Frostfire
Page 17
Sabira reached up to touch the glow at her neck, a reminder of all that the mountain was and what she had to be. Blue, dancing frostfire. The cause of, and solution to, so much. It called people to action—terrible, great, or both.
“Danlin’s been teaching me all about his chemical science,” Sabira’s father said, interrupting her reflection.
“Has he?” Sabira asked, looking at the ex-soldier.
“Nearly blew up my skinning area,” her mother said with a hint of sullenness.
“Come now, dear, the boy said it was safe,” her father said, the peacemaker once more. “At least after that last ingredient got added anyway.”
Looking sheepish, Danlin took a step closer. He seemed less talkative than he had been under the mountain, but Sabira didn’t blame him—his world had been upended too.
“Would be nice if our nations could be soothed like a chemical reaction,” he said quietly.
Sabira thought of the fanatic Yupin and the angry words she had heard from some Aderasti since her return. The colonel had succeeded in one way, in making resentment fester. Hating that he had gotten even that far, she said, “I wish it was so easy.”
As she spoke, Sabira wondered why it wasn’t. Couldn’t the two peoples find a middle ground? The Ignatians were wrong to try to take what wasn’t theirs, but wasn’t ignoring their troubles wrong too?
There had been too much history for easy answers. She knew that, but Sabira also knew that if no one tried, then there was no chance of a solution. That was why she was going to.
Sabira had never expected it, but in the end her purpose had found her. War might not have come to Adranna this time, but at least some Ignatians must have still felt as Yupin did—there would be more opportunities for bloodshed in the months ahead. She was going to pour all her energies into making those opportunities vanish forever. Alone it would be impossible, but …
WE ARE TOGETHER.
The sudden tinkle of her frostsliver speaking aloud startled her family. Sabira smiled. She was starting to enjoy that reaction. The frostsliver had begun speaking during her recovery, though rarely, and she had already become glad of its voice.
“Sure,” she said, and took her first step into tomorrow, her family at her side and laughter on the breeze. Her life would not remain so easy, for Sabira knew that she had mountains of work ahead.
Sabira swore to Aderast that one day she would be welcomed to Ignata as a friend and Danlin would finally return home in peace. It might be a lifetime’s work, Sabira thought, in concert with the approving chime of her frostsliver.
It would be a lifetime well spent.
I’ve got a lot of people to thank, so I’ll get right into it.
The Times/Chicken House Competition brought Frostfire to the world, so I thank everyone behind it, especially Barry Cunningham for deciding that I was worth taking a chance on.
Kesia Lupo, for being the first at Chicken House to see the book’s potential, and for her editing, which has improved Frostfire many times over.
Rachel Leyshon for further editorial advice and suggesting structural changes that absolutely were the right thing to do.
Laura Myers, Lucy Horrocks, Jenny Glencross, and Sue Cook for your attention to detail during the production and proofreading stages, and without whom so many mistakes would have slipped through.
Jazz Bartlett and Laura Smythe for publicizing the book, using your own kinds of arcane wizardry.
Elinor Bagenal and Sarah Wilson for your tireless work on rights and getting Frostfire in front of as many people as possible, no matter the place or language.
Elizabeth Smith, Paul Smith, Lola Collishaw, Rita Piper, and Rebecca Hall, for being willing to read Frostfire back when it was Frostsliver, and far wordier than it needed to be. Without your advice and encouragement, these words might not be in print now.
And finally, I come to you, reader. If you’re not one of the people mentioned above, thanks for taking enough of an interest to read all the way to the bitter end. If you’ve enjoyed this book, can I trouble you to ask that you consider reviewing Frostfire on your favorite online book retailer? If you’re willing, then you too truly deserve your place in these acknowledgments—you wouldn’t believe how much difference a few good reviews can make.
In any case, you can find me and all my future projects online at JHBSmith.com or on Twitter at @JamieHBSmith.
Jamie Smith’s debut, Frostfire, was shortlisted for the 2016 Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition. Between working as a retail software developer and dealing with the whims of cats, he has written more books than he should have and is always working on more. He lives near Stafford, England.
Copyright © 2018, 2019 by Jamie Smith
All rights reserved. Published by Chicken House, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, CHICKEN HOUSE, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First published in the United Kingdom in 2019 by Chicken House, 2 Palmer Street, Frome, Somerset BA11 1DS.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
First edition, October 2019
Jacket art © 2019 by Geneva Bowers
Jacket design by Baily Crawford
e-ISBN 978-1-338-56633-8
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.