The Princess Who Flew with Dragons

by Stephanie Burgis

  The lake that stretched in front of us under the starlit sky, shadowed by massive, snow-covered mountains, was completely frozen over. It was an eerily beautiful sight, sparkling in the stillness of the night, but a completely useless one for eating.

  ‘I could melt through that.’ Jasper studied the thick sheet of ice with sleepily calculating golden eyes.

  ‘But you can’t catch fish. Remember?’ Watching him try on our first morning had left all of us water-soaked, empty-handed and laughing hysterically. ‘And if I try, I’ll get frostbite. So … we’ll go hungry.’ Again.

  I sighed even harder and kicked melting snow away from his stomach to form a wet hollow that I could cover with my top two layers of clothes. At least I had practice at this, by now.

  My teeth started chattering the moment I stripped off those outer layers. I almost purred with relief as I curled up tightly against Jasper’s side a moment later. The heat from his scales steamed into my skin like the best, biggest hot brick in the world. Bliss! My stomach might be achingly empty, but at least I was warm.

  I was beginning to hate the feeling of cold more than anything else in the entire world.

  ‘It is summer,’ I grumbled as I shifted to get comfortable. ‘I don’t care how far north we’ve come. Snow? Ice? This is ridiculous!’

  Jasper let out a huff of smoke. ‘Can’t you smell what’s causing it?’

  Frowning, I sniffed as hard as I could. All I smelt was dragon, comforting and familiar – and, much less comfortingly, my own sour reek, emanating through all of my layers. The stench of sweat and grime had grown to an unbearable level after so many days of flying.

  ‘It’s not natural,’ Jasper said patiently. ‘It smells of magic.’

  ‘Oh.’ I huddled closer to his side. Suddenly, the big, frozen lake in front of us looked more ominous than beautiful. ‘Do you think it’s the ice giants creating this weather?’

  ‘It’s been smelling more and more like them.’ A growl thickened Jasper’s voice as he curled around me in a protective semicircle. ‘I’ll never forget that scent.’

  So we really were close to our destination now.

  I wished Fedolia had stayed, whether or not she’d been able to catch us any dinner. Her air of careless superiority might burn, but I had to admit, I would feel better watching her treat this frighteningly magical landscape as a playground – not that she’d done much of that since she’d spotted her family.

  What memories were going through her head now, wherever she was hiding?

  She might pretend not to need anyone’s help, but Talvikki had been right. There were more emotions hiding behind Fedolia’s glittering shield than I’d once thought. I knew I’d glimpsed real pain in her expression, even if she would never admit to it.

  How difficult must it be for her to come back to her home after being expelled from it? To see her family and everything she’d lost when they’d all turned their backs on her?

  And why had she agreed to do it in the first place, when it caused her so much pain?

  ‘A favour,’ I whispered to myself.

  ‘I beg your pardon?’ Jasper’s purple-and-gold eyelids lifted, his voice sleepy and his big head propped on the snowy ground.

  ‘Fedolia only agreed to guide us,’ I said, ‘in exchange for me owing her a favour. Remember? I was just thinking …’

  Goosebumps prickled my skin as Talvikki’s words echoed in my mind. ‘She’s fond of tricks and pranks.’

  ‘I probably should have taken the time to ask her first what that favour would be.’

  Jasper’s eyelids sagged closed as he visibly lost interest. ‘Does it really matter?’

  I gazed out at the frozen lake and at the unnatural snow that fell steadily against it in the moonlight. Then I let out a sigh and let my worries fall out with it. ‘No,’ I admitted. ‘Probably not.’

  The truth was, there was nothing I wouldn’t have agreed to for the chance to save my sister and to finally – finally – get something right.

  I would make the same bargain again in a heartbeat.

  But as Jasper’s snores grumbled through the long, dark night and Fedolia stayed worryingly invisible, my empty stomach twisted and knotted, and I wished – how I wished! – that my infuriating older sister were here to take control of me as usual.

  I had a sinking feeling that I was about to muck up everything – again.

