by Tom Hansen
Ynya was sick of vegetables. She needed meat. She wanted to cook some fish, but the prisoners came first.
Vengeance for her family came first.
“So you are telling me that you can sense things underground?” Ynya asked Synol.
“By touching the ground, yes.”
“And you say there is flammable gas underneath Marsfjord?”
Synol smiled, a wicked, cocky smile.
Ynya hadn’t gotten used to this new self-confidant Synol yet. The two had so much to catch up on, so much sister talk that hadn’t been said in eight years. But they also had a mission to complete between the two of them. They both had to get back their sisters to fulfill a promise to their Mama.
“Don’t worry,” Synol said. “When you get down there, it will be so flammable that nothing will escape. You just promise me you won’t be hurt by the flames.”
It was Ynya’s turn to flash her cocky grin. “You know I won’t.”
Synol frowned. “This isn’t as simple as a wood fire, Ynya. I can sense the amount of energy contained in the gas down there. It’s going to create a fire unlike any you’ve ever seen.”
Ynya grimaced. “I think I can handle it.”
“Give me a minute after I raise the walls, then you can ignite. Hopefully, you will know when enough gas is in there.”
Ynya hugged her sister before leaving. She skirted around the camp about a quarter of a mile, until she was on the southern road. She stopped hiding and marched openly toward the camp.
It felt odd walking directly back into camp in broad daylight, but it was the best way to make sure Synol could see where everyone was.
“I think I see the red-haired mage!”
“Alarm!”
“To the south, on the road there!”
Soldiers grabbed Ynya and hauled her back into camp.
Stefan’s father came out. He rushed up and grabbed Ynya’s dress. His bloodshot eyes told Ynya everything she needed to know about how the camp was functioning.
“Where is he? Where is my son?” Stefan’s father slapped her.
Ynya felt the rage build beneath her skin, but she kept it in check. She needed to stay calm for now. There would be plenty of time for anger and fire later.
“He is dead.”
The man’s face went beet red. “What? Where? How?”
“He was eaten by a frost bear. He thought that he could fight the bear with both arms pinned behind his back.”
Ynya grinned at her joke. It wasn’t very funny, but it was so satisfying to say it.
Fury rose in the man’s eyes. He reared back and slapped Ynya again.
“I want him found!”
“Oh, you won’t find him. I’m the only one who can make it there, and you have been rather rude with me, so I don’t think I’ll be doing much of anything for you.”
Ynya practically felt the heat of rage off his skin, and for the briefest of seconds, she wondered if he were a fire mage, too.
He grabbed her by her dirty dress and pulled her close. “I will hand you over to the soldiers and they can do whatever they want with you.”
She smiled. “That’s fine. They know the consequences if they try to do anything. I can make any part of my body red hot.” She leaned closer to the guard on her right-hand side. “Any part.”
Ynya cackled, trying to sound as crazy as she probably looked.
Anytime now.
She straightened up as though she were in charge of the camp. In a way, she was. “I want to know if the prisoners are all right.”
He slapped her again. “Why do you care about them? You should be worried about where your sister and my son are. There will be hell to pay–”
“Hell? Hell, you say? After what you have done to these poor orphaned children? After what you put my sister through with your tyrannical son?”
His eyes went wide and he took a step back.
“Oh yes, I know all about him manipulating you and everyone else around him. I know everything he’s done, because we tortured it all out of him before we fed him to the frost bear.”
Come on, Synol, where are you?
“He cried, did you know that? Your precious son cried like a baby .”
We’re going to need to learn to coordinate better.
Losing what little patience she had left, Ynya turned and yelled.
“Anytime now!”
The rumbling started.
All around Ynya, the soldiers looked at their feet in wonder.
“Oh, did I tell you? Synol is an earth mage, and she’s going to kill you all.”
Huge slabs of rock rose all around them, three feet thick and five feet wide. They shot out of the ground one after another in a line, winding around the entire campsite, creating an impenetrable barrier in less than a minute. Men flung themselves at the growing stone pillars, but they were too massive to budge.
Even Ynya, who could melt metal with her bare hands, stood speechless at the sheer awesomeness of her sister. She’d seen Synol grow full plants in minutes and kill her abusive husband, but she’d never known Synol had been walking around with such immense power.
The placing was impeccable too, each pillar completely sealed with the next one, not allowing even sunlight to escape.
The ground stopped rumbling for a moment. Everything went silent, but for the men crying and screaming for help.
One soldier tried to climb a pillar. He made it halfway up before the stone jerked and threw him off. He now lay in a heap on the ground crying, his leg bent at a bad angle.
More rumbling, and the massive pillars leaned in and covered much of the sky, plunging the camp into darkness.
Even Ynya worried.
The ground shook yet again. Around the wagon full of prisoners, another series of rocks sprouted out of the ground, this time at an acute angle. Soon, the entire wagon full of orphans and the woman named Miss-Miss was sealed off from the trap Synol had laid.
After another rumble, the gas poured in through cracks in the earth like rising mist. Soldiers fumbled around, not knowing where to run.
