“Okay, wow,” said Andrew. Had this all been before him all this time?
“However, though she meant for you to escape this cell, I don’t think she means for you to leave this forsaken city,” Granite continued. “There is where I must help. You have your swords, and they should serve you well, but wait an hour or so before you attempt your escape, and I will see to distracting her so that she doesn’t notice and send her full force upon you.”
“How?” Andrew asked.
A smile pulled at the corners of Granite’s hard mouth. “She is my wife. I have my ways, and she knows better than to deny me.” He sighed. “I pray that you and the Water Princess shall never face a day with when you each fear the other sneaking behind your backs and undoing what you have worked so hard to do, a day when your love becomes a weapon rather than the binding between you.”
Andrew glanced back at the frozen Water Princess. “Uh, yeah. I hope you … find a way out of your mess.”
The smile turned into a grimace. “I promised to stand by her five thousand years ago, and the magic that keeps us young is the only thing left binding her to me. Her death is my death, and we cannot deny our vows. I have little hope of ever having her return to her former goodness, before her death, so I fear that the remainder of my days shall be unhappy, all spent trying to nullify her poison as best I can without rousing her anger.”
Andrew had no idea what to say to that. This was no young man who stood before him, despite the fact that he’d been frozen at the age of eighteen, five thousand years before. To have such a wedge driven between him and his wife for how many thousands of years? Andrew couldn’t even imagine it.
“It was you,” he realized, a moment later.
Granite’s eyebrow arched, but he said nothing.
“In the village before we reached the castle of Lower Klarand, there was a man who had a message for me about Amber. That was you.”
Granite was quiet for several moments, then nodded. “Yes. I had heard you were here, and wanted to meet you for myself. I will leave now, for Amber must be distracted. The Water Princess need not know that I was involved in your escape, and the Legends must not state my involvement. Yes, I work against my wife, but history must not record it. If questions are asked, say only that you were helped by Alphego’s miracle.”
Andrew nodded. “But…”
“No, I must go now,” said Granite, shaking his head. “See to your Water Princess. She has stood frozen long enough. Only, I fear that there might be complications. Amber has never frozen one associated with water before, as John and Helen were both too clever to be caught by the spell, and I know for a fact that Amber’s statues never freeze with color. As you, Ralph, and Jane were resistant to the spell, I fear she may be sensitive. However, I have no doubt that you will thaw her. That is why I said to give me an hour.” He paused a moment, then added, pointing behind him, “You will find the Kastle in that direction.”
And with that, the man turned and walked away, leaving Andrew alone with the frozen Water Princess once more. Andrew took a deep breath and turned to her, balling his left hand into a fist and holding the ring over her head. He sent up a silent prayer that he wasn’t doing the wrong thing, and then let loose a stream of flame that flowed down her head and coated her body. He jerked his hand away. She still stood there, he hadn’t turned her to a puddle … but she didn’t spring back to life, either. He watched her for one agonizingly long moment, and then she began to fall.
He caught her automatically, and she hung limp and cold in his arms. She wasn’t breathing, and her eyes stared lifeless as the look of horror melted away. His heart pounding with fear that she was dead, he sought a pulse. With a breath of relief, he found one, though it was faint.
She was alive.
He gently lowered her to the floor and then knelt beside her. With trembling hands, he lifted her chin and pinched her nose, then bent over, placed his mouth over hers, and pressed air into her lungs. She gasped in another breath without his help, and he drew back, biting his lip.
She kept breathing, and life seemed to return to her face. Her sightless eyes had slid closed – but she also started shivering, violently. Her skin was turning blue, and his panic returned as he scooped her up off the bare ground and pressed her against him, trying to warm her up. She was so painfully cold.
Cold. That was all Clara knew. She was cold. Cold. Cold. Cold.
It wasn’t painful, not really. It was just a fact.
What was painful was the fiery heat that suddenly began at the top of her head and spread quickly over her whole body. She tried to shrink inward, to get away, but it coated her skin like a leotard. Then it was gone, and she felt her legs give way below her, with the ice that had held her up gone.
She felt the Fire Prince’s arms around her, preventing her fall from being a painful one. She would have been content to just lie there, but then he decided to pour fire down her throat. That was even worse. And now that she had known warmth, the cold was unbearable.
She was back in the Fire Prince’s arms, and he was so very warm. She tried to get closer to him, to bask in his warmth, but it was not enough. She was cold to her core. She could breathe again, but every breath was painful.
She heard him call her name, as though far away, and it grew fainter each time. She felt his breath on her face, a jungle wind blowing over the Arctic. She wanted to answer, to reach out to him, but she was so very cold.
Then it happened again, the fire down her throat, but it was not so unbearable this time, and the warmth spread through her entire body, melting away her frozen core. Almost without thinking, her eyes opened, and she found the glass-green eyes of the Fire Prince just inches away.
The cold was gone. Her breath was natural. Slowly, she raised a hand and brushed her lips, realizing what he had done.
“You kissed me,” she whispered.
He drew back, clearly embarrassed. “Yeah, well,” he muttered, “you were just so cold, and I had to do something.”
