A Heart of Ice

by Phoenix Briar

  I almost cannot find my voice, but I answer gruffly, “I have no desire to make a whore out of you, Cara…you are much too proud for that.” I manage a faint smile, and she returns it pitifully. “I wish I could send you home, Cara…Chelyah knows I wish I could, but I cannot.” I see her lip tremble, and she closes her eyes. I tug her hand gently, and she comes to her knees before me. I touch her face, and she opens her eyes, looking up at me weakly. “But perhaps, beautiful flower…I can make you a new one…”

  She gives a little smile, closing her eyes again and sighing softly, leaning her face against my hand. “I did not think you would like my dark skin or red hair…do you really think that I am beautiful, Gabriel?” she asks, and I almost laugh.

  “Go ask any man in this castle, and he will tell you so…as long as he is not in front of his wife,” I answer truthfully, chuckling softly.

  The soft sound of her laughter, a bit shaky, is so beautiful to my ears. “Do you really mean that?” she asks softly, her voice tired, and I wonder if she might fall asleep on me.

  I smile. “I told you: go ask.”

  She shakes her head sleepily and murmurs, “No…about making me a new home…will you really…give me a new life here?” A longing for acceptance, love, a home. I can hear it in her words, and I doubt that if she was not so hazy with emotions and sleep that she ever would have admitted it to me. I wonder that there really must not have been anything left in Inferno for her…how much has she lost there?

  I sigh, taking the hand on her cheek and gently laying it on the back of her head, guiding her to lean into me, and when she does, she slackens. “I give you my word to try, Cara…” I murmur against her hair, but her only answer is an intelligible murmur, and I wonder if she heard me at all.

  I will. Somehow, I will get her out of this frozen place. I will not let her die.

  Part Three

  God be thanked, the meanest of his creatures boasts two soul-sides,

  one to face the world with, one to show a woman when he loves her.

  -Robert Browning

  Chapter Thirty Five

  Scarlet

  Of course, it would just so happen that the day we plan to leave, it begins pouring down rain.

  Glaring up at the dark sky from my place on the stone steps to the castle, I say to the prince beside me, “I thought it only snowed in Crystalice.”

  Gabriel looks at me, then gives a heavy sigh and looks out to the servants loading up the carriages. “It rains from time to time, turns all the snow into mush and then to ice. It can be irritating.”

  “I never would have guessed,” I answer sourly. My stomach is in knots, and if ever I bend or turn, pain steals my breath and doubles me over. At least I am alive…I just have to keep reminding myself of that.

  Gabriel wanted to leave for Ocarine—a warm, coastal region of Cerulean—the day after our late-night talk, but it took three days to get everything packed and ready, and prepare the palace for him to be gone. He sent a messenger ahead of us to let the Lord and Lady of Marine know that we will be staying at their manor while we are there. The lord of the castle and Gabriel are apparently kin, and he was like brothers with the lord’s late son, so there would never be an issue with Gabriel just dropping by, even with an Inferno.

  And so finally, with our small caravan—myself, Gabriel, Heather, Enté, Gabriel’s manservant, two drivers, and six guards—we are ready to leave. Petara and Claque keep insisting that it is not safe to travel in so few numbers, but Gabriel is impatient to get away from the Crystalice palace, and any opposition immediately turns into an argument.

  Even I am sick of it.

  “Gabriel, it really would be no harm to wait another few days,” I say, knowing very well that I can handle any fight Gabriel comes up with. But he has been trying lately to avoid fighting with me.

  I have never taken the time to more than browse over Ocarine on the maps. All that I know is that it borders the ocean and has a fairly warm and humid climate. I forget many times that Crystalice is only a part of Cerulean. Not all of it is icy. Ocarine is actually fairly warm, although Gabriel already complains about how hot it’s going to be.

  Gabriel just shoots me a look and snaps, “No. If we wait much longer, you could get even worse. Our healers know little about how to treat an Inferno beyond flesh wounds.”

