Icebound (Legends of the Shifters Book 2)

by J. B. North

  I stood up, all thoughts of rodents forgotten.

  He rattled a key in the lock to my chamber door as he hissed unintelligible words under his breath. It unlocked with a click. “Come on,” he ordered, holding the door open.

  My thoughts were in a muddle as I stepped out.

  “Quickly,” he said, pushing me forward. Before I knew it, we’d reached the steps and were climbing up. I looked back at Alyss and Grix’s surprised faces, lit up by morning light that filtered in from upstairs, and then they were gone.

  “What's this about?” I asked angrily as he set a fast pace toward the door that led outside. Was he going to punish me in front of all the students? And why was he being so panicked about it?

  “We have company,” he answered. “Important company.”

  He opened the door, and my questions fell silent as I took in the scene outside.

  A large group of students and guards crowded around the road where I had been dropped off the day of my trial. The headmaster pushed past them, still forcing me to follow him.

  I could see that the carriage was tall and made out of polished dark wood. Who could it be? Perhaps it was King Ciaran, here to claim me as his prisoner and to take me back to his dungeon to finish the ritual he’d started.

  A tall man stood there, waiting to greet us. He held a helmet in one hand and rested his other hand on the hilt of his sword. His sandy blond hair was cropped close to his head, and boyish freckles dotted his nose in a way that only added to his handsomeness.

  The headmaster moved out from in front of me. “Here is the girl you asked to see,” he said with a bow.

  I wasn’t sure what to do, so I kept standing and studied the man with curiosity. He took me in for a second, his eyes squinting. Everything was quiet, as if even the horses were holding their breath. Then, his face spread into a smile.

  He took his hand off his sword hilt and extended it to me. “Nice to finally meet you Miss Oliver. I am Prince Matthias.”

  My eyes widened and I dropped into a deep bow. “I'm sorry Your Highness. I did not realize you were royalty.”

  He pulled me up by my elbow. “You need not bow to me, Ivy. As far as I'm concerned, we’re equals.”

  He held out his hand once again, and this time I shook it. “Thank you.”

  The prince turned and opened the carriage door, but paused to look back at me. “You can say goodbye to your friends before we leave.”

  Leave? “What? Where are we going?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Back to the castle. My father is looking forward to meeting you.”

  The king wanted to meet me?

  He was about to turn back to the carriage, but I stumbled over myself to say, “Your Highness?”

  The prince shook his head. “Please, just call me Prince Matthias, or even Matthias...but what is it?”

  I glanced at the headmaster, who glared at me as if he'd already guessed what I was about to ask. “Could I take someone with me?”

  The prince was silent for a moment as he thought, but eventually, he answered, “I suppose. You’ll need someone to attend to you anyway.”

  I turned to the headmaster, suppressing a smile from my face. “Alyss and Grix would be perfect attendants,” I prompted.

  Headmaster Drake gritted his teeth, staring daggers at me.

  Prince Matthias gave him a nod. “It looks like you’ll be two students short.”

  The headmaster forced the corners of his mouth upward and gave a shallow bow before starting off toward the boys’ dorm once again.

  Finally, I had time to search the crowd of students for my friends. Liana stepped forward, as if knowing that I was looking for her. She looked tired and worn.

  What had happened to her cheerfulness the month that I was gone? Perhaps she had heard the news about Roland, but I didn’t think she knew Roland very well.

  “How are things, Liana?” I asked quietly.

  She looked down at the ground, and her mouth wavered. I instinctively reached out to hug her. She shook against my shoulder, but never made a sound.

  I rubbed her back, awkwardly trying to comfort her, and waited for her to calm down enough to explain.

  “I'm sorry, Ivy,” she said after the shaking had abated. “Ever since you left things have gotten worse.”

  “How?” I asked.

  She pulled away to look at my face. “My trainer disappeared. I don't know where he went…but January took his place.”

  “January? She’s already a trainer?”

