by Chris Hechtl
Sal forced a smile as he and the lord took the lad arm and arm. “Come, let us drink and be merry. We can put off such talk for a later time,” Sal said. “Today is a time for celebration,” he said with a grin. “Try some ale, lad; it'll help you grow fur on your chest and face,” he said, holding up a wineskin.
“The warmth from the drink in my flask is even better,” the lord said with a knowing look to the foster father.
“No,” Snowden said.
“No? You turn down ale and alcohol?” The lord took a nip and then wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand. His lips were blue, and his hands were pale and cold. “By the all fathers it is a cold one today! Perhaps you can warm us up?” he asked, turning to the girl.
She shook her head trying to take a step back, but Mari kept her firmly in place with her hand on her arm. “It'll be fine. Just do as you are bid, child. You are about to become a woman! You should feel flattered that such a one wishes to bed you!” Mari whispered in her ear.
Kayla shook her head faster, shaken but too well-trained to use her powers.
“Why didn't you get them to drink before this?” Sal demanded in an aside to Mari.
“Did you want to carry them all the way here?” Mari demanded, eyes flashing.
Snowden eyed them, twisting away from the cup his foster father was trying to force to his lips. “Come on, lad, drink. It'll all be fine,” Sal said, clearly annoyed.
“I said NO!” Snowden said, finally having enough. In a fit of rage the teenager froze Sal and then a shocked Mari. The lord stumbled away in shock, eyes wide, hand to his chest. He shook for he'd gotten a taste of that biting cold.
Shocked, Kayla gasped. “What have you done, Snowden!” She tried to revive them as guards rushed to the area. The ice quickly melted and the two Quels crumpled to the ground. Healers were called in as hard grim arms took them from behind. Snowden was ready to resist but his sister silently shook her head no. Now was not the time her eyes pleaded. The young man hung his head and allowed himself to be arrested. Kayla remained to help the high priestess warm the Quels. Once the healing apprentices were on site, the high priestess had a quiet word with Lord Chamberlain's page. She shot Kayla a pitying look and then left without a backwards look.
Kayla stood there, arms crossed, unsure what to do. She edged shadows of the balcony above and heard the king speaking. What she heard finally spurred her to act.
~~~~~(|)---(|)~~~~~
The king was upset by the events. The ceremony was ruined. Memory of it would drive potential tourists away for years, deeply harming the kingdom's economy and reputation. Losing the once biddable boy would also cut deeply into the kingdom. He could no longer be trusted, but what to do with him?
“This must be turned to our advantage. It is bad, a terrible thing,” Lord Chamberlain said, shaking his head mournfully. “I knew the lad was angry but to go to such lengths ….”
“I thought they were trained as servants to the crown,” the king demanded.
“Apparently their duties prevented such lessons from sinking in deeply, my lord,” the chamberlain stated, licking his lips. He was ever aware he too was on slippery ground for his participation in the disaster. “We must breed them quickly, my liege, before the boy can break from the spells the high priestess is ever now weaving about him. Once he is bred to a series of women, we can then safely dispose of him at your leisure,” he said.
“I am not so certain the lad will remain biddable that long. He is clearly unstable. And the girl? What of her and her powers? What will she do when the boy dies?”
“Nothing. She is under control, my liege.”
“I hope so. I was looking forward to bedding the girl myself. Begetting a child by her would be ….”
Kayla heard that and gasped. They frowned but ignored the sound.
“We'll have to use the lad to keep the girl in line,” the chamberlain mused, rubbing his bearded chin. “But her passions can be dangerous, my lord. A man who beds her could very well be burned in the process,” he warned.
“Aye,” the king said, now put off by the idea. “Such power … too much in one slip of a girl. Once her brother is gone, she will either learn to keep her place or suffer the consequences. At least she knows to keep her tongue still.”
“But the boy … how to do it without her ire?” the chamberlain mused.