  CHAPTER 20

  Fedolia flashed into view the next morning with a casual stretch and yawn just as I was staggering back from my makeshift chamber-pot trip. I was bleary-eyed with exhaustion and aching in every knotted muscle. She looked as fresh as if she’d slept peacefully all night long … which she probably had.

  Ugh.

  ‘Everything all right?’ Jasper shifted to his feet, flexing his wings in anticipation. Smoke snorted in eager clouds from his nostrils, and his golden eyes gleamed as his front claws scraped impatiently against the ground.

  Wait. Was he hoping for a fight?

  He was! I could see it in his eyes. He wanted to prove himself as a fierce dragon, using teeth and claws instead of his brain. How could such a clever philosopher be so foolish?

  ‘Of course.’ Fedolia’s sharp teeth gleamed in her smile. She patted her hidden pendant with unmistakeable satisfaction. ‘Everything’s going perfectly.’

  ‘Ugh!’ I finally let myself groan out loud. Was now really the time for her to gloat over her jewellery?

  And could I really be the only one to realise we were heading to our deaths today – or at least to being frozen forever? I’d spent all night trying to think up a safe strategy, but there was no getting around the truth: there were only two ways we could possibly survive the day. Either we could melt and retrieve our families without a single ice giant noticing what we were doing, or I could magically transform myself into a perfect princess and negotiate their release with irresistible charm.

  Ha!

  I’d always yearned to prove myself too … but unlike Jasper, I could see exactly how any battle with ice giants would end.

  So I was scowling as I stomped through the crackling white snow and hauled myself up on to my friend’s back.

  ‘Well then?’ I growled, as snow shards melted through my stockings. ‘Since there’s no breakfast for us to eat before we leave …’

  Humming cheerily, Fedolia hopped up in front of me. ‘I had breakfast,’ she informed us. ‘A snow hare! They’re delicious. Nice and hoppy! You should try one sometime.’

  I couldn’t even manage a groan at that. I just squeezed my eyes shut and hung on with all my might as Jasper launched us into the air.

  Fedolia was unbearably cheerful. As we soared over the vast white landscape, she kept up a running stream of commentary on every identical patch of snow below, sounding more excited than she’d ever been by any of the fabulous sights of Villenne.

  ‘… And that’s where we used to go sledging when I was younger – oh, and there’s where I always used to hide whenever I wanted to get out of work and my aunts were looking for me …’

  Wonderful. Safely hidden behind her back, I rolled my eyes in disbelief. Did she really think this was a cheery little jaunt? She was showing off the barren world below as if she could convince Jasper and me to love it as much as she did.

  We’d be fleeing it within just a few hours if we were lucky. If we weren’t …

  ‘Oof!’ I let out an undignified grunt as Fedolia’s elbow slammed into my shoulder. ‘What was that for?’

  ‘You weren’t looking, silly!’ She pointed down with one long, blue-nailed finger. ‘You see? The ice giants’ palace. We’re almost there!’

  ‘Where?’ All I could see was a hint of blue shimmer on the horizon, like a long, low-hanging cloud, hazy and indefinable against the hulking, snow-covered hills and light grey sky.

  ‘Just look,’ Fedolia told me firmly, and yanked my arms around her waist. Her invisibility spell snapped into place with a now-familiar click.

  Jasper’s win
gs swept us steadily through the air. A flash of pale light speared down through the heavy, snow-filled clouds ahead …

  And I sucked in a sudden, throat-scratching gasp as my vision adjusted, reframing every detail.

  That blue shimmer was ice – not white and glacial and filled with rocks like the other big slabs we’d passed along the way, but tall and blue and impossibly translucent, stretching on and on before the low mountain range in perfect symmetry, like …

  Walls. Those were actual walls formed of magical ice! They marked out the borders of an astonishing structure. As we flew closer, I spotted massive rooms laid out within it, fitting closely around each of those snowy mountains. Only one thing was missing besides the giants themselves.

  ‘Where’s the roof?’ I asked.

  ‘Oh, Sofi.’ Fedolia shook her head. ‘Just look at those giants. Do they seem to mind the snow?’

  ‘Where – oh.’ I gulped.

