Ice Burns Page 17

  Sharp features of teeth, angled face, and horns leered at her. It was a smile formed of dark intent and nightmares. Chandra shook as she watched the jaw work and felt the bass tone shake her chest painfully. She could not decipher the words, but they were painful on her frail human form.

  Chandra hit the floor again and flames crawled across her. She didn't fight it this time. She knew there was no reason to try to get away because it was already too late for her. Chandra lifted her arms and watched the skin go scaled and her nails turned to bloodred talons. She moved her fingers, watching the tendons and skin shift with interest. She knew it was time for her to wake, but she didn't.

  Instead, the angled face of the creature came forward again and leaned in close to her. He, it was a he, watched her for a moment as she lay there in her changed form. When his voice came again, she found that it didn't hurt her and she could understand him.

  "Until we meet again, little one."

  19

  Dream and real Chandra screamed.

  The dream disappeared and Chandra sat upright to find Matta pressing a wet cloth to her face. Chandra could see that the edges of her face were tight with worry and fear.

  “I must say I don’t remember seeing anyone have such a reaction to the dream tea,” Matta patted the cloth on her skin, put it in a bucket, wrung it out and placed the fresh rag on her forehead.

  “Sleep now, child, and we will discuss this after the sun is up.”

  Chandra almost laughed at the command, thinking sleep would be a long time coming, but as soon as she shifted back onto the mat, her eyelids proved her wrong.

  ********************

  Sunlight danced across her eyelids, waking her with the shifting shape of the light through the trees. Bird calls echoed somewhere in the world of light and air tugged at loose strands of hair with blossom-scented fingers. Chandra started to push herself into a sitting position but stalled and she flopped back to the floor. It seemed that her head had gained an outrageous amount of weight after having been split in two. A low rumbling sound that gained and dropped in pitch several times seemed to echo around the room and stab her in the center of the forehead.

  “Stop groaning, would you? You're scaring away the birds,” Matta croaked at her from somewhere in the cottage. Chandra hadn’t realized the odd sound had been coming from her until she stopped. “Lie there for a moment and let your body adjust to being awake. It will take a bit before all the tea is out of your system. I’ll bring you some bread and strong tea in a moment.”

  “Why are mornings always so cheerful when I want nothing to do with them?” Chandra croaked out and responded with odd noises that sounded vaguely like laughter or Frostwhite coughing up a pellet.

  Lying on the floor, she felt as though the world was shifting around her, as if she could feel its rotation. She wished it would stop moving. She opened her eyes, but it didn’t help any. It looked as if the cottage was spinning about above her, and the drying satchels of herbs that hung from the rafters seemed to sway and dance.

  Frostwhite made one of his odd repetitive calls and Chandra winced.

  Why does he always feel the need to laugh at my pain?

  A soft cooing sound followed the thought and she would have glared at the bird if she could open her eyes without light stabbing them.

  "Oh shut up, you feather-head," Chandra’s voice crackled like old tree bark. She decided her hearing had becoming annoyingly strong and her vision had gone haywire from her head being split in two.

  “And quit rubbing your head like you aren’t sure it’s still intact,” the old woman said in a gruff tone that couldn’t mask the laughter. Chandra also decided Matta was a demon.

  Matta helped her into a sitting position and placed a warm mug in her hands, pushing her fingers closed around it. Chandra fought the urge to throw up into it as her stomach flipped upside down when she sat up. To keep her mind off of her suddenly mobile stomach, she asked, “What’s this?”

  Matta laughed. “Plain black tea with a touch of lemon and honey. No healing herbs in it, but it should make you feel better. Eat the bread and the world should stop feeling like it is doing some sort of dance ritual around you.”

  Chandra nodded to avoid the using her painful, growling voice and immediately regretted the motion. Tiny mouthfuls of tea and mouse-sized bites of bread were all that she dared as she wondered what would hurt next.

  It didn’t take long for the food and drink to revive her. It was surprising how quickly she shifted from her body having been trampled by horses to having the energy to run with them.

  “Settle down. That energy comes quick but will burn away as quickly. Wait until everything returns to a sense of normal for you,” Matta's voice drifted over to her from somewhere in the back.

  Chandra found it disconcerting that Matta always seemed to know what she was going to do or say. It was almost as though she could link to Chandra's thoughts like Frostwhite. She knew Matta had some ability with magic and had sensed a sort of grazing pressure when Matta ran her hand across Chandra’s forehead.

  The energy fluttered away as though being poured from a pitcher until she felt more herself. Chandra finished the bread and tea just as Matta reached down to take the cup.

  “That’s better now. Shift over a bit and I’ll sit by you,” Matta said. She set her claw-like hand on Chandra's shoulder and shifted to sit on the wide, flat surround of the hearth. She placed her walking stick between her legs and wrapped her fingers around the top before lowering her chin to them. Matta rested an expectant opaque gaze on Chandra.

  “Tell me, please, what did you see?”

  The images flashed through Chandra’s mind like a runaway horse: wild, fast and overcome with passion. She opened her mouth to speak but couldn’t. Fear filled her mouth and throat, choking her for a moment.

