“Theon,” my mother responded, her voice as relieved as mine. “Did you hear that horrible sound? Do you know what it was? Was it—”
“Yes,” I answered, not bothering to mince words. She had been the wife to my father for too many years now to suffer anything less. “They are upon us. This is Penelope O’Hara—”
“The ice bride?”
“My bride,” I corrected her, again stern. “I must find Father. Protect her; she is only human. The sun is out, Mother. They will be weak. Stay with her.”
Nell opened her mouth to protest, but I cut her off by releasing the leather satchel from my shoulder and thrusting it into her arms. “Weapons,” I explained shortly, and was then gone, swallowed into the swirling crowd, advancing toward the infirmary. I bolted forward and wove through the mob of panicked fire dragons. The last thing I heard as I left behind the main cavern was the rush and crackle of fire and ice meeting in mid-air.
* * *
The infirmary was absolutely thronged in wounded fire dragons, one of whom was Einhen, who had been deeply gouged by both fang and claw along one shoulder. He’d already recovered enough to be released at any moment. My father, however, was much worse off. His upper body was in a cast, and he had not yet been allowed off of his bed for more than a few minutes at a time. His leg muscles had begun to atrophy during his time in the dungeon, and walking was difficult. Some of the castle physicians had been tending to him, and projected that he could begin walking regularly within the next week, with daily practice. As it was, his steps were stilted and awkward.
Einhen called to me. “Theon!” he cried. “What has happened in the main cavern? We felt a shudder—”
“Go help!” I called over my shoulder, not stopping for anything. “Ice dragons are in the caves!”
It was all that I needed to say before Einhen lunged up from his cot and was gone into the swirling currents of fire dragons.
Father had half-started off of his cot, located near the back—where the particularly damaged were sequestered—as if he could have gone with Einhen.
“What did you say?” he demanded. “The ice people are in the caves? Where is Cordelia? How did they find us?”
I winced. “My mate,” I confessed. “The bride Lethe Eraeus would have stolen for his own. She escaped, Father. She escaped with the astrolabe, and has brought back the sun… but he had given her a clasp which tracked her location. It brought them straight to the shelter.”
We both knew what this meant. Between the sunshine, and the balanced numbers of ice and fire dragons, and the close quarters of the caverns, it would be a fairly even match. If anything, we stood at a disadvantage purely due to our nature. We had a tendency to be sympathetic, even in battle, and would never sacrifice a loved one in exchange for victory. An ice dragon, on the other hand…
“They will kill me.”
“Never,” I replied. “I will not leave your side.” With the astrolabe still in one arm and my father supported by the other, I moved from the infirmary, which had emptied of all but the dying. Anyone within these walls knew that to prepare to fight would be the surest chance of life, whereas cowering alone in the sick ward would only verify you were an easy target.
But with the astrolabe under one arm and my father supported by the other, there was no way I could fight.
As I scanned the crowd for someone to hide and protect the astrolabe—someone wily, someone confident—my eyes fell across Michelle Ballinger, busily scouring the remnants of the weapons arsenal. She had a battle ax clutched in her hands and a wild look in her eye. “Theon!” she cried. I remembered with a pang of guilt that she did not know Nell had returned. As unfair as it was for me to have to feel remorse, I couldn’t help it. No fire dragon rejoiced in the pains of another, even one willingly blinded by the throes of unrequited love.
“Michelle! I need you!”
She spun to face me, and I felt another pang. The wording could have been a little more artful. The way her face softened, making her so much younger and sweeter—more like Nell, in truth—was difficult to see. I hated being the one to evoke that feeling from her.
“Theon,” she said, marching toward me, battle ax at the ready. Just like riding dragons, she held the unwieldy weapon as if she’d been born doing so. “You’re back.” She sounded so… joyous. She didn’t even pause to sling one of her barbs. “What do you need me for?”
“You remember the conversation with my mother,” I informed her, bypassing the fact that we’d been on the verge of kissing only seconds before that conversation had taken place. “The astrolabe is of utmost importance; it not only controls the weather, some argue that it controls the whims of the fates themselves. We have secured it from the Aena castle, and it is imperative that the device not fall back into ice dragon hands. If it does, The Hearthlands will be plunged again into eternal winter, and all the more unlikely to ever see the rightful king ascend. The war will rage endlessly between our two races.”
Michelle threw down her battle ax and took the astrolabe from me with great care.
“How did you get this?” she wondered, glancing up at me.
“Penelope,” I answered, the name almost jamming in my throat. Michelle’s eyes darkened at the word. “Penelope has returned from the castle, and brought with her this crucial device.”
Michelle just stared up at me. “But now,” she finished for me, “the war can end. And I can go home. And Nell… can be your queen.” Tears crusted her eyes, though they did not fall, even when she blinked.
“Please focus, Michelle. This has nothing to do with you, or even me. This is about The Hearthlands. The ice dragons will never target or suspect you; you are a human woman. Simply find a safe place—”
A blast of icy air interrupted; soldiers were just outside this arsenal. Fire dragons rushed forward to meet the assault, giving us just a few precious seconds of privacy.
