by HM Waugh
I choose an empty chamber, collapse against the stone wall and feel the cold drain from me into the rock. I focus on a fire ball. I imagine it forming, feel it come to life in my hands, feel the warmth come flooding back as it heats the tiny space. It takes three goes to get an actual ball forming. I’m so cold I can’t concentrate well enough on it. And I huddle over the ball, shuddering so violently I burn my hands a few times. As the warmth begins to creep inside me, I use the energy it gives to channel more into the ball. Soon it grows to the size of a gotal’s head, and the room is warm enough that I’m able to think clearly about the fix I’m in.
I’m lost in a palace.
The thought of heading outside to renew my search for my room is painful. But I know from what Praseep said that the ball I’ve created will not last, and I’ve nothing to sit on, nothing to sleep on. The stone of this room attacks me with cold as soon as I touch it, and no amount of heat ball will turn that around in one night.
I have to renew my search. I have to find someone and ask for help. I resolutely extinguish my ball. The chill of the stone claws at me immediately, and I hasten into the frigid corridor.
This palace is several times bigger than our entire village. I’m never leaving my room without a guide again. The moon has risen before I finally find something I recognise, except it doesn’t make me happy. One of the doors I try leads to a short corridor, and that ends with another door that, once I throw my entire weight onto it, opens onto the last place I conceivably wanted to accidentally stumble into.
The Queen’s audience chamber. Warm, but terrifying.
I push past the tapestry that was covering the door and stare around me in disbelief, heart thundering. At least it’s empty. There’s no way I want to be found in here. The door I came through shuts silently, and promptly vanishes into the wall.
I look around, trying to orient myself. I’m behind and to the right of where the Queen was sitting. So the double doors across from me are the ones I came through this morning with Praseep.
By the Dragon, I hope I bump into Praseep on the other side. Or Vilpur. Hopefully not some thin-lipped royal guard without a sense of humour or any empathy towards an overawed outsider who went wandering without a cloak. Or a map. Or her wits.
I hasten across the echoing white marble. The room seems bigger with no one in it. Heat balls smoulder in sconces around the empty throne. The stars glimmer down through the roof, and the moon casts its silver light across part of the wall.
It highlights some of the tapestry. Now that I’m not sweating from being questioned in front of half the palace, I notice the intricacy of the design. I’ve seen story tapestries at home, with each panel leading on to the next to tell a tale. The story this mammoth one must be telling is not just longer than any I’ve seen before, the figures are so much larger. I’m struck by the colours. In a land where colour seems to be frowned upon, it’s strange to see this tapestry in a place of such importance.
I step closer. The main figure in the story appears to be a woman, her dress as colourful as my own. I can’t figure out what she’s doing, but it doesn’t appear to end well for her. After some major fighting involving lightning bolts and falling icicles, she’s on the ground and the story ends abruptly, frayed thread indicating someone had once intended to weave more panels. This must be some myth of the Ice-People that hasn’t come down to us. If what Praseep said about our two peoples is true, and we were once one, then perhaps this woman lived back in that time. That would explain her dress sense.
I turn to exit out the doors, then frown at the last panels of the tapestry.
The woman isn’t the only colourful thing here, but she is the only colourful person. Everyone else is dressed in whites and pale pastels.
Foreboding floods through my body. I remember how they all looked when they saw my tunic. Superstitious nonsense Praseep had called it.
I can’t help myself. I head across to the side of the room I entered from, back to where the tapestry starts. Here, everyone’s dressed like the colourful woman. I can’t even find her. The panels centre around a brilliant blue jewel. But four panels in, the blue jewel has gone and everyone is fighting.
Praseep’s magical Stone.
Its loss caused the split between the Dirt and the Ice. This tapestry must begin with the beginning of the Ice Empire. I drift quickly past the next panels, searching for the colourful woman. There are sad faces, empty food bowls, and the clothing turns to whites and pales.
Then she turns up.
