Fire and Ice

  She’d climbed halfway up the stairs and removed her caribou-fur glove from her right hand. A fist-sized ball of light formed over her palm. As Meilin watched, the pale yellow light spun, shades of orange and red streaking and pulsing together. Maya took a deep breath and blew. A thin stream of fire shot out, burrowing into the solid ice. A rivulet streamed down, forming a pool on the icy floor. A narrow hole about two finger lengths deep was scored into the ice, pointing at the talisman.

  “Well, about twenty more of those should do it!” Maya said brightly.

  She held up her palm and started again.

  While she worked, Conor and Rollan walked around the barn-sized block, gawking at Suka.

  “I dare you to touch it,” Rollan whispered.

  “You first,” Conor whispered back.

  “I’ll carry your pack for three days if you lick it.”

  Conor actually seemed to consider.

  “Boys,” Meilin muttered.

  Scattered around the ground at the base of the huge block lay knitted clothes, intricately carved walrus tusks, necklaces of ivory beads. Gifts the Ardu had laid at Suka’s feet.

  Meilin walked along the upper story, searching for a possible exit up to the ground. The Ice Palace was full of rooms — ballrooms, drawing rooms, bedrooms — all hollowed out of the solid ice and full of carved furniture. She imagined that, long ago, Suka somehow flooded this area with water — perhaps carving a channel from the ocean — and then submerging herself, allowing herself to freeze deep underground.

  Perhaps the Ardu found frozen Suka years later when exploring the great rift and began to carve out a palace around her, and beyond that, a city. Year after year, sculpting and carving, turning every inch into a work of art. How must it be to live near a thing so awesome and fearsome as this Great Beast?

  Meilin found no stairway up to the tundra, but she was just about to explore a room full of statues — animals of Arctica carved in huge columns of ice — when she heard Tarik shout.

  “Wait!”

  Meilin started at the noise. Till now, everyone had been so quiet. She hurried back to the landing.

  Maya was standing with a ball of flame over her palm. She shook her hand, the fire dissolving into the air, and looked at Tarik with frightened eyes.

  “Wait,” Tarik said, whispering now. “It’s cracking.”

  Around the hole, tiny splinters had formed with each enlargement; thin white lines radiated out from the hole Maya had burned into the thick ice. But now Meilin noticed two larger cracks moving away from the hole. Slowly. But moving. Spreading. Reminding Meilin of the time she’d pressed her thumb alongside a crack in a window­pane and made it grow longer. Maya had stepped back, as if waiting for the cracks to stop. But they didn’t.

  They kept growing. As if something was pressing — from the inside.

  Everyone was still, breaths held, watching. Meilin was on the second level. She was at just the right spot to look into Suka’s eyes. So she saw the moment that Suka looked back.

  Meilin gasped and took a step away.

  “She’s —” Meilin started.

  “Don’t —” Tarik said.

  Maya dropped her hands and backed up the stairs. Only Rollan moved forward.

  “Suka,” he whispered.

  The shudder came first. Then ice cracking, the sound as high and piercing as the shriek of a kestrel. Then the eruption. The entire ice block shattered, shards and chunks exploding out. Everyone ran, ducked, covered their heads with their hands.

  The gigantic polar bear lifted her paws and roared.

  ROLLAN TRIED VERY HARD NOT TO SOIL HIS PANTS.

  He knew Suka was large. But frozen in ice, she’d seemed tame somehow.

  Awake, in motion, she was scarier than street thugs looking for a fight, than a Great Ram thrashing, than an army of Conquerors.

  Suka seemed to be death itself.

  There was no intelligence in her eyes, only the wildness of a predator trapped. She lurched, cracking the rest of the ice block into pieces.

  She roared. The people in the Ice City woke. And they screamed.

  “Suka, wait!” Rollan started.

  Suka staggered again, slamming into a pillar. The Ice Palace began to come down.

  “Get out!” Tarik yelled. “Everybody get to the surface!”

  The Great Beast roared, lashing out with her monstrous paws. Pillars fell, the ceiling cracked, chunks of ice began falling. The smallest of them could crush Rollan into oblivion. They had to get out of the Ice Palace now — but he also knew if they tried to flee the way they’d come, Suka might follow, and tear apart the Ice City in the process. All those people would be crushed or fall down the rift. No, there had to be another exit.

