The Ice Storm
Chapter Twenty-six
It felt like she had fallen a mile or more, but as Virginia gazed upwards she could see that it had been more of a slide. Not unlike the dwarf mine slide, only a lot faster and colder. And more painful. Her womb was still contracting weakly, pushing out the last remains of the afterbirth. Looking around carefully, Virginia could see that she was alone. The baby had thankfully still been secure in Willems arms when the ground had opened up. She could only hope that he would be able to keep the infant safe until they could work out how to get her out of there. Virginia couldn't see exactly where she had come from, but she called out anyway. There was no answer, or perhaps there had been but she was unable to hear it with her human ears.
"I'm okay...I think. I don't know where I am though" she shouted. Only the faint echo of her own voice responded. Virginia's legs felt shaky beneath her as she gained her feet. Amazing how much lighter she already felt. Tearing off what remained of her long cloak, she used strips to clean herself, wincing at the tender flesh.
"Don't 'spose there'd be a hot bath down here huh?" she muttered. Darn it, but was nothing ever normal in this crazy world? "Imagine, if you will, giving birth somewhere underneath an Ice Palace where you're nothing but a prisoner, and then to top things off, the ground splits open and down you go..." she continued. Part of her knew she was gabbling nonsense. She ought to sit down, rest some and gather her wits again. Perhaps she had lost too much blood, maybe she was dying. She didn't know. A pace in front of her though, was a very familiar object. She leant to pick up the silvery disc of the dragon scale, wondering at how it had survived intact.
"I'm just so tired, you know" she rambled, "I can't remember the last time I slept in a real bed, or saw the blue sky"
"Nor I" came the answer from the darkness. Virginia froze. What an eerie voice, she thought. Like it had been spoken not aloud, but quietly in the mind. It was not unlike the Goddess Coventina's way of speaking, and for a moment Virginia's spirits soared. But no, odd or not, this was definately a male voice speaking to her. And Coventina the water Goddess was frozen, a dead entity surely.
"Hello?"
"Who are you?" returned the disembodied voice.
"Virginia...I'm from the Fourth Kingdom. I'm a prisoner here...I think"
"You are a human woman" said the voice, as a statement rather than a question. There came another shudder in the earth. To Virginia it sounded now like a great scraping, someone or something digging and clawing at rock and ice. With a sudden insight, Virginia realised who the speaker was.
"Where are you?" she asked. It seemed impossible to tell in the gloom, but she needed to see for herself, to be sure.
"Behind you, little woman". Virginia spun, clutching at her dizzy head. And there, so hard to spot but now so obvious, a hulking darkness against the pale glow of centuries old ice. Before the shape there seemed to be a small chamber, part of it's inner walls now collapsed, and it was this that Virginia was staring through. Gingerly she made her way forward, brushing against fallen stone and debris.
Someone had brought down a small wool rug at some time past. Perhaps to sit upon, for there was no other furnishings in the ice carved room. Nor was there, that Virginia could see, any exit or entry. She stooped to draw the frozen rug around her shoulders.
"You are cold. I had forgotten how weak the humankind are. No wonder that my kin said to one another, nay, the men are no threat to us. Yet those who doubted were the first to feel the bite. One by one they hunted us, all for the love of the silver and the power it brought them. Do they still make the mirrors, do you know?"
"Not many these days" Virginia ventured, unsure as to how this huge creature would respond. She certainly had no desire to point out the fact of the male dragon's seeming 'addiction' to that same magic silver. The dragon clawed at the ice again, making the ground tremble, but it was ever so slightly weaker. Virginia could see the creature was tiring from it's efforts to free itself.
"Can I help you?" she asked it. The dragon left off it's scraping to fix it's blurry eye through the ice at her.
"And why, pray tell, would you want to do that? Surely you do not wish me to escape this place. Where then will you come by the source of your magic? Or perhaps you have plundered me enough?" it hissed at her. Virginia felt the weight of it's malevolent glare.
"No, wait. You mistake me. I'm not from this land, and you have no idea how true that is. My name is Virginia, and I have...I have"
"What...?"
