by Laurence Yep
“It’s following us,” Leech said in alarm, for the storm cloud had arched upward to intercept them, its sides churning and writhing like a giant panting worm.
Bayang dug her claws into the interwoven straw and tightened her grip on the straps that steered the wing. “That’s no normal storm cloud. Everyone sit down and grab hold of the wing. And that especially means you, Leech.”
“But—,” Leech began to protest.
“I don’t want you hopping on your flying disks and going to check out the cloud,” Bayang snapped.
Leech reluctantly plopped down and grabbed some straps that had been placed strategically about the wing.
Scirye sat down and took hold of another pair of straps. “Do you think this is Roland’s work?”
Kles, her lap griffin, uncoiled from around her shoulders and slipped inside her coat. “He might have set patrols as a precaution. Or it could just be our bad luck. The mountains are very old and full of magic. And there are monsters here that go back to the creation of the world.”
“Monster or Roland’s slave, nothing can catch Naue,” the wind bragged as he flew even faster and higher.
Thunk-a thunk-a-thunk.
“That sounds like a drum roll,” Leech said.
A bolt of lightning shot from the cloud to blast the mountain beneath it, the light temporarily highlighting the curling mist of the storm.
Boom!
More and more lightning bolts crackled from the cloud’s belly so that it resembled a giant centipede climbing after them on fiery legs. It was gaining on them very quickly.
“Ho, so you want to play tag with Naue? Then so be it,” Naue boomed.
And the next moment Naue banked sharply until he was zooming toward the cloud.
“No, no, go away from it!” Bayang shouted.
But the wind ignored her, and as they rushed toward the roiling surface of the cloud, the inky strands writhed like charcoal snakes.
Naue roared with laughter as he plowed through the cloud, whipping it into smoky tendrils. Their straw wing bucked and rolled as Naue twisted and turned, tearing the storm to shreds.
And yet through Naue’s merriment the drum roll deepened until it was a steady booming.
“Ha, that will show it,” Naue announced as he finally circled away.
“Who’s that?” Leech asked.
It was as if a huge ball of dark cotton had been ripped apart to reveal an inner core, a rough gray oval about ten feet long like a huge bar of soap. And upon the disk a creature danced on two stubby legs. He looked like a squat man but his skin was blue and tusks rose from his lower jaw. From his shoulders hung a wide strap of drums and in his hands were the bones he used to beat them.
Bayang swore an oath in an old dragon tongue. “What’s a thunder lord doing here? He belongs in China.”
The thunder lord brought both sticks down upon one drum, and the next instant there was a flash of light and a bolt streaked from the drum across the sky and through Naue.
Boom!
“Aiee,” Naue cried out in agony and shock. “Naue hurts!”
The sudden flash made spots dance before Scirye’s eyes, and the smell of ozone tickled her nose.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Naue screamed as each beat of the drums shot lightning bolts through him. It was all they could do to hold on as the wind whirled about, trying to escape, but the lightning was relentless. Too late, Bayang realized that their wing marked where the invisible Naue was.
“Naue…can…not…keep…together,” the wind gasped.
Though the lightning could not destroy the air that made up the wind, the energy was making it hard for Naue to keep his currents together. It was like unraveling the threads that make up a piece of string.
Naue bellowed in torment, and suddenly the wing was spinning earthward as they fell out of the injured wind’s grasp.
With a ripping noise, a large scrap of the wing fluttered away and then more and more pieces. The wing was falling apart. The long trips and abuse had taken their toll upon the wing’s woven straw. Through the numerous holes, Bayang could see the earth waiting for them three thousand feet below.
Bayang tried to test her injured wings to see if she could fly away with her friends, but pain shot instantly through her back.
Their only hope was to land the wing before it disintegrated. Her eyes searched the mountains below for a soft landing spot, but at first it was one fanglike mountain after another. And then she saw the silvery oval that must be some frozen lake in a bowl formed by the mountains.