“Quietly. Quickly once we have what we want.”
“And how are you going to do that?” Kayla demanded, looking up to them as they looked down. Her hands were on her hips, eyes flashing. “Betrayer. Would-be murderer,” she snarled, hands curling.
“Guards!” the king said, and then motioned to the girl. She looked out of the corner of her eyes to see them approaching her from the flanks warily. One was slowly drawing a knife from his scabbard on his belt.
“Don't cause no trouble, young miss,” one of the guards stated.
“You mean like this?” Kayla hissed, igniting their uniforms. They danced about then rolled to try to put the fires out. Their blood curdling screams and the light and crackle of the fire alerted the crowd. Fire was a terrifying thing in a castle if it was out of control. These were, and it quickly became known to the group. They panicked.
Air smoldered and crackled around the girl. The winds whipped up around her, flaring her hair into a corona. Sparks snapped at her eyes and fingertips. Where she stepped the stones smoldered and smoked. “Loyalty goes both ways—to and from the king. You have proven your disloyalty to me and mine,” Kayla snarled, igniting the tapestries and the railing. The king gasped as the lord dragged him into the castle.
Momentarily thwarted, Kayla turned her tantrum on other subjects. Those who opposed her were burned or slapped away. Branches grew from the wood around her to defend her. Some grabbed up weapons to do battle with soldiers rushing to the scene. Others blossomed vines that whipped about throats and bodies.
Kayla's eyes turned on the ice castle. She melted it in a brief flash of power, then her own castle of wood ignited. She walked slowly and steadily through the castle, setting it ablaze or trapping people within by arms of wood. When a door was slammed in her face, her eyes narrowed. A curl of power turned the wood to branches that grew and swelled, exploding the iron confines around them and then the stone as well. Roots grew into the stone, shattering it. Then the branches parted around her.
She walked through the castle, setting any on fire who dare challenge her, even other elementals. She melted weapons as she steadily moved to the dungeons where her brother was. When she got to the dungeon, she interrogated a guard who in his fright shakily handed over the keys. She let him go to run moaning and screaming from the room.
Inside she found her brother, alive but drugged. The countess was there in her slip. She eyed the woman coldly. The woman immediately fainted. Kayla's lip curled in disdain as she stepped daintily over the body.
She did a cursory check, but they hadn't had sex. She sighed in temporary relief. She freed him from the chains holding him to the bed. Once he was free, she used her limited healing ability to wake his sleepy mind enough to get him to his feet.
Once up he pulled at his clothes and looked about the room. She hugged him briefly but intensely, then stepped back and pushed him near the window and the cold air. The air seemed to revive him enough to allow them to leave.
Out in the corridor he started to move with his once lithe movement. He used an arm to knock out a bailiff as well as a pair of guards coming to stop them. A lord was behind them. He turned to run, but Kayla tapped her powers to turn the wood in the walls alive. Branches reached out to grab the man. They locked him in place. When he opened his mouth to scream for help, a branch went into his mouth. His eyes went cross-eyed when an apple formed inside his mouth, filling it.
“I'll take that,” Snowden said, taking the ill-gotten gains the bailiff had collected. “Lucky coincidence,” he said, hefting the full purse to show his sister. She opened her mouth to object. “What? They owe us this m
uch. Don't argue. We'll need it to travel.” She cocked her head and then finally nodded in reluctant agreement.
He picked the lord's discarded fur cloak off the floor where it had fallen and draped it over his sister's shoulders. She smiled her thanks briefly. He picked up another cloak from a guard, then shrugged it on himself. He added a knife and then waved her forward. “Move quickly now before more come and we're trapped here,” he urged.
“How come you can think and move? Didn't they drug you?” she asked, then paused by the lord.
“Kayla …,” he stopped when she reached up with a hesitant hand. The lord growled, but she kept moving. She reached into his robes and pulled out his penny purse. Then she slyly unbuckled his belt, yanked his trousers down around his ankles, and then pulled the heavy belt out.
