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Queen of Ice (Through the Fire Book 2)

Page 28

by Benjamin Medrano

With a few gestures and words, Ruethwyn began to cast the spell and the snow shivered, then began to reshape under her will. A circle was carved into the packed snow and it was quickly carved into large bricks, each about as long as Ruethwyn’s arm, as well as being fairly wide and thick. In seconds they began floating out of the pit, then began assembling into the walls of the dome. Only a few moments later, Ruethwyn realized her first mistake and murmured a curse, accidentally breaking her concentration and sending bricks flying to the ground, the walls of the snow dome half made.

  “You forgot to make the bricks for the upper sections smaller, Rue. At least you noticed before trying to put it together,” Zaria said, giggling internally. “Plus you’ve destroyed almost half your bricks.”

  “Yes, I did. At least there’s plenty of snow where that came from, but still, I messed up,” Ruethwyn admitted, sighing. She considered for a few moments more, then went back to it, grimacing as she started casting again, the pain it caused reminding her not to waste too much energy this time around.

  It didn’t take long to gather what was left of her previous bricks, then Ruethwyn reshaped them to more easily form a dome. Zaria might not have had the specifics of how to build an igloo, but she’d given more than enough for Ruethwyn to work with, and she quickly assembled the rest of the bricks, though she had to reshape the last few to fit properly. Then Ruethwyn quickly created a few ventilation holes and cut the doorway, which she kept low to the ground. That was supposed to help it stay a little warmer from what she knew since warm air rose. She was planning on a small fire, which would be a little more worrisome, considering the snow beneath her, but she’d figure something out.

  “Mm, not bad, Rue,” Zaria said, seeming to be approving. “Only took two tries, and you got it pretty close to begin with. Too bad you didn’t make it somewhat larger, though.”

  “What? Why would I have made it larger?” Ruethwyn asked, pausing and blinking. “I figured that you would want me to keep it small, considering that I am in the wilds.”

  “Pfft. This will never last that long, and it’s made of snow. It’s nothing to worry about,” Zaria’s voice was slightly dismissive, yet playful at the same time. “No, I was more meaning that you should’ve made it larger to fit your friends.”

  “I didn’t bring them with me, though!” Ruethwyn protested. “I’m alone right now! Except for you, anyway.”

  “Why yes, you are. However, that’s only temporary. You say you left them behind, but what made them stay behind, hmm?” Zaria asked, sending a chill through Ruethwyn. “Furthermore, while the snow gremlins a few miles back may have ignored you, that doesn’t mean that they ignored them.”

  “What? You’re… you’re joking, aren’t you?” Ruethwyn asked, her voice trembling as she spun and looked back the way she’d come from. Her footprints were faint and fading, but clear enough for the moment.

  “Why would I joke when lives are at stake, Rue? Your friends may end up meals if you’re not careful. Remember, while you’re likely safe, they’re not. Think carefully,” Zaria replied, her amusement gone. “I will not save you if you offend someone who is too influential though, Ruethwyn.”

  “Yes, but—” Ruethwyn began, then suddenly her thoughts came to a halt. Something about Zaria’s explanation felt odd, and she considered for a moment, then a minute. Finally, she spoke, her voice soft. “Standing in a gate between two worlds is Valisair, city of ice. A gate between two worlds… Zaria, are you here?”

  “Of course I’m here, Ruethwyn. You summoned me,” Zaria said, but there was an oddly pleased tone to her voice.

  “No, I mean, are you in Valisair? Or on the other side of the portal in Valisair? It’s like you know what’s behind me,” Ruethwyn replied quickly.

  “Well guessed, Rue. Well guessed indeed,” Zaria said affectionately. “I’ll have to ask how you did so later. For now… go, Rue. Go if you value your friends, for they are in peril. Peril that may, just may, lead to fortune.”

  Ruethwyn swore under her breath, and then she turned and began to run over the snows back in the direction she’d come. As she ran, she muttered, “You idiots! I told you to stay behind.”

  In her mind, Zaria laughed softly.

  Chapter 34

  It didn’t take too long for Ruethwyn to find the tracks that had been following her own. It took longer to reach where they were even with her hurrying, and Ruethwyn bit back curses as she saw the trail.

