Ice Burns Read online

  “Hurry along,” the man said, not lowering his sword.

  Chandra was trying to see a way she could get the guard to let Matta go. She decided to take a small chance, betting on his arrogant ambition over strategic intelligence.

  “Let her go unless you prefer to cower behind a helpless woman instead of facing me like a man instead of a boy,” she sneered and raised her chin to him. She saw her comment about his age hit as his eyes narrowed and a vein started pulsing in his neck. “Here, I’ll make it easier. I'll even put both my hands behind my back.”

  Chandra clenched her hands behind her, remembering what Matta had said about visualization being the key to her power. Movement had been reflex for Chandra, and had seemed to call her magic previously but she decided to trust Matta. As she suspected, the guard knew nothing about magic and grinned when he saw her hands behind her.

  He shuffled forward a little with Matta, presumably to close the distance and prevent Chandra from raising her hands before he could grab her. Chandra tried to look worried as he moved, as if he were spoiling her plan. She reached out to the water vapors around them, just as she had in the hut, giving them purpose and direction, but holding them barely in check. When he was only a few strides in front of her, he released Matta and reached for Chandra.

  As soon as she saw Matta was out of reach, Chandra set the magic in the element loose with only the directive to stop him. The air in front of her erupted and hissed as the water lifted the guard, burning him with hot steam, and slammed him into a massive ancient oak behind the cottage. There was a dull crunching sound before he crumpled on the ground.

  Chandra imagined a trail of red streaking down the tree and a curved blade protruding from his chest and choked, dropping to her knees. Matta grabbed her and shook her, hard.

  "Take me to him. Your magic has blurred too much of the area to find where he landed and see if he's alive."

  Chandra nodded and walked Matta over to the prone form. There was no blood on the tree, though a few branches had broken off and rested on the ground around him. She took Matta's hand and led her to the man where the old woman checked his pulse in his neck.

  “He’s not dead, and I can heal his injuries quick enough. Get my woven pouch from my work bench, Chandra.”

  Chandra ran into the cottage. Emotions warred inside her. A voice in her head said she did not want the guard to recover because he wasn't the type that would give up on finding her. Another voice asked if she really wanted another death on her conscience if she could prevent it. Again, she saw blood running down a wall in her mind. Chandra grabbed the bag and hurried out.

  She brought the bag to Matta, who had walked to the well to draw water. She took the satchel and unhooked the bucket. Chandra took her arm to lead her back but Matta pushed away and headed for where the guard lay.

  “Can you see him?”

  “The power that was in the air has dispersed. He is the only remaining thing coated in your magic at the moment. Next time, why don't you just drop the cottage on him? Matta muttered out of the side of her mouth as she was holding a tiny bag in the edge of it.

  "I didn't consider it an option," Chandra replied.

  Matta turned her opaque eyes on the young woman who shrugged with wide green eyes.

  “What did you expect me to do? Perhaps you would rather I let him kill you?”

  “Yes, stupid girl. You should have never come forward, never tried to stop him, and certainly never given him the opportunity to take you over me!” Matta hissed her white eyes fierce on Chandra for a moment before returning to her work.

  "What a load of crap!" Chandra yelled.

  “Lower your voice. He might not have been alone,” Matta hissed at her.

  Chandra dropped to the ground beside her and fought her emotionally magnified voice. “How can you even suggest that? Do you honestly think I would be okay with your getting hurt or dying over me?"

  “I feel that you have a destiny that outweighs what's left of my life,” Matta said calmly, mixing herbs in the bucket. Chandra absorbed her words for a few moments.

  “We need to prevent him from coming after us again,” Chandra said softly, not willing to suggest that they kill him, though the thought kept flitting through her mind.

  “I agree,” Matta said as she poured the mixture into the unconscious man’s mouth. He sputtered and almost woke as his body swallowed instinctually. His body flopped back against the tree.

