The Frost Eater (The Magic Eaters Trilogy Book 1)

by Carol Beth Anderson

  “And you wanted an adventure?” Dani asked with a small smile.

  Nora shrugged.

  Dani sat up straighter. “Let me guess. You found an empty house.”

  “How did you know that?” Krey demanded.

  Dani picked up a cookie, eating it thoughtfully, then turned to Krey. Her gaze and voice were gentle. “As I promised, I’ve been looking into this, but the king asked me to keep the details confidential.” She shifted her gaze to Nora. “After Krey’s experience with those guards, he feared something similar would happen to you.”

  Nora was glad she hadn’t mentioned the man Krey had left lying on the floor. Or the one he’d toppled with a high-speed ice missile. “Can you please tell us what you found out?” she asked. “It’s very important to Krey.”

  Dani shook her head, releasing a sigh. “I want to be open with you, Nora, but I also want to honor your father’s wishes.”

  Nora kept her mouth closed and her eyes fixed on her aunt. Dani was infallibly loyal to her family. She’d spent the last ten years of her life caring for Nora and Ulmin. These days, however, her devotion to her impetuous teenage niece often conflicted with her allegiance to Ulmin. Usually, her soft spot for Nora won out.

  Sure enough, Dani finally said, “I suppose I made things worse by hiding the truth. I’ll tell you what I know.”

  “I’d appreciate that,” Krey said softly.

  “This is highly confidential information, and I expect every bit of it to remain in this room. Are we agreed?” When Krey and Nora confirmed it, Dani said, “As I mentioned before, Cellerin does have a secret, elite apprenticeship program. Even I didn’t know about it until I asked.”

  “Who did you ask?” Nora interrupted. “The Minister of Lysting?”

  Dani nodded. “Your father approved the program but hasn’t kept up with the details. Minister Sharai confirmed that the house you visited was a private home used as an administrative outpost. She didn’t want to route correspondence through the palace. The administrator you met is eccentric, but trustworthy. Because the program is secret, he was given permission to hire two guards. They lived across the street. I told her what happened to you, Krey, and I made it clear that we can’t have ruffians attacking teenagers in the king’s name. Rest assured, those guards are no longer employed by the monarchy.”

  Nora narrowed her eyes. They’re still working for someone. She could almost feel Krey’s relief when she kept that thought to herself.

  “Why was the house empty?” Krey asked.

  “After your first visit, the administrator moved to avoid any further confrontations with you. He told Sharai you were threatening and pushy.”

  Krey scoffed, but Nora didn’t have trouble buying the description.

  “Krey,” Dani said, “my records request was fulfilled today. I confirmed that Zeisha is, indeed, part of the elite apprenticeship program.”

  A question burst out of Nora’s mouth. “Is Faylie part of it too?”

  Her aunt’s response—a tilted head and merciful eyes—reminded her why she’d declined to bring up Faylie in the first place. “Nora,” Dani said softly, “Faylie is in Newland. I know you miss her, but there’s no mystery to her departure. People come and go from our lives. I hate it as much as you do.”

  Nora’s shoulders fell. Her aunt hadn’t seen the note Faylie sent, but it wouldn’t make a difference if she had. Dani was convinced nothing weird was going on. If Nora used the note to make her case, Dani would comfort her, but she wouldn’t believe her niece’s speculations.

  Krey’s strained voice interrupted Nora’s brooding. “If the apprenticeship program is such a secret, I’m surprised your records request was successful.”

  Nora raised her eyebrows. It was a good point. Besides, why hadn’t Krey found any information when he’d broken into the records hall?

  “When Sharai told me how confidential the program is, I asked her about my records request,” Dani said. “She told me the files are kept in a locked office within the records hall. She sent the administrator a note instructing him to release the information to me.”

  Nora nodded, but the answer didn’t really clear things up. If everything was legitimate, why had Krey found letters from other concerned parents? Why were the supposed guards still watching an empty house? And what about that New Therroan flyer they’d found? She was tempted to mention it, but she’d seen Dani’s response to the question about Faylie. Her aunt would view any further theories as pure paranoia.

