Realm of Ice

by Angela J. Ford

  “Such cryptic messages,” Citrine murmured. But her tremors of fear were gone. Taking the leather pouch, she covered the Clyear with it, then studied Elbron’s scarred face. His amber eyes studied her, and she saw a question deep within.

  She held out her hand. “I trust you, Elbron. I will return to Stronghold with you and help fight this plague.”

  His hand closed over hers, sending a riot of warmth through her breast. She smiled at him, feeling safe and only slightly confused at the change in their situation. Momentarily her thoughts flickered back to the visions of the past she’d seen, but she shook her head to clear her mind. She had to focus on the task at hand, and later she would handle Tor Lir.

  24

  Numb

  The night was not a pleasant one. The Frost Queen left Tor Lir pinned to the dais, gradually turning blue. His limbs had stopped shaking long ago, and his entire body was stiff. Even moving his lips brought a bitter pain, and he felt the low pulse of his heartbeat slow to a sickening thud.

  For the first time he faced thoughts of death, and the irony of his immortality dangled in front of him. This was a bitter torture. If only his anger would dissipate, if only he could listen to the Frost Queen. Her story centered on her need to avenge her children. Beneath her intense, sexually charged exterior, he knew she had a heart. Raw. Bleeding. Full of rage and agony.

  He closed down his emotions and attempted to gain a sense of right and wrong. Balance, as he called it. Fate had led him to the doorstep of the Frost Queen. If she needed justice, then the Therian were in the wrong. How could he help her and heal them? For either way he’d been sucked into the fate of the mountain folk, but death loomed around him. His thoughts flickered to Hava. How dare he let himself care for her. Was it possible that the Truth Tellers ripped her away from him, leaving only Citrine to force his hand? Send him to Daygone? He waited for the pulse of anger, but there was none, only a numb devastation, empty and cold, like his repressed emotions.

  He pushed away his conflicted thoughts and as he did a vision rose in his mind's eye. He saw a shadow with two horns, rippling in front of him as though the reflection was in a pool of shimmering water. He almost heard the cold voice in his head. I can help you escape.

  I do not want to escape, he rejoined.

  You do. And you are more powerful than you realize. If you stop being afraid and dig deep, you can free yourself. I will always be here, lurking in the background, pushing you to step into your true calling. It is a joint goal we have. For I am you. And you are me.

  You are the effects of a Changer. This I know, Tor Lir argued. And I am not a Changer.

  Nor are you a Green person. Your secrets spill out of you and attract attention. Others are paying attention, and if you let the Frost Queen treat you like this, what will others do to you?

  She has good intentions. She is angry at what they did to her people.

  That is a shallow excuse. What she is doing is wrong.

  What the Therian did is wrong. Who am I to choose a side?

  The time to sit back and listen is over. You must take action.

  Truth. He had to make a choice, it was just—what choice did he have? And what was the “right” course of action?

  He opened his eyes. Crystals shimmered around him, and a humming vibrated in the pit of his belly. Closing his eyes again, he focused, pricking his ears to hear the hush of voices. There it was. The sound of the crystals. The incessant tap-tap of digging. Whispered voices in the ice walls. The mournful howl of wolves and something else, darker, deeper, reaching out to him.

  Tor Lir latched onto the sensation and allowed it to ripple through his mind. Focusing on the icicles which trapped him, he thought a command. Mist poured out of his lips. “Be free. Let go.”

  The humming faded to silence. Tor Lir opened his eyes and whispered through blue lips, “Be free. Let go.”

  An icicle snapped. The sharp crack rang loud in the night. Another slipped free and slid across the dais. One by one they let go, some returning to the ceiling. Others scattering into the gloom.

  Relief surged through Tor Lir until he saw a green glow emanate from his arms. A sudden exhaustion came over him, but he fought it off. He had to move and thaw his body before he disintegrated like the icicles.

  “It took you longer than I expected to free yourself.” The Frost Queen’s amused tone filtered through the open room.