  “He'll be out for a while, but the herbs will do their job and heal him,” Matta explained. “Please get some rope from behind the cottage and a few rags. We need to tie him up, gag him, and cover him before we leave.”

  Though Chandra had risen to do as she was bid, she paused at the last word.

  “Leave?”

  “Of course, you don’t think we can stay here once he awakens, do you?” Matta looked at her as though she were daft. "Even if I made something to make him forget, what do you think will happen when he wakes so close to where we are?"

  She didn't wait for Chandra to respond, “Now hurry and get the rope and rags. I will go into the cottage and pack what I can.”

  Chandra moved despite wanting to protest or question the old woman further. She gathered some ropes from behind the cottage. The only ones she could find were almost rotted through. She grabbed several rags out of the bucket near the door that she had used to clean with and walked back with a small smile. There was satisfaction in the thought that the dirt and soap would be the first thing the man experienced when he woke.

  When Chandra made it back, she looked at his prone figure and the ropes in her hand wondering how to best tie him up. She didn’t know how to do anything with rope. The closest she had gotten was the rudimentary sewing work Matta had taught her.

  Chandra shoved at the man until she had him rolled over onto his stomach, figuring if she put him on his stomach, it might be harder for him to untie himself. She knotted the old rope and twisted it around his limbs. She hoped it would hold long enough. She reached up to his face and pushed a couple of dirty rags into his mouth. She was grinning a little as she stood up. Matta reached down to run her hands along the knots in the rope, tightening them a bit before standing back up.

  “See if you can drag him away a bit,” Matta said from behind her. “If not, we need to at least cover him in branches and leaves so anyone who stumbles past won’t see him until he wakes up.”

  Chandra wanted to comment about how no one ever seemed to "stumble past" the cottage except the unconscious man they had bound and gagged. She arched her eyebrows and shrugged before she grabbed the man’s feet. She tugged and heaved but it took her several minutes to get him even a few feet from where they had started.

  "And I thought hauling all that wood had made me more muscle-y," she muttered in between gasped breaths. Matta laughed from behind her and shook her head at the young woman who quirked a small smile.

  “Leave him, then,” Matta flapped an arm at the unconscious man. “Pull some dead branches and cover him, please.”

  Chandra grabbed the two the guard had helpfully brought down when he was slammed into the tree and then pulled dead branches from the forest floor. She broke some pieces and draped them across him, trying to make it look like they had naturally fallen there. She was also intent on making sure to cover all of him. Bits of metal from his mail kept showing through.

  Chandra glared at the prone form for a few moments and then turned to run back to the cottage. She gathered up the bucket beside the door and rushed back to where the man lay, mostly covered by branches. She swung the bucket and ash came out in an arc over him, peppering him with gray dust and making the mail disappear from view.

  “Clever,” Matta said through sneezes. “We have to hurry, but I need you to do one more thing before we go.”

  Chandra waited for her task while the woman took slow breaths as though steeling herself to do something terrible. She frowned at Matta and wondered what it was she could possibly ask for.
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br />   "Call to a spark in the hearth, they answer you, I've seen it," Matta nodded at her. "We just hadn't had time to get better with it."

  Chandra's face went pale and her eyes began to itch from moisture.

  “You understand correctly. I want you to burn the cottage,” Matta smiled and patted her arm.

  “You can’t mean that. This was your home!”

  Matta smiled sadly at the young woman. “There are secrets in this cottage that I need no others to find. I cannot risk it.”

  “But won’t the fire lead others to the cottage?” Chandra asked.

  “The forest will assist us and prevent the fire from being seen,” Matta explained. “I would ask it to hide our friend there, but I do not have enough ability to do both without much more preparation. Now, stop wasting time and do as I have asked of you, please.”

  Chandra took and released a deep breath before closing her eyes again. She saw the tiny cottage, sweet and serene, surrounded by a forest of deep green and flanked by the old, mossy well. She imagined a tiny spark in the hearth rising to the center of the thatched roof.

