The Ice Storm

Chapter Twenty-One

Rhoswen paced the floor of her personal quarters. She was unsure if she was feeling trepidation or elation. Maybe it was both, but it would be wiser to allow the trepidation to rule her actions for a while yet she counselled herself. It was a dangerous thing she was attempting. Failure would mean instant death, or worse. Best not to focus too much on the prize as yet lest she lose sight of the greater machinations of her step-mother Neva. Plots within plots within plots. But this was what she had been trained for, raised to do. Ironically, Rhoswen hoped that Neva would be pleased with her efforts to secure her own future. Maybe she would expect no less from her wayward, headstrong foundling.

Reflexively she glanced sideways into her new wall mounted mirror as she passed it. It was not magical in itself, but that hadn't stopped someone skilled in mirror-lore from using it's predecessor to spy on her. Rhoswen had been surpised beyond measure to see the boyish face of King Wendell peering out at her one morning. He did look decidedly dishevelled and tired which gave her hope that perhaps his had been a last ditch effort in trying to thwart her. Although he'd done nothing but stare vacantly, even as she had tossed the offending glass right out the window to shatter on the flagstones below.

Rhoswen only hoped that the portal the mirror had opened had been enough for some of the freezing spell to penetrate wherever the King had been and freeze him then and there. There would be no way to tell for sure until mid-winter had passed and her soldiers could safely pass across the border and finish what the ice had started. Rhoswen pinched herself. Her soldiers, not likely! They were Neva's people, these men and wolves and all manner of in between creatures. The Princess was an outsider and always would be. In retrospect, the perfect heir for one such as the Ice Queen. Young enough and capable enough, but not so accepted by the people that a coup would ever be successful. Rhoswen supposed that Neva was as suspicious as she was because the rumours were probably true that the current Ice Queen had cheeringly deposed her own parents in her own quest for power.

Hooves clattered from the courtyard below. Rhoswen breathed a sigh of relief that it was late in the night. In this time of war preparations, one more troop arriving in to the Castle would be likely overlooked, less so even than to stir people from their beds. Her guards were as silent as she expected them to be. No shouting or clashing of weapons, not hoots or catcalls to fellow soldiers. She could hear their progress through the maze of corridors beneath her, feel them as they mounted the stairs that led to her rooms. Beads of sweat trickled down her back as she waited. Had they been successful? Had their charge been 'damaged' in the capture?

She let out her breath in a rush as the door opened, unaware that she'd been holding it. Scents flooded the chamber, unmistakeable in what they told her. Rhoswen hoped her smile was suitably predatory as her guards summarily placed a small figure in the centre of the room, drawing back the dark hood that covered the face.

"Lady Virginia" she drawled, gazing on the young woman who stood blinking in the sudden light. Rhoswen took a moment to study her captive. She was a petite woman, much less tall than Rhoswen herself, with tiny wrists and slender limbs. Her face was pale, but Rhoswen knew it to be her natural pallor rather than fear or shock. She had fine features, high cheekbones and wide blue eyes. Close cropped hair lay in dissaray around her shoulders. Abruptly the woman turned on her heel and moved to sit in one of Rhoswen's chairs by the writing desk. Rhoswen could not contain her sudden discomfort at the sight. Who did this woman think she was? An equal come to visit for a late supper?

To distract herself from the sight, Rhoswen turned back to her guards.

"You have done well, all of you" she murmured. "Is the traitor still living?"

"Yes, my Princess. He did not resist. We have him safely in our keeping. What do you wish us to do now?" her chief guard asked. Rhoswen paused. He would kill Yacobe if she asked it, she knew, and perhaps even if she did not. Competition was fierce amongst the personal guards of both Neva and Rhoswen. Alive, Yacobe posed a threat simply because of what he knew and who he might tell. And yet Rhoswen had a fear of acting too soon. Once a thing was done there would be no going back. And there was the slender hope that one day he might be persuaded to her side once more. Once she had the child...

"My Lady?"

