Fire & Ice
Page 32
“I can’t do anything. I can’t even see him. Sit down.” Loriane yanked Myra back into the seat.
But Myra continued to scream. “Beido, Beido! What are you doing? I’m here. Beido!”
A patch of steam grew in the sky directly overhead. Mist flowed out of the steam figures to join it and form a kind of dome, which was extending downwards.
Loriane reached for the driver’s shoulder. The dust was ice-cold. “Please, get us out of here.”
The sled remained where it was. People in the square were falling over, clutching burned faces, skin peeling from flesh, glassy eyes staring at the sky. The screams made Loriane shiver. This was hundred times worse than Myra’s screaming.
“Come on, Ruko, if you want us to live.”
Myra was crying. “I don’t know what they’re doing. It’s like . . . evil. Something has bewitched them. Get us out of here, Mistress Loriane.”
“I’m trying, but I think he only listens to Tandor—”
Ruko yanked the reins. The bear roared and raised itself on its hind legs, pulling the front of the sled off the ground. It charged forward, towards the steam figure, towards the crowd and the edge of the bowl-shaped steam shape that was growing fast in the direction of the ground.
Loriane shouted, “No, no not that way!”
Her shout was futile; neither of them could have stopped the animal.
The patch of steam in the sky had grown into a half-complete dome, blocking the view of the sky, but ahead, a path was still clear.
The bear growled. The sled jostled and bumped over the bodies, which flopped under the sled’s runners like rag dolls. They’re all dead. Loriane closed her eyes. It was so awful and they were not going to make it. The rim of mist was sliding towards the ground . . . They were not going to make it. They were . . .
The sled cut into the mist. Myra screamed. A gush of intense cold took Loriane’s breath away. She clutched the seat, squeezing her eyes tightly shut.
They were going to die, they were going to die, they were . . .
And then there was only the sled, the padding of the bear’s feet and the swishing of the runners in the snow.
Myra cried, “Oh, Beido. What happened to him? Do you think he let us go because of our son?”
Loriane looked over her shoulder to see the ring of steam shapes close the dome of icefire. For the life of her, she couldn’t recognise a face in the steam shapes. Her heart was still thudding like crazy.
“Maybe,” she said, but she had no idea what had happened. She stared, too numb to cry, at the destruction around them, at the people still running, many covered in blisters.
Ruko was urging the bear into a run. Much of the dust had blown off him, making him once again almost invisible.
No one spoke for a long time. Myra cried softly. The whole city was covered in the hideous mist, which was expanding outward, eating up shapes of buildings. The sound of shattering glass drifted on the wind. Loriane could barely breathe for the acrid smoke.
When the bear charged out the city gates, the Outer City came into view—a mass of fire, billowing smoke and flames.
Loriane felt sick. She muttered, “My house.”
Eagles swooped low over the festival grounds, and a crowd of people were throwing projectiles at them. But even some of them had become aware of the destruction in the city itself, and the outwardly expanding deathly cloud.
“My house,” Loriane said again. Her practice, her friends, her patients. Isandor. “What am I going to do?”
Myra touched her shoulder. “Bordertown should still be safe.”
Loriane bit on her lip to stifle tears. “That’s where he’s taking us, isn’t it?” She nodded at the invisible driver.
“It’s our home,” Myra said.
The bear veered to the right, where the horizon merged with the sky.
Eagles whirled overhead, as powerless as she.
Getting to Bordertown would take at least three days. They had no food and no shelter. Their clothing was not good enough for such a voyage. Tandor and Myra needed care. She was exhausted and her belly felt hard as a rock. Every bump in the ice hurt.
But the bear knew the way. It ran and ran and ran.
A Word of Thanks
THANK YOU very much for reading Fire & Ice.
As author of this book, I would appreciate it very much if you could return to the place where you purchased this book and leave a review. Reviews are important to me, because they help readers decide if the book is for them.
In book 2 of the Icefire Trilogy, Dust & Rain, we follow Loriane, Isandor and the other refugees into Chevakia, a country actively fighting against icefire and the people who can wield it.
Also be sure to put your name on my mailing list, which I use to notify subscribers of news and new fiction. For everything else, please visit my website at pattyjansen.com.
About the Author
* * *
PATTY JANSEN lives in Sydney, Australia, where she spends most of her time writing Science Fiction and Fantasy. Her story This Peaceful State of War placed first in the second quarter of the Writers of the Future contest and was published in their 27th anthology. She has also sold fiction to genre magazines such as Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Redstone SF and Aurealis.
Her novels (available at ebook venues) include Shifting Reality (hard SF), The Far Horizon (middle grade SF), Charlotte’s Army (military SF) and The Icefire Trilogy consisting of Fire & Ice, Dust & Rain and Blood & Tears (dark fantasy).
Patty is on Twitter (@pattyjansen), Facebook, LinkedIn, goodreads, LibraryThing, google+ and blogs at: http://pattyjansen.com/.
More by This Author
* * *
In the Earth-Gamra space-opera universe
The Shattered World Within (novella)
RETURN OF THE AGHYRIANS
Watcher’s Web
Trader’s Honour
Soldier’s Duty
Heir’s Revenge
The Return of the Aghyrians Omnibus
The Far Horizon (For younger readers)
AMBASSADOR
Seeing Red
The Sahara Conspiracy
Raising Hell
Changing Fate
Coming Home
Blue Diamond Sky
In the For Queen and Country universe
Whispering Willows (short story)
FOR QUEEN AND COUNTRY
Innocence Lost
Willow Witch
The Idiot King
The For Queen and Country Omnibus (Books 1-3)
Fire Wizard
The Dragon Prince
The Necromancer's Daughter
In the ISF-Allion universe
His Name in Lights (novella)
Charlotte’s Army (novella)
Luminescence (short story)
The Rebelliousness of Trassi Udang (short story)
Shifting Reality (novel)
Shifting Infinity (novel)
Epic, Post-apocalyptic Fantasy
ICEFIRE TRILOGY
Fire & Ice
Dust & Rain
Blood & Tears
The Icefire Trilogy Omnibus
Short story collections
Out Of Here
New Horizons
Shorter works
Looking For Daddy (absurd horror novella)
This Peaceful State of War (Writers of the Future winning novella)
Visit the author’s website at http://pattyjansen.com and register for a newsletter to keep up-to-date with new releases.
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