  Tor Lir would have jerked with surprise if he hadn’t been frozen. He had not realized she was nearby, watching him the entire time.

  “Dawn draws near, and I need an answer from you, Nameless One. Will you help me bring down the Therian?”

  He tried twice before sound came from his lips. “What is it you want me to do?”

  “My people are building tunnels. Our plan is to breach Stronghold, create a diversion which will draw them to the depths and then trap them. So, there is only one route in and out. Our guarded tunnels. From there we will be able to bargain, and if they will not listen, we will shut down the tunnels.”

  Tor Lir considered. “What does that have to do with me?”

  “You must create the avalanche that swallows Stronghold.”

  Tor Lir’s lips curled. “You overestimate my power. You should have asked my companion, Citrine.”

  The Frost Queen shrugged. “I gave her the Clyear of Revelation. She will be our eyes and ears on the inside along with my other spies. If we trap them inside with the wild beasts, they will come to reason much faster.”

  “How can you ensure no one will be harmed?”

  “I have many spies. They are responsible for getting the people underground where the tunnels open up. My people are ready to break through. At sunrise, you shall cause an avalanche, or I will send my archers to slay the Therian.”

  “Perhaps you are not as powerful as you think,” Tor Lir countered. “I have no power to start an avalanche, and you don’t have enough archers to take down the Therian.”

  Her eyes blazed, and a malicious smile came to her lips. “If you will not work with me, so be it. I will condemn you to death.” She reached to her side and stepped into the light, drawing her sword as she did so.

  Pain laced through Tor Lir’s thawed body, and he was surprised to find he could rise.

  Slivers of ice trickled down his chest. An ache, old and cold, began in his bones. “Ah.” He stood slowly, his limbs creaking as he faced the Frost Queen.

  Their eyes locked. Bold and unflinching.

  She lifted her chin.

  He narrowed his eyes and took a breath. “You looked in the Clyear of Revelation and found the answer you sought?”

  Triumph rang through her voice. “Now do you understand?”

  25

  Hollow

  A hollowness settled in the pit of Citrine’s stomach. Nausea rose and again she toyed with her conflicting feelings as she lay in the warmth of furs. Elbron was kind enough to let her stay in his quarters, although aside from some impassioned kissing, nothing had gone further the night before. Daylight would be upon them soon, and while Citrine knew what she wanted to do, needed to do, something held her back. The visions of Tor Lir, the past, and who he might become rang in her memory, reminding her something much bigger than herself was at work. Although she knew she should focus on the task at hand, reach out, ask, and look into the Clyear, every time she started toward it, her fingers trembled and she lay back, afraid and unsure. Furiously, she wiped away tears of self-pity and warred against calling Grift and leaving. Confrontation was never easy. Although she’d won against the Master of the Forest and rallied against the beast that threatened the port-side city of Sanga Sang, this was something else entirely.

  “Are you ready to look into the Clyear?” The rumble of Elbron’s voice from across the room sent vibrations through her.

  With a sigh, Citrine rolled over and tumbled out of the layers of fur to avoid answering the question. Instead, she dressed quickly and ran her fingers through her bright hair, noting strands of b
lue in it. When she turned around, Elbron’s amber eyes met hers.

  We need to make a plan,” she told Elbron. “Lord Nodin—Nodin, whatever you call him—wants to call the voting leaders to meeting today. What are we going to say? They know Tor Lir was here yesterday, unless you were as stealthy as you thought you were bringing him back.”

  “We tell them the truth,” Elbron said. “Tor Lir lost the Clyear to the Frost Queen and she is holding him for ransom.”

  Citrine spun around, eyes traveling the ridges of Elbron’s back. “I see. Then what?”

  Elbron stood and pulled a fur around his shoulders. He padded to the door of the chamber. “You will not like this next part. But you must see the beasts.”

  “I’ve seen them before,” Citrine offered. “Your cousin.”

  Elborn’s shoulders slumped.

  “I’m sorry,” Citrine offered, recalling what it was like. “I shared thoughts with her.”