  She opened her eyes and saw the cottage untouched. She closed her eyes again and imagined the spark in the center of the hearth jumping out to touch upon the dry furniture and spread. She could sense the spark and imagined the heat from the fire though her eyes told her that nothing had changed.

  Frustration rolled over her. She gritted her teeth thinking first that it was unfair of Matta to ask her to do this. It made her feel as though nothing had changed; that she hadn't figured out what to do. All those times in the estate when she could do nothing, all those times when she tried to do something, anything!

  She wanted to call out that she shouldn't have to feel this way. Her anger sparked within her like the flame she tried to kindle. When she closed her eyes again, the anger and heat inside her warmed her until her skin had a sheen of perspiration that did nothing to cool her. The inside of her body felt like hot soup churning around and firing her with so much energy that she wanted to run, scream, rail. She had to change it into something tangible before it overcame her. She focused on the cottage and the spark she sought to turn to flame.

  She felt the heat of it and kindled it. The spark raged, fueled by her anger in a way that should not have been possible. It grew to be a monster of anger that felt good inside her. Her rage felt warm and powerful. Chandra fed the flame, encouraged its natural tendencies, and made it grow and burn.

  She opened her eyes and saw the flames licking across the top of the tiny house. Red, blue and orange spread across the pale thatch and wood. The fire fed with ravenous need on the dry cottage but did not seem to give off a telling glow. Nor did Chandra see smoke rising up into the twilight sky like a flag of surrender as she had expected. It was as though she were watching something burn inside a clear, glass bowl without an opening. The smoke and colors swirled but did not reach beyond their kindling.

  Chandra was startled by her musings from a tug on her arm.

  “Come away now. We must leave. I doubt that time is on our side today,” Matta whispered, tugging Chandra off into the trees. Chandra hurried along with her, trying not to look back at the tiny house that had been more a home to her than any she had known.

  “Now, I must find.... ah!” Matta muttered before veering off the path to a giant white oak tree. She kneeled at its trunk for a moment with her hands on the mossy ground. She whispered fervently, too fast for Chandra to pick out many words, and not enough to understand what she was doing.

  A few moments later, Matta stood up and there was a great, “Crack!” from above them in the tree. Something fell quickly, hitting no other branches but whistling through the air like an arrow. Matta put one hand out and deftly caught the long, pale branch.

  She turned her head and smiled at Chandra. She looked to the tree and muttered, “Thank you,” before grasping Chandra’s arm in her free hand and using the branch as a walking stick. Chandra hadn't noticed that the one Matta usually had near her was gone and wondered if it burned in the remains of the old woman's home.

  Chandra had no idea where they were going but Matta’s arm kept her moving at the older woman's quick pace. She felt a little foolish letting Matta lead but didn’t see any other way about it. Some time later, when they paused for a moment to drink from a stream, Chandra closed her eyes and shifted her thoughts to the sky.

  Frostwhite had been away from the cottage when the guardsman showed up. He had felt her thoughts and fear, but by the time he got back, they were on the move. He sent a query to Chandra’s mind when she reached out to him. It was a muddled feeling that meant anything from worry about her wellbeing to inquiring if she needed anything. Chandra shook her head. The relief in knowing her friend was safely on the move with them was all she needed.

  She opened her eyes to find Matta’s snowy ones focused on her. Chandra shook her head, and Matta nodded at her. Neither seemed to have any desire to speak. They both felt wrapped in their own sense of urgency and fear that unnecessary words would bring unwanted attention. They moved through the forest with surprising speed for how little light was left to guide them. It was as though they were on a path instead of crossing over exposed roots, dead branches and tree offal. They took so many turns and twisted through so many dark areas of the forest Chandra doubted she could have found her way back to the cottage if she had wanted to. Now and then she would watch Matta as they walked. Her eyes kept straight ahead but she would close them once in a while, as if trying to smell the path or listening to a sound for only her. She didn’t stop walking though and didn't trip the exposed roots or rabbit holes. Chandra was not as sure-footed and her feet began to feel bruised. After an hour of weaving through trees on marshy, leaf-covered ground, Chandra could not hold her tongue any longer.