  I glance gloomily ahead of us into the rain. “I hate the rain…”

  He sighs and trudges into the icy downpour, starting to shout orders at the servants, trying to figure out how soon until we can leave. It will take three days to reach the castle on the shore, and we will stop to let the horses rest every few hours or so.

  I watch him as he speaks with servants, Dena coming up beside me and sighing softly. “He is taking this guardian thing a bit seriously, is he not?”

  “Mmm,” I muse quietly, shaking off a cold chill and wrapping my cloak around me even tighter. Enté is still sleepy since the morning is new, and he hides himself under my cloak, wearing one of his own and hugging my legs.

  “Lady Scarlet!” I hear Tam’s voice call to me from within the castle, and I turn and peer at him from under my hood.

  He hurries up to me, still hobbling with his cane. Heather is worried that he’s done more than merely twist his ankle. He pauses to catch his breath and then smiles at me, offering me a small piece of wood just barely bigger than his hand. “For you…” he says, panting.

  I take the piece curiously and look down at it. It is a carving, a wolf. It is not unlike the Crystalice emblem, his head raised in a howl towards the sky on the front of the wooden talisman. “Eh’s…Fenrir…tha first of the wolves… he will protect you…”

  “I…do not understand,” I say, frowning at him, confused.

  “Eh’s for you,” he repeats and stands up, leaning on his cane and giving me a small, shy smile. “Something ta hold on ta…ta remind you tha’ you are safe.”

  My eyes go wide for a moment, and I clutch the wolf talisman a little tighter in my hand. Something to hold on to. Something made for me. The small little piece, the kindness behind it, causes my heart to swell, and tears form in my eyes. “Tam…” I say quietly and then I move towards him and wrap my arms around his shoulders. I squeeze him tight despite the burning pain in my stomach, and I breathe steadily to fight back tears. “Thank you…” I whisper, and he just stands there awkwardly, not knowing what to do. Finally, he pats my back a bit with his free hand, and I stand back and smile at him.

  “I think in another life, I would have been happy to have a younger brother like you.”

  He blushes and smiles a bit. “We’ll be waitin’ here for ya return, lady. Be safe until than.”

  “I will.” I give a little nod.

  Gabriel turns to us and shouts, “Alright! Let’s be on our way!”

  I look down at Enté, smiling softly. “Come, my love.” He looks up at me, making a face, and I pull my hood up over my head again before bending down and picking up the sleepy child. I hiss with pain, letting out the breath between my teeth, and Dena gives me a chastising look.

  “You are going to pull your stitches if you pick him up like that.”

  I smile cheekily at her and answer, “Then maybe I can convince Gabriel to wait until the rain has ended to leave.”

  She rolls her eyes. “Chelyah could not convince him of such.”

  I laugh and shake my head, carrying the little child out into the icy storm. “Gabriel, the wheels are not going to like the soft ground,” I warn him as I go to his side. He neglected to don a proper cloak, although the cold hardly bothers him. He can die from a heat stroke or dehydration, but not from the cold. Sufficiently cold temperatures can send him into a dormant state which is more or less like being comatose, but it preserves the body until the weather warms. I’m not sure that such cold weather actually exists on our island continent, Vendrain.

  Gabriel pauses to kiss Enté’s brow, but the child is displeased with his father dripping water all over him, and frankly,
I am as well. I give him a look, but he says nothing, only gesturing to the carriage. With no desire to be made sick or weak, I make my way to the door and pull it open.

  I shut the door behind me and sigh softly, taking off my wet cloak and shaking it out a bit while Enté takes a seat beside me. The child does not suffer from cold, despite being a half-blood, but from exhaustion. He is not usually up so early, and he protested the entire morning. The carriages are small, so the first carriage holds only Gabriel, myself, and the boy, while the second carriage holds Heather along with Gabriel’s servant. The guards would rotate riding beside the caravan and sleeping in the hooded cart carrying our luggage.

  All in all, the next few days promise to be long and drudging.