  Elbron quirked an eyebrow as he faced her. “You shared thoughts?”

  Citrine bit her lip. “It’s like I could sense what she was going through when she battled between being mortal and turning wild. Eventually the wild side won over and there was nothing left but a burning desire for revenge. They killed her children.”

  Elbron walked closer with every word. “I did not know this. Why did no one tell me?”

  “I did not think it was my story to tell.”

  “Nay, and Nodin would not share this. So, they seek to replicate. No wonder the Frost Queen is so adamant.”

  “There are potions.” Citrine gestured. “If the beasts must feed, I can make a mixture that keeps them from reproducing.”

  “Are you a kind of healer?” Elbron asked.

  “Nay.” Citrine almost smiled. “I understand herbs and potions.”

  Elbron crossed his arms. “What do you need? It’s winter and nothing grows here.”

  Citrine moved to her bag. “I brought a few supplies. I’ll have to take a look.”

  Elbron nodded. “I’ll bring us some food while you find what you need. Don’t let anyone come through that door aside from me.”

  Citrine cocked her head.

  “It goes without saying,” Elbron explained. “We are Therian. We shift into animals. We get what we want. Always have. The others call us cold and unfriendly. It is the way of the Therian. The way we survive.”

  He turned to leave, and Citrine smiled to herself at the hint of danger in his voice. The Therian were a mysterious tribe, and although their halls left her cold, there was something else, shimmering under the surface, that called to her.

  Just as Elbron swung the door shut, a furious growl filtered up from the distance, and Citrine felt the floor beneath her shake. She held out her arms for balance, but the tremors continued as though a rift underneath them were opening. Citrine’s mind flashed back to the stone she’d thrown in the frozen pond and the crack down the surface of the ice, cleaving open a hole for things to slip through. She felt like that stone, teetering on the edge of the unknown. Her heart kicked. She lunged for her bag of supplies and her book of spells. It would not do to lose the work she’d spent so long compiling. Every spell, every chant, meant something, and she intended to use each one of them.

  Elbron stumbled back into the room, eyes wide, as the quaking came to a halt. Their eyes locked. “It sounds like the beasts,” he announced. “We should go down below to ensure everything is as it should be.”

  Citrine gave a quick nod and tossed her pack onto her back. “I will prepare a potion once we are down there.”

  He held out his hand to her. She took it and ran with him down stone passages to a set of stairs that led down below. To the dungeons.

  Screams and cries echoed off the stone walls, a mix of fear and anger as the Therian lashed out.

  “We are under attack!”

  “There are archers on the bridge”

  “Get below, to the keep!”

  “We should fight.”

  “Nay, there are too many, and the rocks will come down on our heads.”

  “Run!”

  Citrine saw families dash ahead, the children staring back, horror written across their pale faces. Some of the Therian had shifted into their beast forms and trotted below, growling and snarling. Others hung back, waiting, watching, ensuring everyone made it to safety.

  The ground rolled, shaking and shuddering like the body of a sea serpent as they ran. Elbron leaned against the walls when the tremors struck, often holding up Citrine until the rumbling subsided and they could run on.

  Around them Citrine heard shouts and wails, and the repeating command to venture down below, to the dungeons. Although why were they all headed below instead of fighting? But then she recalled how many enemies the Therian had. Roars echoed, and her head swam as voices chimed in, the call of beasts, wild and furious. Uneven ground made her stumble and, heart in throat, she held tight to Elbron as though he were a beacon that could lead her to safety. Only they traveled into the heart of the storm, down into the depths of Stronghold where the wild beasts lived.

  A sharp reminder of what had taken place in the tower of Sanga Sang came to Citrine. She recalled trying to tame the beast until it overpowered her will and escaped. Would it happen again? Would she fail? Questions buzzed through her mind. The yawning gap of darkness opened before them, and Citrine pulled back, heart pulsing. “Do we have to go down there?”