She stared at him for a few seconds, and before she allowed herself to think about it, she pushed herself up, threw her arms around his neck, and pressed a kiss of her own against his lips. He stiffened, making it awkward at first, but then he relaxed and it was perfect.
She pulled away and lowered herself back into his lap, keeping her arms around his neck as she rested her head against his shoulder, relishing the security of his arms around her waist. “That was much better,” she muttered. “Wasn’t painful at all this time.”
“Uh, painful, no,” he mumbled.
He was so adorably awkward. She opened her eyes and was about to say something when she finally noticed their surroundings. The ground was packed earth beneath them. There were no doors in the room, just iron bars replacing one wall.
“Andrew?” She tried to keep her voice steady. “Where are we?”
One hand left her waist as he pressed her head back down on his shoulder and stroked her hair. “Amber turned you to ice, then carried us here, but it’s okay. You’re not ice now, and I know how to escape.”
She tore herself from his arms and sprang to her feet, as memory of Amber turning her to ice returned. “Oh, I knew she wasn’t to be trusted. I knew she was up to no good. I should have known she was Amber herself – her eyes, her dress, all that jewelry she wore!” She scanned the room. There was plenty of food, but no escape. The ground was hard, the walls solid, and the bars unforgiving.
“Hey, I know a way out of here,” said the Fire Prince, resting a hand on her shoulder.
She spun around, all her frustration forming into a snappy retort that died on her tongue as soon as she met the Fire Prince’s eyes. She took a deep breath and forced her answer to be softer. “How?”
“We’ll work together,” he said, brightly. “Now that you’re not frozen anymore, we’ll be out in no time, but first, why don’t we eat something? Escaping is best done on a full stomach, don’t you think?”
&nbs
p; She folded her arms over her chest and arched an eyebrow, glancing at the food that surrounded them. “Are you sure it’s safe?” she asked. “Shouldn’t we escape as soon as we can? That Dragon might be here at any moment!”
“I don’t think she will,” said the Fire Prince, sounding quite sure of himself, though she didn’t know why. “And the food’s safe, I’ve checked.”
She took a deep breath, then shrugged in surrender. “Very well, if you think so. What’s on the menu?”
The meal he produced was simple, but good – some sweet bread and a bit of soup. She ate what as she could. Between the tightness of her dress, and nervousness over their location, it wasn’t very much. She also found the circlet that he had laid aside in the absence of people qualified to crown him, and insisted on putting it on his head.
“So,” she said at length, glancing at the bars. She felt like an exhibit at the zoo, only there weren’t any people to see her. “How do we get out of here?”
“Easy,” said the Fire Prince, reaching over and laying a hand over hers. “We use water and fire. As I said, we’ll have to work together.”
She frowned, not in the mood for riddles. “I guessed as much. How are we going to do that?”
He glanced at the bars, and for a moment, didn’t look sure of himself. “Can you summon red and orange water? I remember reading somewhere that a combination of the two will explode if ignited. Or at least some red. I have some orange over there that the Dragon was kind enough to provide me with for baking.”
She sighed, the possibility of escape suddenly feeling impossible. “I’ll … try. Those are the colors hardest for me to summon. I’ve managed all of the others but…” She shook her head and stood up. “I’ll try. We have to get out of here, you know.” She walked over to the bars, balled her left hand into a fist, and pointed the ring towards them.
“I know,” said the Fire Prince, and she felt the pressure of his hand on her shoulder. She let it stay there, glad for its steadying presence.
“Red water,” she muttered. “I just need red water.” She closed her eyes, picturing a perfect stream of the spicy hot water flowing from her ring. But, alas! When she opened her eyes, the water was purple, not red!
“I can’t do it!” she protested, trying to back away, but the Fire Prince’s hand prevented her. “I can’t!”
“Sure you can,” said the Fire Prince. “We have to get out of here. Klarand…”
She took a deep breath and focused again, sure she was going to fail. She laid her free hand over the Fire Prince’s, closing her eyes again. But this time, instead of picturing the red water, she prayed a silent prayer, asking Alphego for His aid. Red water, orange water, perhaps both, she didn’t care at the moment. They just needed to get out of there.
She opened her eyes again and was thrilled to see that a perfect mixture flowed from her ring. Her heart lifting, she doused every bit of bar before she turned the stream off.
But before she could take the time to admire her work, the Fire Prince pulled her back. He pushed her into a corner behind some barrels and held her tightly with his right arm. A second later, she heard the bars explode.
When it was silent again, he stepped away, finally letting go of her.
“You were shielding me with your body,” she realized, stepping after him to admire the gaping hole that was their path to freedom.
“Yeah,” he said with a shrug. “I didn’t see the point in us both getting hurt.”
She frowned. “Are you all right?”
“Completely uninjured,” he said, with another shrug. “The bars appear to have exploded outwards. Come on, we should get out of here.”
She slid her hand into his as they stepped out of their cell. He glanced over his shoulder a moment. “Not sorry to leave it,” he muttered. “But that was some good food.”
“Come on,” she said, giving his hand a squeeze. “We need to get back to the Kastle … where is it?”