"Keep him safely, for now. I do not wish him killed unless he tries to escape, or to communicate with the outside. This is the most important part. He must not be allowed any contact with his clan. See that he lives, but is silenced nonetheless. You know of the way I speak?"

"Yes My Princess. And...of this woman? Shall we prepare for the same?"

"No. I have another place to put her. No one will find her or hear her there"

"Very good, My Lady"

"You may leave us now, but post two guard at my door" Rhoswen finished. Bowing, the men backed out of the chamber. Rhoswen could hear them drawing lots to determine who would guard her door. Once the chamber was silent again, she turned back to face the woman Virginia. She seemed a great deal smaller on second inspection, not counting the fact that she was huddled in a chair. Rhoswen wondered if she was cold, or perhaps had decided finally to be fearful. Either way, it pleased the Princess that a little of the natural order had been restored. She was the mistress here now. She opened her mouth to speak but Virginia cut her off.

"What will you do to Yacobe?"

"How touching that you care. Surely you know his capture of you was my idea"

"I don't think it was ever your idea, not to him" said Virginia, meeting Rhoswens gaze for the first time. The blue eyes bored into hers with nary a flicker of doubt or fear. Suddenly Rhoswen was assailed by a raft of thoughts about how she could wipe that serenity from the woman permanently. But then her gaze fell on the protruding stomach. The woman was as large as one close to delivery, although Rhoswen knew that she was unskilled in matters of childbirth to tell for sure.

"It matters not. You are here now, with me. That is all that counts. You and your...child". Rhoswen had the satisfaction of seeing Virginia flinch at her mention of the infant.

"My daughter is just a normal child. You mistake her if you seek her to be anything but"

"Oh come now! Surely you cannot be as ignorant as that. Mirrors do not lie, and what I saw was no 'ordinary' child within you. You carry the moon-shadow child, woman, do not pretend otherwise!" Rhoswen finished hotly, aware that her voice had risen uncomfortably but unable to control it. It was an effort to force calmness to her body, a sign that the tension of the past few weeks were taking their toll. A band of pain encircled her ribs, a thing that had become all too common to Rhoswen. Just a little longer, she pleaded silently. Just a little while and then I'll be powerful enough to abandon my 'mirror' and it's poisons for good. But even as she thought it she could feel the pulling, the urgency, the addiction that kept drawing her down those stairs night after night.

"You have mirrors" said Virginia, in a matter of fact way that Rhoswen was not fooled by.

"Oh yes, I have the best Mirror in all the Kingdoms. I bet you would want to get your hands on that wouldn't you? You, the spawn of the greatest mirror-mage in recent years. Powerful your mother was. The Kingdoms were fools not to yield to her. With her in charge, who knows but maybe she could have defeated me. Too late now. And all the precious Kingdoms have to rely on now is you and your weakling friends. Such a pity". Rhoswen knew she was ranting, probably unnecessarily, but this Virginia was not what she had been expecting, or even counting on. There was no wailing, weeping girl in this room tonight, begging her not to take her babe, making all sorts of threats and bribes and deals.

Behind her, the woman sighed and shifted on the chair. Her hands went to her back, rubbing absently.

"In this 'mirror' of yours that you boast about, have you used it to spy out your enemies?"

"Of course. There is little that I have not seen"

"I think there is much you have not seen, Princess Rhoswen. Have you never thought to use the mirror to find those who would seek you as a friend? Those who would...love you?" Virginia countered. Rhoswen thought the question so astoundingly strange that it took a second to work out what the woman was asking. Love me? Love me? What did she mean? Was it a trap?

"No, of course not. How absurd" she said, too sharply. Stupid woman. What did she think the scrying was like? A walk in the park? Why would I want to use it any more than absolutely necessary? Rhoswen paced the floor, sounding out her reasons in silence. Almost, she could ignore the plaintive whimper underneath...love me, love me, who would love me?

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Wolf looked down on the scene with some dismay. Beside him, he heard Scarlett also draw her breath, but whether it was with elation or an equal measure of hopelessness he couldn't say. They had left the travelling half-wolf pack behind earlier in the morning. Scarlett had come to him late in the night before.

