by HM Waugh
‘Like I’ve been kicked out the back of a yakan.’
Praseep’s hand clasps mine. ‘You were in there, and then suddenly you were flying back across the room. I am so sorry. I knew it was dangerous to go in …’
‘Not your fault,’ I mutter. I pull on his hand and, with his help, manage to sit up. The cavern spins around me. ‘It was worth a try.’
Praseep shuffles me across until I’m leaning against a stone pillar. He offers me a drink from his water skin. ‘Are you truly okay?’
I laugh. It sounds weak even to my ears. ‘I feel terrible, but I’m getting better every moment.’ I tackle the ties on my pack, my eyes crossing as I try to see what I’m doing.
‘Here, let me help.’ Praseep takes the bag, and asks what I want. I direct him to the barley.
He looks at the bag, and then at me.
‘You don’t know how to make barley balls?’ I ask.
‘I do not even know what barley is.’
I shake my head to clear it. ‘You know, no offence, but your food is really boring.’
He screws his forehead up, and I know I’ve insulted him. Can’t be helped, my head feels like a full latrine in the sun. I’m impressed I can talk at all. I apologise anyway – I keep having to remind myself this boy is a prince – and then meekly tell him how to make the balls.
His fingers are deft as they mix the barley with the water. He’s done something like this before, I can see. He passes me a ball, and as I slowly eat it, he rolls another.
The food in my stomach is having a magical effect, my head stops spinning and the ground beneath me feels solid again.
I’m munching my fourth ball when I notice Praseep watching me, eyebrows creased.
‘Do you want to try one?’ I ask him.
He shakes his head. ‘I am fine.’
‘Go on.’
‘No, I am good.’
‘Your Highness …’ I say. He looks up quickly. ‘Just try one.’
He’s still, like a resting hare, then he nods slowly. He picks up a ball and sniffs it. I giggle. He glares, then he takes a nibble.
His face betrays nothing. Does he hate them? Like them? Never want to eat anything but them again as long as he lives?
I’m holding my breath until he breaks into a grin and stuffs the rest of the ball in his mouth. ‘These are great!’ he says through a mouthful of barley.
I sit back, let out a breath. ‘Have some more.’
He doesn’t need to be told a second time.
After he’s eaten a few and we’ve both had a good drink, we return to the problem facing us. Danam.
I have to keep hoping he’s alive. Praseep tells me it can take a day or more to get through the Tests. Danam has been in there barely two hours, but we need to get him out.
‘Should we ask Vilpur for help?’ I ask.
Praseep shakes his head. ‘I do not know. My gut tells me no. I … I hate to say it but I do not trust Vilpur. I do not like what I feel when I am around him. If the Princess were deemed unworthy to rule because she had not been granted a Cloud Dragon, he would be one of the most popular contenders for the throne. He has always said he wants only to advise … but what I felt from him … it makes me worry.’ He looks at me, and it reminds me we two are the same in one important aspect: this power inside us. ‘When I wanted to make Danam safe, by having him pass the Tests, Vilpur did not support me.’
‘He was probably right to be cautious.’
‘Yes, maybe, but I did not feel caution when I was talking to him. I felt … coldness. And then he changed his mind, and he never does that, and I felt glee from him.’
‘But surely your father would know if Vilpur were planning anything against the Princess?’
Praseep looks down. ‘You would hope so. However, my father is not infallible. As a child, if I focused my mind on an image of something innocent – puppies was my favourite – he would not know I was lying. What if Vilpur has worked out this trick, too? And my father is so tired these days. All his energy is absorbed in supporting the Queen.’
I frown. ‘But if Vilpur wanted to take over he wouldn’t have changed his objection to Testing Danam.’
Praseep nods. ‘I suppose you are right, he surely believes Danam is the one, just as I did. Alright, we will go to Vilpur for help. We should start straight away, it is a long walk to where he is at the exit.’
I dig my hands into the pockets of my cloak like I’m already preparing to be back out in the cold. My fingers encounter the smooth cold of the turquoise I found the day we left my village. I draw it out.