  Up. Through a hole Suka had smashed in the ceiling, Rollan saw stars. Fallen ice created a heap he might be able to climb to reach the hole in the ceiling. Tarik saw it too.

  “Go up!” Tarik yelled.

  A huge piece of pillar fell right toward Tarik. At the last moment, he ducked and twisted in a motion that seemed impossible to Rollan’s eye, barely escaping the falling ice.

  Meilin and Abeke had been on the landing and were already climbing the icy rubble toward the hole in the ceiling. Beside Uraza, Abeke leaped from block to block with astounding ease. Meilin must have had the Granite Ram, because she jumped in great arches, passing even Abeke. Once up and out of the underground palace, she stooped over the hole and dropped the Granite Ram down to Maya, who caught it and began to leap up too.

  Conor was trapped, Suka between him and the way leading up and out. Rollan hoped Suka might recognize Briggan as a fellow Great Beast, but her eyes were all wild animal rage. She swiped at Conor, and he ducked and ran, as fast as Briggan, as fast as a windblown leaf. His head low, he barely made it beneath the striking paw and beyond, and began to run up the fallen ice.

  Everyone was on their way out of the Ice Palace but Rollan. He’d been on the far side opposite Conor and was crawling over fallen ice, trying not to draw the bear’s notice. Now there was no one left to notice but him.

  Suka turned, sniffed, and growled.

  “Essix!” Rollan yelled. “Essix, please!”

  He did not know what help she could provide. He didn’t even know where she was.

  Suka’s paw came down. And the ice floor around Rollan began to crack.

  Tarik paused, halfway up the rubble, and pulled Dinesh’s Slate Elephant from the pack around his neck. He lifted it high, as if he would throw it to Rollan, but Rollan could see he was too far away. His otter-enhanced abilities didn’t include a perfect throwing arm.

  One more strike from Suka would end everything for Rollan. Either she would hit him this time, crushing him to bits, or she’d completely crack the ice around him and send him tumbling down.

  “Essix!” he called again.

  A falcon screeched.

  Essix swooped through the hole in the ceiling and down into the crumbling Ice Palace. She took the Slate Elephant from Tarik, seizing the gold chain in her talons. The gray stone elephant dangled as she flew, looking heavy beside her petite body. She screeched again, and Suka looked away from Rollan to the falcon, swatting at the air. Essix dove, deftly avoiding her strikes, and flew right over Rollan. She released the Slate Elephant, and he caught it.

  The ground beneath him shuddered, and a crack widened, claiming one of his legs. He tore open the neck of his coat and pushed the talisman in, making contact with his skin.

  A flash and Essix was as large as a flying wolf, with a wingspan as long as several grown men are tall.

  Her shriek was so loud now, it cracked ice. Suka put her paws to her ears and roared.

  Essix swooped, and Rollan lifted his hands. The ice shuddered again. He started to fall, his stomach full of butterflies. But he only fell a moment before he lifted again. Essix
had snatched his coat at the wrists with her talons and pulled him up, her huge wings thrashing.

  Suka swatted, just nicking one of Essix’s wings. She dipped to one side but caught the air again and rose, barely fitting through the hole in the ceiling. They flew up into the startlingly cold air, all wind and snow, the hint of dawn bleeding yellow into the blue night.

  “Yes! Thank you, Essix!” Rollan yelled.

  Essix shrieked.

  “Ow — but not so loud.”

  He was out of that underground nightmare, but he wasn’t safe. None of them were. From below, more growls and crashes. Suka was tearing the palace apart. Cracks in the ice grew larger as the ground began to cave in. Tarik, Maya, and Conor had been standing nearest the hole, and now they ran away from it even as its cracks grew larger, seemingly reaching out for them. The Arctican tundra lay flat around them for miles, nowhere to hide. Suka would fight her way out of the collapsing palace. She would be free to pursue them and would be faster than any could run.

  “Rollan, give me or Conor the elephant,” Abeke shouted from the other side of the hole. “Only Uraza or Briggan have a hope of fighting her.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Rollan shouted back from the air. “No one has a hope of fighting her!”

