Ice Burns (14 page)

"Sorry," she cringed and gave him a smile.

Frostwhite fluffed his feathers and watched her from the bed.

“I guess I stay and do what I can to learn to use my magic,” she sighed. "And if an opportunity arises that will allow me to escape, then I go."

Frostwhite hopped onto the table and launched himself out the window. Chandra the feathered form glided across the sky, the winds making his feathers quiver but boosting him just the same. His wing strokes were powerful, and she could imagine the wind pressure on his wings and the return pressure of his wings. She watched until Frostwhite was gone, wishing she could do the same.

Chandra nibbled at the food she had brought. She needed to figure out what else she could do. It was late enough in the day that she could probably go to the library. Most of the students would be in afternoon classes or working with the instructors as their scribes or general helpers. It would be quiet and even if anyone came in, they would not bother to talk to or question her.

When she entered the library, she remembered how little about magic was actually in the library. Most of it was standard information about the sciences, math, the solar and stars, or various cultural histories.

There must be something else to learn from the books. Master had always said that mages often have magical energy tied to the region. That did not tell Chandra what provinces to look at or what to look for?

She knew that levitation worked for all mages to some degree, as did summoning items. Elemental powers were dominant within the mage and something she needed to think about and figure out quickly.

***********************

Master Dreys had supported the belief that other students would never accept her. A few of the students had spoken to her over the years, but it only ever happened once before something made them think better of it. It didn't matter if Chandra tried to be nice; every touch of friendship lasted no more than a day, and the hatred afterward lasted much, much longer.

Deakon had been different from the very beginning. Master had brought other students into lessons, but it was only to use as a demonstration. Deakon was there to study and participate in some of the lessons Master gave Chandra.

Chandra had been at the estate for thirteen seasonal shifts. At first, she had resented the hateful young man’s presence as an intrusion on the time she had with Master. After a while, she decided to make the best of it since Master seemed determined to keep them in lessons together.

In a fit of loneliness, she had tried to approach Deakon after an evening meal once. She followed him into the hall and called to him before he moved into the wing that housed the living quarters.

“I know you hate me and hate that I hold the position of apprentice,” she began. “But I was hoping we could move past that.”

Deakon had stood, looking at her with a blank expression on his face. When she finished, he said nothing and turned his back on her. A moment later, she had been thrown to the ground and was kicked and hit by several people who she couldn’t see in the dark corridor.

The next morning, when she had arrived in Master’s study for her lessons, he eyed her appearance before simply asking, “Who?” Chandra said nothing. It wasn’t from a desire to protect anyone else in the school, only to prevent future covert attacks.

A moment later, the door to Master’s study opened, and Chandra lifted her head. She looked into Deakon’s face through barely-open eyes and saw he would not look at her. Chandra glared at him before lowering her gaze back to her lap.

A tense silence settled in the room that lasted for days. Master’s smooth, cold voice was the only thing that ever broke the quiet. Chandra never spoke to Deakon again, though he went out of his way to chase her, whisper about her to other students, and do anything he could to make her miserable. It wasn't until the day he chased her onto the training fields that it all changed. Magic aside, Master apparently took exception to the continual rivalry if it almost killed her.

“You will need to leave the school, Deakon. Your magical ability isn’t sufficient enough for me to continue with your training,” Master told him. He had led the young man to the dining hall and had everyone present to see. Chandra figured that he had meant to make an example of Deakon by doing it so publicly. It worked because no other student even looked at her after that. The lessons also resumed without anyone else participating as Master lost faith in her by the day.

Deakon, though, had walked away with as much dignity as she thought possible, bruised face and all.

Chandra lifted her gaze from the book she had picked up about the mountains near the northern edge of Malofa and saw two students looking at her from a table on the other side of the library. As soon as she looked, they turned away. One went pale while the other seemed to blush on every inch of skin.

All of those years that Master told her that she needed to take care of herself, and he completely isolated her when he sent Deakon away. And then, he brought Deakon back.

Why, though? If he was so upset with Deakon, why would Master ever let him back?

It seemed out of character to suddenly be so magnanimous toward someone who Master had very publicly used as an example. Master Dreys wasn't the type of person to do something that made him look as though he made mistakes. Chandra shook the thoughts from her mind and focused on reading.

Information about mountain regions was more abundant than anything else. Master had always lived here, so there was a wealth of information available. She read about how the mountains could spontaneously drop stones as though shedding them like loose skin.

That idea and turned her mind to a very dusty shelf. Chandra closed her eyes and imagined that the dust was a type of dirt skin that had come in through windows and on the air. In her mind, she thought about clearing it away as though with a washcloth to skin. The pressure built in her mind as she pushed against the idea. The shelves shook, and an entire section fell over. She opened her eyes and looked at the mess.

Great. Just great.

The two students in the library hopped up as if she had thrown the shelves at them and ran from the library. Chandra watched their departing forms and wondered how long she had before Master came.

She walked over to the bookcase and looked at where it had landed. Chandra reached down, intent on lifting it if she could and her hand slid from the accumulated dust and grime.The dust had not moved at all except falling. The entire set was still coated with grime. Earth magic was apparently uninterested in meeting her halfway. She had only managed to use her levitation to knock everything over.