“—and hide it,” I finished. Now with one free hand, I used it to brace her shoulder. We would never be together, but perhaps we could still be friends. “Please, Michelle. You could be the one who saves this dynasty.”
She pursed her lips, nodded, and receded, deeper into the arsenal, further into the circuitous caverns beyond, and I was actually glad that she had been the one I’d seen in this hour of need. If anyone could employ espionage to endure amid struggle, I had to trust that it would be Michelle.
I pulled Father forward, into the next chamber, but halted again when I saw what lay before us—a particularly long and slender ice dragon had cornered a human female. He was ambling toward the dark-haired girl with malevolent savor.
It was Penelope.
Although multiple fire dragons assaulted his armored hide, the ice dragon was too thick of scale. He was impervious to the pain, even during this warmth and light on the island today. It was almost as if he had some personal vendetta to satisfy, and in spite of the pain, he was determined to forge onward. Without advancing directly into his path, there was no hope of landing an effective strike.
I recognized that slender ice dragon, its body as lanky as a salamander’s, and I knew the reason behind that determined advance, in spite of whatever slings were launched at his backside: Lethe.
Mother came forward, glorious and orange, and my heart sank in horror as the ice dragon launched his first real attack—on her.
“No!” I cried, and a purely instinctive fire spread through my every cell, transforming me in a matter of seconds. The fire which came streaming from my mouth was white with heat, and it coursed onto Lethe, battering him into the cavern wall. I didn’t stop—was incapable of stopping—until the coward had scrambled from sight, badly burnt.
He would not be fighting in this war again. Not for a long time.
Smoke leaked from my flesh after I regained my mortal form.
“Mother!” I went first to her, because she had received the force of the ice. Nell had only been the victim of intimidation. But Mother… Her scales had already begun to thin in som
e places, and it had been so long since she’d seen battle… “Mother, are you all right?”
She was crumpled onto one knee, having also transformed into her human visage again, and patches of her exposed face were blackened with frostbite. It would require surgery. I felt a sick, smoldering vengeance to think that the damage to Lethe had been worse.
Behind her was Nell.
“I’ll be fine,” she promised me. “Where is your father?”
I whirled with the anguish of a powerless man.
“No!” But even in the chaos, I knew that he was gone.
Nell
“What can I do? What should I do?” I shouted toward Theon. I could tell that he was distraught, and I hated to intervene, but the shelter had gone mad. It was like an atom which was entirely composed of nucleus, protons and neutrons dancing and battling and screaming at one another. How could I, who had only woken up less than an hour ago, who had been brought here by Theon, who knew nothing of these people or of these circuitous caverns, have any hope of self-direction?
It was clear that Theon did not hear me. His back remained turned, and he continued to stare at a fixed point. I had not seen him advance on us when Lethe had come to collect or kill me—I honestly couldn’t have said whether he would’ve taken me back to the castle to remain his bride, or slain me where I stood—and so I had not seen whatever caused him such distress now.
“Theon!” I called again, forcing my way through the chaos to touch his arm. He whipped to face me with eyes I had never before seen. They leapt like fire within a crystal. “What can I do?”
He stared at me a moment longer, completely uncomprehending. “Find Michelle. She was meant to take the astrolabe and hide it from the ice dragons. She went deeper into the depositories. Stay with her until I can find you again. I must find my father.” He hardly looked at me at all, even though his eyes were on me. It was as if he had been told that I was standing there, and yet I was invisible to him. “I have to find my father,” he repeated, as if to himself.
I stood there, gaping after him in shock. It was the first time in our entire relationship that I’d felt as if he’d forgotten me entirely. Did he not realize that I had no idea where I was, or who all these people were?
The depositories?
“I will show you, dear,” Theon’s wounded mother offered, hobbling to my side. A leathery orange wing was partially unfurled from her shoulder blade, protruding through the torn fabric of her gown, and I saw several black speckles on the skin—just like on her face. Frostbite. “I will show you the depositories, and you will help me to walk.” She laughed without mirth and didn’t wait for my agreement before she clung to my shoulder for support. I didn’t hesitate to embrace her, and she gestured toward one of the many corridors through which we could travel. It wasn’t until we’d begun moving that she spat out the word, “Those,” and then took a deep breath before continuing, “are where we keep tactical gear, weaponry, and stores of food. Just in case this happened again.”
As we passed each depository, she kept trying to tell me what was held within each block of cells, until I finally had to silence her. “Please, Mrs. Aena,” I said to her, overwhelmed. Blood smeared the walls. We could hardly walk in the desperate throngs surging both backward and forward. On occasion, we stepped together over the carcass of a fallen dragon. And yet, amid all this carnage, she felt trapped in the role of hostess. “You don’t have to do this.”
Mrs. Aena smiled. “Yes, I do,” she whispered. I could hardly hear her, but her mouth formed the words. “If I don’t, I’ll have to actually look at the world around us.”
I tried to offer a smile, but it faltered as a scream pierced the air. “Mrs. Aena, do you know which depository Theon sent Michelle to?”
“The girl always seemed fond of the furs,” Mrs. Aena murmured. “Very fond.”