  There were two distinct trails she could see in the distance, one alongside the other. The first looked like the tracks of a person in snowshoes, while the other looked like the tracks of a large wolf, or a fox. The first trail could be for multiple people, but Ruethwyn wasn’t certain from her vantage, nearly a half-mile away.

  “Oh no… did all of them come?” Ruethwyn murmured, looking down toward a cluster of trees between her and the tracks. The tracks hadn’t come out the near side, and her lips thinned. She really hoped that they were still in the trees, but she didn’t hear anything but the whispering of the wind, and that wasn’t a good sign.

  “I can’t be certain, but do you really think that only two of your three friends would chase after you, and that one would allow themselves to be left behind?” Zaria asked, her tone indicating that she didn’t really consider it a question.

  “Of course not. It was more of a protest, Zaria,” Ruethwyn replied, hurrying down the hillside. “Do you know what the gremlins might have done?”

  “It really depends on their mood. They like creating mischief, and considering where we are, that could lead… bad places. I believe there are redcaps in this area,” Zaria replied, her tone musing. “That could go poorly.”

  Ruethwyn flinched at the suggestion. What little she knew about redcaps wasn’t good, as they were one of the most unfriendly types of fey, and the dwarf-like species had a bloodthirsty reputation. She was hurrying into the trees, then stopped abruptly as she saw a large hole in the ground, and the tracks had vanished into it. Hesitating, Ruethwyn took a couple of steps toward the hole, then peeked over the edge.

  The hole was lined with ice and looked like someone had dug a pit trap in the snow, and covered it with a thin layer of snow to hide it. Unfortunately, it also didn’t have a bottom that Ruethwyn could see, and only a few feet down the sides twisted to form a tunnel.

  “Oh dear. That isn’t a snow gremlin trap. That trap belongs to a wisp.” Zaria’s tone had turned serious again. “Rue, I think you need to send me back. You’re going to need your mana for this, and I’m not going to be helpful enough to make my drain worth it.”

  “What’s a wisp? What do you mean?” Ruethwyn asked, her heart starting to pound.

  “A wisp is… complex. Think of it as the remaining vindictiveness of someone who died, merged with the local elemental mana. It’s not physical, but it wishes to see others suffer and die in slow fear, to create more of its kind. Your friends will be fine for now, but I’m guessing that they’ve been dropped into one of the underworld domains,” Zaria explained quickly. “They’ve also likely been separated, and you’ll likely show up separately as well. That much you should be able to bypass since I believe that all of you have those amulets the kitsune gave you.”

  “That… that’s true. Um, do you have any advice?” Ruethwyn asked, looking at the pit nervously.

  “There are fey everywhere, Ruethwyn, so be polite. Be respectful, and they will give your words weight. No matter what, do not use fire down there, and tell your friends as much,” Zaria said, her voice serious. “If you’re careful and clever, you’ll impress the fey, and they may help you in your quest. Displease them and you may lose your friends.”

  “That’s… well, okay, but what about me? You only seem concerned about their lives, and—” Ruethwyn began to speak.

  Zaria interrupted, her voice firm. “You’ll be fine, Rue. Now go, if you’re going to! Your friends don’t have your advantages.”

  “Alright,” Ruethwyn agreed, swallowing and allowing the spell summ
oning Zaria to fade, leaving her alone in her thoughts once more. The pain of the expenditure of mana faded and Ruethwyn gritted her teeth, then jumped into the pit.

  The impact of hitting the icy surface was harder than Ruethwyn had expected, but the coat she was wearing and the enchantments of the dress helped soften it. It was incredibly slick, though, and in moments, she found herself racing down an icy tunnel, and as the light dimmed Ruethwyn found her worry increasing sharply. There was just enough light reflected from above to give her glimpses of walls, including jagged looking icicles from far too close.

  She almost missed the moment she was nudged by something and was guided down a side path, rather than one of several other tunnels, but it was there, and the light faded entirely as she vanished down the passage. The tunnel twisted and turned, then finally ended abruptly as Ruethwyn burst into a room filled with light, and her eyes went huge as she saw an array of icicle spikes pointed directly toward the exit from only a handful of feet away, and she didn’t have time to react.