Chandra huffed. She knew that her levitation was going to be easy to call if it came any time she tried to do anything else. She would have to work with what she could. Chandra thought about how she could get the bookcases back up and put the books away. She focused and felt the pressure in her head build as the massive shelves lifted and hovered.

She pushed them back to where they had been and struggled to keep them steady as she pushed them down to reseat them. A precise act of magic, it was not; the thump of the bookcases landing was loud, and she worried for a moment that it would break the structure underneath that held them up. When it didn't, she sighed and wiped away the moisture on her chin and forehead. Tendrils of hair had escaped her braid and caught at her cheeks from increased body heat.

The books had landed in rows just as they had been on the shelves, with only a few stragglers that fell to the wayside. Chandra focused on a row of books, imagining them as one complete unit and pushed them into the air. She lifted her hands as though she could hold the shape together. The row of books went back to where she directed. This time, they went more gently than the shelves had. She did the same with the remaining three rows of books. Each row did as she wanted a little easier than the previous set and she became more familiar with the feeling of air pressure in her mind.

When she finished, it was only a few moments before someone entered the room.

The two students that had been in the library stood behind Andre. The shiny skin of his head shone with perspiration, and his cheeks had a ruddy appearance. When his eyes caught on her, they drew a sharp line in the air between where she stood and the formerly overturned bookcase.

Chandra gathered the handful of books on the different continents and walked toward the door. The two students shifted further away as she approached and Andre narrowed his eyes at her, but she walked past all three as though they weren't there.

Her room was not the best place to work. The limited space and resources did not make Chandra feel as though she could reach the elements in any way, much less in a way that she could test her magic.

There was a peristyle garden at the center of the estate, but it was seldom quiet or without the constant influx of students who used it as a place to read, study, or meet up to sneak intimacy in the copse of fruit trees and ornamental shrubbery. It would be the best possible place for her to work with the various elements, though.

Decided, she continued to read with the impatience of someone who would rather do than wait. The book went on and on about the frozen kingdoms and their lack of any magic other than the type that controlled snow and winds.

"They probably killed everyone else," she muttered, and Frostwhite called out at the sound of her voice from his place in the rafters. Whether it was agreement or protest, she wasn't sure, but he settled back into a comfortable position, and she continued to read.

Climates were diverse, and Chandra could only guess at the affinities that various cultures would have. It made sense to think people on the shore would have some control over the water or possibly the sand, while forest folk could call or stop rain, influence plant life, etc. They were all guesses, but Chandra focused on the differences to try to identify what element might be strongest in one region over another. For instance, would forest folk be as powerful as mountain people with the force of earth or would it be a different type of ability? Would different mages have ability with one part of their element but not another?

When Chandra began to have to strain to read, she realized that the sun was going down, and it was almost time to head to the garden. Students had a strict bedtime or at least time that they had to be in their quarters. Other than her brief in-house lockdown, Chandra had always been given leniency in her wanderings. Even she wasn't supposed to be wandering around at night, though.

Darkness was her cue and Chandra knew it was time to go.

11

The moon might have been bright, but no light found the inner hallways of the estate. The darkness was as near absolute as if Chandra tread within the core of a cavern in the center of the world.

Frostwhite had gone out the window. She assumed that he understood where she was going and would come in through the dome in the courtyard. It was a clear night, so a few of the windows would be cranked open to let in the fresh air. Chandra had peeked in earlier to check how big the windows looked, and they had seemed at least as significant as the casement in her room.

No sounds curled in the hallways and Chandra fought to keep it that way. Each foot arched under in a curl before round pad and toes touched down with a slowly following heel. Chandra knew her footsteps were soundless but wondered if the sound of her heart echoed in the hallway. She was afraid to take too deep of breath, but seemed only barely to remember to take any breath at all. Now and then, the hem of her trouser would brush against a tapestry as she kept her body angled near the walls. The sound, like someone whispering, set her hair on end, and a shiver of cold air ran down her back. Each time it happened, she had to remind herself what the sound was, but it startled her just the same.

The large glass doors of the peristyle were open and the night smells ran cool fingers across Chandra's flushed cheeks and forced her lungs to take in air. The air braced her like a splash of unexpectedly cold water on her face in the morning. Her skin twitched, and her body shivered involuntarily.

She realized she hadn't moved from the doorway and hurried to step inside and away from where anyone in the halls might see. Leaves whispered, and the echoing call of insects seemed to come from all sides and birds called menacingly in response to their noisy dinners. Chandra moved slowly, pushing leaves and branches aside as she pushed forward to the center of the garden. There was a small, columned structure in the heart of the peristyle that she planned to sit behind. It would hide her from view but keep her near enough to the various elemental representations in the garden.

It took longer to get to the center than she remembered, likely from her measured movements. The structure was there, and it shone like gold in the moonlight. It was twice her height and carved with various patterns and different figures. Some she knew to be gods of the elements worshiped for so long before magic had been tossed away. At the base of each column, the stone turned from marble to pure black onyx that formed circular feet for the structure. They were round like Chandra imagined an elephant's feet to be from the sketches she had seen in a book. The feet reflected the light back at her as though instead of onyx it was a pure diamond, breaking the moonlight and forcing it to dance around the garden like a nymph.