  Just then Suka rose up from the collapsing ground. At first only her upper body, but with one push and leap, the huge creature was free, galloping on four paws up the ice, straight toward Rollan.

  Essix lifted again, and Suka rose on her back legs, reaching, swiping the air. Higher Essix flew, but Rollan wondered if it would be high enough. Suka’s arm seemed to reach as far as the moon, her claws inches away from his dangling feet.

  Essix’s huge wings kept beating, and she and Rollan rose higher still, leaving Suka to land back on the ice. She swung her head around.

  “Find Meilin!” Rollan called to Essix. “We need Jhi. A big Jhi, a Jhi Suka can’t ignore.”

  Rollan couldn’t see Meilin anywhere, but Abeke must have had the Granite Ram now. She was leaping in a huge arc over a crack, much farther than she’d ever be capable of, even with Uraza enhancing her powers.

  Rollan’s arms ached as he dangled from Essix by his wrists. And then suddenly, he was falling. Essix had let go. He started to scream —

  Essix’s talons seized him again, this time by the coat on his shoulders. She’d only let go to readjust. The position was far more comfortable.

  “Thanks, Essix,” Rollan said, his voice shivery with nerves. “Glad you still want me to hang around.”

  Suka was roaring. She lifted a paw to swat Maya. Maya tore her glove off her hand, produced a ball of fire, and blew. A wall of thin fire rushed out from Maya, blocking Suka. The polar bear reared back, her paw flung over her eyes. The fire dissipated quickly in the freezing air. There was nothing to burn, no wood or grasses to set aflame and create a barricade to hide behind. Suka readjusted to attack again. Maya responded with another wall of fire. But this time, Suka raked the ground with her claws, sending boulders of ice crashing through the fire. One struck Maya’s leg. She screamed in pain and fell. Tarik picked her up and ran away from the polar bear.

  Suka blinked and reared her head, looking for a new target. Conor was alone, running from the lengthening cracks in the ground. Suka moved toward him.

  “Abeke!” Rollan yelled. “Jump to Conor! Get him out of there!”

  Abeke crouched to jump but paused. The hole between her and Conor was even greater now. She couldn’t get to him in time.

  “Drop me, Essix,” Rollan said, hoping to free Essix to go save Conor.

  Essix started downward, but Conor was already sliding toward the hole, and Suka was getting closer. Essix kept hold of Rollan, surely realizing, as Rollan did, that she couldn’t reach Conor in time.

  Abeke took out an arrow, tied the talisman to it, and aimed high, perhaps adjusting for the extra weight. She shot the arrow.

  The arrow struck the ice beside Conor’s head. He broke it off, grabbing the talisman just as the ground fell beneath him. Conor jumped.

  His first leap carried him halfway across the crumbling crevasse, but not far enough. A huge chunk of ice fell below him. He slammed his foot down, pushing against the falling ice for a little more lift, and he leaped again, his arms circling as the ice cliff came closer. He almost made it, one hand reaching out to grab the edge. Abeke was there, grabbing his wrist and pulling him up.

  Suka crouched on three of her paws, her fourth held to her chest, protecting the talisman. She began to run around the huge hole toward Abeke and Conor.

  Abeke let arrows fly. The bear swatted them out of the air. A few stuck in her thick coat, not even reaching the skin. She shook, the arrows falling with delicate tinks onto the ice. Suka roared and slammed her paws down. Another crack formed in the ice, traveling at terrifying speed toward Abeke. Conor grabbed her hand and leaped just as the ice beneath their feet ripped apart, ice chunks tumbling down into a new rift.

  “Suka, stop!” Rollan yelled. “Please! Essix, tell her to stop!”

  He spotted dozens of shapes huddled at the far end of the huge rift. And then he looked closer and found that he could see even clearer.

  “Thanks, Essix,” he muttered.

  Rollan could make out people emerging from the hidden stairs at the far end of the great rift, where Rollan had first followed Meilin into the underground city. They were huddled in blankets, having fled the Ice City too fast to dress. Some were barefoot. He also spotted lots of animals — snow foxes, owls, seagulls, caribou, seals — their spirit animals, all likely giving them a hardened ability to withstand the cold. They stood and watched, but they did not come to help. They would not fight Suka. Clearly they were brighter than Rollan’s crew.