‘Where did you get that?’ Praseep asks.
I offer the turquoise to him. ‘I found it the day before you found us. Just lying on top of the snow.’
‘Someone must have dropped it.’
I shake my head. ‘No one could have been up where I found it. My Greatest Aunt believes storm birds collect blue objects to take back to their nest. So I think maybe a storm bird dropped it. They nest here on Dragon Mountain.’
A thought flickers across my mind, like a gotal across a rockface. Blue stones and storm birds, power and peace.
Praseep hands my turquoise back to me. ‘This will help you with your power, you know. There is a reason turquoise is the Ice Dragon stone.’
I look up from sorting through my pack for things we might need. ‘Really? Is that what the necklaces are about?’
He nods. ‘Obsidian, moonstone, turquoise, opal, they all help control and enhance your power.’
I frown as I tie my pack together and haul it onto my back. ‘What about the gems around the Cloud one?’
‘Those are sapphires – sapphire is very strong at enhancing, just like ruby can completely block power.’
We nod at each other and head out through the entrance corridor. ‘Rubies block, huh? Good thing the Princess isn’t a Protector, what with her massive necklace!’
Praseep doesn’t say anything, but I barely notice because I’m suddenly struck by a thought.
‘Hang on, isn’t your special Stone a sapphire?’
He nods. ‘I suppose that is part of what made it so special.’
‘A blue sapphire?’ My heart is rocketing as my flitting thoughts combine to create an amazing idea.
Praseep looks at me quickly. ‘What is it?’ He must feel my spike of adrenalin.
‘What if the Stone wasn’t stolen? What if storm birds took it, and carried it here, to their rookery? Wouldn’t that explain why this mountain is so sacred? Feels so peaceful? My people come here on pilgrimage, to bask in the aura that surrounds it.’
‘Your people stole the Stone. The Seers said.’
I lean forward. ‘You said the Seers said it had gone to our lands. The storm bird nests are on our side of the border!’
His eyes are wide. ‘I never told you that …’
I wave a hand at him. ‘It could be here, just above us! We could get it, and use its power to gain entry to the Test zone.’
Praseep keeps walking, head down. Finally he looks up. ‘There is something here, I have sensed it every time I have come. I just never thought it could be the Stone. Do you know where the nests are?’
I nod.
‘Then let’s get going!’
Chapter 16
The snow is deep beneath my boots as we finally near the ridgeline. I’m leading, and pushing the path through is making me sweat despite the cold. The sun is low and golden, the sky an amazing vivid blue that dips to purple at the horizon.
For storm birds that love blue things, this is the perfect place to nest.
I feel the mountain. Beneath me. Above me. Around me. I am the mountain, and Praseep is as well. There’s a connectivity that pulses through everything up here. And I feel something else, getting stronger as we get closer. Calling me forward.
Could it be the Stone?
The stark and beautiful world of the Ice-People is mapped out behind me. The vast brown plain, dotted with magnificent temples, the SkyCity an emerald jewel at one end. A
nd the snow valley we followed when we first arrived, so pure I want to smile with the joy of looking at it.
Another dragging step and I’m able to reach forward and throw my hands over the ridgeline, as sharp as a knife in the wind. I haul myself up until I’m crouched just below it. Praseep moves to crouch beside me.
We’re looking out across my home lands now. There’s no real comparison. Countless valleys and tiny villages jumbled wherever it is fairly flat, terraced slopes showing beneath the vanishing snow. A hint of green that’s not stone, but vegetation. Grasses, perhaps the first shoots of potatoes.
‘I have read of your lands, but I have never seen them like this,’ Praseep says.
I hesitate. He was so dismissive of me and ‘the Dirt’ when we first met, and now I see the stark difference between his glittering world, and the grit of life laid out in front. But there’s a real beauty down there, too. Of simplicity and survival and the brief season of warmth that brings flowers and plenty. And a cart-load more food.
‘We should keep going,’ I say, thinking of Danam. He’s somewhere beneath us, deep in the Cloud Dragon Tests, and each moment we catch our breath, he may be closer to taking his last.