  Liana nodded. “There aren't enough of them, so they had to replace them with Level Nines. Some of the students are even having to share trainers. Even Mrs. Scarls has vanished into thin air.”

  I frowned. “Last time I was here, there were so many that some of them had been appointed as guards instead.”

  “Not anymore.”

  I looked over at the prince. He was watching me, waiting patiently.

  When I looked back at Liana, she seemed to have pulled herself back together. She gave me a nod. “Go. I'll be fine. I can deal with January. I'm a Level Eight now, so it won't be long before I can leave this place.”

  I glanced over the school grounds, before meeting her eyes again. “Be strong.”

  I saw a flicker of the old Liana when she smiled. “I will.” Then, she sunk back into the crowd, just as Prince Matthias spoke up from behind me.

  “Who was that girl?”

  I jumped, unaware that he was that close. “Liana,” I said as I turned to him.

  “A good friend of yours, I'm guessing?” he questioned further.

  “Yes.”

  I looked back at the boy's dorm just as Grix and Alyss came out of the building followed by Headmaster Drake. In the light, I could see just how dirty their clothes and faces were.

  I watched as they made their way toward us. Then, something happened that I didn't expect. Natalia broke free of the throng of students. “Alyss!” she shouted.

  Alyss turned around just before she was tackled with a hug.

  I should have realized it before. They both had black hair, blue eyes, and the same pale complexion. They must be sisters.

  Natalia kissed Alyss's forehead and said a few words. Alyss nodded, her mouth barely opening as she replied.

  The headmaster took ahold of Alyss’s arm, and Natalia stepped back as she was dragged away.

  Roland had been Natalia’s trainer. I needed to tell her about his death, in case she hadn’t heard yet. I caught her gaze and lifted my hand in a wave.

  She got the message and moved toward me through the crowd.

  Before I could even speak up, she said, “You didn't come back with Roland. Where is he?”

  This was something that I had dreaded from the time I left the island. As trainer and initiate, they must have been pretty close. After all, that was the person that they spent the most time with.

  I found it hard to meet her eyes. “He isn't coming back,” I said softly.

  She closed her eyes and pursed her lips together, forming a thin line. I could tell that she was trying to hold back emotion. When she opened her eyes again, they were wet. She blinked several times. “How?” she demanded. Her voice cracked.

  “A dart dipped in a sleeping draft. He was allergic to it,” I answered.

  I watched as her face morphed from melancholy to dangerous. “Natives,” she hissed, her eyes unfocused. They centered on me after a few seconds. “And you. If you hadn't asked that he come with you, we would still have him.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “He used magic to get me to bring him along.”

  “You could have gone back to the headmaster and changed it,” she snapped.

  I crossed my arms. “How was I supposed to know that one of us would end up dead?”

  She clenched her hands into fists without reply. She glared at me for a few more seconds before she swung around and walked off, ending our conversation.

  Her words cut like a knife. I had always thought of us as friends, but
now I felt like our friendship was severed. Maybe with time, it could be sewn back up.

  I scanned over the crowd to see if I saw anyone else that I knew. There was Abby, standing on her tip-toes to see the prince. One of the boys that I’d been in a survival test with, talking to his friend. And in the back of the crowd, to the left, January.

  She had on a different outfit than the students did, now that she was a trainer. She wore a black, formfitting suit and had her hair tied into a tight bun. She crossed her gloved hands over her chest and raised her eyebrows when she noticed me looking.

  Whatever she had done to Liana in training, I hated her for it. She had taken away Liana's cheerful heart, and to me at that moment, it was an unforgivable crime. Liana had never been mean to her, not that I could remember. Liana was never mean to anybody.

  I gave her a smoldering look, just as I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked back to see the prince’s anxious face. “We have to go, Ivy. It’s a long journey, and we’re pressed for time.”

  I searched for Liana once more to wave goodbye, but I didn't see her in the crowd anymore. “Your two friends are already mounted on their horses,” the prince said as he led the way.