  And running toward the Ardu, he spotted Meilin.

  “Essix, there!” Rollan said, pointing.

  The falcon flew Rollan with a swoop so low and so fast that Rollan’s stomach seemed left far behind. His breath tingled with speed and icy air.

  Essix passed before Meilin, dropping Rollan. He landed on the ice feetfirst, but tipped and rolled before regaining his feet.

  “We need to gather the people from the Ice City,” said Meilin. Rollan ran alongside her to keep up. “They have spirit animals, they can fight —”

  “They won’t fight Suka,” said Rollan. “They built a palace for her. We need Jhi!”

  “What?” Meilin stopped. “Jhi can’t fight Suka.”

  “Of course not, no one could, not an entire army,” said Rollan. “But maybe Jhi can communicate with her, calm her.”

  “Jhi’s a panda!” Meilin yelled.

  “A panda bear! Come on, you have to try!” Rollan yelled back.

  He pulled the Slate Elephant from against his chest, and above him, circling Essix returned to her normal size with a muted screech.

  Meilin’s eyes were hot, and she seemed about to argue, but they could hear another Suka roar, and shouts from Abeke and Conor.

  “Fine!” said Meilin.

  She tore open the neck of her coat and slid the elephant against her skin, held in place by her many layers of clothing. Then she pushed up the sleeve of her coat. A flash of brightness, a leaping shape, and then Jhi stood before them. Except Jhi was no longer normal panda-sized. She was perhaps almost as large as the Great Beast had been in her prime. She was gigantic — maybe half the size of Suka.

  Jhi looked at Meilin, huffed at a snowflake, and shivered. Suka roared, and Jhi slowly turned her head in that direction. She seemed to consider, then looked again at Meilin.

  “Suka is awake and enraged,” Meilin said softly. “She isn’t talking, just trying to . . . to kill us. If there’s anything you can do . . .”

  Jhi looked toward Suka again. Two giant bears. One much larger, her clawed paws the size of boulders, her toothy maw like a gaping cave. The other bear smaller, slower,
paws for climbing trees, teeth for gently nibbling bamboo, her shoulders shivering in the Arctican wind.

  Jhi huffed air through her nose, then began ambling toward the commotion.

  Meilin grabbed the arm of Rollan’s coat. “She doesn’t know how to fight. She’s going to get killed. I don’t want —” Her voice broke, and she took a shaky breath. “I don’t want her to get killed. I don’t want anyone else to die.”

  Rollan nodded. He reached out, took her gloved hand in his.

  “We have to try,” he whispered.

  Meilin took another shaky breath, looked at him briefly, and her face softened.

  “Okay,” she said.

  “Okay,” he said. And he tried a small smile to show that it would be okay.

  As one, they ran after Jhi, toward Suka and shouts and the impossible fight. They ran in lockstep, side by side the whole way, her hand in his.

  MEILIN RAN. ShE WAS CONSCIOUS OF ROLLAN HOLDING HER hand, but the thick layers of their caribou-hide gloves made the touch feel safe, casual. A comfort. He wasn’t trying to hold her, she wasn’t trying to pull him. They were just doing the same thing at the same time, running toward danger together.

  She was grateful for his closeness, because ahead of her, some eight hundred pounds of enlarged panda were padding toward the most frightening monster Meilin had ever beheld. Meilin wasn’t used to this feeling, iciness dripping from her heart into her stomach, her legs weak and shaking. She wasn’t used to intense, senseless fear.

  My father’s death weakened me, she thought vaguely.

  Before her seemingly immortal father’s end, death had never seemed truly real. Now it was. Now anyone might die. Meilin herself, Rollan, Tarik. Even Jhi. Jhi had died before — she might be killed again. A quiver in Meilin’s heart warned her that she couldn’t stand it.

  Jhi was almost to Suka. The polar bear was standing on her back legs. She lifted her head to the whitening sky and roared. Meilin felt the roar inside her chest, Suka’s confusion and pain vibrating with her own. Her arms felt heavy, as if she were back in Zhong holding her father’s body, weighed down with heat and rage. In that moment, without Jhi and her friends to stop her, she would have done anything, hurt anybody.