  Matta frowned with her milky, crystalline gaze still on Chandra. Her mouth opened almost in a mockery of Chandra’s expression despite the fact she couldn’t see it. She snapped her mouth closed with an audible click of teeth.

  “Why are you afraid? What was it that you saw?”

  Again, Chandra could not find her voice. It was as if a damp, wooly cloth had been placed across her mouth, preventing speech and laboring her breath.

  “Come, child, it is only color and elements. Did the tea not sit well? Is some residue of the vision causing you fear? If so, I can assure you the vision is done and you don't need to worry about describing the colors you saw!”

  Chandra closed her mouth and frowned at the old woman. None of what she said made sense any more than the fact that Chandra couldn't seem to make the words come out to describe the dream.

  “I don’t understand. What colors?” Chandra rasped painfully, the soothing aspects of the tea were worn away from her throat.

  “The colors of your magical ability. You should have seen different shades of colors and colors linked to specific elements. It isn't an exact language that the elements speak in, after all," Matta's eyes narrowed and her mouth pursed and Chandra felt as though she had done something wrong.

  "Did you not see anything? Is that why you don't want to talk? If that's all there is, we can always try again another night to see if you can commune with your powers. There is always the chance that something you ate or drank caused the tea to dilute in your body,” Matta finished, leaning forward to find Chandra’s leg and pat it gently. "Don't worry, we'll figure it out."

  “I saw...” Chandra paused as she thought for a moment. She remembered now what she had seen when she had first drifted away and wondered if that was what Matta was referring to. If so, what were the cavern walk and the beast? Was it a nightmare of some sort?

  “Yes?” Matta said her hand still on Chandra’s leg.

  “Ice,” Chandra told her. “It was a wall of pale blue ice. It was somewhat translucent and something moved behind it.”

  “Was the movement what frightened you then? That is perfectly natural. Many people are afraid of their
power. But, blue ice, you say?” the old woman clasped both hands together and placed them against her mouth. It was as though she was trying to keep words from escaping. With one hand gripping the top of her walking stick and the other pinched across her mouth, Matta stood up and walked around the room in slow circles.

  Chandra fought back a shudder that had nothing to do with blue ice. A nightmare, she told herself. The second part of her vision was a nightmare. She flung the thoughts into the back of her mind with all the energy she could muster.

  “Ice magic. I have never heard of any but the royal line having it. Normally, the elements don't actually appear as something so...” Matta paused and looked to the side. Chandra wondered if she had forgotten that she was speaking to another person instead of talking to herself.

  “So, it wasn't normal, but what does that mean?” Chandra asked the question flitting through her brain.

  “Well," Matta turned her gaze back to Chandra and cocked her head to the side. "I assume it means that you're part of the bloodline of the royal family.”

  20

  Chandra snorted and shook her head. “Funny. I really hadn’t thought you had such an outrageous sense of humor, Matta.”

  Matta's expression didn't change. If anything, her gaze locked more tightly on Chandra. Her eyes were steady and humorless as though they were discussing something significant and Chandra was an idiot who couldn’t see the horse charging toward her.

  “It isn't a joke, and it isn't something I think you should take lightly.”

  “I would take it seriously if it weren't such a preposterous idea," Chandra coughed out the words and Matta got the pot and poured more tea. Chandra took it with a muttering of thanks as she and the old woman watched each other.

  She was more than a little disgusted at Matta for acting this way and telling her such a load of ordure. She drank the tea too quickly and burned her tongue to soothe her throat.

  “The royal line is a very cloistered group. They do not leave their homeland, nor do they associate with people outside of it. The history books say they are aggressively protective of their line, so what you suggest is completely impossible,” Chandra rasped out, reciting information that had remained unchanged between the many books she read about Faust.

  “Calm yourself, child,” Matta said, her hand outstretched, patting the air as though it would somehow soothe her. “In historical terms, that is true. In the present reign, it is not. In fact, there was an event that happened about twenty years ago that almost undid the current line. An intruder attempted to take the baby princess from the estate home where the queen had moved for the birth. Several guards were killed in the attempt, but somehow the princess stayed safe.”

  Matta paused her speech and continued to pace as though she were looking to step on the correct spot on the floor that would allow her to continue. When she reached the hearth, she paused with her face away from Chandra before turning back.

  “When Prince Dezmon and his betrothed, Adeena, were married, there was a bloody coup in which Dezmon killed his brother Rawlund and his line in order to take the throne. When they became king and queen, they scattered the family. Most of the royal Winterbourne family was afraid that King Dezmon would make a clean sweep of it by getting rid of them all.

  “Once the rest of the family was gone and his bride pregnant, King Dezmon did not bother to seek out lost family members, though he did leave a bounty on their heads as magic users. The decree against magic now included all Winterbournes."

  "So, I may be related to them by some random cousin who hid away or died?" Chandra still found this to be unlikely, but she was willing to work with what Matta believed until she could prove otherwise. Being some random cast-off in hiding didn't seem as implausible as when Matta had first suggested her connection to the royal family.