  Prince Matthias helped me into the carriage, where I sat across from his guard, a man who kept a straight, emotionless face as he studied me silently. Then, once the prince was inside, the carriage surged forward.

  I settled back in my seat in the uncomfortable silence that followed our departure.

  -Chapter Four-

  Every once in a while, Prince Matthias tried to make small talk, remarking on the weather and the upkeep of the conservatory, but I barely contributed. Instead, my mind focused on the days ahead. Would I finally be able to study this prophecy that so many people had talked about? And should I even believe it when I did?

  I glanced over at the guard, who still hadn’t said a word. His hair was a dark chestnut color and despite the constant line between his brows, his eyes were a soft brown. They reminded me of Roland.

  Everything around me seemed to fade as I recalled Roland's easy-going laugh and his friendliness toward others.

  I remembered the time when we saw the fire-dancers, when he’d tried to comfort me after I got trampled by the crowd. I shouldn’t have made such a big deal out of it. He was just trying to show me what Achron was famous for, and it was wonderful...until the tent caught on fire.

  I remembered how he had kept me from going overboard on Burton's ship and made sure I was safe. I remembered floating down the canal in Nalla and laughing together as a Nallan man put flowers over Kurt's head… And the time just before his mind was invaded, when he'd shown me his half-form. If the moment had lasted a little longer...

  And then I remembered his last message to his family. I've seen what is to come in the next life. Do you honestly think that I would want to live in this world forever? Ivy, for those who believe, there is no death. Instead, there is a door to forever. A forever without anguish, without worry, without fear. And I am going to live in that forever.

  When I came back to the real world, the prince was watching me with a frown. I must look foolish, staring blankly at the carriage wall. I quickly looked outside. We sat silently for a while as the carriage descended the mountain, rocking us back and forth with the horses’ gait.

  What does the castle look like? Having started life as the lowest of the low, on the farthest island, the prospect hadn’t even crossed my mind. Any news we got about the royal family, which wasn’t much, was like hearing a bedtime story. Marvelous tales of evening dances, visiting princesses, and beautiful weddings. One of the first stories I’d heard of the royal family was the tragic passing of the queen after she’d delivered the twin princes. That had occurred years before I was born. And now, I was sitting beside one of the boys, our knees occasionally brushing when the carriage sprang over a bump in the road.

  And what is the king like? Kurt had told me that King Giddon had bought him back from King Ciaran once. Did I dare have such high hopes that he would do it again? But now, I doubted King Ciaran would take any sum of money to release him, knowing that he was the strongest link to my cooperation if he ever managed to capture me.

  The prince let out a deep breath of air. I hated to be such a boring audience, so I tried to come up with something to say. “How long will it take to get to the castle, Your Highness?” I asked.

  Prince Matthias glanced at me. “About six days, give or take. It depends on the weather.” He paused and smiled. “And I told you not to call me that.”

  I blushed and ducked my head. “Sorry.”

  He waved off my apology.

  “Where will we be stopping?” I asked.

  “We’ll probably make a camp before we get to the sea.”

  I nodded and silence followed.

  Then, “How has your time at the conservatory been?” Matthias’s gray eyes were dark with curiosity.

  I don't even know anymore… After a few long seconds, I decided to say, “Not too hard, now that I look back on it.”

  “Is that where you got that scar?” he asked, gesturing to my shoulder.

  No matter how much I hated to bring up the subject, I didn’t feel like I could lie to the prince.

  “No, actually,” I said as I pulled my sleeve back into place to cover the marred flesh.

  His eyebrows furrowed. “Oh. May I ask how?”

  I bit my lip. I’d better tell him the truth. “Have you heard of the plant of eternal life?”

  The guard suddenly took interest in our conversation, studying me with knitted eyebrows.

  The prince gestured to him. “Sir Lochlan here has always had quite an interest in the plant. And the Isle of Ginsey specifically. I know the island is real, but I always thought the plant was a myth.”

