Chapter Two
Frost could just make out a large collection of buildings across the sparkly snowfield they faced-all low to the ground, and not all that impressive. It wasn't a particularly welcome view, but the hint of smoke in the distance promised warmth, and that was enough for her.
They seemed to be in some sort of valley between the mountains, and she had to admit it was all very scenic despite the bitter cold. There was no time to enjoy it, though, and she found herself forced out into the thick snow where she immediately sunk in to her knees. It wasn't light, fresh snow either, but wet and old, crumbling randomly beneath her feet and making trudging ahead difficult. She was sure her feet were completely frozen through, too, or at least she couldn't feel them anymore. In any case they weren't stinging from the chill, so maybe it was a blessing in disguise.
She was being forced towards the village in the distance, and if it wasn't for the thought of a nice, warm fire suddenly crossing her mind, she might have tried to turn back. If her captor was this aggressive, she didn't want to think about what a whole group of them would be like. They were probably all warlike and vicious, and she had mental images of tribal warfare and enemy raids popping up in her head.
As they came closer, she made out several concentric rings of buildings, and she had plenty of time to study them as she broke a path, cursing at the snow tumbling into the tops of her boots. The outer buildings were squat and had thatched roofs; they looked a lot like the houses of medieval England shown in her old textbooks.
There was a small party of travelers coming to the village from the east, and she could just barely see the beast they carried on a pole between them. It wasn't a large animal, probably the last of the beasts that hadn't gone on to hibernate from the wicked cold. The figures seemed bigger than her captor as well; probably they were bundled up against the cold. Apparently not all of them were as fond of the chill as the woman behind her.
There was no wall surrounding the hamlet, so it was very unlikely that villagers felt threatened by outside attack. They probably weren't as warlike as she had first imagined. Frost began to wonder if she was being brought in because she seemed to be a threat, or because she was an oddity. The lack of footprints in the snow made it clear the village was not a hot bed for visitors- she realized there weren't any other footprints leading from the tomb at all.
She was slowing down unconsciously as her mind wandered, and the thud of the spear against her ribs jolted her out of her thoughts. She had to get out of this; if only to beat that bitch upside the head with her own spear. Entertaining ideas of what else she could do with the sharp implement brought her a few minutes of relief from the boredom of this forced march.
As the village loomed larger, she began to question her choice of not fleeing when she had the chance, even with the spear digging into her back muscles. There were several more warriors around the village, looking bigger and meaner than the one prodding her forward, and there was quite a commotion as they spotted her. The few grew to many as they approached, and all seemed quite excited to see a stranger.
It was a decidedly eclectic bunch, some were dressed like her captor in light clothes and no sleeves, some wore fur and bulky clothes, some had facial tattoos…but all were gesturing animatedly as they jabbered on. They were staring openly, and Frost found herself blushing despite her blue lips and cheeks. Apparently she was quite an attraction.
When they finally made it to the village and passed through the crowd, she noticed something she hadn't been able to see from a distance-they were all very short. She was as tall as the largest man there, and she towered over the rest by several inches. Another look revealed they were all rather barrel-chested too, built to keep and reserve heat.
"I've been captured by a bunch of midgets…" she grumbled to herself, glaring angrily at the curious bystanders. They seemed delighted by her anger though, a few children shrieking and running to hide behind their elders' legs, and she felt more and more like a side show freak. She was almost certain she was the entertainment of the year for the village, if not the most exciting thing they'd seen in their lifetimes.
The crowd grew still larger as she was herded towards the center of the village, and she caught a few shy faces peering out from doorways and windows as they passed. Some of the younger folks ran ahead, most likely to announce their arrival to whomever was in charge. The buildings were getting larger and more ornate as they came to the center, until finally they approached a massive stone hall, with carved columns, doors, and with a small set of stairs leading up to it.
There was an important looking man standing at the top, flanked on either side by two lightly dressed, armed warriors. All three had the tattoos on their foreheads, but the older man's was much more ornate, taking up the entire space like a crown. Frost got the distinct impression this man was in charge. The other two tattoos looked like the female warrior's, like a large sun or outward spiral shape. Perhaps those tattoos seemed to designate status, or occupation, or some other affiliation? That would also explain why not all of the villagers bore them…
The crowd behind them appeared very agitated, although they quieted down when they saw the people on the steps begin to wait for their leader to speak. He was taking his time, staring regally down at them for a few minutes before speaking directly to her captor in a tongue Frost didn't understand, and with more ritual looking gestures than Frost would have thought strictly necessary. Whoever he was, he apparently attempted to show he was a very important person.