"Brought something to you...from one you used to know" Virginia finished in a rush, ignoring the rising fear. The dragon scale disc thrummed with energy as she held it up, and all around the edges it glowed with a silvery blue light. There was a muted cracking sound and Virginia realised that the dragon in front of her was pushing it's massive head against the ice, almost butting in fact. Virginia took a step backwards as the last barrier shattered loudly, throwing echoes all through the underground cavern. For a terrifying moment, she thought she had made a grave error. What indeed would such a creature think, faced with a puny human holding a piece of it's kin aloft as a trophy?
The huge head with it's gaping maw thrust towards her, stopping a scant few inches from her face. Virginia felt a part of her mind grow numb with terror as she unwittingly recalled being faced with another set of gleaming fangs, baying for her blood. Elias the werewolf had taken her down unknowingly, and yet even his horrible visage was nothing compared to the dragon. These teeth were fully as long as her arm. She closed her eyes, surprising herself as calm swept through her. Yes, yes, I've done this before. Some dim memory of her mother came to her, staring across the void.
But the dragon never struck. Instead it simply breathed, a cold and metallic breeze against her skin.
"Zaphira" the dragon whispered. Virginia could only nod mutely. "Then...she is not a dream at all" it said.
"No. She lives..."
"She has been calling to me. I thought her a dream finally, for so sure was I that I alone survived of my kindred. It seemed a cruel thing, to me, to dream so vividly. So cruel, that in many ways I wished for the Ice Queen to drain me dry indeed and let me escape it. But this is a living scale, surely. I remember her, Zaphira. She was young still when she vanished. We thought her lost, but we had no time even for the proper mourning"
"I know, I know where she is" Virginia said. "In fact, even now my own mate and friend seek her out. She is in danger, as much as you are. The Ice Queen's spell has reached her hiding spot, as far away as it is from here"
"The same magic that has grown strong from my blood, no less" answered the dragon. Virginia was sure she could hear the bitter irony in it's musical voice.
"But if we hurry, we may..." Virginia said. But the dragon cocked it's head to one side now, just like Wendell had done when he'd been trapped in the body of a dog.
"Indeed we must, little Virginia. For even now a sound most beloved in all the world has reached my ears. Far away you say? I think not. Come with me now, and bear witness to the oldest of all magics in the world" the dragon said. Virginia had to step back once more as the dragon found a last reserve of strength to batter it's way free. As more rubble fell, Virginia saw the remains of a twisting stairway revealed, and a pale light from above. But the dragon had no intention of using the stairwell, even if it had managed to fit it's massive body in it. Great sweeps of it's taloned feet cleared space ahead. Virginia was sure that the dragon had forgotten her in it's haste, but just as she was sure she would be crushed, she felt something grab her, entwining itself gently around her torso. Virginia couldn't help the shriek as she was lifted off her feet to be placed snugly astride the dragons back. She reached to grab hold of a large diamond shaped crest scale that jutted out from the dragon's spine. The skin where she touched it was warm, verging on hot.
Slowly but surely, the dragon began to climb it's way free. Dim sounds reached her ears, men shouting, the ring of sword against sword. Was Willem right? Was there fighting in the Palace? Upward the dragon pushed ahead. Virginia was on the verge of shouting to the creature what it was that it could hear above the battle noise, when she heard it herself. A thrumming sound, a completely unfamiliar one, but once heard, never forgotten.
The wings of a dragon.
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I've come such a long way, Wendell said to himself. Once again the commotion around him seemed to slow and muffle itself. Only he, and his weapon remained. The long blade gleamed bloodstained silver in the moonlight. Moonlight? Ah yes, something had caused the ceiling of the Hall to collapse. But where Wendell had once thought it to be the work of the Ice Queen, he now guessed otherwise. The old woman, his ancient enemy, stood uneasily behind the massive cauldron. She was partly watching Wendell himself, partly staring skywards as if in shock at the destruction of her Hall.
Someone pushed at him roughly. "Watch yourself man" shouted a man in his ear. Wendell couldn't recall the soldiers name, and it shamed him, but the man had saved his life. Another large part of the roof came down where he had been standing. It was white stone, painted over with gilt stars and cool blue snowflakes. Wendell would have stood and admired it under other circumstances, he knew. Now, however, it was yet another hazard of the battle for control of the Ice Palace. Even if no one seemed to know exactly why the castle was shaking and rolling as it was.
Those remaining Eigth Kingdom guards were being subdued. Wendell saw that Tony had put away his weapon. The tall man was pushing his way forward with several wolves at his side.