There she is, kneeling before a figure wearing an elaborate crown, that’s obviously a depiction of the one the Queen wore this morning. There the colourful figure is, calling a mountain to her so she rides a wave of snow. And there she is, holding the Stone high above her head. She looks terrifying, and people in white grovel about her. In the next panel, she strikes blue lightning at a white-cloaked figure with a broken crown askew on his head. He’s collapsed in the next scene, as well as a girl in white with a golden crown. Then, and my heart almost stops to see it, a crowned figure – a man, Stone in hand – stands over the colourful woman, prone on the snow.
I feel sick, my hands are shaking.
This is stupid. For a start, I’ve never done my hair so elaborately. And – I seize on this with relief – the Ice-People are ruled by a queen, not a king, and will be for another generation at least.
I might be the Protector they’ve been looking for, but I’m not the centre of some ancient prophecy. And I’m not about to die over a Stone I’ve never seen.
I shake my head. I have to get out of here, I’m wasting time. I move over to the door. A flash of fear makes me study the light I hold, until I manage to somehow extinguish it with my mind. The Dragon knows how I’ll start it again, hopefully I won’t have to now I’m back in inhabited sections of the palace. I wait until my eyes have adjusted to the moonlight and then I walk out to the opulent chamber beyond.
I hear the voices immediately.
Chapter 13
There’s a door slightly ajar, down a side corridor, with light spilling out. That’s where the voices are coming from. I creep across the rug towards the main corridor I came down this morning. I don’t want to be caught here.
Especially with the Queen’s Advisor and Prince Praseep arguing right down the hall from me.
‘It’s just not right, Your Highness. You must see that.’ Vilpur sounds as calm as usual, so I suppose it’s only Praseep arguing.
‘It has to happen, I want him gone from here! Now!’
‘Be reasonable, please.’
‘No! I am your Prince! He goes!’
I hasten away down the corridor, away from the voices and the anger. What are they fighting about? Not a what, a who. A he.
Danam?
After all of Praseep’s soft words, is he plotting to do away with Danam? My heart is racing. I turn down a corridor automatically, placing as much distance and as many turns as I can between me and the voices. My boots race silently over the rug. From far behind me, a burst of sound, a door crashing open.
‘I expect compliance!’ Praseep’s voice echoes towards me.
I race onwards on silent feet, around a corner.
And barrel into someone.
Squeal in fear. A light blinds me momentarily, but then drops.
‘Sunaya?’
‘Aji!’ I sag with relief.
‘What are you doing here?’
‘I went for a walk and got lost, I found … never mind. I’m still lost. Please tell me you can take me back to my room?’
‘I can. If you’re found wandering … Come with me now.’
I hurry after Aji, her urgency affecting me.
After we’ve walked a few more corridors, she stops at a door. As it opens, I recognise the room I was assigned. Thankfully, the heat ball is still glowing, though much reduced. I rush to it with hands outstretched to catch its glow. It still has an echo of Praseep. I think uneasily of the argument I overheard.
; Aji smiles at me huddling over the heat ball. ‘Nice of the Prince to do that for you. He’s a good sort, and I’d say that whether he was royal or otherwise.’ Then she frowns at me. ‘Where is your cloak?’
‘I left it behind by mistake.’
She rolls her eyes. ‘And I thought you had mountain sense.’
I feel my cheeks go hot. Leaving my cloak is the stupidest thing I can remember doing for a while. Or ever. ‘So, what’s so dangerous about me being found wandering around?’
‘You’re already treated with suspicion by many in the palace, it would do no good to have you found traipsing about without anyone watching.’
‘Because of what happened to Danam?’
Aji shakes her head like she’s trying to dislodge a snowflake from her ear. ‘A bit. Not entirely.’
My insides squirm. ‘Because of the tapestry?’ I whisper.
‘You’ve seen it?’
I nod, relieved she doesn’t realise how recently I was studying it. Because I’m sure that wouldn’t help my case here.
‘Notice anything?’ she asks.
I grimace. ‘It kind of looked like me. But that’s absurd.’