The heavy gas clung to the ground, pooling around Ynya’s ankles as she counted to sixty and gazed at Synol’s stunned father-in-law.
“Synol wishes you the best.”
Ynya held her breath. Despite her ability to withstand fire, she didn’t want to put that to the test inside her lungs.
She snapped her fingers.
Chapter Forty
The world exploded all around Ynya.
Fire raged in a torrent, hotter than Ynya had ever known. It whirled and eddied. It was like the ocean, but more violent, raging like the worst hurricanes she’d ever experienced.
The fire burned every solider, every wagon, every horse and pack animal. Everything burned.
Even Ynya’s dress.
She blushed. She hadn’t thought about that.
Finally, the earth rumbled as loose dirt rose and extinguished the flames. The outer walls came down.
Nearly spent, Synol trudged up to the site, huffing with exertion. She still wore her bloodied dress and a half-burned fur jacket Ynya had managed to find in Marsfjord.
Synol stopped about a dozen yards away and pursed her lips to a line when she saw her sister.
Ynya tried to cover herself, but then gave up and threw her hands up. “Did you bring me another dress?”
Synol burst out laughing, then nodded.
Ynya walked over to her, feeling self-conscious, despite no one else being around.
Finally, Synol caught her breath and produced a plain white dress from her pack.
It fit Ynya perfectly, and was thin enough she wouldn’t overheat.
“You’re too thin, Ynya. What man would want a skinny little thing like you?”
Ynya punched her sister in her arm.
“Just let them out.”
Terrified but otherwise unharmed by the fire, the prisoners stumbled out of the wagon. Synol distributed fruit while Ynya cooked all the vegetable
s with her bare hands like a griddle.
After everyone had eaten their fill, Ynya and Synol walked the grounds, looking for anything they could salvage from the fire. A few slightly-melted gold rings, the metal bits and shoes used on the horses, and the charred bones of the soldiers were all they could find amid the ashes.
They found no signs of the mage in black. This troubled the sisters deeply.
After handing over the gold rings to Miss-Miss, Ynya ensured everyone waited at a safe distance while Synol buried everything under fresh dirt, reshaping the land to match the road on either side.
Before long, it looked exactly as it did during summer. After another winter storm, snow would cover it up and no one would ever be the wiser.
The sisters spent the next few days in Marsfjord, showing Miss-Miss and her surrogate children where everything was in town. With Synol’s help, they all buried the dead on a flat piece of ground to the north. Synol pulled a massive chunk of beautiful white marble out of the ground to construct a simple but elegant mausoleum for their parents.
Over the next days, everyone did what they could to make repairs to the village. Ynya heated glass out of sand to replace the panes destroyed in the attack on Marsfjord. Miss-Miss approached Ynya and Synol as they finished installing the last window. She placed a loving hand on Ynya’s shoulder.
“You should have everything you need here, Miss-Miss. Thank you for everything you did. You kept me from making as many mistakes as I would have if I’d been by myself.”
“You are welcome, my dear. We’re a small, scrappy bunch, but we will survive. If your family could do it, we can rebuild Marsfjord.”
Synol spoke. “Soldiers are going to be patrolling this area looking for us, as well as their lost men, so be extra careful for a while. We will spend a few days killing as many as we can, but in the meantime there is a complete basement I carved out under my parent’s house. You all can hide down there if you need. Some of the older kids should stand watch along the road. Keep fires to a minimum and only at night until things become safe.”
Miss-Miss hugged them. “Thank you, girls. I will do what I can to rebuild this town in honor of you and yours.”
That night, Ynya dreamed about her mother. She watched Synol and Mama hug and catch up on all the events that had happened since Synol left. They all cried over the lost baby.
Mama embraced Ynya in a huge hug. “I’m so proud of you, my little spitfire. You are growing and maturing.”
Talia Oblique held her second daughter at arm’s length and took her in. “It’s about time, my love. It’s about time.”
Ynya could almost smell the earthy, crackling scent of her mother, like wet soil after a thunderstorm.
Almost.
Epilogue
Imryll Farora released Captain Nora Oblique.
The naked woman crumpled to the floor.
Imryll frowned. “Now look at what you’ve made me do, you’ve bloodied my floor.”
Nora wisely didn’t respond. She’d done enough damage from allowing the sisters to escape and destroy so many of her soldiers.
Imryll gestured to Khatar, who bowed and went to summon cleaning staff.
The Frost Queen walked back over to her window, looking out over the Fellsstav Valley.
“Do you know why I chose this location to be my headquarters?”
She leaned over the railing. The arctic wind whipped her silver hair in a frenzy above her slender head. It ran up her robe and sent chills down her spine in a way that felt like she belonged.
“I chose this spot because it’s the spot directly north of where I will break through the Feond. It’s also the northernmost spot of the Concordance. From here, I can see everything. I see my entire domain, and soon, very soon, I will be able to see farther. Once the barrier goes down and I take my place as the rightful heir to this land, I will rule this land as my race once did.”