  Chapter Thirty Six

  Gabriel

  “I told you that the soft road would not be kind to our wheels,” Cara reminds me, as if I had ever forgotten. Two days down the road, and she stands before me with her hands on her hips and a frown on her mouth. The rain lightened into a gloomy mist, but the roads are still mostly mud and slush. Not very pleasant for riding.

  At least the guards and servants know better than to say anything. I sigh and glare back at the woman, answering, “What would you have me do, Cara? Rains can last for weeks without cease in Crystalice. We did not have weeks.”

  “You did not have weeks,” she chastises as we stand there on the side of the road, Heather now trying not to laugh. “I could have waited another month. I was just fine in Crystalice.”

  “You,” I snarl, “have twice nearly lost your life to its inhabitants, and your condition has not improved.”

  “Thrice,” she says, now glaring hard at me, Enté peeking through the window to try and see what is going on, although I know that he cannot hear. “You did more damage than that knife.”

  I roll my eyes, rubbing my face with my hand. “Blessed Chelyah…”

  Cara flushes and glowers at me. “Dare you mock me, Gabriel? In case I have failed to make my position clear: I hate the rain; I hate ice. I hate snow, carriages, traveling, and mud.”

  “Which is why, you noisy woman, we are going to Ocarine,” I sigh, looking back at her irritably. All she has done the past three or four days is complain—even before we left!—and I am about ready to leave her on the side of the road.

  As much as she resents this trip, she needs warm weather. She needs safety. Ocarine holds those things for her. If she would only just stop being so stubborn and try to be useful instead of making sure that I am well aware of everything that I have done wrong in the past month or so.

  I watch her teeth snap together, and her golden eyes pin me where I stand. After a moment of glaring daggers at my head, she finally sneers, “Well we will not be going far now will we, Gabriel?”

  Anger sears my veins, and we stand there for a long while glaring at each other, until finally, she just sighs and turns, waving me off and muttering, “Oh, we haven’t the time to bicker now. Night will fall shortly.” She sighs and stands there for a moment, looking at the carriages and the horses before saying, “We shall have to leave the carriages here until we can come back with a new wheel and axel. There are two drivers and twelve horses. We can abandon the ruined carriage for now and take the horses to the nearest town to find a replacement.”

  I think over it for a long moment, and then sigh, rubbing the back of my neck as I look at the mess before me. We could send a pair of guards on ahead to get a replacement, but that would take hours to get to the nearest town and back. Night would set in long before they returned, and only four guards would be left to protect a caravan of seven.

  I look up at Cara, and her expression clearly tells me that we should have planned better. But whether I like it or not, her solution is the best we have for right now. So with a heavy sigh and a humbled pride, I answer, “Very well. No one can go anywhere with the carriages anyways until the weather clears.” I am suddenly very glad that I had not listened to Petara’s insisting on finer carriages.

  Cara smiles a bit, shaking her head as she turns back to the carriage, opening it and pulling out the little child from inside. I turn to speak with the guard when I hear her sharp cry of pain. I look over when she fumbles to keep from dropping Enté, snatching him into her arms and using her body as a cushion when she loses balance and her side hits the side of the carriage. Heather reaches her before I do, taking the boy from her and chastising her the way only Heather would dare.

  “Cara, are you alright?” I ask when I stand before her, her hand pressed to her stomach, her brows pinched together in pain.

  She draws in and releases a few breaths through her teeth, then shoves at my hand on her shoulder and hisses breathlessly, “Yes…go away…”

  I frown at her, staring hard at the crimson crown of her head as she sucks in air. Heather has Enté balanced on her hip, proceeding to lecture the Inferno sternly about pulling her stitches and not obeying the healers.

  Cara shakes her head, clearly in pain. She picks her head up, face tight, eyes narrow. “Just give me a horse, so we can get there faster,” she says, walking past me to a gray stallion with black spots, mounting him easily, although I can tell that she is used to leather armor, not skirts, by the way she overthrows her leg. She arranges her skirts around her, but when her eyes meet mine, she gives me a look that dares me to tell her to ride sidesaddle.