‘It is, the timing is all wrong and you don’t fit the prophecy. But people have noticed your clothing and they’re talking.’
I sink to my haunches in front of the ball, deflated. ‘I should just go. Danam doesn’t want me, I’m less than useless, and now …’
Aji walks up and crouches next to me. ‘No! You should definitely not go. You’re the Protector the Princess needs, and this country needs her. You must stay here and fulfil that role. Don’t let the chatter of the court put you off. Just be sensible about wandering around all alone like a …’
‘Donkey?’
She smiles briefly. ‘I was going to say spy, but donkey works as well.’
I’m smiling too, but it falls away. ‘I don’t want to stay here, this isn’t my home.’
‘You have to stay, it’s as simple as that.’
‘And if I say I won’t?’
‘I will lock you in until you change your mind. You need to accept what is happening, you need to tell the Princess what you can do. If you care nothing for the Princess, or the fate of her people, I’m sure you at least care for your nephew. And if you let him enter the Dragon Tests, and he truly doesn’t have the gift, he won’t make it out alive. Think about that.’
I bite my lip. ‘What are these Tests, anyway?’
‘If you were an Applicant, I could tell you more. As it is … how much do you already know?’
‘Not much … the necklaces … have they got something to do with it?’
She nods. ‘Good. There are four levels to being a Protector. First you become a Rock Dragon – they have a black obsidian pendant. If you pass the next level, you become a Snow Dragon.’ She lifts her white moonstone and I nod. ‘If you pass the third level, and I’ve tried twice and failed, you become an Ice Dragon. Care to guess what they wear?’
I think of Praseep’s necklace, that perfect blue of the deep folds of a glacier. ‘Turquoise?’ I venture.
Aji nods, and I’m reminded of Vilpur’s reaction when they found my turquoise. No wonder he asked those weird questions.
Aji continues with her explanation. ‘Each level gets progressively more difficult, culminating in the final level. The Cloud Dragon and the opal pendant. No one has passed that level in my lifetime. A good friend of mine died trying.’ Her face stills for a moment, infinitely sad. ‘Prince Praseep himself couldn’t finish … My point is, it’s dangerous. Normally a Protector would work their way up to it. But Danam is being sent straight to Ice, if not Cloud.’
I shiver. ‘Because of the Queen.’
Aji nods. ‘The Queen is stable at the moment because her Dragon is giving her his strength, but she is dying. It may take a month, it may take a year. And if, when the Queen dies, Princess Rishala has no Cloud Dragon, our laws say the Princess has been judged unworthy. And the throne will be open to any who choose to fight for it. It will mean civil war, right when we need stability. We need Princess Rishala’s strength and intelligence to lead us. There is no time to waste, we need to find her Cloud Dragon.’
I stare at her, chilled. ‘But it’s not Danam, is it?’
She shakes her head.
I groan. ‘I tried to tell him, but he wouldn’t believe me!’
‘Of course he wouldn’t. He thinks this is the best thing that has ever happened to him. He won’t choose to ruin that. You have to do it for him.’
I wince.
She presses her point. ‘If you don’t tell someone the truth, Danam will die.’
‘But Praseep failed the Tests, and he’s still alive.’
‘Prince Praseep has powers stronger than any other except his own father. He was not strong enough to pass the Cloud Dragon Tests but his powers kept him alive.’
‘What’s so dangerous? It’s not a real dragon, is it?’
Aji shakes her head. ‘I cannot tell you, I’ve said enough as it is. Believe me when I say, a person without the powers of a Protector cannot hope to survive. My friend was not weak … but the Tests have no mercy.’
Her pain, her loss, is vivid in her hawk-eyes. Sure, I don’t want to be stuck here in this palace for the rest of my life, Protecting some Princess I barely know and eating terrible food. But in this palace is one that from birth I have been required to protect. My infuriating nephew. My friend. Danam.
And I know what I need to do.
I nod. ‘Okay, I’ll tell the Princess.’
It’s going to make Danam hate me, and probably Praseep too. But Danam will live.
