8. Ice

The second time she had the dragon dream, she was ten. She was perched on a mountain, camouflaged by the snow that surrounded her, when a cry pierced her heart, tearing it in two. And then there was silence. Alarmed, she flew from her perch, looking for the boy she knew had cried out to her. When she found him, she was so gripped with fear for him, she nearly fell from the sky. He was three years older than the last time she saw him, but she knew him immediately. He was in the ocean, trying desperately to stay afloat in the frigid water among glaciers and ice floes. He was struggling, she could see, unable to swim properly because he was clutching something in his arms, something that weighed him down. Panicked, she swooped down on him, plunging into the freezing water, not caring about the cold that tore through her wings, her body, her lungs; only caring that she save the boy, that she keep him from drowning. She glided under him until she could feel his legs kicking against her neck as he tried to swim. Rising from the water, she felt him settle onto her back, gripping her neck with one arm, clinging desperately to her as she flew up, away from the water, and to the shore.

Gently setting him down on a wide expanse of ice, she tried to warm him with her breath, but it came out as white lightning instead of fire, and she could not warm him. He backed away, shaking his head and clinging to the thing he had been holding while trying to swim. It was the same black and gray-streaked egg. As she watched, he wrapped himself around it, cradling it the way a mother would a newborn baby. He rocked it gently, pressing his cheek against its smooth surface. It was then that she saw the egg was no longer ordinary, but precious. Perhaps the most precious thing ever, next to the boy himself.

How can I take care of it all by myself? His worry came off him in waves.

You are not by yourself. You have me. You always have me.

He shook his head. No. There is only me. And the Egg. I'm all it has now, don't you see? Everyone else leaves us, but I will never leave it. I promise, I promise.

Her heart broke. I won't leave you! You are not alone!

He nodded slowly. I know. But only I can protect the Egg. Do you understand? It's the only thing that matters anymore.

No, it isn't. You matter.

I know I matter to you. But it isn't enough. It isn't enough to keep the Egg safe. Do you see all the ice? Ice everywhere. It's hard, and the Egg is fragile. It's cold, and the Egg will freeze. There's only one way to protect it, do you understand?

She understood, but she didn't want to understand. She wanted to protect them both, but she couldn't.

So the boy did the only thing he could do. He turned to ice. Not fragile ice, like an icicle hanging from the eaves of a roof, ice that melts under the first rays of the sun. His ice was like the glaciers themselves, the kind of ice that could sink ships.

And then a ship did come. It was black and red, and had three smokestacks that belched filth into the sky, blocking the sun from view, but the boy made of ice looked at the egg and looked at the ship. This ship will take us where we need to go.

Are you sure that's the right ship? It's not a happy ship. It won't take you anywhere warm.

The boy sighed. I'm a glacier. I don't need to be warm. I only need to be strong.

But the Egg, how will you keep it from freezing if you are a glacier?

She could already see his answer, however. At the point where the boy's hand held the egg, he was not ice. He was a warm wool scarf, soft and thick, and he wrapped around the egg, keeping it safe. And the scarf arm pulled the egg into the shelter of the glacier where nothing could penetrate.

Checkmate, he said, and the Glacier and the Egg got on the ship and sailed away.

The dragon watched them go, and she cried, her tears turning to ice as they fell into the sea.


It went without saying that Duke's date had not come to London to see the British Open. Mai didn't count this against her; not everyone had to love Duel Monsters, and pre-Joey she certainly wouldn't have turned down a trip overseas on a luxury jet, especially not with a guy who looked like Duke. It came as no surprise, then, that Cady didn't know the first thing about the game and that her eyes would glaze over when talk turned to the tournament. What was surprising, however, was that her friend from Reading, a tall, pretty girl with light brown hair and brown eyes, not only knew quite a lot about Duel Monsters, but was a huge fan. When she arrived at the Queen's Head about an hour after Téa had left for her meeting with Pegasus, she stopped abruptly in the middle of greeting Cady and surveyed the table, her mouth hanging open in a round "O" of surprise.

"I… you… you're Yugi Mutou!" Her accent was clearly American rather than the British one Mai had been expecting.

Mai watched Yugi war with himself over the sudden attention. "I… yes." He blushed slightly, but gave her a confident smile.

The girl's eyes continued to travel around the table. "And Mai Valentine! And Joey Wheeler! Holy shit, Cady!" She turned on her friend. "You told me your guy's friends were tournament duelists, but you didn't tell me they were the tournament duelists!"

Cady looked bemused, but Joey quickly said, "That's us," and flashed a smile so wide Mai thought the top half of his head might fall off. She tried not to roll her eyes at him. Though she and Joey were pretty equally ranked, people often recognized her and knew her name simply because female duelists were relatively rare, whereas Joey always seemed to get lost in the very long shadow cast by his best friend. The fact that this girl had not only heard of him, but knew him by sight was a rare treat for Joey, and Mai didn't want to begrudge him that.

She reassessed this, however, when he said, "Pull up a stool there and join us. Joey Wheeler always has time to talk to a devoted fan."

A chorus of groans rang out, and Mai backhanded him in the shoulder. She looked at the newcomer. "Ignore him. His ego once ate Tokyo. They made a monster movie about it and everything."

Joey put up a protest, but the new girl smiled and sat down on Mokuba's vacated stool while Cady made quick introductions. "Paige and I were best friends in San Jose, but then her mom met a British guy and got married, and they moved here when we were sophomores in high school."

