Frost: An Otherworld Tale (The Otherworld Tales Book 1)

by Chelsea Clemmons Moye

  I automatically looked around to make sure Adele was nowhere in the vicinity and let out a sigh of relief when I didn’t see her anywhere. "We were supposed to work on that at your dad’s forge, right?"

  Tamara nodded. "Yes. Why?"

  I shook my head and once again checked the area for Adele's presence. "I don’t think we should work on it there anymore. It’s too obvious a place to produce armor, and I’ve had an uneasy feeling ever since that she-elf friend of Kieran’s showed up here claiming that she wants to defect." I suppressed a shiver. "Every bit of common sense I have tells me that she’s a spy, and I think we need to produce the Linothorax in secret and be sure to keep her out of the loop."

  "That actually makes sense," Tamara sounded surprised.

  I thought I caught a tone of vague agreement, so I plunged on. "I don’t want her to know about the caverns or the secret passages. I made Kieran swear to keep her out of the loop, for the safety of everyone in the fortress. Unlike the forge, there’s no way Adele could accidentally wander into the secret passages or hidden cavern system. It may just be paranoia on my part, but I would feel better if there were no way for Adele to find out about the Linothorax by happenstance. I think we should tell everyone who knows about the Linothorax that we’re changing the production location and to make sure not to mention it in front of the she-elf."

  Tamara studied me for a moment and then smiled at me. "Nice to see you have a good head on your shoulders, Lauren. I agree with you. Personally, I think that a terrible accident should befall the she-elf because she probably is a spy, but Kieran might rip my head off if that happened."

  "Or my head," I grinned, "I haven’t exactly been Suzie Sunshine to or about her since she got here, and Kieran noticed."

  Tamara nodded. "I’ll tell father and the others who know about the Linothorax what you said about moving production and keeping it a secret. I had my doubts about you before, but after hearing what you had to say about the she-elf, I really believe that you have the best interests of the people in this fortress at heart. Thank you."

  I returned her approval with a relieved, sincere grin. "For the most part, the people here have been really kind to me and I intend to do everything in my power to return that favor. I know, somehow, that Adele can’t be trusted. We have to protect everyone and our plans from her because she’s a potential spy. It just makes sense."

  "Once again, I agree. See you in the caverns in two hours?" Tamara gave me a genuine smile for the first time since our first meeting in Tiernan.

  I gave a vigorous nod, and instantly regretted it because my neck and shoulders were so sore. "Two hours sounds good. That gives me time to get cleaned up. I’ll see you in the caverns."

  She gave a jaunty wave and strode off to update everyone pertinent to the project, and I turned to Captain Burns. "Thanks for the training. How did I do?"

  Burns beamed at me like a proud father. "You did well with the bow, as I expected. Go get cleaned up so you can make it to the caverns on time."

  I whistled for Gabe, and he bounded over, wagging his undocked tail with exuberance. "You ready to go back inside, boy?"

  He gave an affirmative bark, and we jogged back to the fortress to get out of the increasingly frigid air, both sighing with relief as I pushed the massive oak door open and we ducked inside, slamming it behind us to keep the cold out.

  Two hours later, as Mack led me into the caverns, I was flabbergasted by the sheer number of volunteers waiting to help make the Linothorax. There were men, women, children, and elders all waiting to do their part to defend each other. Tamara waved me over to where she was standing with her father.

  I took a deep breath and presented my idea to them. “Okay, since I don’t really have a bull horn, and I don’t want to be loud at risk of Adele hearing something and finding the secret passages, I’d like to explain this process in full to the best listeners and leaders in the room, and then they can break everyone up into manageable groups and explain the process to everyone else as we go along, if that's all right?"

  They nodded their assent, and I continued. "

  "These are the basics: we’re going to be creating a lightweight, effective armor out of layers of linen and glue. I did a research paper on it in Advanced Placement History last semester. Yes, I realize that last statement probably means nothing to y’all, but just work with me. I did a lot of research on this armor, and it’s been proven to work well, but I think we can improve on it. Traditional Linothorax only really covers the torso. I think it could be possible for us to create suits of lightweight, effective plate mail armor out of the Linothorax material."

  Tamara's father and the group of leaders that had gathered close to me all nodded again, quietly absorbing what I was trying to tell them.

  “You’re probably wondering how that can be done, right? Well, if we created molds of the individual pieces that make up a suit of plate mail armor, then we could basically have 3-dimensional pattern pieces to form our Linothorax plate mail in. If each group in here could access one set of plate mail armor from the armory and use it to create molds, we could basically have a factory set up to produce plate mail Linothorax for everyone in this fortress. The dwarves collected suits of armor in all shapes and sizes, both women’s and men’s, even suits of armor for children. I guarantee you that we can produce enough plate mail Linothorax to effectively protect every man, woman, and child in this fortress."