Aji nods, lips pursed in thought. ‘Good, a strong decision. I must go now, but I will return in the morning to take you to the Princess.’
After Aji leaves, I stoke up the heat ball and use it to warm up the golden bowl of water by the corner. I strip off and do what I can to clean myself. Once done, I reach for my clothes and wrinkle my nose at the crusty feel of them.
There are pale beige clothes in a neat pile next to the mattress, and I finger them. They feel soft and warm.
But they’re not me.
I may be throwing away my past, and facing a strange new future, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it or embrace the change. I don the pale underclothes, but I wash my colourful tunic and hang it next to the heat ball so that soon it’s steaming. It’ll be dry by morning.
Let them try and change me.
I brush my hair with a bone comb I find on the table, and plait it. Then I finally do what I’ve been longing to do for a while. I lie back on the fluffy mattress. Let out a sigh. This is heaven.
If this is sleeping in the SkyCity, maybe being stuck with these people for the rest of my life won’t be such a bad thing. I palm off the light, and pull the fleecy blankets over me, as the orange glow of the heat ball flickers over the green walls.
Tomorrow I’ll wake in the green glow of a forest city on the roof of the world. And I feel like I’ve been waiting for that all my life.
Chapter 14
The bells wake me, pealing with the sunrise, echoing down the cobbled streets. The wall beside me is a rich, soft green, the clouds through the window as pink as a gotal’s tongue.
I reach for my tunic, vibrant in the morning light. It’s dry, so I pull it over the beige underclothes. There’s nothing more to do. No food to break my fast, no idea where to go.
I stand by the window and watch the mountains wake to the new day. I bet my eyes are as white as those mountains, so perhaps this is where I’m meant to be. Ironic it should be me here, after all the tales Mera has told me over the years. I wish I could tell her about this place.
Maybe Danam will, if he ever gets back to our village.
There is a knock at the door, and I tear my eyes from the mountains, heart beating. ‘Aji?’ It must be time to go to the Princess. To tell her the truth.
Except when the person speaks, it’s not Aji. It’s Grumpy-Guard from bef
ore. I ask him to wait, and concentrate on disconnecting from the snows and the slopes. I check my eyes in the water bowl reflection. Good. Brown. I open the door for Grumpy. He looks me up and down, mouth twisting as he takes in my tunic. Is he one of those who believes I’m the prophecy? That I’ve come to claim the lost Stone, wreak havoc and die?
He hands me a bowl of what looks like buckwheat porridge. I hope it’s salted. I thank him, then hesitate.
‘Are you here to take me to see the Princess?’
‘No.’
‘Aji said I could go. Ask her if you’re not sure.’
He sneers. ‘I cannot talk to people who aren’t here.’
I freeze. ‘Who’s not here?’
‘Princess Rishala for one. Aji as well. So I can’t do either of the things you have asked of me.’
‘Where is the Princess?’
‘None of your business.’
‘Well where is Aji then?’
‘On a mission for the Healers.’
Such poor timing. No Aji, no Princess. But I can at least try to speak to Danam. I take a mouthful of porridge and swallow. Yum. It is salted.
‘Can you please take me to the hospital wing?’
Those eyes look me up and down again. ‘Are you hurt?’
‘I want to see Danam.’
He shakes his head. ‘No.’
‘I need to see him!’
Grumpy grins. ‘That might be so but he’s not here either.’
‘Where is he?’
He shrugs.
This is going nowhere. ‘Can I see Vilpur then? Please?’
Grumpy shakes his head again, and a terrible thought pops into my head. ‘Is he with the Princess? And Danam?’
‘Quick on the uptake, aren’t you, Dirt-Girl?’
I want to scratch the smile off his face. The only thing holding me back is the realisation Grumpy is being vague on purpose. I breathe in and then out, slowly. ‘Are they taking Danam to his Tests?’
‘Maybe they are.’
Oh, this is bad. Why so soon? Why so sudden? I thought we had another day, at least. My hands are shaking and I clench them together. I’m getting desperate. ‘Please, take me to Praseep.’