Sounds like Michelle, all right.
“Where is the fur depository?”
“Not far—” Suddenly, Mrs. Aena gripped my arm with such severity that I believed her fingers seared into the skin itself. “There,” she breathed. “Just ahead of us. Those ice dragons block the path.”
The beasts were massive, with scales of luminous silver, blue, and white, and they advanced into the fur depository with a swagger. If Michelle had gone there to hide among the mantles and stoles, she wouldn’t be the only one—fire dragons had transformed to battle in return, and the depository was packed with the creatures, hurling balls of lava and tornadoes of icicles back and forth.
I paused to dig into the leather satchel Theon had left with me, and discovered inside a burbling bottle, hot to the touch. Remembering the way that Lethe had been sensitive even to the meager halo of warmth created by the fireplace he had lit for me, I wondered if this volatile-looking liquid would help in disbanding a large group of ice dragons. But what if I was separated from Mrs. Aena? I returned the burbling bottle to the leather satchel and next extracted a small tomahawk with a very heavy blade at its tip; it would be perfect for throwing from a distance. I did not want to be forced into close-range combat with one of those vicious creatures. But being a lowly human and a wounded older woman worked to our benefit: the ice dragons hardly noticed us, as the more dangerous fire dragons held their concentration.
My breath hitched. Emerging from between two heavy furs, the astrolabe clutched to her torso, was Michelle. Her curls were tangled in knots, and she wore no makeup, and the white dress I remembered from the going-away party was stained with ash.
“Michelle!” I cried, relieved, even in spite of our checkered history. “Michelle!”
She looked at me with a glare I had never before seen. Smirking? Sure. Cunning? Most of the time. But I had never seen such spite in her eyes. She hated me.
Theon must have rejected her, and not once, but a million times. I’d never seen her so bitter because she had never lost to me before. I’d never seen Michelle Ballinger lose in my life, and now that I had returned, and Theon was mine again… she had officially lost. I wasn’t even sure why she was here, but I was certain she wouldn’t be staying. She wasn’t going to be anyone’s queen—she was just going to be another neglected trophy wife somewhere in New Hampshire.
Michelle looked at me once—a stare of utter hatred—and then turned toward the largest of the silver dragons, approaching it.
“Michelle!” I begged her, unwilling to race forward and risk both of our lives. What was she doing? Was she so vindictive that she would kill herself in front of me just to try to torture me?
And then, as the large silver dragon fixed her with its unearthly eyes, she lifted the glowing astrolabe into the air and ducked her head, as if… as if making an offering.
Suddenly, I was cold all over again, as if the winter had never left.
She was going to return the crucial element of the cosmos to the other side.
“Michelle, no!” I begged. She didn’t look at me.
The ice and fire dragons sparred in the depository, unaware of the exchange taking place.
“She wouldn’t.” Mrs. Aena didn’t sound like she really believed it herself. “She wouldn’t, would she?”
I shook my head, knowing all too well that she would.
A few of the other ice dragons noticed the exchange taking place in the center of the depository and abandoned their battles, slithering closer in spite of the vulnerability this gave their backsides.
Oh, God, she was going to do it. She was going to sacrifice to the ice dragons the one tool they could use to hold this kingdom indefinitely—and for no reason other than sheer spite. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, they said.
“She would,” I whispered back to Mrs. Aena, digging in the satchel for that bubbling bottle I had earlier discarded. Four ice dragons now stood over Michelle, ceasing their ice shards in honor of her unexpected gift, the traitor.
Perfect.
“Michelle!” I hollered; the girl did not turn to acknowledge me, but her expression was so stiff and set, I
knew that she was concentrating very hard on me. No one could ignore someone they hated with such a passion.
I held the bottle overhead. Its color had deepened to a dark red, and the glass was smoldering hot to the touch now. Had the liquid changed in the time it had taken for us to enter the depository?
“I said no!” I bellowed, heaving the bottle end over end into the air.
The glass struck the ground between the circle of dragons and exploded upward in flame. I lost sight of the dragons, the astrolabe, and Michelle immediately; they became nothing but silhouettes in an almost sonic blast, and then became iridescent blurs beneath my closed eyelids. In the next instant, I was battered by heat, and found myself shielded with an unexpected cloak of leathery orange wings: Mrs. Aena had sheltered me from the blast.
But when her wings shuttered away from me, Michelle, the dragons, and the astrolabe were all gone.
Nell
After the astrolabe was recaptured, the ice dragons receded from the caverns with surprising speed. They left their dead and wounded behind. The dead were hauled along the winding stairwell, along with the fallen fire dragons, to be buried at sunset. The wounded were taken to the infirmary. It made no difference; the ice dragons could return at any time, now that they had located the shelter. They had already learned its geography and its capacity. There was nothing left to hide.
Still, for fear of espionage, any capable ice dragons were turned immediately away, in their slings, wearing their patches, hobbling on their crutches. No matter how charitable the fire dragons could be, they were not stupid. It was generally agreed upon that an ice dragon, in spite of whatever other qualities they might possess, was not trustworthy, and to have one in your midst was to be at risk of betrayal… or worse.