Snow Dance

"Can we practice the archery tonight? Pleeeease..." Corin insisted over his dessert. Lucy smiled to him, feeling in fact relieved. The new schedule for her "additional trainings" was perfect.

"You better hurry up with this cake, it's hard to shoot in the dark," she patted his shoulder. Susan yawned discreetly and also stood up.

"It makes me tired just looking at you two. How can you have the strength to train after the entire day?"

"Now, you have quite a strength when it comes to dancing on the ball the entire night," Lucy teased her.

Susan giggled and silently admitted her sister was right. She watched them getting ready for the training and thought sometimes it was like she had no sister, but three brothers (or four, if we count Corin) instead. Lucy was much more eager to choose a proper set of arrows with their new family member from Archenland than a set of jewelry with Susan. Not that the last one didn't enjoy the archery. The shooting itself however was bringing painful memories related with the past war and she didn't find joy in those trainings anymore. Not to mention the other matters occupying her a lot those days. Maybe it was good that Lucy didn't compete with her in those "women games" after all, as Peter called it. When she recalled her younger sister in the white dress, she felt Lucy could outshine her easily if she only wanted to.

But Lucy didn't. She ran with Corin to the field and with no less pride she presented the young prince her skills, repeating what she had practiced on the ice field the previous night. Discovering on that occasion that it was much easier to train in the colder air. After ten minutes she was covered in sweat. The summer was extremely hot this year, even in the night time. But it felt good to move and to hide her fears by tiring out her body and later that evening, she felt much better. She spent some time checking her clothes, choosing the most appropriate outfit for the early morning and her blood seemed to run faster through her veins at that thought. She wasn't worried about oversleeping. The birds started their loud chirping at about three thirty in those months and they woke her up every time through an open window. Usually she would close it and go back to sleep, but now it turned out to be very useful.

She didn't need the birds, though. Feeling so anxious and excited, she barely could sleep at all, just stared at the ceiling for hours and when eventually her body managed to relax, it felt like after ten minutes she was awake again. Ignoring her incoming headache, she put the clothes on, quickly braided her hair and entered the wardrobe.

This time she didn't meet Asbjørn. She looked around, wrapped herself in the warm cape and left the cave. The white fields were perfectly silent, bathed in the colors of the slowly brightening sky. There was no sun yet, but everything on the Eastern side was violet and pink turning into more and more of orange, reflecting on the ice. She thought it was stunningly beautiful. She ran down the path and after a short time she stood at the palace' entry door. 'Should I really wake her up?' she hesitated, but the door was open and, as quietly as possible, Lucy climbed the stairs.

The silence was so intense that her footsteps seemed somehow violent, disturbing that perfect peace of this strange ice-crystal house, white and bright, cold and warm at the same time. There was magic there, it filled the air and made Lucy's skin shiver, yet it felt safe and cozy, the magic belonged there and welcomed her, as she reached the first floor and there it was. The bedroom door was slightly opened and she slipped in, shyly and quietly and her eyes searched for the silhouette in the bed.

Jadis was there, indeed. She was shivering like in an attack of fever and her arms and legs twisted under the white, thick duvet, in a fight with an invisible enemy, a nightmare maybe that made the queen struggle and sweat in exhaustion, or pain. She breathed heavily and whispered something, with barely audible voice - a voice of someone, who was screaming too long and who couldn't even do that anymore, so just opened her mouth, for the last time.

Lucy jumped to her and grabbed the white shoulders, seeing now clearly the terror on that bright face, and it startled her. Jadis was in torment.

"Wake up! Please, wake up!" Lucy shouted, shook her and jumped back, scared herself, for that invisible terror's intensity was like a presence of something powerful and familiar. Yet unknown and therefore confusing and more frightening. She kept looking around, as if that invisible attacker was just about to appear from the shadow. Yet nothing happened. She grabbed the queen firmly by the shoulders and waited. Slowly, the shivering calmed down. Jadis woke up.

"Good Morning, Little Queen," she said with no hint of surprise, as if Lucy's presence in the room was everyday thing. Neither she showed any awareness of her nightmare from minutes ago. She sat up and smiled at Lucy's confused face. "Have I overslept?"

"No... I mean. No. Of course not." Lucy composed herself. She looked at her unsure, but as Jadis didn't break her serenity, neither did she.

The queen disappeared behind the door for barely a few minutes and came back, dressed in a bright, silver tunic with a heavy and fully armed belt. Lucy saw little daggers hidden in the sides of her high boots and gasped, as a shining sword was handled to her. It was brighter than silver, but not white. Hard as a steel, yet different. The handle had three little diamonds, sparkling in the sun, yet something in them evoked rather an image of three stars blinking in the night sky. Jadis had the same looking one tied up to her waist.

"Come on, then. You need to practice."

Hesitating, Lucy grabbed the sword and breathed out, amazed how light it was.

"What is it made from?"

"A steel from another star." Said Jadis and with no further explanation, she marched through the snow. It was hard to keep up with her at first, her eagerness for this training was obvious. "Come on!" She rushed her, as Lucy stayed behind, still staring at the sword.

"I thought we will be rather using the arrows..." She panted as she reached Jadis, standing at the shooting field from the previous time. The bows and arrows were still there, packed and waiting, while the queen grabbed her own sword and in a glimpse of second closed to her.

"Defend yourself!"

Lucy startled at the sharp edge pointing her chest. She tried to block her, but her hand was not used to a big weapon. It took Jadis only a few seconds and the other sword was lying in the snow, so was Lucy, with her cheeks red from fury and embarrassment.

"What is it for? You know I can't win with you!" She stood up with her arms crossed and burning inside. Jadis looked amused and pleased with herself, which only made Lucy feel worse. But her voice was gentle as she finally replied.

"That is precisely why you need to practice. I know your shooting skills. A few more days with me and you will be a master of the tournament. But in a direct attack you have no chance." She picked Lucy's sword up and gave it back to her. Her steps on the deep snow were as light, as if she didn't weigh at all. 'She and the snow are one,' a thought appeared in Lucy's head and the curiosity overtook her anger. She also wanted to be that fast, that light. That sure of herself.

"Alright," she spoke, looking at the icy eyes. "Show me."

Jadis glowed.

"You need to be very fast. Come on, attack me. Don't spare me." She was blocking her easily, jumping around and sometimes turning completely away with a quick pirouette, to surprise Lucy by landing even closer to her a moment later. "She is incredibly fast," Lucy thought. The fluent movements were like a dance, a dance of Winter, whirling and turning around Lucy like the snowflakes in the wind. Soft but unavoidable. Icy cold when exposed too long to them, but beautiful. That beauty was the danger. She couldn't keep the eyes off her and that slowed down her thinking.

"I'll show you," she felt Jadis taking her by the hand and instead of more sparring, she led her arm, showing the movements, precisely and slowly at first, to increase the speed when Lucy was remembering the technique better. "Whatever happens, you need to be faster. There is no time for hesitation. Trust yourself."

Lucy did, or at least she tried to. It was a strange training, yet she felt it gave her a new knowledge, and a sense of a new power. She wanted more.

"Your arms need to be like a steel. Train them. Harden your muscles. Step by step. And comeback tomorrow if you want to go on."

She did. The following day, and the next one, and the next. From the second time Jadis was awaiting her already in the field. Sometimes, Lucy wondered if the queen slept at all at night, or perhaps, if she knew what happened before. But she never got any comment on that. The sword fighting was everything they did and everything they talked about. After each training Lucy was so exhausted that she didn't think about anything else anyway, just jumped through the gate and slept hard until Corin or Susan woke her up for breakfast.