by C S Patra
Breathing Life, Falling Ash
Book 1: The Frost Kingdom
CS Patra
Editing by Ultraediting
Cover by CoverMeDarling
To those who have been waiting too long
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 1
The kingdom of Themasa wasn’t a big one, but it was one that was ruled by good people and hardly ever had any problems with it. No one feared anything out of the ordinary. Magic was well-known even though it was hardly practiced down there. People were friendly with those in other kingdoms. They hadn’t been at a war in years and there didn’t seem to be any turmoil on the horizon. Businesses ran well, people had roofs over their heads, food and water was always available, and relationships with nearby kingdoms were getting stronger. It was a good life for most people.
The problem lay behind the castle walls. The kingdom knew that their king and queen had a child, but they had never seen this child before. They didn’t even know if it was a prince or a princess. When asked about the baby, their king would brush the question aside and say that his child wasn’t well. They were ill and unable to see anyone. For their sake, he was going to keep them out of the light until time came for them to take over. No one dared to question that, but they were always curious about this child who lived behind these stone castle walls. They always wanted to know who was going to rule them one day.
A baker in the village, Alice, had her own vision of this royal child. She was absolutely certain that the king and queen had a daughter. When she got a list of sweets that the royal child requested, it definitely sounded like something a girl would want. She was anxious to know if she was right about this. For some reason, the princess never went out much. When she did, she was usually surrounded by bodyguards and didn’t make eye contact with anyone. Alice had her own vision of her and was surprised by her beauty. She had such brown curls, brown skin, and a shy demeanor. She was dressed in simple clothes, but it didn’t matter. The princess could have been in a burlap sack and she would look beautiful.
Alice was also certain that the princess’ name was Lavinia. A part of it was because when she got the list of sweets from the king and queen, the name ‘Lavinia’ had been left on top of it. She didn’t know anyone with that name, so it had to be the name of the hidden princess. Someone had failed to take this out, but she acted like she didn’t notice it. Lavinia was a beautiful name for their future queen. All she wanted to do was see Lavinia in person.
Yet I don’t know how I could ever approach her. Alice would always think when she looked down at her hands. I’d never be able to hold her hand or touch her. Not with my own bare hands.
Much like the king and queen, she had her own secret. She had been given the gift of ‘breathing life’. It was a simple way of saying that she could bring life with the mere brush of her fingertips. No matter where she went or what she touched, she could make life spring out of it. Flowers would bloom out of walls and floors. Leaves would spring out of furniture and inanimate objects. She didn’t know where this power had come from but her late parents had said that they believed her power came from a witch. When she was a baby, a witch had visited her late into the night and granted her this ability. It might have seemed nice in theory, but it was also a pain. Alice couldn’t touch anything with her bare hands. For the most part, she had to wear gloves. Even when she went to take her baths, she had to fill the water up first before getting in. Nothing formed in the water when she touched it, but she had issues with the wooden buckets that she used. They ended up getting plants and flowers inside of them.
Sometimes, I wonder how I’m able to work. She thought as she headed to the bakery one day. It was barely light out, but she needed to get in early. They had requests to fill and she needed to start right away. She was there on time yet not the first one around. The shop was already busy, and people were at work when she entered. Pushing her thick black hair to the side, Alice hung up her coat and went for her apron. The gloves were still on her hands, so she was safe. Touching herself, she didn’t have a problem. Nothing grew out of her body. It was when she touched other things that the problems arose. Even now, she moved carefully away from walls and hoped that her elbows didn’t brush against them. They didn’t need any flowers growing out of them again.
Alice always woke up around dawn just, so she could get her shop opened before customers came. That gave her enough time to prepare things, make something new, and be ready when someone came in. Everything was made fresh early in the morning and the kitchen always smelled heavenly when she was done. She liked to have everything prepared before the other bakers arrived. She didn’t want them to come into a kitchen with nothing ready. It was some extra work, but it was worth it.
Today was going to be a busy day since she had to finish a birthday cake and then start putting together desserts for Princess Lavinia’s birthday party. The princess was turning eighteen and now her parents were looking for a suitor. It was time for her to rule a kingdom, be it her own or another. This was a reason why Alice was bouncing around on her feet. Tamara, the woman who owned the bakery, had noticed how excited she was.
“You do look happy to be up so early.” She noted, finding a chair to sit down in. Tamara was much older than the other bakers and had trouble walking without a cane these days. Her hair had turned gray and her skin had sunken in, but she was as cheerful and sharp as ever. “You’re probably the only one who is excited to start baking.”