She spun, eyeing the crumpled woman on the floor.
“But I cannot do this alone, you understand. I must have soldiers who will work with me, not just for me. I need doers, not simply nodders. I have enough of those.”
Khatar came back into the room and bowed.
“See what I’m talking about?”
The Frost Queen spun back around, pausing to fling a piece of skin out from under her nail.
“With me at the helm, the Concordance will bend to my will, freeze over, and eventually cover this entire land in ice. But I cannot do that without my soldiers taking the initiative they should.”
Imryll snapped her fingers, and Captain Nora floated up into the air, her long black hair frozen to her face and back, still glistening red.
In the distance, the howling wind grew. Wind whipped in a frenzy around them, across the open balcony leading out to the vast space beyond.
A flurry of snow coagulated, born on the wind. A miniature cyclone of icy power.
Then it subsided. The snow and winds receded, and in its place was a massive spike of ice standing at least ten feet tall on the balcony.
Imryll floated Nora up to her face, two inches from each other. “You clearly haven’t been trained properly, and must face the consequences. I think five days on the ice will be enough to remind you who you serve.
“After this I hope you will learn to complete the tasks given to you. After this you will be permitted to return to your post. But one more failure and I can make this last for decades. Centuries even.”
With her left hand, Imryll gestured to the outside wall of the mountain. Dotting the frozen rock were half a dozen spikes just like this one. On each one was another naked man or woman, their mouths open in a perpetual scream drowned out by the constant howling winds.
Nora swallowed, not taking her gaze from the Frost Queen. She knew the fate of those that failed. She knew the fate of everyone in this country. She had made her choices and would suffer the consequences.
Imryll nodded and Nora rose into the air, floated over the spike of ice, then lowered down until the tip of the ice spike pierced her between her legs.
Nora bit her lip, trying to keep from showing how much pain it was. The howling wind plowed into her, sending hundreds of small ice spikes under her skin, her eyes, her nose; like being cut with a thousand tiny knives. Unseen power bound her hands and feet, holding her up but preventing movement.
Nora’s breath came ragged and labored as she tried to withstand the pain from all sides, while her body weight slowly pushed an ice spike through her torso.
“Go ahead and scream if you like. You will eventually. They all do.”
The Frost Queen turned away, then stopped, putting a finger into the air. She looked over her shoulder.
“You did say the sister had earth magic, right?”
Nora groaned, as close as she could come to affirming the Frost Queen’s question.
Imryll turned around, a broad smile on her face. “This bodes well. Earth and Fire in one family. If the next two sisters possess the powers I think they do, this will be the only thing that keeps you from ending up a permanent trophy on the rock. It’s just too bad you killed their mother. A mage able to produce children like this would have been better than any other magic you could have brought me.”
Imryll blinked her eyes, and Nora slid down onto the spike an inch. She gave into the pain and screamed as her body began the slow process of tearing apart.
The Frost Queen shook her head. “It’s too bad. All that magic, gone forever when it should have been mine.”
THE END
I hope you enjoyed this book! If you did, please leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Reviews help others find my books, which means I can continue to write more like this!
Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you check out the next episode in The Frost Fervor Concordance!
- Tom Hansen
October 2018
Flaming Vengeance
Prologue
Imryll Farora, Frost Queen of the North, paced in front of her large sto
ne desk. Each boot clicked on the marble floor in perfect time to her short-legged steps.
She re-read the report for the fourth time.
In the doorway to her spacious office, Khatar waited, keeping his eyes diverted just enough to not stare at the body on the ground.
She paused, re-reading something from the report. Icy rage crept up her spine and into her neck, spreading out across her scalp and making her white hair stand on end.
“Dammit!”
She kicked the messenger’s corpse once again. This time, her magic surged through her, freezing the soldier’s limp flesh where her foot connected.
The man’s forearm shattered, hurling icy chunks across the floor.
Khatar shifted from one leg to another, it was a minute change, but she noticed.
She dared him to cringe, dared him to make even the slightest noise. She needed another excuse to take out her rage.
Today was not a good day.
Initial reports from the Feond front spoke of nothing but rough terrain, harsh conditions, and magic that confounded her best wizards. Already, ten percent of her troops had been lost due to circumstances not related to the main task.
How difficult was it to climb up a mountain to place foci along the peak?
She wanted to head out there herself to take care of the issue, but doing so meant she wouldn’t be here when her next project arrived.
Imryll couldn’t leave right now, not when things were finally coming into place. In a few months, yes, but not until she completed an important task.
For now, she needed to rely on her soldiers to prepare for her arrival. With any luck, they would get back on task and complete it by the time she was ready.
Movement out the window caught Imryll’s attention. She glanced out over the edge toward the massive cliff face. Far below, a rider left the main gate, clad all in black.
Captain Nora had taken her punishment like the obedient soldier she was. Imryll was grateful for that. No one had heard from the other Skarmyord, the one in white, for a couple weeks now, ever since they’d lost the two red-haired sisters.