  "Brilliant," Mr. Lindsey, the blacksmith and Tamara's father, murmured. Similar murmurs ran through the group before I continued.

  “First, we need each group to head to the armory, and we’ll need a scribe to take notes. Tonight, everyone will try on a suit of plate mail armor, and we will figure out which sizes of armor we need, and how many of each size we need to produce. That way, we only bring the suits of armor that we need to make molds of from the armory to the caverns. Figuring out which suit sizes we need and how many of each size we need will also dictate workflow among the groups. More common sizes will require several more molds per size than the less common sizes and more workers, also. In all likelihood, the volunteers will end up working on the size armor they personally need. Children will work on molding and forming child-sized Linothorax plate mail, and so on. Am I making any sense? Do y’all see where I’m going with this?”

  To my surprise, everyone responded with an affirmative nod.

  “Aye, it makes an astonishing amount of sense, especially coming from someone whom I originally thought to be a useless liability,” Tamara grinned.

  I beamed and nodded, finally feeling semi-confident that we were headed in the right direction. “Okay, good. Now, everyone go and explain the general process to your groups. Also explain that we’ll just be sizing everyone for armor and bringing the suits we need back to the caverns tonight. Sound good?”

  There was a chorus of affirmations from everyone who’d listened to my plan, and they scattered among the rest of the volunteers gathered in the caverns, explaining as they went. From somewhere in the crowd, I heard a shouted question.

  “How the hell are we supposed to get full suits of plate mail from the armory to these caverns without being seen?”

  I couldn’t hold back a victorious smirk. “Well, I’m willing to bet that Mack here knows of a secret passage that runs from these caverns to the armory.”

  Mack nodded and beamed with pride. “Aye. There is one, to be sure, and I’ll be happy to lead you there and back, of course.”

  I nodded. “Once we’ve figured out which suits of armor we need to mold, we break down the suits of armor and everyone can haul an individual piece of armor back to these caverns. If we lay them out in groups by the size of the suit of armor, each person can start the initial mold on each piece of plate mail we bring over. Once the initial molds are clean and dry, half the volunteers in each group can begin producing Linothorax pieces, while the other half continues to generate more molds and so on until we have enough molds to produce the number of linothorax pi
eces we need to effectively armor everyone in this fortress. Does that answer your questions?”

  “Aye, that’ll do, smart aleck!” The voice I didn't recognize from the crowd responded.

  “Okay, now that that’s been established, why don’t we let Mack lead us to the armory and get started?”

  An affirmative murmur ran through the crowd of volunteers, and we set out following in Mack’s purposeful wake. I sucked in a deep, satisfied breath, and Mack glanced back at me over his shoulder with a proud grin. “I think you’ve really impressed these people tonight, lass.”

  I snorted and shook my head. “I’m not here to impress them, Mack. I’m here to save as many of their lives as I can.”

  He beamed back at me and nodded. “That’s my girl.”

  I wasn’t sure what he meant, so I shrugged it off and stayed on his heels as he led us through several winding passages. It felt like we’d been walking for at least fifteen minutes when we came to what looked like a dead end, until Mack pressed a well-hidden latch in the wall and the stone parted to let us into the lowermost back part of the armory caverns.

  It took all night and the better part of the next day for everyone who needed armor to slip into the armory, try armor on, and to make sure that Mack recorded each person’s size. Everyone in the fortress was exhausted, but we all pushed through it, broke down the suits of armor we would need, and hauled the individual pieces back to the caverns where we planned to work. I showed the group leaders the process of making a good mold, and by the time I was finished, I was dead on my feet.

  “You need to rest,” Mack urged.

  “No,” I shook my head. “I should be here helping everyone prepare the Linothorax.”

  Tamara’s father, who was leading the group closest to us, shook his head and spoke up. “You need to sleep. You can barely hold your eyes open. Grab a few hours’ rest and then come back. In fact, I think it would be wiser if we all worked in shifts and got more sleep. We will be useless against Sigrid’s forces if we don’t get enough sleep to sustain us.”

  I yawned and nodded. “You’re right. I’m going to crash for a while, but I’ll come back as soon as I wake up. Groups can work out who works what shift among themselves, right?”

  Tamara’s father--the blacksmith--nodded. “Of course we can. Now, go rest so you can come up with more excellent plans like this one.”

  I yawned again, a deep enough yawn that it made my whole body shudder, and glanced over at Mack. “I don’t remember what passage to take to get back to my room. Can you take me there, please?”

  “Of course, Lauren. I’m your personal Valet, remember? I’ll be with you around the clock, wherever you are.”