Paige looked around the table. "Mind if I smoke?" When she got a round of shrugs and head-shaking in response, she fished a pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of her purse. "I was thrilled when Cady e-mailed and said she was gonna get to come to London for the British Open. I thought it was pretty funny, since she doesn't know a thing about Duel Monsters. Which explains how she could completely neglect to tell me she was hanging with the World Champions." Paige glared at her friend as she lit her cigarette, then held it down at her side so it wouldn't blow smoke across the table. Not that it mattered; the atmosphere in the pub was so thick with smoke they'd stopped noticing it hours ago.

"Do you play Duel Monsters?" Yugi asked her.

Paige shook her head, blowing out a stream of smoke. "Not really. I mean, I play, but I don't compete at tournaments or anything. But I love to watch duels. I was so psyched to hear there'd be a major tournament in London, but I never in a million years thought I'd get to have drinks at a pub with Yugi Mutou. This is just so cool. You all have to let me buy you a round."

They talked about Duel Monsters and past tournaments, everything from Duelist Kingdom to the ill-fated Duel at Sea until Cady looked like she was going to go comatose. Paige, on the other hand, was thoroughly enjoying herself and especially seemed to be hitting it off with Tristan.

"Hey Paige, why don't you watch the tournament with us?" Tristan smiled at her, barely hiding the eagerness in his voice. "Me and Duke and Serenity and our other friend Téa don't duel, so you're welcome to hang with us. Right?" He looked to Serenity for confirmation.

It was then that Mai noticed Serenity looked less than thrilled with this arrangement. "Oh, sure." She flashed Paige a fake smile that was out of character for Serenity, who was generally sweet to everyone.

Paige was looking at Tristan instead of Serenity. "Oh, I'd really like that."

Serenity watched them a moment, then abruptly leaned across the table. "Hey Yugi, I was thinking. Since so many of the duelists are here, it might be a good time for me to wander around and get a feel for where they are."

He looked at her a moment, as if weighing something. Eventually, he nodded. "Good idea, Serenity."

Joey, oblivious to the tightness in Serenity's voice, narrowed his eyes in warning. "You ain't getting a feel for no one."

She gave him an irritable look. "I'm talking about the Shadow Realm, you moron."

Mai decided to jump in. "Give it a rest, Wheeler. I'll go mingle with her and make sure to keep your precious little sister safe from all the big bad mean boys."

Serenity made a face, but Joey shook his head. "Oh yeah, I like that so much better. Now all these sleazebags can hit on my sister and my girlfriend."

Mai crossed her arms and gave him a frosty glare. "So is it that you don't trust me, or you don't think I can handle myself?"

Joey opened his mouth, but then seemed to realize that there was no answer to that question that would not result in some very lonely nights, so he closed it again and growled through clenched teeth before relenting. "Fine, go."


Mai watched, impressed, as Serenity worked the room. Their personalities weren't anything alike; where Mai actively courted attention, as loudly and flirtatiously as she possibly could, Serenity was somewhat quiet and modest. She carried herself with the air of someone who was completely unaware of her gravitational pull on the opposite sex, but Mai marveled at the way she deftly handled them, slipping beyond everyone's grasp as if she were coated in Teflon. Mai, in contrast, was more of a Venus flytrap.

It didn't take long, however, for Mai to get bored. They were standing at the bar, drinking ciders and black purchased for them by a pair of American duelists Mai had never met before. The men were gone before the drinks were, and Mai was swirling her finger around the rim of her glass. "Everyone seem normal?"

"Define 'normal.'"

"Normal as in not Shadow Realm-y."

"Oh, well, that kind of normal, yeah, everyone's normal." Serenity giggled.

Mai shot her an accusing look. "You're drunk."

"Am not." Serenity put her drink down. "Okay, maybe a little. I'm not used to drinking."

"Any reason you feel the need to tonight?" Mai resumed swirling her finger along the glass's rim, trying to look as if the question had been nothing more than idle curiosity.

Serenity gave her a guarded look and shrugged. "No. Just 'cause we're in an authentic British pub and I can."

"Hm." Mai took a sip of her cider and decided on the direct approach. "You know, Serenity, you can't have it both ways."

Serenity frowned. "Can't have what both ways?"

"Tristan. You can't tell him you only want to be friends and then expect him to stay away from other girls until you're ready to take down the walls."

"Oh please, Tristan can do what he wants. I'm just disappointed that he'd be interested in someone like that."

"Someone like what? Paige seemed perfectly nice to me. Better than Duke's date."

"Oh come on! It didn't bother you the way she drooled all over Joey?"

Mai laughed, almost spitting out her drink. "You're joking, right? If anything, Joey was drooling all over her, and that was mostly because she didn't say 'Joey who?'"

"And that doesn't bother you?"

"Oh hon, you are Teflon, aren't you?" Mai shook her head. "No, it doesn't bother me, not any more than the million other things he makes an ass of himself over, anyway. But if it did, it would be because Joey and I have a relationship. You do remember that you and Tristan don't because you turned him down, don't you?"

Serenity looked away, gazing off into the crowd. "That's not the point."

"That is so the point. You're as pig-headed as your brother, you know that, kiddo?"

"I—oh fabulous, there's another one headed this way."

Mai purposely refrained from looking, checking her watch instead. It was just about ten o'clock, which meant they'd been flirting with duelists for about an hour now. "I'm bored with the men here, and we are so not done with this conversation." She then thought about it a second. "Unless he's really hot."

Serenity raised her eyes just enough to look over Mai's shoulder without looking like she was looking. "I wouldn't say hot, but cute. Looks like a biker."

Mai made a face. "No thanks."

Serenity looked down into her drink suddenly, and Mai heard someone step up behind her. "Hey, I know you, you're Mai Valentine."

Mai's eyes widened at the familiar nasal drawl, her knuckles turning white as she gripped her drink. She turned too quickly, almost knocking her glass over in the process.

"Valon!"