Crown of Ice (18 page)

I yank off my gloves and stuff them in my pockets. “He wouldn’t lie to me about such a thing.”

“Truly? You know his other lies. What proof do you have that he will keep any promises?” The reindeer rubs his muzzle against a fencepost, as if scratching an itch.

“He can’t control that aspect of the enchantment. His own magic constrains him. If I complete the mirror before my eighteenth birthday I’m freed from the curse of the wraiths and I’ll reign as Snow Queen forever.”

Bae shakes his head, jangling the metal on his halter. The sunlight reflecting off his dark eyes lends them a blue hue. “And that’s what you desire?”

“It’s better than the alternative.”

“To remain in some strange, hybrid form forever? I am not so sure, Snow Queen.”

A series of excited yips makes me turn as Luki races through the kitchen door. The wolf barrels across the yard, his tail waving like a flag. When he reaches me he leaps up and places his paws upon my waist.

“Come to greet me, have you?” I rub Luki’s shoulders before gently taking hold of his front legs and lowering him to the ground. He leans heavily against me, his amber eyes shining. His tongue slides over his sharp white teeth as he pants with excitement.

“The wolf has missed you,” observes Bae. “He did not take his daily runs, simply lay at the kitchen door or in the stables, waiting for your return.”

“Foolish creature.” I pat Luki’s head. “I hope you at least ate something while I was gone.”

Bae’s eyes glisten. “He did, but the other one did not.”

“Who, Kai?” Luki bumps his muzzle into my leg. I reach down and scratch behind his twitching ears.

“Yes, Gerda’s friend. I don’t think he’s ever left that room that holds the mirror, or at least not to eat or rest. I could look up and see his shadow moving behind the windows at all hours of the day or night.” Bae expels a gusty sigh. “Tell me, in your travels, did you receive any news of the little miss?”

“You mean Gerda?” I eye the reindeer, attempting to read the thoughts that spark behind that placid visage. “She’s safe, though only through others’ interventions. If she possesses any wisdom she’s on way back home. But I doubt that’s the case. She’s unusually determined for someone so young and inexperienced.”

“She has a big heart.” Bae drops his head and paws at the frozen ground. “Do not underestimate her, Snow Queen. Her love grants her great power.”

“Well, love will scarcely keep her warm if she attempts to cross into my lands.” I toss back my heavy hair. “If her heart magically guides her to our realm she’ll surely freeze before reaching this palace.”

“You do not understand love.” Bae’s gaze fastens on me.

I swear I read pity in his dark eyes. I spin and stride away from him, Luki at my heels.

The palace is dark. I can’t call forth illumination in the ice-block walls fast enough to prevent a cluster of wraiths from swarming my path. Luki growls but their desperation drives them forward.

“You have it,” they whine. “The final piece. Give it to me.”

I swat at their amorphous limbs. “Back to the shadows, you foolish wretches.” Luki howls as I spit out the words.

“Soon,” they shriek as they fall back into a darkened corridor.

This does not touch me. Let that thought fade. Let it go.

I stride off, wiping my hands on my tunic. Luki follows, still growling softly.

Drawing in a deep breath, I throw back the doors to the Hall.

Kai’s bent over the mirror, moving shards around with one hand. He glances up as Luki and I enter the room. “Do you have it?” There’s a rasp in his voice. His thin face is blanched white as fine linen.

“I do.” I direct Luki to wait at the door while I cross to the table. “You’ve accomplished much in the short time I’ve been gone.” The mirror reflects my pale face. Only one corner of the surface is missing.

Kai straightens with a grimace. “Has it been only a little time? I’ve lost all sense of day and night.”

I examine him critically. Dark shadows encircle his reddened eyes and sharp lines bracket his mouth. “Have you slept at all? Or eaten anything?”

“No. Not since I returned. I was able to place the fragment from the university, but the rest”—he waves his hand toward the box of shards—“elude me.”

“Well, I do have the final missing piece.” I pull the necklace from the inner pocket of my cloak. As I toss it onto the table Kai’s tired eyes narrow.

“Grab that bin of tools.” His fingers tremble as he lifts the necklace.

“I’m not your lackey.” I reach for the golden chain.

Kai takes two steps back, clutching the necklace to his chest. “I need those tools to extract the shard.”