  Erupting from the exit, Ruethwyn could hardly believe it as she flew barely under the spikes and the wall of ice, then hit a massive mound of snow like an arrow. The impact blasted the air from her lungs, and everything was dark as the snow buried her.

  “Guh!” Ruethwyn fumbled about, trying to gain some type of purchase as she slowly dragged herself out of the snow. It took a minute, with flakes sticking to her face and hair, as well as her clothing, but Ruethwyn found her feet again, her heart still racing from the near-panic she’d felt only moments before.

  Looking around, Ruethwyn blinked in surprise, because she hadn’t really expected what she was seeing. It was like she’d been dropped into a vast cavern of ice, snow, and stone, and large sections of the ice glowed with an eerie blue light. More surprising were the thick, gnarled roots that extended through the chamber like ice-encrusted pillars, and what almost looked like bushes, except that they only possessed thorns rather than leaves.

  The sound of water rumbled some distance away, still loud, and Ruethwyn murmured under her breath. “What is this place?”

  No one answered, but after a moment, Ruethwyn took a breath and carefully walked around the room. The stark colors made it difficult to find an exit, but after a bit, she found what looked like a tunnel. Poking her head down it, the echoing rumble grew louder, and Ruethwyn winced. Blue lights flitted through the air almost like fireflies in the hall, and Ruethwyn debated before heading down the hallway cautiously.

  The lights were insects, ones with shimmering blue carapaces, though that could just be from the light they were shedding, and each was about the size of the joint of Ruethwyn’s thumb. None of them seemed to pay much attention to her, buzzing around her for a moment before drifting off again and allowing her to pass easily.

  “Thank you,” Ruethwyn said belatedly, remembering Zaria’s advice almost at the last moment, even though there was no response. She hoped that the elemental hadn’t been playing with her. In short order, Ruethwyn took a step out of the tunnel into a larger space, and her eyes went wide again as she murmured. “Oh dear. This complicates things.”

  The chamber she stepped into made the one she’d just been in look like it wasn’t complex at all. A roaring waterfall entered the vast room, one that was bigger than the academy itself, and vast outcroppings of rock and ice formed multiple levels to the room. The river ran through the chamber, and Ruethwyn swallowed, seeing pools of unnaturally glittering water and what almost looked like swamps. That didn’t look safe at all, especially with the freezing mist that pervaded the room. Ruethwyn considered pulling out the amulet the Lightweavers had given her and the enchanted device for tracking down others, but at that moment, she heard a faint yelping sound and looked up quickly.

  Above her, almost sixty feet up on a ledge, was Korima. The kitsune was batting at tiny motes of blue light, the insects from before, Ruethwyn suspected, and the kitsune was bundled up in layers of coats and a cloak, but all the clothing was soaking wet, and Korima didn’t look much better. Especially with the red welts Ruethwyn was seeing on her cheeks.

  “Get away from me, you evil little things! I don’t want to be here, so leave me alone!” Korima exclaimed, her voice hard to hear, but there was something off about it.

  “Korima!” Ruethwyn called out. “Down here, Korima!”

  For a moment, Ruethwyn didn’t think the kitsune heard her, and then the kitsune’s ears perked up and she looked toward Ruethwyn, relief dawning on her face. She scurried over to an edge and cried out. “Rue! What’re you doing down here? I thought your tracks kept going, and then we hit this weird trap, and got separated! Sella and Tadrick are down here, I’m freezing, and… and…”

  “Korima, calm down!” Ruethwyn said loudly, looking at her seriously. “We’re in danger down here. Don’t use fire magic, and just… apologize to the insects.”

  “Apologize?” Korima asked, looking confused, then worried. “Are… are you a hallucination?”

  That wasn’t a pleasant thought at all, and Ruethwyn winced, then shook her head. “No, I’m not a hallucination, Korima. There are fey down here, and I was told to be respectful. Apologize, then prepare to jump down. I’ll prepare a spell to help you land softly, alright?”

  “Okay. Um…” Korima turned to the insects, which had backed off slightly, and then said, “I’m sorry, mister bugs? Or miss bugs? I don’t want to be here any more than you want me here, and I’ll leave as soon as I can.”