  Krey stood. “I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you shared all this.” His voice, tight and low, didn’t match his words.

  Dani looked up, her forehead wrinkled in compassion. “Krey, I’m terribly sorry Zeisha hasn’t contacted you. I know this is hard to hear, but if she’d wanted to get in touch with you, she could have. Minister Sharai assured me of that. I can’t imagine how difficult that must be.” She stood. “Now that you know the truth, I think you need to make the most of your own apprenticeship and move on. Can you do that?”

  “I guess I don’t have a choice.”

  “And you, Nora? Can you let go of the friendship you lost and appreciate what you have now?”

  Nora tried to look contrite as she stood. “Of course. I’m sorry about tonight. It was a stupid thing to do.”

  “I’m glad you realize that.” Dani smiled. “Now get to bed. Tomorrow’s Monday, and we’ll all be busy.” She placed a hand on Nora’s shoulder, then one on Krey’s. “I remember what it’s like to be young. I’ll keep your adventure tonight secret. But I can’t keep hiding things from your father, Nora. Please don’t try anything like that again. That goes for both of you.”

  They murmured acknowledgements, but as Krey walked to the door, his squared shoulders screamed of determination. Nora fought to keep her expression neutral.

  There was no way they were letting this go.

  12

  I was ten years old, playing outside with my siblings, when I caught sight of a bird in the distance. As it flew closer, I realized it was too large to be a bird. I thought perhaps it was a dragon.

  When I saw that it was a child about my age, soaring on the wind, I screamed. I guess a flying human was a lot scarier to me than a fire-breathing dragon.

  -The First Generation: A Memoir by Liri Abrios

  Krey ran to the garden. Nora was pacing there, her jacket hood up against the early winter breeze.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I lost track of time in the library.”

  “Apparently so.” She yawned. “I was considering taking a nap on this bench.”

  “Yeah, I’ve been tired all day too. Did your aunt say anything else after I left last night?”

  “She reminded me about ten more times not to sneak out or have sex.” Nora let out a short laugh. “How was your day?”

  So, we’re at the “How was your day?” phase of our friendship? As Krey mulled that over, a more important question struck him. Did I just call this girl a friend? He realized he’d waited too long to answer Nora. She was staring at him like she doubted his sanity. “Uh, it was fine. I listened to a horribly boring frost eater tell me things I already know. Then I worked in the library, which was much more interesting. How about you?”

  “I had school all day.”

  “School?”

  “Well, private tutoring. Unlike every other teenager in the kingdom, I didn’t graduate when I turned seventeen.”

  Krey supposed that made sense. As the eventual queen, she’d need an advanced education. “So you haven’t practiced your magic today?”

  She groaned. “No.”

  “But you do practice every day, right? Like you told me to do?”

  “Uh . . . most days.”

  Krey laughed. “I knew it!”

  She yawned again. “Let’s talk strategy.”

  “Absolutely. But we should practice magic together too. Your aunt’s gonna get suspicious if we keep spending time alone in the garden.”

  Her tired eyes
brightened. “You’ll really teach me more about ice lysting?”

  “I told you I would.”

  She grinned. “Let’s go to my icehouse. And you should practice both your talents. Do you have feathers?”

  He patted his pocket. “Right here.”

  Nora led the way to her icehouse. They wrapped blankets around their shoulders and sat on the floor. As they ate fuel, Krey said, “Whatever’s going on, your aunt’s in on it.”

  Nora choked on her ice, coughing violently.

  Krey sat up straight. “You okay?”

  She nodded, still coughing.

  “I, uh . . . take it you disagree?”

  She got control of her coughing and said, “It’s the most insane thing I’ve ever heard.”

  Krey swallowed a small piece of feather. Feathers were notoriously difficult to chew, so he always diced them first. “We’ve eaten enough fuel. Where do you want to practice?”

  Nora crossed her legs and leaned toward him. “Why do you think Dani’s involved?”