But then her captor responded entirely in gestures, causing Frost to begin to think the hand motions weren't entirely ceremonial. The crowd seemed to understand them perfectly, and she realized that it was more of a sign language than an accent to the spoken word. They all seemed to be fluent in whatever it was. No wonder the woman hadn't responded when she was speaking-she wasn't talking to the leader here, maybe she couldn't speak at all. Maybe she was deaf as well.
Their leader looked thoughtful for a moment, and then directed his attention to Frost, but all she would do was stare at him dumbly when he spoke to her. No matter how she tried to watch his gestures, they weren't miming his meaning at all. Looking exasperated, he called for someone or something named Min, and a mousy looking young man in disheveled clothes pushed his way out of the crowd. They had a hurried discussion before the younger one asked her a question she didn't understand. It hadn't seemed to be the same tongue the leader had been speaking.
"I can't understand you. I'm from Earthrealm. I speak English," she said slowly, enunciating each syllable. She looked at him hopefully.
There was a pause, and the man named Min smiled. "Well, you're a long way from home, aren't you?" She would have hugged him if she didn't think the idiot still standing behind her wouldn't skewer her like a kabob. He seemed quite fluent, hopefully he could explain what was happening.
"What's going on?" she asked, eager for an explanation, and just glad there was someone to talk to. It felt good to have some one she could cling to, as anti-social as she normally felt. Then again, being held against her will in a foreign village by a bunch of angry dwarves was hardly normal.
"I'm not sure. LiXue says she found you in the Honorable Traitors' Hall," Min responded, but couldn't continue as the leader spoke again. He listened carefully and then translated for her. "Honorable Wei wants to know what you were doing in the Traitors' Hall."
"I don't know…" Frost said, in complete truthfulness. "I woke up in a coffin and couldn't find my way out."
Min looked at her, obviously contemplating whether or not to believe her before he relayed the information to his higher up. Honorable Wei didn't look like he should believe her either. All seemed completely confused by her response and the crowd started murmuring amongst themselves again.
"I don't think they believe you," Min said quietly. "You don't know how you got there at all?"
"Well, I did freeze myself solid accidentally, I think maybe someone buried me thinking I was dead," she said meekly, trying to omit as much incriminating information as possible. The whole story was going to sound a little fishy no matter what she said, even if she was telling the truth for the most part. After all, omitting information was technically lying. Min relayed the information again, but the general sense of disbelief remained to no one's surprise. She wasn't sure she would have believed the story if their positions had been reversed.
"The Honorable Wei wants to know how you 'froze yourself'," Min translated for her, looking quite like he wanted to know himself. The crowd was watching her intently again, hanging onto every word like the Americans did a debate.
"There was this amulet…and I thought I could control its power, but I was wrong. And when I grabbed it my powers flared up and -" she was cut short by Min.
"Your…powers?" he asked, an eyebrow cocked.
"Yes, my kori powers, I -" she was cut off again as Min began an animated discussion with Wei. Several minutes passed as Frost waited uncomfortably trying not to look at the excited bystanders. She fervently wanted them to go the hell away and mind their own business, no matter how interesting she might be. Their staring eyes had almost made her snap before Min's conversation stopped, and the leader raised one six fingered hand as Frost tried very hard not to stare at him.
She was being held captive by a bunch of midgets with a polydactic tattooed freak for a leader and they had the nerve to stare at her? She was sure it was a cosmic injustice in the extreme, but all she could do was look disgruntled and seethe on the inside. If looks could kill, the whole village would be in flames.
He announced something to the whole crowd while Min translated quietly. "The stranger among us was caught trespassing in the Hall of the Treacherous. This is an offense punishable by death when committed by a foreigner. She claims to be one of us. If she can prove this, she will be free to go. If she does not, she will be executed for defiling the graves of the noble dead."
"One of us?" Frost asked Min, the color rapidly draining from her face. Did she really want to be one of them?
"Its simple, just use your kori powers," Min said. "That's what we're known for."
"I can't. They don't seem to work anymore," she hissed.
"You didn't tell me that!" Min protested.
"You didn't ask! Now what am I going to do?" she asked.
"I suggest you try really hard to suddenly remanifest them," Min said. Suddenly taking on a grim look, he then muttered, "We are also known for our unique and exquisitely painful forms of execution."
Everyone was watching her expectantly, but not everyone looked like they were hoping she would succeed. She stepped nervously forward, vaguely worrying about stage fright and performance anxiety; it was always harder to produce something on demand. If there was a way to stall for time, she didn't know it, and there were too many citizens to run from. It looked she was going to have to do or die.