“What?”
“It's got gold stitched into it,” she said. She pulled gold and silver rings off the lord's fat fingers and pocketed them.
“Come, Sister, we must away,” Snowden said, shaking his head. “I always knew you were a thief, Sister, but I thought it stopped at a thief of hearts,” he said as they climbed the slippery stairs to their freedom.
“I have my secrets, and you have yours, brother dear.” They passed a pair of guards and a chamber maid who had been trapped by more branches grown from wood. Snowden looked at them and then shook his head. “But you didn't answer me earlier,” she said.
“When was that?”
“The drug?” she asked, eying him.
“Oh, that. You know the answer,” he chuckled. “When I refused to take the drug, the high priestess was called in. She cast an enchantment on me from a nearby room that made me sleepy,” he explained as he warily checked a door. He could see and hear the fires raging outside. He could imagine what the tinder dry wood was doing out there. Also the screams of terrified people and animals. And the smell, he soon realized, wrinkling his nose in despair. He coughed.
“Oh,” Kayla said. She wrinkled her pert nose as well. She waved a hand in front of her face, fighting to keep a clear head and her eyes from watering.
“Now that I am moving about and the cold air is hitting me, the enchantment is wearing off, and I am feeling much revived. My thanks,” he said, bowing slightly to her to proceed him. She graciously smiled and moved out.
When they got to the surface and found people were running around in a panic, Snowden shook his head. Kayla turned to see the battlements on fire. Snowden looked as well and then eyed her. She hunched her shoulders. “I guess I overdid it.”
“No, I actually like it better this way,” he said with a laughing grin. She had the grace to blush and look away at his teasing. “No, no, honest. It looks better. I think though …,” he waved a hand and an icy wind dampened down and then snuffed out the fires blocking the entrances. The panicked crowd lunged for the exits.
Kayla snorted. “Spoil sport,” she accused, eying him out of the corner of her eye. It was his turn to snort in amusement. He sucked in a deep cleansing breath and then nodded. He took her hand in his and squeezed. She smiled, and they melted into the crowd.
~~~~~(|)---(|)~~~~~
On the road they traveled quickly. Snowden created an ice path, and Kayla grew a toboggan for them to ride. They used it to get ahead of the crowds. They got so far ahead they melted into a group of early travelers trying to beat the crowds and the weather on the roads leading to their homes.
With a bit of luck, they managed to slip through the kingdom's outer wall. The porters and guards were still hung over from the night before and just waved the group through with only a cursory look at them. They hadn't yet gotten word of what had happened during the ending ceremony or just didn't care.
The guards slapped at their sides with their arms wrapped around them and cursed the bitter cold and their duty to be out in it. Snowden smiled and quietly breathed even colder air their way until Kayla stopped him with an elbow to the ribs. “Behave,” she cautioned him.
They got through the gate with the group of travelers returning to their homes and got farther away that evening. They arrived at a travel lodge just as the sun set and the cold winds began to blow. They had a quick meal of travel rations and then bedded down near the fire. Kayla wanted to use her powers to warm the room but her brother shook her head no. She looked at the kids in the room, but again, he shook his head silently no. He didn't want their presence in the group to be known. She bit her lip and settled down after a moment of indecision.
As she drifted she finally realized it wouldn't have worked anyway. Her brother's presence near her would have negated the heating in the room quickly. They would have tired themselves out in a subconscious battle of wills.
~~~~~(|)---(|)~~~~~
The next morning they did their morning absolutions and then followed the group out. They stamped about as the land dragons were hitched to the wagons. Out on the road, they reveled in their newfound freedom. The sense of adventure and wonder were upon them, much to the amusement of their travel mates. “First time traveling?”
“Yes.”
“You'll get over it quick. It is a long walk. Where you going?”
“I …”
“Evermore,” Snowden said with a grin.