  “Let’s talk as we walk. How about we practice by the pond?”

  “Fine. But I haven’t dropped this topic.” Outside, Nora set a quick pace and asked in a low voice, “Why do you think Dani’s involved?”

  He cleared his throat. “Well, I’m not really sure. I just wanted to see your honest reaction.”

  “I could’ve choked to death!” Nora cried.

  “On ice? It would melt first!” He chuckled, then grew serious. “Who do you think is behind it?”

  Nora slowed, her anger seemingly forgotten. “I could barely sleep last night thinking about that. Clearly it’s Minister Sharai.”

  “I agree she must be involved. But she can’t be doing it alone.”

  “Maybe. But Aunt Dani has nothing to do with it.”

  Krey wasn’t so sure, but he let it go. It wasn’t like he had any proof. “What about your father?”

  Laughter burst from Nora’s mouth. “Not a chance! My dad’s a rule follower, not a risk taker. Plus, if this is some sort of New Therroan plot, like we talked about last night, he’s the last person who would support it. He’s been doing all he can to negotiate with them.”

  Krey wasn’t about to rule out any possibilities. For now, though, he’d move on. “Speaking of the New Therroans, I found a book in the library about their exodus from Cellerin. A bunch of the settlers shared one very familiar name.”

  Nora stopped, and so did Krey. Her eyes were wide. “Sharai?” she whispered.

  “Good guess.”

  “Whoa.”

  They began walking again and soon reached the lawn north of the pond.

  Nora looked across the pond. Several dackas were floating on the water, their green feathers gleaming in the early-evening sun. “So . . . Sharai is New Therroan. Or at least her relatives are.”

  “Yep. We can keep talking, but let’s practice too. Turn on your magic.”

  Nora turned to him, a small grin on her lips. “Can’t do that. I can catalyze my fuel, though.”

  “Snob.” The word was out of his mouth before he could stop it. And just when things were going smoothly.

  Her grin didn’t disappear; it grew larger. “Ass,” she said. She lifted a hand and, quick as lightning, shot a small ball of ice at him.

  She’d probably been aiming at his face, but it hit his neck. He couldn’t stifle a laugh. “That was fair.”

  “The name calling or the ice?”

  “Both.”

  She laughed too. “My magic is turned on, as you like to say. Is yours?”

  He responded with a snowball to her neck, in the same spot she’d hit him.

  That led to an all-out snowball fight. From the start, he was the clear victor. About two minutes in, Nora shot a snowball over his shoulder then cried, “We have to stop! I think I’ve catalyzed half my fuel.”

  A male voice reached them. “Glad to see you both putting your faculties to good use.”

  Krey spun around. King Ulmin was watching them, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter. “I’d like to join you,” he said, “but I make stone, not snow. It wouldn’t exactly be a fair fight.” He was still smiling as he turned to his daughter. “I’ll see you at dinner, Nora. I’d like to spend a few minutes in the chapel first.”

  They watched him leave, and Nora stepped up to Krey. “Truce?”

  “Truce.”

  Krey held out a hand, and she reached out as if to shake it. At the same instant, they both lifted their hands and shot one more snowball, each hitting the other’s face.

  Nora started giggling, and her response brought out the same in Krey. They both ended up on their backs in the grass. Krey laughed harder than he’d done in weeks, maybe since before Zeisha disappeared.

  It was probably wrong to have fun when Zeisha was in such trouble. But the laughter cleared his mind and somehow made it easier to hope. I’m at the palace, laughing with a princess who’s kind of snobby but really not all that bad. When did my life get so weird?

  When he finally sat up, his laughter spent, Nora was watching him, a relaxed smile on her face. “Back to business?”

  “Definitely.” He stood, and she followed suit. “You’re good at turning your magic on,” Krey said, “but if you’ve already used half your fuel, you’re not very efficient. Fuel doesn’t last forever; eventually our bodies flush it out if we don’t turn it into magic. But if you can learn to only use a little bit at a time, one big serving of ice will last you hours.”

  “I’ve never been good at conserving my fuel,” Nora said.