She yanked at the left strap, trying to angle the wing toward it, only to have the strap tear off in her paw. Sometimes all you can do is trust your instincts, her old flying instructor, Sergeant Pandai, had told her. So she threw away the useless strap. Then she dug the claws of her left forepaw deep into the woven material itself and began to pull.
If she had used all her strength, she probably would have torn a whole section from the weakened wing, but instead she used a steady tugging. Bit by bit, the wing began to point toward the oval.
All Bayang could do was hope there was enough snow on the lake to cushion their landing and the ice was thick enough to take their weight.
Above them, Naue had stopped screaming. Bayang hoped that the wind was still alive and had gotten away.
The thunder lord could now direct his lightning bolts at them. A streak of dazzling light sizzled the air near them and her scales tingled with the electric charge.
Boom!
The lake rose toward them quickly. It looked about a mile long and about half that in width. Wisps of snow drifted across the top.
Even as she began to try to ease the nose up, something made her jink to the right. A lightning bolt shot past, just burning the port side.
Boom!
Her muzzle wriggled as smoke tickled her nostrils and she felt the warmth as the wing’s edge caught fire.
What were they going to do now?
Reader’s Guide
About This Guide
The information, activities, and discussion questions that follow are intended to enhance your reading of City of Ice. Please feel free to adapt these materials to suit your needs and interests.
Writing and Research Activities
I. Friends and Family
A. Create a descriptive page for at least six City of Ice characters. Using information found in the novel, note each character’s name, age, physical attributes, homeland, personality traits, special talents, and goals. Compile the pages together into a booklet entitled Characters from City of Ice.
B. In the character of Bayang, write a journal entry describing your feelings for Scirye or Leech. Explain how these feelings have changed you and what you have learned from your friendship.
C. Compare and contrast the characters of Scirye and Roxanna in terms of their heritage, talents, goals, relationship to their families, and sense of their obligations to their families, friends, community, or future. Create a two-column chart or other diagram to illustrate your comparisons.
D. Hold a class discussion as to which is more important: loyalty to friends or loyalty to family. Are there circumstances, such as war, that may alter your priorities? What are the most important things you can learn from family? From friends? If desired, take a class vote to determine what the majority thinks about key questions. Write a newspaper-style article summarizing the outcome of your debate.
II. Worlds and Weather
A. The novel begins in 1941. Go to the library or online to research what was happening in real history in 1941. Create a month-by-month timeline of interesting events that occurred in the United States and around the world in 1941. Share your timeline with friends or classmates. Do you see any connections between the events in real history and the events taking place in Laurence Yep’s alternative world? Make a list of the connections you observe.
B. Using clues from the novel, draw a map of Nova Hafnia, the Wastes, and other icy landmarks through which
Scirye and her friends travel. Label natural formations, the homes of clans or groups, and other important landmarks on your map.
C. As they journey to the Wastes, Scirye and her friends experience brutal cold. Write a poem or song expressing their experience of nearly freezing.
D. Pele provided a charm to help keep the travelers warm on their icy journey. Use clay, paints, and/or other craft materials to create the charm you imagine the main characters wearing.
E. Imagine you are riding on the wing with Scirye, Bayang, and the others. Write two to three pages of dialogue in which you and other characters try to persuade Naue to slow down, speed up, or perform some other action. Include lines about how you feel riding the wing, where you want to go, and whether you think Naue can get you there.
F. Go to the library or online to learn more about the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights, called “Dancers” in the novel. Create a painting, photo collage, or other visual artwork depicting the Northern Lights. Caption your work with information from your research.
III. Secrets and Promises
A. Tumarg, or honor, is an important Kushan principle for Scirye. Draw three to four graphic novel–style panels depicting a moment in the story when Scirye grapples with the need to keep tumarg. Then, write a paragraph describing why you chose this particular moment in the story as a good example to illustrate a crisis of honor.
B. Throughout the novel, Leech struggles with evil thoughts, particularly ones that suggest harm to Bayang. Write a letter to Leech, advising him on how to handle these troubling thoughts and whether or not you think he should reveal them to Bayang.