I haul myself up, careful to balance against the wind that climbs the slope on the other side, setting off a spray of sparkling snow crystals into the air. The mountain is calm, despite the sun. No chance of avalanche. I walk along the edge of the ridge, one foot either side, straddling a border that has stood for so long. A Dirt-Girl and an Ice-Prince. No one would believe me if I told them.
The storm bird nesting site is up to the left, in a cliff face that towers over the Dirt. From below, that distinctive slash of bare rock always looked like the Dragon’s smile to me.
I let my mind wander along the path we need to take, and I sense Praseep checking it too.
‘It feels okay,’ I say.
‘There is something strange midway, we can check it when we are closer.’
I feel along the path, and I find what he’s talking about. So slight, I hadn’t noticed it the first time. A sense of teetering imbalance. My cheeks grow hot. I’m supposed to be the fancy Protector here, and I missed it. We leave the ridgeline for the route we must take. The slope below us is as steep as any I’ve seen. If we fall now, we won’t stop rolling until we reach the Valley of Tombs below. The hermits will be there, as they always are, basking in the glow of the Dragon. Do they see us? I doubt it. We’re too high up.
I’m used to this sort of thing, but still my heart is beating extra fast as I forge a path across the slope.
What if I’m wrong about the Stone? What if we’ve come all this way only to find storm bird droppings and a messy pile of turquoise?
I sigh. The only true fail is to not try.
The spot with the strange feel is close now, and I stare at it, try and see what might be wrong about it. It looks the same as everything else on this slope. But it feels off.
I pause on the edge of the spot. It’s no more than a body length across before the snow feels like snow again to my extended mind.
‘Let me cross first,’ says Praseep.
I shake my head. ‘No, you’re the Prince. I’ll go.’ ‘You’re the Princess’ future Cloud Dragon, that’s more important.’
Just the thought of him walking these few dangerous paces makes me shiver.
Then he steps past me.
I feel the wrong immediately. This is a mistake. We need a different way across to the nest tunnels. I start to say it. Try to stop him. But Praseep’s leg is vanishing with the snow beneath it.
His other leg slips into the mini-avalanche he has set off, and he grapples with his hands on the snow. Anything to stop falling. So far down.
His hands slip through the snow to claw the rock beneath. I can feel it. Too cold to grip. Too slippery to hold.
He’s going to fall.
Terror cold like ice.
I throw myself forward and grab his wrist. He’s dangling, legs flailing for purchase in the fluff. Snow in my eyes, freezing my throat, choking my lungs.
‘Hold still!’ I cry to Praseep. I am straining. Have I got him?
I will his panicked limbs to still. He risks dragging us both down. My panting breaths are loud in my ears. I blink to clear my eyes, then make the mistake of looking down.
‘Praseep!’
He slips lower. No.
‘Don’t fall, please.’
He doesn’t respond. He slips lower again, and I grab his elbow with my other hand. He grunts and my arm scrapes along the icy edge as I pull. I bite my lip. And pull harder.
He shimmies up, and his face is now against the rocky edge that was our path. I haul again, and suddenly he’s there. On the snow and the rock, sprawled against me.
Lying down has never been so welcome. All I hear is our breathing, puffing gusts in the thin mountain air. I open my eyes and look around. He’s leaning against the slope beside me.
‘You saved me!’
I chuckle weakly. ‘Don’t sound so surprised.’
‘Well, I mean, thank you.’ He sits up straighter. ‘You’re bleeding.’
I check the arm I pulled Praseep up with, then immediately try to hide it beneath my torn cloak. But Praseep grabs my hand and inspects the long graze up the inside of my arm.
‘Allow me.’
‘Allow you what?’ I edge my arm away.
He beckons with his fingers. ‘To Heal you.’
‘You can …? I don’t … um.’ I stop talking because he actually looks serious. I inch my arm forward until it’s within his reach and hope I’m not going to regret it. ‘Okay then.’