  I chuckle and take my own white stallion which we brought with us. The stallion is trustworthy and well trained. He tosses his head when I am upon his back, and I pat his neck with heavy thumps to show my gladness at being able to ride after such a long time.

  “Heather, I can hold him on the horse, “ Cara argues, my attention just now going to the argument before me with Heather standing with Enté in her arms. “It will be of no harm to me to hold him as we ride. These horses are too large for him, and you will be riding side saddle.”

  “An’ if you fall off your horse, missus?” Heather challenges, narrowing her eyes stubbornly. “You look mighty unsettled as it is.”

  With I sigh, I call out, “Give me my son, Heather. He will ride with me.”

  Enté, tired from his nap, is too tired to argue, as I am certain that he would have. For whatever reason, Chelyah decided to curse me with this spirited Inferno at the same time my son reached a rebellious stage.

  Heather hands the sleepy child to me, and I set him upon my horse, letting him lean back against me. I wait as the servants and guards load our bags onto the horses. We brought only what was necessary, and I planned on buying whatever else we needed once we reached the manor.

  Night settles in by the time we reach the nearest village. It is a small, simple establishment, with one inn and one stable. Most of the villagers have settled indoors and out of the horrible weather by the time we plodded into the town and towards the stables. I can still hear the scraping of metal from the blacksmith’s workshop, but that is all that can be heard.

  “Highness,” an old, round man greets me at the stables, bowing low and looking in fierce need of sleep. His voice is low and gruff, as if afraid of the darkness.

  I incline my head to him, wishing that I had the patience and mood to smile and be friendly. As it is, I want a hot bath and a pair of clothes that do not drip. “We have need of rooms and keep for the horses.”

  “O’course, highness. I takes good cares o’em,” he answers me, taking the reigns of my horse. Cara has already dismounted and is beside my horse, slipping her arms under my son’s arms to collect him carefully. I am tired of arguing with her. If the stupid woman wants to hurt herself, then by all means. But she is more cautious this time, distributing the boy’s weight to settle him comfortably against her. Enté begins to whine and cry, but the patient woman rocks back and forth, murmuring and speaking sweetly to him, patting his back lovingly.

  “Highness?” The old Stable Master draws me out of my thoughts while I watch the woman and boy, and I return my attention to him. “Sire, me wife, Mari, be inside. She can shows ye a go
od room.”

  “Thank you,” I answer wearily, dismounting easily now that Enté is not settled against me. My boots slam down into three-inch high mud, and I look down at them with displeasure before sighing and moving past the soldiers and servants as they dismount and unpack, heading into the inn. Mindful of the mud, I stomp my boots on the final step before going inside.

  A rusted, brass bell rings atop the door, and inside is dim. Cara is still holding Enté, bouncing him slightly to keep him calm as she speaks to the inn keeper about how many rooms we need and what supplies as well. Two young girls scurry up and down the stairs getting everything ready.

  I expected that the inn would be full of rain-soaked travelers, but apparently we are the only ones clever enough to travel in such horrible weather.

  Cara goes to a wooden bench against the wall and lays Enté down. There are four round tables with chairs set around them in the entry room, probably to double as a tavern. She lays her cloak over the boy, which is mostly dry on the inside. I wonder if it is worth mentioning that it is good for Enté to be cold, since she seems to be acting more out of habit than out of knowledge for my kind, but Enté seems content, so I leave her alone.

  She comes to me when she is finished, her eyes lax from sleep and her skin pale. “The Inn Keeper says that there is only one other occupant tonight and that we may have all of the other rooms. There are seven available rooms, four with two beds.”

  Thinking through the numbers for a moment, I answer, “Very well. The guards will keep a two-post watch through the night. The drivers stayed with the carriages and two guards. You can either stay by yourself or with Heather, but Heather will most likely be tending Enté, and you need rest.”

  “I believe you just gave me an option and then took it back,” Cara mutters, mildly amused by the little smile on her lips.