C. Koko, Upach, Lord Resak, and Bayang all have the capacity to change form. In the character of Dr. Goldemar, describe the forms these characters can take. Add details about these abilities based on information from the novel.
D. Nanaia is a goddess worshipped by many cultures in different ways. Write a short essay describing the “bargain” Scirye has made with Nanaia and how her journey from Kushan to Sogdian lands, with their different senses of Nanaia, has affected this promise.
Discussion Questions
1. As the novel begins, of whom are Sciyre and her friends in pursuit? Why do they want to catch this character? What supernatural creatures are helping them on their journey? Through what type of landscape are they traveling? Does the landscape remind you of any real-world locations?
2. What aid does Prince Tarkhun provide the travelers? What country is he from? What is his relationship to Roland and Badik? To the freebooters? What is important about the types of language Tarkhun and Scirye use in their communication?
3. Who does Scirye come to know at the Sogdian caravanserai? How do these Sogdians come to find themselves in the North? Does Roxanna consider herself more of a Sogdian or Arctic girl? Compare Roxanna’s sense of nationality with Scirye’s.
4. What is the relationship between Leech and Bayang? How does this relationship change in the course of the novel? What role does flying play in their relationship?
5. Compare the friendship between Leech and Koko with the friendship between Scirye and Kles. Do you think one friendship is stronger than the other? Why or why not?
6. Describe the strange experience Scirye has with the statue of Nanaia. What do you think is the meaning of this experience? How does the experience change other characters’ understanding of Scirye?
7. How do Scirye’s memories of her parents and her dead sister, Nishke, affect her thoughts and actions? How might you compare Scirye’s sense of guilt over her lost sister to Roxanna’s lost confidence when she feels she has failed Scirye?
8. Who is Lord Resak? In what form do Scirye, Bayang, and the others first meet him? Describe Lord Resak’s secret home. Why do you think so many characters call Resak “Uncle”? How does this relate to Resak’s relationship with nature?
9. What are the ring and bow string of the Archer Yi? What theories does Scirye advance to explain why Roland wants them? How does sharing this information with Lord Resak impact their relationship?
10., Scirye recalls that Bayang once warned her “that powerful beings like Pele had a different perspective than humans.” Do you think this statement is one of the central ideas of the novel? Explain your answer.
11. How does Naue help the characters in the course of the novel? How do Scirye’s conversations with Naue reveal her talents at diplomacy?
12. What is the secret of the Wastes? What happens when the secret can no longer be kept? To what decisions does this lead Lord Resak and Scirye?
13. What happens to Upach during the battle with Roland’s thugs? How does this affect Roxanna’s actions? What does Roxanna’s decision to stay with Upach, and not return to her father with Scirye, reveal about her character?
14. Describe Scirye’s, Leech’s, and the others’ journey back to the caravanserai. How does Bayang deal with her injury? How are the friends greeted by Lady Miunai?
15. Where is the City of Death? What worries Scirye about making the journey to this city? Are you surprised by her greatest concerns? What do you think Scirye’s greatest worry should be?
16. If you were describing City of Ice to a friend, would you call it foremost a story of power, of friendship, or of honor? Explain your answer, citing examples from the novel.
Starscape Books by Laurence Yep
Child of the Owl
City of Fire
City of Death
(Forthcoming from Starscape)
Dragon of the Lost Sea
Dragon’s Gate
(A Newbery Honor Book)
Dragon Steel
Dragonwings
(A Newbery Honor Book)
The Rainbow People
Spring Pearl
The Star Fisher
Sweetwater
The Tiger’s Apprentice
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
CITY OF ICE
Copyright © 2011 by Laurence Yep
City of Death excerpt copyright © 2011 by Laurence Yep
Reader’s Guide copyright © 2011 by Tor Books
All rights reserved.
A Starscape Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
ISBN: 978-1-4299-9663-1