“This way,” said the Fire Prince, pulling her forward. A moment later, he added, “And you might want to draw your sword. I’ve no doubt that Amber has plans to slow us down in the event of our escape.”
Clara pulled her hand from his, and drew her sword, sighing as she glanced down at her skirt.
“You still look beautiful,” he informed her, as he drew his own sword.
“That’s not the point,” she said with a shake of her head. “Oh, well, I can manage. Mother and I fight in skirts occasionally to handicap ourselves. I should survive. It’s not like it’s a hoop skirt or something impractical like that.”
Chapter 2
Andrew worried about the Water Princess. She hadn’t snapped or glared at him once since he’d unfrozen her. There had been a few glimpses of her spirit now and then, but never directed at him.
She had also kissed him. Not that he minded, truth be told; he just hadn’t expected it. Okay, sure, he had kissed her first, but … he hadn’t meant to. She had just been so cold, so pitiful in his arms, and so close to him, that he had just done it. He didn’t regret the impulse, though, as it seemed to have been what what had thawed her completely.
He just hoped that the lack of snapping and all-over being nice wasn’t a very bad side effect from being a statue of solid ice. Not that her snapping was a good thing, but he didn’t want her to have suffered brain damage.
He heard a growl, and the Water Princess’s free hand brushed his wrist. They both stopped walking, and the next moment an etrina, larger than any he had seen before, with eyes red and wild from Amber’s magic, sprang onto their path. The Water Princess gave a startled gasp and drew back, leaving Andrew to run the beast through before it had a chance to attack them. Once he was sure it was dead, he turned back to the Water Princess. “You okay?”
She nodded sharply, and when she spoke, it was with her familiar bite. “I am a girl,” she informed him, “and I’m not used to animals attacking me. They’re not like humans. They have claws and teeth, and they don’t follow rules. Cut me a little bit of slack.”
Andrew wasn’t sure whether to smile or not, as he realized that this was in character for her. “Fine,” he said, after a second. “But you’ll have to learn quickly. I honestly don’t think that’s the last one we’re going to meet.”
She grimaced, but said nothing as they continued walking. It wasn’t long before a snake slithered onto their path. Andrew raised his sword, but the Water Princess sprang forward with a war cry and plunged the blade of her sword into its neck. Then she drew back and stared at it in horror.
Andrew made sure it was dead before he turned to her with a raised eyebrow. “First kill?” he asked her.
Her chin jerked up and she nodded sharply. “I—” A shudder ran through her. “It…”
He stepped forward and laid a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, first kills are always hard. Just remember that they’re poisoned by Amber’s magic and you’re putting them out of their misery.”
She glanced down at her now-bloodied blade and made an effort to wipe it clean on the nearest clump of grass. “When I was fighting the Enokles, they exploded into black powder and it didn’t feel like killing,” she muttered. “Let’s keep going and hope we don’t meet with anything worse.”
“Yeah,” said Andrew. “That’d be great.”
“I’m just glad we don’t have to kill the Dragon herself, though I pity the Tela Du.”
They continued in silence, and for the longest time didn’t meet any more creatures. She seemed to relax, but it only made Andrew warier. Granite had said that he would keep his wife distracted, but surely there would be more rogue creatures roaming her domain than this.
They were at the edge of the burnt-out village when a whole pack of etrinas came pouring out of the houses and the trees in front of them. The Water Princess let out a panicked squeal, but rushed forward anyway, Andrew only a step behind her. They slashed left and right. Every time, their swords came up bloody and those terrible, cat-like creatures fell down de
ad.
“Use your ring!” The Water Princess suddenly shouted, and Andrew agreed that it was a good idea. He had no problem with burning these beasts before they could get to them. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the Water Princess was using her ring to spray green water in the etrinas’ eyes, which blinded them … and made them angrier.
They had become separated, and he didn’t like that. He knew enough about combat to know that if you were surrounded and there were at least two of you, you should fight back to back. He made an effort to return to her side, but there were just so many etrinas, each with rabid eyes, needle teeth, and razor claws that were ready to slice into an unsuspecting person. His fire did much to keep them at bay, but he was still afraid that it might not be enough.
It wasn’t so bad, Clara realized, if she didn’t think about the blood staining her sword, if she focused on the snarls, rather than the cries of pain she inflicted. She couldn’t feel sorry for these creatures when she knew they’d do the same to her and worse if she didn’t kill them before they got to her.
She didn’t like how far she was from the Fire Prince, though it had given her space to gain confidence and forget what, exactly, she was doing to the cat-like creatures that were attacking them. Still, separation meant vulnerability, and she fought to get back to him.
His cry cut into her focus, and when she glanced back to where he had been, just moments before. She could no longer see him. Panic immediately shot through her being. With a fury twice what she’d possessed before, she mowed her way through the monsters, leaving nothing alive in her path.
She found him sprawled on the ground, the monsters all over him, clawing his back, arms, legs to shreds. She quickly fought them away, then knelt at his side as soon as she had shooed them back far enough to give herself something of a respite.
His eyes were closed, and he was in obvious pain, but she didn’t have enough time to do much to soothe him. She shifted her own sword to her left hand and pried his from his hand since he didn’t seem to be in any shape to use it anymore.
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