“No one’s debating that. I was merely offering to hold the pendant while you collected the tools.” I stare at Kai, evaluating the odd look in his eyes. There’s something empty about his stare. Something that reminds me of the mindless focus of the wraiths.

“Never mind.” Kai pockets the necklace and scuttles over to the bin that holds a selection of tools. He rummages through the box, tossing out several items. They bounce off the stone floor with a
clang
. One mallet skids toward me, skittering to a stop at the toe of my boot.

“Careful,” I say, leaning over to pick up the object. A pair of metal pinchers flies over my bent form. It would have hit my head had I remained standing. “No need for such a rush.” I straighten and fix my stare on Kai’s back.

“So you say.” Kai hurries back to the table, clutching a fistful of jewelers’ tools. He drops them on the table and gently lays the necklace beside them. “But it isn’t your father.”

“No, only my life.”

Kai turns his gaze on me. “Thyra,” he says, as if he’s just recognized me. “Thank you.”

“For what?” I frown as his eyes dim again, shadowed like the sun sliding behind clouds.

“Obtaining the shard, of course.” Kai bends over the pendant, his hands carefully manipulating the delicate tools. After several minutes he lifts the fragment from its golden frame. “Not damaged in the slightest.” He holds the glass to the light.

“You should take a break.” I move closer to Kai. “I can work on the mirror for a while. Perhaps I may be able to position those shards that have defeated you.”

Kai lowers his arm, his fingers curling about the jagged glass. “Nothing’s defeating me. I’m the one who has fit together most of the pieces of your precious looking-glass over these last months, or have you forgotten?” His eyes are flat and reflective as the mirror. “You’d never have gotten anywhere close to completing it without me.”

I stare at him. His face is all angles—sharp cheekbones and a razor slice of jaw. If his hair was white, he’d resemble a young Mael Voss.

A trickle of red slides from under his fingers. “Your hand’s bleeding,” I say, my gaze following the trail of blood as it drips to the floor.

He lowers his arm and uncurls his fingers. Crimson blossoms in his palm. He plucks the shard from the blood and blindly wipes it on his tunic before depositing it on the table.

“Here,” I lean closer and press my silk handkerchief into his palm.

Kai roughly shoves me aside. I hear a deep rumbling and spin about to see Luki crouched low, his belly dragging the ground, his snout thrust out straight before him. His lips are pulled back, displaying the knife-points of his incisors. His ears are pinned flat against his skull as he advances on us. No, not us. On Kai.

“No, Luki.” I step between the wolf and the boy. “He’s not hurting me. He can’t harm me.” I kneel and put my arms about Luki, burying my fingers into his thick fur scruff. Luki relaxes under my touch, then whimpers and lifts his head. I sit back on my heels, dropping my hands in my lap. “Never attack Kai, you understand?” I stare into the golden eyes of the wolf, who finally blinks and thrusts his muzzle into my hands, licking at my fingers.

“Perhaps it’s time that he lived outside,” says Kai.

I give Luki’s head a final pat before rising to my feet. “That’s rich, since you’re the one who pushed him on me in the first place.”

Kai’s huddled over the mirror. My handkerchief’s tied about the hand he’s using to shift fragments about. “He’s almost grown. Time he was returned to the wild, or at least left outdoors.” Kai appears oblivious to the blood still trickling onto the mirror.

I reach over and grab Kai’s wrist. “You’re dripping. I think you’d better go and wash up and wrap a decent bandage about that cut before you’ve anything more to do with this.”

Kai turns on me, his eyes flashing in his pale face. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Get me out of the way so you can finish the mirror and take all its power for yourself.”

I release his wrist and step back. “Not my intention, as you know. I think you need some sleep, Kai.”

Our stares lock for a long moment before Kai sighs deeply. “You’re right,” he says, rubbing at his eyes with his uninjured hand. “I can’t think straight anymore. All I see before me are mirror shards and equations.” He slumps against the table. “And I hear those horrible wraiths constantly, like a whistling in my ears.”

“You need food and sleep. In that order. Go to the kitchens and then to bed. You’re no use to me like this.”

Kai straightens and steps around me. “I don’t do this for you.”

“I realize that. But what benefits me aids you as well. Don’t forget that,” I warn him as he crosses the room.

“How can I?” he calls back, striding into the hall. “When you won’t let me?”

