by HM Waugh
Aji does tie me up. Not with ropes, though, out of which I could slip free. She ties me up with snow and air and magic bound into cords so strong my limbs ache. Which is crazy.
Magic. No one will believe me when I tell them back at the village. I feel like I’m in one of Mera’s stories. Except this story is morphing into something weirder than anything she ever told.
Magic. Aji stood there and then the snow turned to rope and now I can’t move.
Aji reassures me the bonds will melt away at nightfall, then she leaves my pack next to me and just walks out the door.
I strain at my snow bonds, but there’s no wriggling out of this. I feel the pulse of Danam nearing the murmur of the frozen lake that takes up the far end of the valley. He’s walking away with them, while I’m stuck here.
And he’s taking the gotals.
Or is he?
Our gotals are things of the mountain and snow. Even the sense of them blends in, because I don’t know ZuZu’s back at the hut until I see her through the sagging doorway. The others trot delicately behind.
I grin. ‘ZuZu, you wonder! Have you escaped?’
She whuffles proudly in my direction.
I hear the thudding footsteps long before an extra-annoyed Grumpy-Guard comes into view. The useless efforts he makes to herd the gotals, the superior look in ZuZu’s eye as she dances around him, it all makes me laugh.
A mistake.
Grumpy glares at me. He’s joined by Aji, then Vilpur. Then Praseep himself with Danam behind. Five people do no better than Grumpy did alone. The gotals mill and move but refuse to head back to where the Princess must be with her other guard. I know better than to laugh out loud this time.
I laugh inside instead.
Praseep’s sweating, his perfect coat flung on the ground, when he finally stomps to the hut door. ‘What are you smiling at?’
I blink. ‘Nothing.’
His silhouette hovers a moment, then the magical ropes that bind me flutter back to the floor, innocent snow once more. ‘Don’t think this is a reprieve,’ he says. ‘Help us herd them out of the valley and then you’re being tied up again.’
Pride is a fierce storm inside me. Pride, and opportunity. ‘They’ll just keep coming back.’
‘And why is that?’
‘Because they know me, and they don’t know you.’ I walk boldly towards the door. He steps hastily away, out into the sun, like I’m dung. With his cloak off I notice he also has a necklace, almost exactly the same as Aji’s, except instead of a moonstone his is a vibrant, perfect turquoise. Maybe some sort of fashion trend for Ice-People.
‘They know him,’ Praseep sneers, gesturing to where Danam’s stumbling around and failing completely to do any of the herding practices we’ve both been experts at since we could walk. Danam catches me looking and winks.
I hide my grin, tap my leg and the gotals practically line up in front of me. Praseep hisses.
‘You’ll have to take me with you,’ I say, shrugging.
‘We will do no such thing.’
‘Oh well, good luck with the gotals,’ I purr, and clap twice. The grazing clap. The gorgeous gotals trot away and start nibbling the wiry winter grasses.
Praseep narrows his eyes and repeats the leg tap I did earlier. The gotals look up, a couple even start to drift in his direction, but then ZuZu bleats and they all get back to eating. I bite my lip in relief.
I underestimated how smart this prince is. If I’m only of use to these Ice-People as a gotal herder, I need to make sure no one else learns the language we use to speak with them.
Praseep glares at me, and I force myself to glare right back. He finally looks away. ‘If you make any move to hurt us, or to help him run away, the boy will be bound and carried, and you, Dirt-Girl, will be killed. Understand?’
I nod but somehow I’m not feeling relieved. What have we got ourselves into?
Aji comes forward to check me over, for weapons I suppose. She feels at my pocket, then pulls out something blue, her hawk-eyes studying it. The turquoise I picked up yesterday. It’s rough, unpolished. But it’s mine, and I found it on the other side of the pass. On our lands.
Aji turns to Vilpur and holds up the turquoise. ‘This is all I found on her.’
Vilpur looks at it, looks at me. ‘What is this?’ he demands.
Are these people for real? ‘It’s a stone,’ I say, like it wasn’t obvious.