  26

  Traitor

  Elbron held out his hand. The torchlight flickered, showing off the edge of his scar. Citrine swallowed hard. She was an Enchantress. When had she begun to fear? But she heard the voices whisper around her, thick with fear and desperation. Why should she go down into their dungeon and endure their presence? The closer she went, the harder it became to keep the voices out. “Stop here, just for a moment,” Citrine begged. “There's something I need to do.”

  “Hurry,” Elbron ordered, glancing up and down the passageway. A frown formed on his lips at the delay.

  Therian brushed past them with dark, gleaming eyes, nodding silently in acknowledgment.

  Swallowing hard, Citrine backed up against the wall. She placed her hands against it to steady herself and closed her eyes. The rush of voices surged around her, begging, pleading for release. Lost in confusion, the jumbled thoughts thrummed together as though they were the source of the quake, the vibration that shook the foundation of Stronghold. Citrine forced her thoughts outward, speaking to the voices that chimed within, seeking control over them. The mountain of voices rose, babbling in confusion until Citrine felt herself sink, overwhelmed. She wanted to drive the voices away, will them somewhere else, into another being, but the willpower rose and fell within her. Gritting her teeth, she pushed her fingers against the stone walls, feeling every chink and cranny. Using the strength in her fingers, she pushed her thoughts toward the voices. Hush. Go to sleep. Nothing will harm you.

  There was a moment when the torrent subsided, and Citrine let out a deep shuddering breath. But then they came back as relentless as before, twisted and angry. Citrine pulled away from the wall and let out a groan of frustration, almost bending in half at the weight of the sudden pressure she felt. A ringing began in her ears, and she fought to retain control and push back the rising wave.

  “What is it?”

  She heard Elbron's voice in the distance, and then a hand came up, cupping her cheek, forcing her eyes to focus. A hand lightly slapped her cheek. “Citrine! Come back!”

  She jerked, head falling back, and just like that the voices disappeared.

  Citrine opened her eyes. Her heartbeat slowed. Lifting a trembling hand, she put it over Elbron's warm one and sought his amber eyes. “I’m here,” she said. “I was just listening.”

  His brow furrowed in confusion, and his eyes searched her face as though her expression could provide an answer. “What did you hear?”

  Citrine cocked her head, conflicted between telling him and keeping her secrets to herself. What did
she truly know about the Therian? They were beast-like, rough and wild, and yet she sensed more behind the tense distance at which Elbron held himself. To give herself time, she responded with another question. “What do you mean?”

  Elbron worried his lower lip between his teeth. A growl burst from between his lips. “You are a Tider, a mortal, aren't you? But not Therian. Nor powerless. Like the Frost Queen, you have access to power. You can hear the creatures, can’t you?”

  Avoiding his eyes, Citrine nodded.

  Enchantress.

  The words hung on her lips. Tor Lir had spoken it earlier, but Citrine hadn’t taken the moment to explain the meaning behind that word. Even though some part of her suspected he might believe her without judgement. Her body sagged. “I came to help. That is all.”

  Sensing she did not want to speak further, Elbron pushed away just as another rumble shook the foundations.

  “Elbron? Citrine?” a voice interrupted.

  Citrine’s head snapped up, and she instinctively took a step closer to Elbron.

  Materializing out of the darkness in the hall appeared Lord Nodin. His amber eyes glittered in the low light and his arm was around Zilpha’s waist, holding her up. Zilpha sagged against him. her eyes downcast, a flush across her pale cheeks, her shoulders slumped. She was sick, unwell from travel and perhaps something else. Citrine sniffed, thinking of her limited herbs and whether she should do anything to help Zilpha, the foolish Cron who’d brought this all on herself. Did she not see past Lord Nodin’s empty charms?

  Nodin’s eyes narrowed in displeasure when he saw Citrine and Elbron’s joined hands. Citrine felt as though something was crawling beneath her skin, and she dropped Elbron’s hand as though his flesh burned hers.

  Nodin spoke first, his voice cold and commanding. “Stronghold is under attack. I ordered our people to come down here, and the rest of the lords follow in my wake. We will hold the council below while the mountain shakes and shifts. Something, someone is angry.”