  I nodded, mumbled something incoherent and nonsensical, and let the dwarf lead me back to my room, where I face-planted on the bed and fell into a deep, dreamless, exhausted sleep.

  15

  Magic in the Music

  I woke a few hours later to the sound of borderline manic knocking on my bedroom door. I opened the door and saw Sam fidgeting on the threshold, excitement shining in his pale eyes like a beacon of hope. “I’ve done it,” he crowed, pride pouring out of every pore.

  “Done what?” My heart was racing, and I was desperate to know what he’d accomplished.

  “The charging spell I created; I've perfected it! It’s dependent on a listener’s interaction with your glorious little contraption, but it works.” He clapped his hands together like an exuberant, excited child and beamed at me.

  I clapped and gave him a quick hug. “That’s incredible, Sam! How does it work? Show me.”

  He pulled my iPhone out of the leather satchel he always carried and handed it to me, along with my headphones. I put one in and left the other out so he could explain the mechanics of the spell to me as he showed me that it worked.

  “After listening to some of the music, and so-called music, on your iPhone, I realized that music creates energy in the listener, you understand? When you listen to certain songs, they make you feel a certain way, and that’s emotional energy that was just waiting to be harnessed. When you listen to the music and it creates that emotional energy within you, the spell harnesses that energy and channels it back into the device, thus charging it and sustaining its life. Pick a song and watch the battery percentage as you listen to the song.”

  I didn’t bother to stifle my squeal of delight as I scrolled through my music, looking for the perfect song to boost my energy. I landed on “The Ballroom Blitz” by The Sweet and pressed play, staring intently at the battery percentage as it started playing. It spiked from 60% to 70% by the end of the first chorus. I ignored the fact that Sam was staring at me as if I'd lost my mind and danced around to the music as I stared at the percentage, watching it increase little by little as I listened. The more the song amped me up, the more quickly my iPhone charged.

  As soon as the song finished, I pressed pause and gave Sam a quick, excited hug. “This is perfect, Sam! Now, I’ve got several more ideas on how we could use my iPhone and magic combined to establish an upper hand against Sigrid. Rolf may have already talked to you about them, but I want to run them by you personally because some things may have been lost in translation, if you know what I’m saying.”

  He nodded and I smiled. “Once we finish our work for the day, we need to loan my phone to Wynne long enough for her to finish watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”

  “I’m sure we can make that work,” Sam nodded.

  I frowned, looking up and down the hall for a second before leveling a serious gaze at him. “You should probably come in and shut the door if we're going to work on my iPhone, you know? I hadn’t thought about it, but Adele could be lurking around anywhere, and I don’t trust her. I don’t care what anybody says, Rolf, Kieran, or anyone. She puts a bad taste in my mouth and my skin crawls every time I’m around her. I don’t want to risk her knowing anything about our plans with my phone.”

  “I’m sure we can make that work,” Sam agreed.

  I shrugged, trying to ignore the clearly flirtatious undertone in his voice. “I don’t think she can eavesdrop on us there, not with Mack standing guard, anyway.”

  “Shall we?” Sam grinned and extended his hand to me, but I pushed his hand away as I nodded and stepped aside to allow him into my room.

  I shot him a stern look. “You know, I really don’t like it when you flirt with me, Sam.”

  He looked utterly stunned. “Why not?”

  I shrugged, trying to find a polite way to word it, but I wasn't coming up with much. “Well, it’s obviously meaningless to you, but Tamara really likes you, and I don’t want her to get the wrong idea about us. I’ve never flirted back with you, nor do I intend to.”

  Sam's expression and tone were haughty when he responded. “What if I’m not interested in Tamara at all? Or, what if I just enjoy flirting with you because I know it makes her jealous?”

  “Sam!” I scolded, glaring at him. “You shouldn’t manipulate people and toy with emotions that way. It’s wrong.”

  He pouted at me for a moment. “Well, maybe Tamara should learn to tell me how she feels about me, instead of threatening every other female I speak to like some kind of crazy person.”

  I shook my head and held up a hand to stem the flow of his rant. “Hey, that’s between you and Tamara. I’m not in this thing, okay? Both of you need to stop dragging me into your weird, dysfunctional relationship drama. That’s not what I’m here for.”

  Sam shot me a sideways glance. “Are you saying your heart’s already spoken for, then?”

  I sighed and looked away, not quite sure what to say. “Look, Sam, I don’t know much about my heart, to be honest with you. What I do know is that I’ve spent the last eleven years of my life looking for my missing best friend, and the Messengers told me that if I succeed here, I have the chance to save his life. I’m not here for romance or anything even remotely like that, in spite of the attraction I feel to Kieran. I’m here to earn my real
life back, and to save my best friend if I can. Can you understand that?”