‘Does it have no significance for you?’
‘I thought it was pretty, so I picked it up. It’s not from your lands.’
Vilpur stares at me, face a calm mask except for his eyes. Finally he shrugs. ‘Just a pretty stone. She can keep it, then.’
Aji pops it back in my pocket, and I feel like I’ve won a battle I didn’t even need to fight. Moments later I’ve hauled my pack on and the gotals trot obediently around me as we stride to catch up to Princess Rishala. Danam comes beside me and squeezes my hand.
I grin at him. ‘I don’t remember you being so bad at herding,’ I whisper.
He grins back. ‘Must be the altitude addling my brain. I’m glad you’re coming with us. What an adventure!’
I know what he’s thinking. No more chores. No more hits to the head with a herding stick. Instead, a new life, with these magical Ice-People. A good life too, by the sounds of it. He’s been Chosen.
I haven’t been, though. I’ve got until the gotals are delivered, and then I’m nothing to these Ice-People. I feel Danam’s euphoria, but I don’t catch it. I don’t trust this will end the way he thinks it will.
Royal Protector? Chosen?
Somehow there’s got to be a hidden snag.
Chapter 6
The day is glorious. The company less so. The valley walls don’t have the same feel of danger they did before the avalanche, despite the warm sun streaming over them.
The Ice-Guards carry large white packs, but I’m surprised to see even the Princess and her unpleasant brother carry packs, too. Significantly smaller though. Princess Rishala waits for us, then lifts the hood of her cloak over her black hair, and almost vanishes into the snow that surrounds her.
If she were further away, or if I didn’t know she was there … Then, even if I were looking at her, I wouldn’t be able to see her.
I remember that feeling of being watched yesterday, suddenly sure I hadn’t imagined it. These people let us cross their border, and then came to claim their recompense.
I grit my teeth. Why not warn us off, make sure we left?
Because they were looking for someone out here. For a Cloud Dragon, whatever one of those is. And they think it’s Danam.
I don’t like feeling it, I really hate admitting it, but I’m kind of jealous. Who gets chosen to lead by First Uncle? Me. Who goes further into the tombs of the Old People, right back where the light never makes it, where the passages widen out into empty chambers scattered with forgotten belongings? Me. Who was always taller, faster, stronger? Me.
And now?
Now Danam is some long-foreseen Protector. And I’m trailing along behind through the churned-up snow of everyone who doesn’t want me around, weighed down by fodder and worries. At least ZuZu’s on my side. If she winked at me as she trotted along, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Praseep turns to smirk. ‘Seems you might be good for something, Dirt-Girl.’
Pompous donkey.
To make the trek even more pleasant I’ve got Grumpy-Guard on my tail, still grumpy at being outdone by a gotal.
We set off for the far side of the summer pasture, loping through the snow drifts. There’s no sign of the lake. Frozen, buried under snow, a silent killer. I can feel it though. Ahead, getting closer and closer. We’re walking straight towards it. If we don’t change course soon, we’ll all tumble through the thin ice and be lost. No one seems at all concerned. Praseep’s too busy looking back at Danam, and I want to wipe the smirk off his face so I don’t say a word. That smirk will disappear pretty quick once the ice cracks.
‘We can’t keep going straight,’ he says.
‘Why not?’ asks Vilpur. Praseep’s eyes have narrowed and his smirk has morphed into a dragon-sized glare.
‘There’s a lake up ahead,’ Danam says, ‘hidden under the snow.’
‘How do you know?’
Danam shrugs. ‘I just do. It just is. We can’t go straight.’
The Princess turns around to look at Vilpur, her face alight. ‘See, I told you this would work out.’
Vilpur nods his head and Praseep looks away, biting his lip. Frankly, I’m confused. Our group sets off to circle the lake higher on the slopes, Praseep leading us along a perfect line of safety like he knew all along where we needed to walk.
Was that a test?
Our white-coated summer pasture is blinding in the sunshine behind us as we reach the end of the bowl and begin to climb out. I’ve never been this far before. We’re nearing the ridgeline marking the absolute border of our lands.