"Where is she?" shouted Tony. "Where is my daughter, you old witch!"
Wendell sidled forward to catch the Ice Queen's answer, but there was none forthcoming. The old woman wasn't even looking at them anymore, rather she was staring down over the rim of the cauldron. Glittery white light played over her face. She spread her arms wide and smoke seemed to form between them. It cascaded down and around her, forming itself into a glowing ball of light. As Wendell watched, Tony was forced backwards a step. The older man cursed, and one of the wolfs put a paw up to the light, withdrawing it quickly with a yelp of surprise.
Wendell had reached Tony's side and together they stared into what now looked just like a ball of ice. Wendell tapped the hilt of his sword against it. It was dull clunkng sound, like the ball was completely solid, and yet he could see the Ice Queen moving around inside it. One of Wendell's soldiers heaved his battle axe, but it bounced off the surface with not a trace of damage. Rather the axe was splintered and fell to the cracked ground in two pieces.
Someone was laughing, a cold laugh that made Wendell's hair stand up on end.
"You fool of a King. You have vastly underestimated me, as you always have. But now, fortune has favoured the Eighth Kingdom. I have found a great source of magic, far stronger even than the Gods and Goddesses of old. You cannot stop me, even if you had behind you every fighting man from every Kingdom" the Ice Queen ranted, her voice growing louder with every word. Behind him, Wendell heard some of the captured guards shout as if in victory.
Tony pounded his fists against the impenetrable barrier. "Tell me where she is!" he hollered, as if he had not heard a word the witch had said. Wendell admired his ability to focus still on what was most important to him. Wendell had not forgotten Virginia, but he knew that her welfare paled in comparison to what was about to befall the Kingdoms. Unless they could breach the barrier, somehow.
The Ice Queen stared back at Tony momentarily, her face a puzzled mask for an instant. "I know not who you mean, man. But watch with me now, if you will, poor soon to be forgotten King. The time is at hand. Midwinter has arrived! Let the Ice Storm begin!" she shouted, fist pointed to the bare night sky above. Wendell felt his bones rattle at the power that flooded the room. Through the hazy blue tinted air that gathered above the cauldron, he knew that the ground beneath his feet quaked and trembled, throwing men and wolfs to all sides. Even the Ice Queen had to grip the sides of the cauldron to support herself.
Only Wendell kept his feet, his sword tip stuck into the floor. Whatever was in the cauldron was now boiling with activity, forming threads of gleaming power that snaked their way past the icy barrier, heading upwards to the open sky. Against the inky backdrop of the night sky, the threads spread out, heading in all directions. Wendell felt tears burn his eyes at the sight. Death and ruin was coming to his people. He had failed them.
The Ice Queen laughed and capered before her cauldron. Wendell began to lose his grip on his sword. The floor around him was tilting ever steeper. Men shouted and wolfs howled as they were dashed against the walls. Wendell saw his loyal friend Rupert slide at great speed into a wall, his cry of alarm abruptly cut off. Wendell felt an echo of that same despair building within himself, but it died mute on his lips as a legendary vision appeared from underneath the castle floor.
A dragon? His eyes were registering the fact long before his mind caught up with them. He blinked and rubbed at them, but the dragon refused to go away. Rather, it grew, or it appeared to, clawing it's way up from wherever it had been. Then, great fear swept him. Was this the end? Was this a last great trick of the Ice Queen? No wonder the Eighth Kingdom soldiers had never quit the fight. They had this huge beast to back them up!
Wendell laboured to free his sword from the floor where he had stuck it deep. He had one chance, one slender chance to strike at the dragon before it saw him. His sword came free with a faint whistle as he swung it around. He was closing on the dragon, when with only yards to spare, a frantic voice shouting halted him in his tracks. He skidded to an awkard stop. It was Virginia's voice, without a doubt. Virginia, calling and waving and shouting at him to...what? Stop!
"No...no, Wendell, don't" she was saying. Wendell couldn't see her properly. She seemed to loom over him as if flying. Only she wasn't flying, she was clinging to the back of the dragon. And she wasn't screaming in fear, or even alarm, but rather jublilation as she pointed to the moon flooded sky above.
Wendell followed her gaze. His whole heart came to a standstill in his chest. He could only focus on one living thing, a face so precious and beautiful he thought he would die for the love for it.
Scarlett.
And out of the sky she fell.