  “Clearly. And sorry to be rude, but your aim sucks.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I know. Can you fix me?”

  He smiled. “You’re not broken. But I can probably teach you a few things.” He showed her how to change the position of her hands and fingers, adjustments that gave her greater control over how she used her magic.

  Nora’s forehead furrowed as she practiced. When she was out of fuel, a row of small ice spheres sat in the grass at her feet. “That helped,” she said. “Thanks.”

  “The masters don’t teach you this?”

  “Well . . . they probably want to. But they spend so much of their time talking about the theory behind lysting, and I’ve never had patience for that. I suppose I’m not very cooperative. We always end up parting ways. Then another teacher comes along, and we start the whole thing over. That’s why I’m good at initial catalysis; I’ve practiced it until my hands fall off. We just never get to the advanced stuff.”

  Krey nodded. He understood. Just as she’d plateaued in her frost eating, he’d stopped growing as a feather eater. He’d been told he had more instinctive talent than any other magic eater in his hometown. How much more could he have learned if he’d really tried? He couldn’t blame boring masters, though. He simply hadn’t had the patience to move further.

  Like she’d read his mind, Nora said, “You should practice flying with weights. Build up your tolerance.” She pointed at the eastern edge of the pond. “There are some rocks over there. Fly over, pick up the biggest one you can manage, and return to me.”

  He lifted his eyebrows. Bossy much?

  She matched his expression and asked sarcastically, “Please?”

  Krey turned his feather magic on and flew. The rock he retrieved was about half the size of his head. It weighed him down immediately. After a few mets, he dropped it in the pond, humiliated by the splash it made. He flew back, picked up a rock a little bigger than his fist, and returned to Nora.

  He could swear her eyes were dancing with laughter, but she just smiled and said, “We both have a lot of work ahead of us.”

  Krey grunted. “We need to talk about what’s next in our search for Zeisha.”

  “And the others.”

  Oh yeah, she still thinks her friend is involved. Krey supposed if his best friend had turned into a jerk overnight, he’d want an alternate explanation too. “And the others. Have a seat?”

  She joined him, sit
ting on the grass about a met in front of him. Krey still had plenty of ice magic, and as they talked, he used it to create a pile of snow between them.

  “I think you need to go to some New Therroan meetings,” Nora said. She pulled the flyer out of her pocket and held it out. She’d folded it into a neat rectangle, though the paper still held evidence of being crumpled. “Maybe over time, you can build up trust and get some leads.”

  Krey didn’t take the paper. “The people at this meeting might be holding my girlfriend hostage. You want me to make friends with them?”

  “I know it’s asking a lot. I’d go there if I could, but . . .”

  Krey sighed and took the paper. “I guess I can pretend to be friendly.” Seeing Nora’s eyebrows lift, he said, “Believe it or not, I can be polite when I want to. I’ll go to the lecture. But Minister Sharai is our best lead. We need to find out what she knows.”

  “Yeah. I wish Dani could help with that. Everybody trusts her.” Nora paused, biting her bottom lip as she studied Krey. “You know, I think we could tell her about the letters you found and ask for her help.”

  Krey sat up straighter, suddenly tense. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  “She’s trustworthy, Krey! I honestly don’t think she’d turn you in.”

  He shoved his hands into the snow he’d just created. Clenching and unclenching his fists, he compacted handfuls of the stuff. He knew there was acid in his voice, but he couldn’t help that. “Nora, she wouldn’t even pressure the records people to move her request up the queue. She’d send me to the security office in a heartbeat if she knew I broke in. And she clearly trusts Sharai. I know you’re extra-attached to her because she’s the closest thing you have to a mother, but I don’t trust her. You shouldn’t either.”

  Nora’s mouth dropped open. She looked away and snapped it shut, jaw tightening. He was pretty sure there were tears in her eyes.

  Oops.

  Nora stood and spoke in a low, controlled tone. “I’ll find a way to get into Sharai’s office.” She strode toward her house. As she passed him, she muttered, “Ass.”