As I crest the top, a valley stretches out ahead of us, and I see why they call it the Skylands. White and deceptively soft-looking, bound on either side by mountains so high they make my soul soar. Beautiful. I breathe in deeply.
I can’t feel any people. No villages, and certainly no cities of shining green.
But then I can’t feel the Ice-People right in front of my face either.
They’ve settled behind a rock, sheltered from the cutting wind. A small fire is burning. The fire feels … strange. Powerful and bright.
Water begins to merrily bubble in a pot, and Aji adds butter and leaves. A pungent odour spreads immediately, and I forget about admiring the mountains. My stomach loudly reminds me I’ve not broken my fast. Back home we’d always start the day with tea and barley balls.
Praseep looks at me, then back to Aji. ‘Your cooking skills have found a new admirer, Aji.’ He smiles at her. Actually smiles. I blink to make sure I’m seeing right. In fact, all the Ice-People seem more comfortable now they’ve made the pass.
Aji grins back at Praseep. And her eyes … her eyes are as bright white as soft-fallen snow, only the tiny black pupil in the middle. I stare. And as I’m staring, mouth open, between one moment and the next, they zap back to deep hawk-brown.
By the Dragon!
Ice-People eyes. All the stories are coming true.
Aji warms up small round cakes she pulls from Praseep’s pack. Praseep’s a strange one, for sure. On the one hand, he’s been so rude to me I would like the opportunity to push him off this ridge. But then I see him joking with guards and carrying group provisions …
I’m so confused by everything this morning.
The warm potato cakes are honey-sweet, fluffy inside and crunchy on the outside. And the tea is salty and thick and delicious. In our village, tea is usually very milky with a generous spoonful of honey. Somehow, the salt suits where we are.
Danam doesn’t agree. I don’t notice his silence immediately, not until Vilpur kindly asks him if he’s enjoying his meal. His tea’s barely touched.
‘It is a delicacy in our land, it will give you the energy and warmth you need,’ Vilpur says with a serene smile.
Danam looks uncertain, his eyes flicking to me. My cup’s empty. I’d drink his too, if he offered it. He doesn’t. He pastes on a smile and takes a tiny sip.
He hates it. He looks the same as he did that time the summer heat turned the hearth-stew and he was the first to be served.
Vilpur slaps him on the back with a laugh. ‘More than that, my boy. How can you expect to become a Cloud Dragon if you never eat?’
Danam takes a deeper swig. He struggles to get it down. I wince for him. He manages a swallow, manages a smile, takes a hasty bite of the cake as if to erase the memory of the tea.
It doesn’t work.
When he throws up, it’s spectacular.
Some of it spatters Praseep’s white cloak. Vilpur’s all concerned about Danam, but I’m waiting for Praseep’s reaction.
I mean, a Dirt-Boy just vomited on his Ice-Cloak.
I’m expecting him to explode.
But he doesn’t.
He just offers a cloth to Danam, and then moves aside to quietly rub off his cloak in the snow.
I feel strangely disappointed, and I realise I actually wanted him to explode. I want something that confirms these people aren’t right for Danam. Something that will help me convince him we need to get away before my usefulness is over. I want something I can fight against. I can’t fight crunchy potato cakes and scorchingly hot butter tea and kindness.
ZuZu comes over to where I sit on the outer edge of the group, and nuzzles my arm. I take my pack off, not realising until then I was still carrying it. Inside are the precious remains of the fodder for the gotals, and extra grasses Praseep had the guards harvest before we left. I hand out a small amount to each of them.
When the Ice-People talk of the palace, they look up the valley to where the clouds become like land. Two, maybe three more days away, I guess. The gotals may arrive hungry, but at least they’ll arrive. If I haven’t convinced Danam we need to escape before then. I still don’t trust these people. Any place where Praseep is an honoured prince is somewhere I don’t want to leave my nephew alone.
And there’s no way I can return to our village having lost everything I was responsible for. I need to think.