***

I work on the mirror for several hours, finally placing two more pieces. It’s more difficult as we reach the end of the reconstruction, and I mentally acknowledge the validity of Kai’s frustration. As the light wanes I turn to stare out the tall windows. Luki lies curled in the last patch of sun with his nose touching the tip of his tail. He lifts his head as I stretch and shake the tension from my arms and fingers.

“I think that’s all for today,” I tell the wolf. “Tomorrow Kai and I can work together. We’re so close…” I glance back at the table.

Luki rises to his feet and pads over to me. I pat him absently as I stare out across the winter landscape. Two eagles spiral one another in the darkening sky. I cross to the windows to follow their soaring flight.

Something catches my eye on the ground and I glance down into the snow-covered yard. Bae circles the paddock, dashing from corner to corner as if chased by some predator. But that’s impossible—our transformed bears keep any such creatures at bay. There’s something dark pressed against the fence, though. A human form.

It’s Kai. I watch as he throws out one arm, hurling something into the paddock. I don’t understand the logic of this. It makes no sense, but Kai’s tossing some type of missile at the frightened reindeer.

“Come, Luki.” I stride out of the Great Hall and swiftly make my way down to the kitchens, the wolf trotting at my heels. The doors to the yard are standing open, allowing snow to drift across the kitchen floor. Luki leaps in front of me and leads the way outside.

“What are you doing?” I shout as I approach the paddock.

Kai’s entered the enclosure and stands at the reindeer’s head, gripping its halter with both hands. The bandage that wraps his injured hand matches the whites of Bae’s rolling eyes.

“Trying to get this abomination to give me news of home.” Kai’s voice cuts the cold air like a blade. “I know it can speak, but it tells me nothing.”

“I thought you were going to bed.” I hold out my palm, forcing Luki to sit as I climb over the fence.

Kai’s face resembles a relief carved in ice. Only his eyes show any signs of life and they burn coldly, like banked coals. “I did. But then I dreamed—a nightmare about Gerda, lost in a blizzard, frozen like my father, but truly dead. She lay buried in a snow drift, her skin as blue as her eyes. Then I saw my mother and our friends, prostrate with grief as Gerda’s sisters wept and drowned in a lake of their own tears.”

“It was only a dream.” I approach with measured steps, holding out my hand. “Come now, leave Bae be. He’s been ordered to speak only to Voss or me. He can’t disobey such commands.” I eye the whip that dangles from Kai’s fingers.

“He will speak to me.” Kai releases the grip of one hand, then swings his arm and cracks the whip hard across the reindeer’s muzzle.

I jump aside as the reindeer rears back and slashes out with his front hooves. Kai’s hit on the shoulder by the edge of one hoof. He falls into me, knocking both of us to the stone-hard ground. The scent of damp hair and hide fills my nostrils as Bae leaps across our bodies and flies over the wall of the paddock. I struggle to my feet, attempting to gather enough magic to stop the reindeer in his tracks. But it’s too late—Bae has already sailed into the sky and disappeared into a bank of violet-tinged clouds.

“How’s that possible?” Kai sits, rubbing his shoulder and wincing. “I thought he was under an enchantment. How’s it possible for him to escape?”

I stare into the sky. “I don’t know. Perhaps his fear and anger gave him the power to break away. Magic can be occasionally mastered by will alone.” Turning my gaze on Kai, I adopt my frostiest tone. “What were you thinking, hitting him like that? What logical purpose could that ever serve?”

“None, none,” mutters Kai, burying his face in his hands and rocking back and forth. When he lifts his head there are tears streaking his pale cheeks. “I hit him. I never hit animals, never. But I wanted to hurt him, to make him feel pain. Because I’m in pain, Thyra. I’m here in a frozen wasteland, lost in a palace haunted by specters, living in a world devoid of love and laughter, trying to accomplish the impossible, and I’m feeling so much pain …”

I extend my hand and Kai silently grips it, staring into my eyes as I help him to his feet. “You need more rest,” I say, infusing a touch of magic into my words.

Kai’s eyelids flutter and he nods. He follows me meekly into the palace, Luki padding in front of us. I deposit Kai in his chambers, weaving more magic so that he passes out the moment he falls across the bed. I stay just long enough to cover him with a bearskin throw and ensure he experiences a long, dreamless, sleep.