  Sir Lochlan turned away, but I knew he was still listening.

  “It is most certainly real,” I said, resisting the urge to trace over the scars with my fingertips.

  “So…you’re telling me…that you consumed the plant?” the prince concluded.

  “Only a little made it into my system, so I don't think it will affect me the same way. But it did give me this scar.”

  “Hmm,” said the prince, studying it. “It's strange. If the plant is supposed to make you stronger, then why is it hurting you?”

  My stomach tightened as my mind worked around that question. Why was it hurting me? “I don't know,” I said softly.

  There was no more conversation after that. Everyone was wrapped up in their own thoughts as the carriage kept rocking back and forth.

  * * * * *

  We stopped before dark, where the smell of the ocean was strong. We had to be close.

  While the camp was being built, I decided to stretch my legs with a walk through the woods. I followed the sound of trickling water until I came across a stream.

  I stooped to drink, cupping my hand in the cold water to bring it to my mouth, but froze when I heard the snap of a twig. In the reflection of the stream, I could make out a dark, cloaked figure standing too close for comfort.

  Time slowed. In a flash, I turned and grabbed the hooded figure’s wrist, twisting it behind their back until I heard a cry of pain.

  “Who are you?” I hissed.

  “P-please, Ivy. It's me!”

  I knew that voice.

  My scowl disappeared and the tension seeped from my body. As soon as I let go of his arm, he flipped his hood back.

  “Ayon?” I asked as I met his blue eyes.

  He clutched his arm where I had grabbed him. “Yes,” he said, his eyes pained.

  My heart sunk. “I'm so sorry,” I said, folding back his sleeve to look at the damage that I'd done. There were spots of blue already.

  He jerked his arm away from my grasp.

  I narrowed my eyes. “Why did you sneak up on me?”

  He sighed and let his arm drop to his side. “I just wanted to surprise you.”

  “Well, you succeeded. What are you doing he
re, Ayon?”

  He stiffened at my tone. “When I heard that the prince was at the conservatory, I made the trip out there just to find out he'd already left, and the phoenix was with him. You see, I've been wanting to get a job at the castle, and since the prince has showed interest in you…I wondered if you might help me out?” His mustered up a small smile. “Plus, I couldn't pass up the chance to see you again.”

  I scrutinized him, remembering very well that the last time we’d seen each other, he'd asked me to marry him.

  Before I could reply, Ayon went on to say, “I plan to bring my fiancée to the castle to find work as well, but I wanted to make sure that there was a chance there for both of us before we committed to it.”

  Any suspicions I had were immediately erased. “Fiancée? Who?”

  Ayon held his head higher. “Emillia Lisborne.”

  I knew Emillia, although I’d never talked with her very much. From what I could tell, she was a quiet, sweet girl that deserved Ayon's attention. She’d been an orphan, like myself, and had gone through her trial before me. Her second form, a sparrow, suited her personality perfectly.

  I was surprised to feel a pang of jealousy. It only took him a few months to get over me?

  I forced my mouth into a smile. “That's...great. Emillia is a wonderful girl.”

  Ayon nodded. “Yes, she is.”

  It’s for the best. Perhaps now, we could be friends again.

  “How is Elna doing?” I asked.

  “She's been good. She still can't cook, though.” The thought of Elna's cooking brought a grin to my face. Although life was easier back then, her food was the one thing that I didn't miss. Ayon continued. “She has to keep herself from telling everyone what happened in the arena, it was such a spectacle.”

  My smile faded. If she told anyone under seventeen what had occurred, she could be in danger of imprisonment. I usually remembered her endless chatter fondly, but now, I could only feel dread.

  Ayon interpreted my expression. “Don't worry, we've both kept silent for the most part.”

  Relieved, I let my face relax. I looked behind Ayon, where I could barely see the tents still being set up through the trees. “Would you like to meet the prince?” I asked, focusing on him again.