“I can’t help it, Tamara. This is a special day! A girl only turns eighteen once in her life!” She looked down at the list that they had given her yesterday. “Macaroons, sweet bread, thirteen different cakes, tarts... I need to start right away.”
“Please slow down. The birthday is next week so we have time.” Tamara reminded her.
The one thing she did notice about it was that none of the choices were picked by the princess herself. They were all handpicked by her parents. It made Alice wonder if Lavinia was interested in dessert to begin with. The few times people claimed to see the princess, they said she didn’t look interested in very much. She didn’t speak to people, she didn’t smile, and she didn’t wave. If she weren’t royalty, she would have been considered rude by others. No princess was supposed to act like this. How could she rule a kingdom if she didn’t interact with the people living in it? After a while, people stopped trying to find out about the princess. If she had no interest in them, there was no need to find out much about her.
“Will you need any help, Alice?” One of her assistants asked.
“Definitely. This is a feast fit for the whole kingdom.” Alice looked at the bottom of the list. “I wonder if the princess approves of all of this.”
“Of course she does. This is her birthday and coronation after all. They should be asking her what she would like. I don’t know much about her since I’ve never seen her, but she can’t be all that bad. Given her tastes, she only goes for the finest things.”
Alice was a little skeptical over that. The more she looked at the list, the less it seemed like a seventeen year old princess had made these demands. It sounded more like her parents had made these decisions for her. However, she couldn’t know that for certain. Not until she ta
lked to the princess herself and that wouldn’t happen until she actually saw the princess.
“Right. Let’s get to work then!” She folded up the list and headed to the kitchen to start kneading some dough for the bread. In addition to what the royal family wanted, she also had some regular customers who came for their daily bread and other sweets. There was one customer due in a few hours to pick up a cake that Alice had made yesterday. All she had left to do was to cover it in icing and decorate it.
“Be careful when you’re making this cake,” Tamara warned her. “The last thing we need is flowers to come out of the batter.”
“I’m sure that won’t happen,” Alice promised, holding up her gloved hands. “I will do my best not to take these off while I’m working. It doesn’t matter how hot my hands get. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”
“That’s exactly right,” Tamara nodded. “I know it’s a difficult power to deal with, but you handle it so well. One day, we’ll find a way to break this and you’ll be able to touch things with your bare hands again. Try to contain your excitement. I see petals all over the floor already.”
“That’s all I really want.” Alice cracked her knuckles and looked down at several red petals pooling around her. It had started. “I will be careful.”
‘Breathing life’ was a difficult power to control. Wearing gloves everywhere became a habit though. It wasn’t just touching things that caused flowers and plants to bloom. When she was excited, flowers bloomed out of the top of her head. The happier she was, the more flowers came out. Sometimes, she would be buried under roses and it was hard to get out of them. For those reasons, Alice kept her emotions to herself. A few flowers were easy to deal with. A whole pile of them was a lot harder to prune.
Her assistants and family all knew about this power. They had seen it happen many times in the past and were always careful not to touch her. If a person touched her with their bare hands, they too would start growing flowers out of their body. The flowers would keep popping out of every area until that person died. It was the reason her family didn’t touch her without gloves. She never wanted to risk losing them in such a manner. When her parents passed away the year before, it was a little bit of relief and a lot of sadness. They had died without ever being able to hold her, yet it gave her some breathing room. Her mother and father had been very protective of her. They were afraid that Alice could hurt someone if she went too far from the kingdom. They always had her wearing gloves and being careful where she walked. When they were gone, Alice got a little freedom. Now she could go and do whatever she wanted to do. She had a talent for baking and, as long as her hands were covered, she could work as a baker.
“What kind of person do you think the princess is?” She asked as they were waiting in the kitchen. The fire was roaring and some of the baked goods were already put in.
“It’s awfully hard to say, Alice. This is the first time I’ve even seen her name. I just learned she’s a princess even though I’ve heard rumors about her for years. I just know she’s royalty and I know that she’s beautiful,” Tamara replied as she finished icing some cookies. Despite how old she was, Tamara couldn’t stay still for very long. She had to help everyone out. “She has supposedly traveled everywhere but no one in the other countries has seen her. If she did go there, she went in disguise and didn’t reveal herself.”
“I don’t blame her for that. She probably wanted privacy and her family granted her that,” Alice murmured as she worked on the cake. “If I were a princess, I wouldn’t want a million people looking at me either. Still, I do find it a little odd. She exists yet we don’t know what kind of leader she’ll be. We’ve never heard from her. Up until now, we didn’t even know that she was a princess. Why would the king and queen hide her from the world?”