  “Matta?”

  “Yes, dear?” Matta veered sharply to the right and headed down a steep slope.

  “Do you know where we're going?” Chandra could have sworn several of the outcroppings and tree clusters looked familiar.

  “Of course I know where we’re going! What kind of question is that?” Matta huffed, half-exasperation, half-exertion.

  “Okay. Would you mind telling me?” Chandra asked again.

  Matta stopped walking and turned her frozen gaze on Chandra.

  “If I were to guess, I would say you've probably never been anywhere but the buildings where you grew up. Would that be accurate?” Matta asked. Chandra nodded, but the older woman continued speaking. “Glad we cleared that up. So, if I were to tell you where we're going you probably still wouldn’t know."

  Chandra opened her mouth to protest that she had read about much of the lands but closed it again. It was true she had read about much of the countries and their customs, climates, and so much more. The problem was she had never found much of it interesting and had retained little of what she had been taught.

  "Good. Now, let this blind, old woman lead you through the forest and you won’t get lost.” Matta was again moving at a quick pace and hauling on Chandra's arm.

  22

  Chandra's mouth drew a tight line across her face. No matter how long they walked, she decided not to question Matta about their destination again. Chandra wondered exactly how far into the forest they had gone. At the Northern most point of the forest was the Ice River Mountain that fed the creek not far from the cottage. It was also the border between the Southern Lands and those of the Ice Kingdom. Chandra wasn’t sure she wanted to travel so close to the land that routinely massacred mages. Frostwhite called out in the distance and she sensed his agreement.

  Chandra tried not to shiver as the forest grew dark with night. It was never too warm in the forest because the trees were so densely packed. Night was generally on the cold side. It had taken her several days to get used to it after having lived on the edge of the desert at the estate. Even the slight clearing around the cottage didn't pull enough sun to keep it warm for long.

  “Matta, its dark. D
on’t you think we should stop for a bit?” Chandra asked softly.

  “What in the world do I need light for?”

  “Well, I do and it is getting colder by the minute,” Chandra huffed into her hands.

  Matta snorted at the request but stopped for a moment to dig in the large sac she was carrying. She pulled out a thin cloak and a hank of bread with a bit of cheese in it. Chandra thanked her. She hastened to wrap the cloak around herself as Matta began walking again.

  Once Chandra had the cloak pinned to her tunic, she nibbled the food. She still needed to watch her step to minimize damage and tripping; walking and chewing did not work well. Without conversation, her mind drifted. Chandra couldn’t push away the image of the guard standing over Matta with a sword. She knew Matta had been pretending, but Chandra couldn’t help but worry Matta could be so easily overtaken. Her feelings of worry about the old woman who had taken her in were sharp and painful.

  Chandra watched the curtain of white moving like a ghost ahead of her. She tore a good portion of the bread and cheese off and grabbed Matta’s arm. Before Matta could bark at her, Chandra thrust a portion into her hand.

  She might have slapped Matta across the face by her change in expression. She nodded slowly and her lips twisted before she resumed walking. Chandra even though she saw the tiniest smile play on the edge her lips as she turned away and resumed walking.

  Chandra lifted her thoughts to the sky and her feathered companion, calling him to rest on her shoulders. After several minutes, the great bird swooped down through the trees and landed on Chandra’s shoulder. She helped him shift so he was balanced as much on the back of her neck and center of her shoulders as possible. He nestled himself down, hunkering into her hair before going still. Now and again, she would stroke his silken feathers but tried to walk in an as even a tread as possible.

  It was now the darkest part of the night, and Matta was barely visible ahead of her. She, too, had put on a cloak and lifted the hood to cover her head. In fact, if Matta hadn't turned to check on her, thus allowing the sparse light to glow on her silver hair, Chandra would have lost her. During one check, Matta whispered, “Not far now,” though Chandra didn't know if she was thinking out loud.