  As Korima apologized to the insects, as silly as Ruethwyn found the thought, Ruethwyn prepared a spell, murmuring most of the words as she gestured. The spell in question was one of the basic ones of the air sphere, but she couldn’t channel mana quickly enough to use it as intended anymore. It was meant to be used when you started falling, to keep you from hitting the ground hard, but unless it was an absurdly long fall Ruethwyn wasn’t capable of casting it fast enough. When Korima looked at her, though, Ruethwyn nodded to her.

  “Here goes nothing,” Korima murmured. “I really hope you aren’t an illusion or something.”

  The kitsune jumped, and Ruethwyn finished her spell as she did so. Korima’s fall suddenly grew slower and gentler, though it was still quick. In moments, Korima was on the ground, and the kitsune lunged forward to embrace Ruethwyn.

  For a second Ruethwyn was relieved, but then she grew worried because she could hear the kitsune’s teeth chattering and the woman was soaked. She hugged Korima for a moment, then pulled away. “Korima, you’re soaked through!”

  “Y-yeah. I was… trying to cross the river, and it suddenly sprayed me, hard. I got completely soaked,” Korima admitted, shivering hard, the welts on her face darker, and Ruethwyn’s alarm grew more pronounced. It almost looked like the welts were freezing.

  “Crap. Korima, hold still, I need to dry you out before you freeze to death,” Ruethwyn said, and grew even more concerned when the kitsune didn’t argue. Drawing on her mana core, Ruethwyn winced as she cast her spell to control water, quickly drawing the water pervading Korima’s clothing and against her body out into an orb over her hand, then tossing it aside. The water hit the ground and quickly began to freeze again, but Ruethwyn ignored it, instead focusing on her friend. “What happened to your scarf? It should’ve kept you from freezing! We spent enough time on it.”

  Simply drying the kitsune wouldn’t be enough, Ruethwyn knew, but she didn’t have time to take the approach her mother had recommended, of hunkering down in a shelter and sharing body heat. Korima’s condition made Ruethwyn even more worried about Sella and Tadrick, and Ruethwyn had spells which her mother hadn’t possessed. Instead, she immediately cast another spell, this one the same one that she’d enchanted into her dress to keep herself warm. The effect of the spell was immediate, as Korima’s color began to improve. The draw on Ruethwyn’s mana wasn’t minor, though. She was down to nearly a quarter of her normal mana reserve, and that worried her.

  “I l-lent it to Sella, since I was s-shaped like a f-fo
x. Oh, that… that feels so much better. I’m not f-freezing anymore,” Korima said, quickly cuddling into Ruethwyn. “I’m c-cold… but warming up. You’re nice and warm.”

  “I’m glad you’re safe, but what are you doing here, Korima? I told you to stay in Waterstone!” Ruethwyn replied, her tone growing tart. “If Zaria hadn’t warned me that she sensed something about the group of you following me, I wouldn’t have known to come back here, and you would’ve frozen to death!”

  “That, um, well…” Korima hesitated, flushing slowly as she looked away, her ears wilting under Ruethwyn’s gaze. “W-well… it’s just such an interesting story, I couldn’t resist trying to learn what happens first-hand. Then Tadrick said it was his duty as a prospective knight to help someone who’s been injured… and Sella wasn’t letting us go alone since at least she’d been in the Frostglades before. She was getting really worried about the area you were going into, then the ground suddenly gave way and we got split up.”

  “Wonderful, just wonderful. I’ll have you know that the entire day was completely uneventful for me until now. And now I’m having to rescue you all,” Ruethwyn said, her patience running thin, though her frustration eased at the guilty, contrite look on Korima’s face. The drooping ears and pitiful look on her face just wasn’t fair.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that this would happen,” Korima said, her tone guilty.

  “Well, there’s nothing to be done for it now. At the very least I can use your help. I can’t imagine there’re many other elves down here, and your sense of smell will be useful. Still, we’re going to have trouble as it is,” Ruethwyn said, sighing heavily. Considering for a moment, Ruethwyn asked, “Would you get into my pack for me? I have the Lightweaver amulet tucked into a pocket near the bottom on the right side of the compartment, and I need a device that looks like a ring of iron with a copper web strung inside it, it should be inside the black leather pouch.”

  “Um, okay? Why do you need those?” Korima asked, letting go and moving behind Ruethwyn. Her cheeks still had the welts, but the kitsune looked like she was doing a lot better.

 

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