  Those low, snow-blanketed mountains bordered by the walls of ice weren’t mountains at all. They were the giants! They’d been covered with snow from head to foot as they knelt in perfectly eerie stillness within their translucent walls, as unmoving as any natural formations.

  Human palaces were hives of activity and endless courtly schemes. None of these giants was scheming. They weren’t even eating … whatever ice giants ate.

  They weren’t talking or moving a single finger either. They were just … there.

  ‘What are they doing?’ I whispered.

  Fedolia shrugged. ‘Waiting.’

  ‘For what?’ Jasper growled softly.

  Fedolia inspected one blue fingernail with deep concentration. ‘They aren’t terribly fond of intruders,’ she told us. ‘So they sit there, and they listen, and they wait, and they watch … for as long as it takes. But they will never stop. Because they won’t allow anyone to invade their territory.’

  ‘But they aren’t doing anything with it!’ I protested. ‘Look at them! They aren’t even moving. Why should they care what other creatures want to do in other parts of it?’

  ‘It’s their territory,’ Jasper rumbled. ‘Of course they care.’

  ‘No, it’s their safety,’ Fedolia snapped. ‘I thought you two knew something about ice giants by now!’

  I would have torn out my hair with vexation if it hadn’t been safely wrapped in four layers of warmth. ‘You’re the expert, remember? We’re trusting you to tell us about them and keep us safe!’

  ‘Oh.’ Fedolia sounded uncharacteristically subdued. ‘Well … they …’ Her right hand rose as if to touch the chain of her hidden necklace. Then she dropped her hand and gave her shoulders a quick shake. ‘You’re the one who refuses to let anyone close,’ she told me. ‘You should understand them, if anyone does.’

  My whole body clenched with revulsion. ‘I do not!’

  It wasn’t my fault I didn’t have any real friends except a dragon who lived beneath a mountain far away! It wasn’t as if I didn’t want to have friends.

  For one brief, shining moment, I had even thought I’d found some … before the ice giants came and ruined everything for me.

  ‘Is this about their hearts?’ Jasper sounded thoughtful. ‘I seem to remember –’

  ‘I cannot believe we’re worrying about their hearts when they’re holding our families prisoner!’ I shriek-whispered.

  The safety of their hidden hearts might matter more to ice giants than anything else in the world, but that was their problem, not mine – and I had nothing in common with the monsters who had stolen Katrin.

  ‘Who cares how they feel?’ I demanded.

  ‘Let’s not worry about it,’ Fedolia muttered. ‘In fact, please don’t talk at all from now on!’

  Right. I pressed my lips together, breathing shallowly through my nose.

  Sitting utterly still, all day every day, these giants would hear a pin drop in their endless, wintry silence. But I couldn’t spot my sister or any other captives among them … which meant their prisoners must be trapped on the other side of that unearthly palace.

  To reach them, we would have to fly directly over the snow-covered figures as they sat, waiting and listening and watching for intruders.

  ‘We are definitely invisible, aren’t we?’ I whispered.

  ‘Of course we are!’ Fedolia plucked irritably at the chain around her neck. ‘That was our bargain, remember? I keep you invisible all the way to the ice giants, and you owe me a favour. Simple!’

  ‘Simple,’ I repeated numbly.

  Thick, cold dread trickled through my bones as I stared at those looming, impossible shapes ahead. They seemed to grow more jaw-droppingly, mind-warpingly huge with every moment as we flew closer and closer.

  I’d thought that the giants who’d stolen our families had been massive. But those must have been the young ones – the small ones, by comparison!

  I could never charm these nightmarish creatures into anything. Who had I been trying to fool? I couldn’t negotiate myself out of trouble with my own sister. I could barely keep the peace with my own best friend! I argued with everybody.

  And that hopeful little plan of mine to rescue our families without any ice giants noticing?

  Ha, ha, ha! Even locked inside my head, my laughter sounded hysterical.

  We were even closer now. They were so big. How could any living creature be so big?

  The closest one had his eyes half closed, but I didn’t fool myself that he was sleeping. His massive blue-and-white face was set in rugged, watchful lines, as still and stern as if it had been carved from a stone cliff. Ice-tangled white hair hung from his head to his knees like a winter waterfall, mingling with the mountain-long beard … and he wasn’t even standing up.