Praseep’s talking to the Princess, his voice fluttering towards me on the cold breeze. ‘When we stop tonight, we are going to have to do something about the stink of these Dirt-People. It is putting me off my food.’
And I hide a smile. Because there’s that nasty part of him I can plot against.
‘Really, Praseep. I don’t know what has got into you,’ I hear the Princess say. ‘Besides, Danam is one of us now.’
‘Not until he passes the Dragon Tests.’ Praseep’s voice is bitter.
‘He will pass, we have seen what he can do. As it is …’ she raises her voice so it can be clearly heard. ‘Aji, please see that Danam and the Dirt-Girl are washed tonight. Praseep, if you would assist?’
How on earth will Praseep assist me wash? My cheeks blaze in the chill wind. I glare at them all as they lord it up on their side of the circle. The upwind side.
And what did Danam do, that makes the Princess so sure he’s a Protector? She chose him straight away, just by looking at him, back in the cottage.
And what tests are they talking about?
But perhaps most importantly, by the Dragon itself, how do they think they’re going to wash us without us freezing to death?
Chapter 7
The sun has dropped below the mountains that tower either side of us, and my legs are aching from a day of hard trekking down that valley. Windblown snow cloaks everything. The temperature is plummeting, we should be finding a safe camp for the night. Except nowhere looks like a good place to camp.
But somewhere feels like it … something twinges at the edge of my senses. It beckons with memories of warmth and laughter. Memories not my own.
Praseep’s leading the group, and he chooses this moment to change direction, and we begin to steadily climb. Steadily up to where I feel that beckoning. My breath catches as the echoes of our steps begin to ripple across the thick snow. Above us, the slope is settling down to rest, relaxing with the loss of the sun. I don’t want another avalanche.
‘Is it safe, my brother?’ asks Princess Rishala.
Praseep turns, his face smooth. ‘It is safe, Your Highness.’
‘Thank you. Proceed.’
The skies are purpling with dusk when we reach the source of the beckoning. An almost sheer face of ice. This doesn’t make sense. But instead of stopping, Praseep kicks forward at the wall in front of him.
It collapses around him, tiny icicles tinkling as they fall, exposing an entrance in the rockface. A cave. He sweeps back his hood to expose his shaggy bla
ck hair, shaking the snow off his cloak. And he walks in.
The rest of them follow, swallowed by the mountain. They bring out three lights, like the ones from this morning, so the corridor we walk down is brightly lit. It heads straight into the mountain before doubling around and stepping up into a large chamber. It’s noticeably warmer than outside. I catch Danam’s eye. ‘Like the tombs,’ I mouth to him, and he nods.
I herd the gotals to a side enclosure, and feed them more of the fodder.
‘They’ll need water,’ I say to Grumpy, who still follows me.
He grunts and gestures behind me. At last I solve a few of today’s bazillion riddles – how we’re going to be washed. And why Praseep and Aji must be involved.
Their eyes glitter like ice as they work and I swear the stones in their necklaces pulse. I watch them, mind whirling. The things they can do … They produce two more of the hot, fuelless fires like Aji used to make the tea. The other guards haul in armfuls of snow from outside, and place them in a side room of the cave where a huge hollow has been carved into the floor. And somehow Praseep controls one fire – I can feel it’s his – and the flames leap into the piled snow and melt it. Then the flames go far beyond that, until the side room contains a steaming bath of clear water, glowing with the still-burning fire within.
The stories had never mentioned fire magic. Is it only Praseep and Aji who can do this?
Aji uses her fire to make more tea. She doesn’t give any to Danam this time. Wise choice. Once Danam’s had a bad experience with food, he barely has to taste it to be vomiting again. Take yakan butter for instance, after that hot week four summers ago … In fact, that’s probably where his issue with the tea stems from.
When Aji brings a mug to me, I thank her and she nods. It isn’t a smile, but it’s something. Maybe it’s a sort of thanks for not throwing up my butter tea kind of nod. It’s promising, anyway. If I’m going to get us away from these people, I need to convince them to relax their suspicion of me.