"Wolf. Tomorrow we have to keep going up" she'd whispered, her hand gesturing out to the inky blackness. Wolf had sighed but he'd guessed it was coming anyway. No matter the distractions, the revelations, the things that had thwarted her plans, still she had clung to this addled idea of rescuing this 'dragon'. The same creature that none but Virginia had even seen, save for what the cub Alice had dreamed about. The dragon that might not even exist. Certainly there were no records, no legends of a dragon in Coven Lake, and typically in times past such things were well documented. Wolf didn't even know if a dragon could live underwater for the length of time this one would have to have done to have been so forgotten and overlooked.

But as he gazed downwards, he corrected himself slightly. If ever a being wanted to go to ground, this would be one of the places to do it. The Lake had always been seen as a place hostile and devoid of life, which was surprising since it's waters were long rumoured to be the source of all the land-magics in the Kingdoms. The realm of the Goddess Coventina, no less. The last time he'd seen the Lake, it had been deep and blue and still. Now, it was a flat plain of ice, completely solid and likely hundreds of metres thick in places.

Virginia had appeared right out of that Lake not so long ago, Wolf knew. A fateful, bloody night that had been, when Elias the monster werewolf had run rampant through the Red Guard. Virginia had stopped him though. So fearless and calm, she'd simply raised her hand and he had stopped short like any well bred cur might have. Elias would not have harmed her. Not whilst his blood dwelt within her, the blood that bathed the tiny unformed foetus that was Wolfs' and Virginias' new daughter. Wolf shivered with more than cold at the strangeness that that cub had since shown. Even before birth his daughter was making her mark, on her mother most of all. Wolf couldn't help the whine that escaped him to be torn away on the cold breeze. He was a fool ten times over to have left her. Now he was hundreds of miles away whilst she languished in Wendell's overcrowded pile of stone. Anything could be happening with her. For a moment he allowed himself to hope that Tony would have gotten her out of there and back to New York if the Ice Queens' troops had so much as shown themselves before the Castle walls. They had a secret pact, Tony and he. Even if he'd had to drag her there, Wolf was confident that Tony would keep his daughter safe before all things.

Now all that Wolf had to do was get back to her, somehow.

"We shouldn't stand here on the edge. We're too exposed" Scarlett said. Wolf had been about to move them anyway, but he let her have a moment to think she had realised it ahead of him. She was like an overeager student with most things concerning woodcraft, and Wolf had to admit he'd been impressed with her skills, learned or not. In many ways it was simply a case of making her aware of what her lupine senses, so long buried and ignored, had been telling her anyway.

He followed her away from the lip of rock that formed the barrier. To their left, the cleft in the rock that usually allowed the Lake to spill down the side of the mountains in a series of falls was now eerily silent. The great sheets of water were frozen now, a beautiful sight but making for treacherous footing in the final stages of climbing. As they reached the shore, or where they thought the shore had been, Wolf stopped to scan the ground.

"I can't tell where your campsite was. It's all too covered in snow and ice. I can only guess, and from that I can only guess where Virginia came out of the water. We could be searching a long time, Scarlett"

"And this is not the most forgiving of places to live in, even for a day"

"No. We may well starve before we can even locate a likely spot to start" Wolf said, unable to keep his morose feeling to himself, even though he knew that he and Scarlett had been through too much together for it to be pointless trying to keep things from each other. As if she felt his despondance, she reached over with a gloved hand to take one of his own in hers.

Hand in hand they stood on the literal edge of the world, and then she laughed.

"Want to tell me what you're laughing for?" Wolf asked her.

"You'll be angry"

"Really? Any more than I'll be if I have to beat it out of you, she-wolf woman?"

In reply Scarlett stifled her laugh, but she could not quite hide her lupine response. Almost her lips curled in a half-snarl behind her hand. Wolf would have prompted her reaction further, after all, aggression was a thing to be learned, but she slipped out of his reach deftly, almost skipping across the ice.

"Come on then!" she called back. Wolf cursed her soundly but followed her, taking care with the slippery surface. Under his feet, the frozen water had a greenish hue, almost transparent in places. Wolf didn't like it. It was like walking on water that could open up and swallow him at any minute.