He takes my arm with both hands and a wave of ice rushes through me. I gasp. The pain is gone. Praseep uses the edge of his white cloak to wipe away the blood from my arm. Beneath it my skin is perfectly intact. And it kind of feels like an echo of Praseep.
‘Whoa. What did you do?’
‘Healed you.’
‘Yeah, I got that. I mean, how?’
He shrugs. ‘It takes many months to learn. I will teach you back at SkyCity.’
I nod, head spinning like a snowflake in an eddy. He talks so easily of a future where I stay. That is my future, I realise that, it’s just I haven’t got my head around everything it’ll mean for me.
He looks at me carefully. ‘Are you okay otherwise?’
I push aside my snowstorming thoughts and nod. ‘Are you?’
‘Ecstatic. I thought I was going to die.’
I look at him. ‘So did I.’
His lip twitches and then we’re both laughing. This is madness, on the side of Dragon Mountain, higher than I’ve ever been before, tackling avalanches to try to find a magic Stone we’re not even sure is there, to break through an enchanted door and save a boy we don’t really know how to save. And we might die doing it. But we’re laughing anyway.
‘Thank you for saving me,’ he says.
‘My pleasure, um, Your Highness.’
He grins. ‘You don’t need to be all Your Highness-ey with me.’
I swallow. That’s the second time he’s told me I don’t need to call him by his title. But this time it’s for a vastly different reason. And this time, I actually kind of want to defy him.
He shakes his head at me. ‘Do not make me make a formal decree about this, Sunaya.’
‘Okay. Praseep.’
He grins again, looks over my shoulder to where the storm birds still wheel. The grin falls away. ‘We are in a pickle, how do we get across now?’
I swivel, looking at the edge by my toes, with all its beaten up snow, the only sign of the struggle we just had. Then I look beyond. If we were down on the valley floor, and there was only soft snow below, I would try to jump that gap.
But we’re not.
And it’s not.
And I don’t know how to get across.
I think, then turn to Praseep. ‘When the Princess was at risk of falling into the crevasse that time, did I feel you do something to
the ice?’
He nods. ‘Yes, I held it steady. So did … you! I had thought it was Danam. I suppose we could try to do the same here, pull some snow together to make a step.’
I risk a glance down to where he almost fell, so very far below that clouds scoot between us and the ground. ‘A hovering step?’
‘Yes. I have never tried it before, but there is no reason why it should not work …’
I’m regretting ever starting this conversation.
I feel his mind activating, and a quick glance at him shows his normally brown eyes, which have been a muddy blue most of this climb, are now as white as the snow beneath us, flecked through with a blue so intense a glacier would be jealous.
Is that how I look sometimes? There would have been no way for me to hide this.
I shake my head and concentrate on what he’s doing. Magically, a section of snow wraps itself together beside me, and moves until it hovers just in front of me. I tap it carefully. It’s solid, like the snow-ropes Aji made.
Praseep hisses. ‘This is harder than I thought.’
Instinctively I move my mind closer to the floating snow-step, and mimic what I feel Praseep doing. In my head, it’s like the two of us mix, like white milk into black tea, and …
The snow drops as Praseep’s mind recoils.
‘What the … what did you do?’ he says, his eyes turning a dark blue.
I feel my cheeks go hot. ‘Sorry, I don’t know … I just tried …’
He grabs my hand. ‘No, do not be sorry! That was … amazing, I did not even know that could happen! I suddenly had all this extra power, but I was so surprised I lost it all. Let us try it again.’
I push my shoulders back and nod to him. His mind activates, his eyes whiten, and the snow reforms. He nods, and I do what I did last time, reaching out to mimic his powers. This time he’s expecting the melding. I don’t resist when I feel Praseep drawing on my power. The snow-step hovers, looking as solid as rock. Praseep stands up and steps on it. It holds steady, though I feel the energy it takes for Praseep to keep it there, as he balances one-legged.
I grin. Together we’re far stronger than apart.
He steps down, grins back at me, and directs the snow-step to the middle of the gap in our path.