“Evermore? Never heard of it,” the traveler said. “My da used to peddle this route,” he said.
“It's far away. We were born there, but our parents were travel folk too.”
“And …”
“They died,” Snowden said pointedly.
“Ah, my apologies, young sir,” the traveler said with a nod. “And my sympathies,” he murmured and withdrew. Snowden watched him go. Kayla looked at him. He was changed; he had a knitted hat on he'd gotten from somewhere. It hid his white hair. His suppression of his powers meant his eyes were blue, not completely white. She approved. She touched her braided hair with a frown, then shivered when a bit of wind touched her ears. She reached up and tucked her hair around them the best she could.
“We'll get you a cap sometime soon,” Snowden murmured to her. She nodded.
“Soon indeed,” she said in agreement. She patted the money belt she had tucked under her coat.
~~~~~(|)---(|)~~~~~
Without the constant work of before, the pair grew restless. They had to walk; neither had thought to buy or steal a riding animal. The second evening Kayla bartered her gown away to a woman in exchange for a travel dress, some food, and a sewing kit. She used the kit to patch her brother's battered uniform as well as her used dress.
As they traveled they started to relax and take up some of the duties of the group. The thin Snowden started to fill out with muscle, as did Kayla. They had used their magic more than their muscles as they had grown up; the first days of walking were hard on them.
When they stopped for the night between travel lodges, Snowden was expected to hunt with the group while Kayla foraged for wood for shelters and the fires. Each found they had to stand watch as well; though after a few howls in the night and a couple rather frighteningly close growls, neither resented the duty.
When they came to a crossroads, they parted ways with the group. It was a reluctant goodbye; they had made some friends. Snowden had the itch to get going though; he was ever aware that any companions with them would be in potential danger. Each time he saw a large bird overhead he was ever aware that word of their escape could travel faster than their feet could take them. He was also aware that the kingdom could hire bounty hunters to run them down. From some of the stories he had heard from the travel folk, the bounty hunters were feared. They used dragon dogs that could track a runner down across the length and breadth of the land.
They had some minor adventures, growing wilder on their own. It was fun to play, to use their powers as they wanted to do so without the travelers around. A relief in many ways, though they were ever aware of eyes that could spy their magic from afar and report the news to others.
Kayla was constantly cold despite the smelly fur coat. When they were on their own,
her brother shook his hair out from under the cap and silently handed it over to her. She took it graciously but silently wished for a coat with a hood or another coat and decent boots. She mournfully looked at her slippers and sore feet.
~~~~~(|)---(|)~~~~~
Near what Snowden insisted was the Aspen woods, they fell afoul of bandits. The would-be thieves and murders ran at them from either side of the road attempting to drive them on to the pack of their fellows waiting silently ahead and around the corner. But Snowden held his ground and wouldn't be driven. Instead the twins put their backs to each other and directed their magic outward to their attackers. On the left Snowden turned the snow to black ice and hammered at the screaming thugs with a biting blizzard that blinded them and froze them in their tracks.
On the right Kayla had called the wood to life and branches had snagged the would-be attackers, dragging them screaming up into their limbs or flinging them into the air and away. She turned to see her brother tugging at clothes, melting his ice to allow him to size up a boat or coat.
“What?” he asked when he looked her way. “We need it more than they. And I bet they didn't pay for it either,” he scolded. She cocked her head then frowned thoughtfully. After a moment she nodded and waved a hand. One by one boots were brought to her attention. She found one pair that would work … if she stuffed rags into them to keep her dainty but bloodied feet from slipping about. She did so; the rags would hopefully keep them warmer.
When she got off the rock she'd sat on to put them on, she wriggled her toes happily and looked again to her brother. She shared a smile with her brother and then they continued on their way. When they came to the blocking force, the thugs gave ground and melted into the wood.
“Serves ‘em right,” Snowden said. Kayla sniffed but didn't reply.