"Where are we going?" he called out. His voice seemed to be muffled by the cold air.

"Oh, you're really going to be mad"

"Will you stop saying that! What do you know about whatever makes me mad?"

"Look, then, and see"

"See what?" Wolf muttered as he scanned the endless white horizon. Just endless miles of white, so bright in places it stung the eyes. But as he roved back and forth...there it was. A tiny blip in the whiteness, a shadow. Then, just as his eyes registered, his ears caught the sound. Dim scratching it sounded like, regular and monotonous and slow. Scarlett was walking forward still, but she was slower now, as if she didn't wish to startle whoever it was. It was a someone, Wolf realised belatedly. Someone kneeling on the ice, scraping at a small depression. A tiny figure...familiar somehow, but how?

Alice.

Wolf hurried forward, brushing past Scarlett. The blond woman put out her hand as if to stay him.

"Wait, don't..."

"Don't be a fool woman. I'm not angry" Wolf growled. But it was true. Despite his shock at finding the little girl-cub here of all places, he only had to take one look at her to know punishment was out of the question. She was bedraggled and so thin she looked like the wind might blow her away. She barely registered his appearance at her side. She just kept scraping away methodically at the ice with a small piece of stone. Wolf guessed that she might have been there for days already, and yet for all her effort she had made little more than a foot deep depression in the ice.

Wolf felt his heart clench tight as he gathered her onto his lap. Her fingers were blue with the cold. Anger stirred within him finally, but it was not directed at the cub, rather the power that lay under their feet. That same power that had reached out across the miles to summon a defenceless child here. For a moment he was tempted beyond reason to up and leave this place, leave the beast buried and forgotton.

Curled up in the warmth of his long coat, Wolf felt his niece begin to shiver and stir. Her eyes, so like his mothers, sought out his own and Scarletts.

"I made it uncle Lucian"

"Yes you did, Alice"

"Don't be angry at me"

"I'm not sweeting. I'm proud of you, you know" Wolf replied, feeling it truly. It had been an amazing effort for her to get here, alone and undetected. She must have followed them all the way to the walls of Hooded City, only striking out on her own when they had been delayed there. No wonder she looked so thin. She probably hadn't eaten for days. Wolf smiled at Scarlett, who was already rummaging through their meagre supplies. But Alice only sniffed at the proffered food, her attention still on the ice.

"We're too late, uncle. Almost gone she is. We'll never reach her in time. I thought you would be bringing an army with you, lots of men to dig" she said, the last part directed at Scarlett with not a little of the residual animosity that came between them. If the cub was aware of the changes in Scarlett she gave no sign of it.

"I have no army to command anymore" Scarlett said, her own face set with regret as it seemed to Wolf to be the first time she had truly realised the enormity of the task they had set for themselves. Wolf looked back and forth between them, allowing a small smile to play across his face. Scarlett did not fail to spot it.

"Ah, so now it's your turn to laugh is it?" she sputtered.

"Oh be quiet Scarlett. Please tell me, what exactly were you expecting when you got here? Just a little tap tap on the ice and hey presto, she's free?"

"Well, I..."

"Well nothing. Pure luck has gotten you here, and pure luck will no doubt save the day again"

"What do you mean? What luck?"

"Me. I'm the luck. Damn that woman of mine. She must have known somehow"

"You're not making any sense".

In answer, Wolf shrugged off his pack, the same one he had toted all the way from Castle White. Silly, heavy awkward thing it was, but he'd been unable to let it go. As he unwrapped his parcel, Scarlett still stared in open mouthed confusion.

"What...what is that little thing going to be able to do?" she stammered as it whistled through the air. "It's just a simple wood axe!"

Wolf laughed and brandished the Magic Axe at the ice crust. With one stroke he splintered twice as far into the crust as that which Alice had spent days scratching out. The cub shrieked with laughter as she scrabbled forward to sweep away the broken chips and shards.

"Well, go on, get digging out" Wolf said to Scarlett. "we've still a ways to go all the same".