  "It's actually pretty likely that's true of many of the hidden mages," Matta lifted one shoulder and quirked a smile. "No one wanted to be linked back to something that would likely get them killed."

  Chandra nodded, but it was still a lot to take in. In the back of her mind as she watched the old woman shuffle around the house, she couldn't help but feel like there was more of the dream that she needed to share. Unfortunately, she couldn't seem to remember what that was.

  That afternoon, Chandra tried to focus on the stitches Matta had shown her but couldn’t stop thinking about what Matta had told her. She wasn’t sure what to think of it. Most of the mages who taught the classes at the estate had emphasized the aspects of persecution to mages in Faust. Master Dreys had also mentioned them several times, his voice heavy with contempt. Chandra had always gotten the impression he had met them or dealt with them to some degree. She wondered if her former Master had known more than he let on.

  Chandra heard Matta exit the cottage behind her as she was stretching the hides Matta had brought in that morning. She brushed back a stray hair with the outer part of her wrist and looked up.

  "How can I find out if I'm related or not," Chandra asked and amended, "other than tea and dreams, of course."

  Matta’s feet stopped in their soft rustling movement through the grass. When she responded, there was humor in her voice and Chandra smiled at her own joke.

  “There is much history to be examined, child," Matta lifted her face to the sun as if the words needed to be absorbed into her skin in order for her to speak them.

  "I will say this, though: what better way to assure yourself supreme power than to stamp out those who might at some point be a threat to your dominance? No possible heirs meant that the throne goes to the princess; married or not.”

  Chandra went back to her tasks with energy born of exasperation. The hides looked like they would dry well, so she returned to stitchwork.

  One answer from Matta led to so many more questions, and they all buzzed around her like worker bees to their queen. She managed to stitch and mend the cloth Matta had given her and she knew her blanket would be warmer now that it didn't have so many holes.

  “Today, we will concentrate on your control, instead of questions we can't answer right now,” Matta said after coming back through the trees a few hours later. Chandra had completed her task of cleaning the rug and sweeping out the tiny cottage only a few moments before.

  Chandra raised her head and stared. She must have misunderstood Matta.

  “Close your mouth, child. You heard me correctly. And yes,” she said as if guessing the new question in the young woman’s mind, “I am referring to your magic.”

  Chandra pierced the ball of rags with the fine needle and put the blanket back on the mat. Chandra swallowed the rough, residual lump in her throat. A million overlapping images of a tiny room with books, a table and chair and complete solitude ran through her mind. She had lived that day so many times that the thought of living it again made her feel ill. She watched Matta moving around the cottage in slow gait. The woman found a heavy blanket and settled it on the floor before sinking her frame down on it.

  “Sit, please,” she told Chandra after she had found a comfortable position. Chandra dropped quickly into a cross-legged position across from Matta. “I don’t know what or how you were taught, though I doubt it helped from what I can tell. I do know where you came to me from, though nothing else about you.”

  Chandra tried to keep herself from shaking. She wondered what, exactly Matta knew but did not have long to ponder.

  “I know that on the day you escaped the estate at Malofa, its Master was killed."

  Chandra suddenly wished to be far away as quickly as possible before Matta could make the true accusation. The old woman patted her hand.

  "I don't know if you realize that you were one of many students to escape," the look on Matta's face when she said escape was colder than anything she thought the old woman capable of.

  "I don't think it was ever really a school so much as a place for a deranged, power-hungry man to train mages to defeat or kill other mages, like some sort of war camp,” Matta's voi
ce dropped several octaves. Instead of the normal grate of age, her voice seemed almost booming even though the woman had not raised her voice. The hair on Chandra's arm stood up as though a storm had arrived.

  “Beyond that, I don't care,” Matta’s voice had returned to its gentle rattle of wind through dried leaves scratch as quickly as it had shifted away. Chandra realized she had leaned away and resettled her posture on the blanket.

  When Matta's last sentence penetrated Chandra's startled mind, joy rose up inside her as though she had suddenly learned to fly. Even if she could express her gratitude, the words to entail it would not form in her brain. Not that she was given a chance to speak.

  “Close your eyes, Chandra,” she told her. "You have to find the center of who you are and what you want. Your mind is fickle and you're prone toward action without thought. Anger and impatience will not benefit you in magic.”

  "I know most mages learn calling items and levitation before they even find a connection to their inner power well," Matta paused and Chandra opened her eyes to see the blind woman's blank, white eyes on her. "Inside you, once you connect, you can do pretty much anything you need to."

  Chandra wanted to believe what Matta said.

  "Since you saw ice, that means you are mostly inclined toward the element of water," Matta said. "Focus on water. Connect to it and then command it; give it purpose."

  Chandra wanted to ask Matta to tell her what to do but sensed she wouldn't. She closed her eyes and remembered touching the water in the fountain. When she reached into it with her mind, the water asked her to help it and she had. Chandra frowned because she knew she couldn't touch the water from inside Matta's house unless she got a bucket, but that didn't feel like the right solution.

  How can I reach an element that isn't nearby?

  She remembered the rain on the day Frostwhite became her companion. The rain didn't come from a river, it came from the sky. Chandra had her answer.