“The only thing I can suggest is that the princess is shy and doesn’t like people that much. Maybe she is ill like the king and queen suggest,” Tamara said. “That’s not a good thing if you are a future queen though. You have to interact with your people in order to help them. Anyway, that’s enough talk about that. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”
Alice worked on the cake, icing it in bright pink strawberry frosting and lining up the edges with slices of strawberries. She admired her work, careful to place each strawberry in the right place. The cake was a tall, three-tiered cake of three different flavors; chocolate, vanilla, and lemon. They also had chocolate, vanilla, and lemon filling inside the cakes. It was an unusual concoction, but it was delicious. Alice had made the frosting from scratch the night before and had left it to chill in a cold area. Now that it had firmed up a little bit, she could use it. Her whole morning would be spent on this cake. In her mind, however, she was thinking about the princess and what to make for her eighteenth birthday. In addition to the things on the list, there was something else written saying ‘whatever baker desires’.
Hmm, they want me to make a choice? Not a problem. She thought. Perhaps she’ll like these macaroons that I’m making for another guest. I can put in some of those. Or maybe I should do something special. I wonder what the princess herself actually wants. I’d have to ask her, but I need to go to the castle for that.
After an hour, she heard the door open and knew a customer was waiting. “Welcome! I will be with you in just a minute!”
“Would you like me to see what they want?” Tamara asked. “My feet are getting tired, but I can certainly check on them.”
“If you can, that would be nice. I need to wash my hands first. And you need not worry; I will be careful.”
Alice went off to where the sink was as Tamara handled the customer up front. She could hear the voices in the back but could barely make them out. One was Tamara and the other sounded like a younger girl asking for something. As soon as she dried hands off, annoyed as the roses bloomed out of the towel, she put her gloves back on and went to see who it was. The gloves also sprouted some leaves, but she plucked those off easily.
The young woman at the counter was probably not much older than her, dressed in a simple red dress and cloak. Her hands were covered with black gloves despite how warm it was outside. Her eyes were deep brown and just a bit darker than her skin and hair were. She was someone that Alice had never seen before but something about her was intriguing. She didn’t look incredibly wealthy nor did she seem poor based on her clothing. No doubt she was very intriguing.
“Welcome to the bakery! How may I be of assistance?” Alice greeted her.
“Hello, I was wondering if you sold cookies or biscuits over here?” The girl asked. Her voice was incredibly soft, and she was speaking barely above a whisper. Alice had to strain herself to hear what she had said. She still kept the smile on her face and nodded.
“Of course! We have multiple cookies and biscuits. Is there anything in particular that you are looking for? If we don’t have it, I can definitely make it for you.”
“Anything with chocolate would be absolutely divine. I also like anything with lemon and nuts in it. Oh, do you have anything with powdered sugar?”
“You’ve come to the right place then. I have a fresh batch of chocolate and walnut cookies right out of the oven! There are also powdered sugar cookies. Is that something that might interest you?”
“It sounds exactly what I would like.” The girl smiled at her. “May I taste one just to see how it is?”
“Mmm, how about I give you a piece and you tell me how you like it?”
“That sounds good to me. If I like it, perhaps I’ll ask you to give me a dozen of them.”
Alice went over to where the cookies were cooling off. Most of them were ready to be sold so she broke off a piece of one and handed it over to the girl. “Tell me what you think. If you don’t like it, I can get you something else. I have plenty of lemon and other chocolate products around.”
The girl took the cookie with her gloved hand and bit off the tip of it. She closed her eyes as she chewed. “Oh, they were right!
You are incredibly good at what you do!”
“Thank you! I’m taking you want the dozen?”
“I do! Do you have anything else I can try?”
“There are some lemon iced cookies that are also cooling. Plus there are some chocolate cakes and macaroons available. Granted, we have just opened up, but we have made a lot of cookies already here.”
“A lemon iced cookie please. That also sounds very good.”
Alice gave her a piece of a lemon iced cookie, which she also approved of. She decided to get a dozen cookies, half of them being the chocolate with walnut and the other half being the lemon iced ones. As Tamara filled up the box, Alice tried to get more information about her new customer. She was not a regular so where did she come from? More importantly, why did she choose to come to Alice’s bakery? There were bigger and better ones in town run by adults. Those were people who had more experience running a business. Alice was good at what she did, but she still needed a lot of experience. She was fortunate to have many people willing to guide her. These people could keep her secret and help her if things got out of hand.
“So are you from a neighboring town?” She asked. “We get visitors from there once in a while.”