  My breath stuttered desperately in my chest as Jasper’s wings beat harder and harder in a final attempt to surmount that hulking shape. Higher, higher, almost high enough …

  The ice giant’s eyes flicked open, staring directly at us. Blue flames shone through falling snow.

  Aaahhhh!

  My thoughts dissolved into a thousand whirling flakes of panic.

  Jasper’s wings started to beat hastily backwards, but Fedolia poked his side to urge him on, her lips pressed tightly together.

  My chest burned from lack of air. Jasper’s big muscles quivered beneath us as he beat his purple-and-blue wings even harder than before. We flew steadily upwards under that blue-flame gaze.

  Thirty more feet … twenty … ten …

  There!

  My breath shot out in a ragged rush as he finally levelled out five feet above the giant’s head.

  In the distance, I glimpsed the far side of the giant’s palace. There was something just beyond it, lower than the blue palace walls. Could it be our families’ prison?

  It was. It had to be!

  I’m coming, Katrin.

  Relief gushed through my body as my gaze fixed on that distant point. Suddenly, I didn’t care about danger or hunger or anything else.

  My sister was waiting for me. I hadn’t lost the last of my family after all!

  Shifting my grip on Fedolia from her waist to her shoulders, I lifted myself into a crouch as we flew over the ice giant’s broad head, squinting to make out more details. Was Katrin on the side of the slab closest to me? Or –

  ‘Here we are!’ Fedolia suddenly announced in a tight, brittle voice. ‘We were invisible all the way to the ice giants, as promised!’

  ‘Shh!’ I hissed, still peering into the distance. ‘He’ll hear y–!’

  The invisibility spell vanished.

  The giant just below us surged up with a terrifying, earth-shaking bellow.

  Jasper tucked his wings to his sides and shot forward, roaring furiously back at him.

  I tumbled back to my seat as an enormous hand launched towards us – and missed by only a foot.

  Giants exploded from the ground around us like mountains launching into the sky. Carriage-sized blue-and-white hands grabbed for us. Ice shot through the snowy
air.

  Jasper dived between two jagged arrows of ice and lurched away from a third before it could slam into his side. Flames exploded in choppy bursts from his mouth as he scrabbled for balance in mid-air, flapping wildly.

  ‘Fedolia?’ Her name cracked in my throat as Jasper rolled and jerked beneath us. I clung to his scaly body with all my might. Bile rose up through my chest, but I forced it down, swallowing hard. ‘I don’t understand! Why –?’

  ‘Sorry, Sofi.’ Her blue lips turned down in a grimace as she lifted her shoulders in a shrug. ‘I really am sorry, believe it or not. But I have a family of my own … and you should have made a better bargain.’

  CHAPTER 21

  Before I could even take in what she’d said, bluish-white skin filled my vision: a giant hand getting ready to close around us.

  ‘Argh!’ Screaming, I ducked.

  Jasper dived downwards, flipping to one side and taking us with him …

  And I finally lost the battle with my stomach.

  Fedolia shrieked as sick splattered across her blue robe and her long, beautiful, snow-white hair. Even that bluish-white hand retreated for a moment, jerking back in surprise at my unintentional sick attack.

  It was just enough to give Jasper a clear space to dive through.

  There!

  My stomach heaved all over again as he shot forward, but I hung on grimly, clenching my teeth together. Thank goodness I’d used myself up in my last round. Nothing came out of my mouth as I pressed my cheek against Jasper’s hot scales.

  Fedolia leaped to her feet in front of me, waving wildly. ‘Stop!’ Blue sparks shot from her fingers, and a cloud of blue mist puffed from her mouth as she balanced effortlessly on Jasper’s moving back. ‘Don’t hurt them!’ she shouted. ‘They’re valuable. I brought them here as hostages for you to freeze with the others!’

  ‘You!’ The closest ice giant’s voice thundered through the air and shook my bones as he lumbered to a halt in front of us, forcing Jasper to stop just before we could slam into his granite-hard, blue-and-white stomach.