.” Vanderkin said, gripping an enormous ax with runes carved in the side of the blade. “It’s our pleasure.”
Rosalyn turned to the crew. “Trix is a master elemental. Don’t let your guard down for a second. Ice is her territory.”
Z pulled a thick metal shield that thrummed with magic from his gear. “We live in a world of ice. She’s met her match.”
“How do you want this to go down?” Rosalyn asked, turning to Honora.
“We’ll need to confuse her. She’ll know we’re here the minute we break one little icicle. I say we divide our forces, each take point around the perimeter and come at her from different directions. That will give us a better chance once we break through her first layer of defense. She can’t battle all sides at once. I’ll find Ren and get him up to speed. You guys keep her busy till then.” Honora eyed the crew, armed to the hilt and eager to charge in, and for the first time thought they had a real chance of pulling this off.
“Take her down, subdue her, and give her the medicine. No problem,” Rosalyn said with a sarcastic grunt.
“We brought bear traps.” Candy pinned up her braid. “I subdued an angry momma bear defending her cubs a month ago. We needed to move her after the landslide. As long as she isn’t bigger than a bear, we can do this.”
“She’s not a momma bear, but she is defending her territory. So be careful.” Honora shifted her weight. “Let’s get into position and get your axes ready. We’re going to break a little ice.”
Honora hovered above the fortress and gave the signal. Candy ran her gloved hand along the wall as if caressing a lover’s cheek. Then she raised her ax, whispered a spell, and cleaved a huge chunk of ice from the wall. Z drove two axes arm over arm into the wall. The runes on the blades of his axes glowed red hot, slicing through the ice like bread, sparks flying. The screeching of magical metal blades on ice was deafening. Rosalyn wielded her wand, creating a hot spot for Vanderkin to punch through with the head of his ax. Dick waited until the others had breached the wall before he held up his palm and blasted a hole clean through the thick ice.
Rosalyn caught Honora’s eye. “Ice breaker,” she mouthed.
“Now I know why no one messes with Dick,” Honora said to herself.
Within seconds of the crew’s attack, Trix stormed out of the fortress. Icy rubble was everywhere. She spun in a circle, mind working, trying to decide which threat to attend to first. She headed for Rosalyn and Vanderkin, but not before leaving the front door of the fort wide open. Honora made her move.
She descended with speed and grace, landing like a feather. She pulled out her wand and scanned the fortress for wards. Nothing. Why didn’t she put wards up? Was she that confident or stupid? Was it the sickness?
Honora paused. Guttural screams and bellows filled the air. She needed to act fast. The crew engaged the ice elemental in full battle.
“Ren!” she yelled, darting inside the stronghold.
Then she realized why Trix hadn’t use wards. She didn’t need to. Ren was lying on a bed of furs in front of a fire and he looked much warmer. In fact his bare, well-toned muscles practically glowed in the firelight.
“What are you doing here?” He leaned up, shirtless.
“Coming to rescue you. You look better.” She swallowed her jealousy, realizing he’d been at Trix’s mercy. “We’ve got to get out of here. Now.”
“She’s gotten worse.” His brow creased and he tried to take her hand, but Honora pulled away.
“Save it. We’ve got a remedy.” She unstrapped the flask from her leg and handed it to him. “You’re job is to get her to drink this.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes,” he said while pulling on his clothes and boots.
An explosion rattled the walls of the fortress. Honora raced outside to face the carnage. Huge ice shards were everywhere. Dick was shattering everything that Trix threw at them, but his face was pinched and he was barely able to stand. Z held up his metal shield against a wave of icy water that Trix had unleashed, straining against the sheer force of the magical blast. Candy had gotten one of the stakes of the bear trap driven into the ground and activated. It was a glowing green pulse in the darkness. Sweat pouring down her face, Rosalyn was fighting to get another stake through the ice. Vanderkin was down, clutching his leg, a thick ice dagger sticking out of it. Honora raced to Rosalyn’s side with Ren joining the crew.
“We need to get this set up and fast,” Rosalyn said, pulling the stake up. “I’ll speak the spell. You use a blade to drive it through the ice.”
Honora grabbed a heavy dagger and held it with both hands high above the small hole that Rosalyn had started to dig. The tavern owner yelled the earth magic spell at the top of her lungs. The blade grew warm in Honora’s hands, the runes adorning it glowing to life. “Now!” she bellowed and Honora drove the magical blade into the ice with a heavy thrust and grunt. “Pull up, pull up!” Rosalyn yelled and Honora obeyed, yanking the dagger out of the hole she’d just made so the witch could drive the stake in and activate it. With their stake activated, they glanced over to see Z activate the final stake while Ren held the shield.
Suddenly, at the last second, Trix darted out of the magical containment field created by the three stakes. The air crackled with magic. The force field was invisible to the eye, but anything that wandered inside of it would be trapped.
“We missed her,” Rosalyn said. “She headed for the woods.”
“We’ve got to draw her out and get her to cross the lines. And I think there is only one way.” Honora flew to Ren. “Climb on my back.”
“Are you mad? What are you thinking?”
“Just do it.”
Ren put his arms around her shoulders and braced his knees on her thighs in a piggyback and Honora lifted off the ground. “I had no idea you were this strong.”
“Yeah, I hear that a lot.” Honora flew directly over the trap, hovering just out of reach of the magical pull. “Trix! If
you want to see your boyfriend again, come and get him. If not, he’s coming with me.”
“You’re using me as bait,” Ren whispered.
“Do you have a better idea?” Honora flew in a circle over the trap.
“No, not really.”
“Just have that medicine ready.”
Trix strode out of the woods, eyes blood red. Her fingers were pure white and coated in a layer of ice. “You think you can trick me.”
“It’s your choice. Come and get him or I’m claiming Ren for myself.”
Trix glided up to the edge of the trap. The ground was solid ice, slick and hard.
“You’re such a foolish witch. I’m going to enjoy freezing you all to death.” Water dripped from her fingers and she raised her hand to fire off more waves of ice, but before she could, Honora whispered, “Sorry about this, Ren. Plan B.” She let go of him and he tumbled toward the icy ground.
“No!” Trix yelled and darted right inside of the trap, throwing a sweeping wave of ice to cradle Ren’s fall. As she did, the trap encased both of them. Ren jumped off the bed of ice and launched himself at Trix, enclosing her in a tight embrace. Then he poured the medicine down her throat before she knew what was happening. A look of betrayal filled her eyes.
“It’s to help you. You’ll be better soon,” he said. Trix fell to her knees and Ren held her in his arms, stroking her hair. She coughed and shivered, but didn’t fight him, the medicine taking effect.
Honora lowered to the ground near Rosalyn. “Love is stronger than a bear trap,” she said.
Her friend patted her on the back. “You did a good thing, helping that witch.”