She concentrated on her inner power, trying to separate the cold emanating from inside from that seeping in from without. The only way she could describe the sensation was it was like a pulling one specific string from a tangle. From the outside of the knot the strings look inseparable, but with careful tugging, one could be freed.
Her heart was pounding in her ears, drowning out all other sounds, but she was so inside herself she wouldn't have known if the entire world fell away. The cold was becoming one with her again, starting to equalize and push out from her core as well as be pulled from the air. It was like the moment when a cold pool suddenly didn't feel cold any longer, just enjoyable.
Then, it was if she suddenly grasped the right thread, and she felt the power surge through her fingers and she focused it into a blade. She saw it in her mind's eye, glistening wetly in the cold sunlight, edge glinting sharply, ready to slit the throats of her enemies. But the thread slipped away almost as quickly as it came, slipping through her fingers like water.
She opened her eyes and found everyone staring at her in a violate mix of awe, disbelief and disappointment. Min looked quite pleased; although the warrior who had captured her, Frost thought Min had called her LiXue, was clearly annoyed she had succeeded. Wei just regarded her suspiciously, and mumbled something to the guards, who scurried off to do his bidding, and nodded at Min and LiXue before heading into the building. The crowd took this as a signal to disperse, knowing they couldn't follow, still arguing amongst themselves. LiXue stomped up the steps and followed Wei inside-but not before giving Frost a look that would melt steel. Apparently she hadn't expected this to continue on for so long, and she blamed it on her captive.
"What…just happened?" Frost asked. She felt like a little kid lost in a room full of adults, she had no idea what was going on, just what Min chose to bring down to her level.
"Well, they decided not to execute you," Min answered, looking quite pleased with himself. He had taken an acute interest in her well being for a reason she couldn't figure out immediately. "But they still don't know what to do with you. They're not very fond of foreigners."
"And you are?" Frost asked. He was definitely trying to differentiate himself from the other villagers to her.
"My mother was from Earthrealm," Min said with a shrug. He glanced up at the entrance to the hall with a hint of distaste.
"Oh… Are we supposed to go in?" Frost wished she understood at least a little of the tribal language. She hated when people could talk about her without her knowing, or talk about her like she wasn't there.
"Yes. You want to know what they are saying about you?" Min asked with a smile.
"No. I'm freezing and its bound to be warmer in there." She shivered violently in tandem with her words and, and without a second thought bolted for the smoky entrance.
The inside of the hall was smoky and dimly lit with torches, but Frost could still make out tapestries on the wall depicting some sort of epic battle. Half of the warriors seemed to be dressed in the armor of the warriors she had been buried with, and the others were dressed like savages. She couldn't see who was supposed to be winning.
There was a small dais at one end, and there were twelve seats on it, all occupied, arranged in a circle. There were guards stationed along the wall, but their small stature wasn't particularly intimidating. They all carried spears like LiXue had, but also had sword belts and what looked like padded leather armor on their chests and arms.
LiXue and Wei were waiting in front of the dais, talking to the persons sitting there, or rather they were being talked to. All who sat on the dais looked ancient: wrinkled, thin and gray, but authoritative nonetheless. All of them had the same ice blue eyes: like hers, like…Sifu's. Min bowed as they reached the platform, and Frost followed suit without even thinking about it.
One withered woman was speaking in a deep, raspy voice to LiXue, and by the look on her face it was a rebuke of sorts. LiXue's jaw was locked but she "said" nothing, just stood seething, muscles in her back taut like she wanted to slap the older woman and was restraining herself. Frost knew it had to be about her being brought to the village, maybe LiXue was getting yelled at for kidnapping her. It would serve her right.
Then, as if on cue it went silent, all eyes on Frost as those on the dais studied her carefully. The hair rose on the back of her neck again, and goose bumps were forming despite the warmer temperature of the room. LiXue was glaring at her, but that didn't seem to be causing her discomfort. None of the elders were talking, but they were communicating somehow, because finally the old woman who had admonished LiXue was speaking to her as Min translated quietly.
"Stranger, why did you come here?" she asked in whispery voice through Min. Her eyes were opened unnaturally wide, and Frost wasn't sure she liked what she saw in them.
"I didn't come here. I was brought here," Frost said looking down at the floor to avoid the withered woman's eyes. "I don't want to be here, I just want to go home."
The woman nodded as Min finished translating. She turned slowly to face the other elders, who each nodded their agreement to an unspoken decision separately, even though no further words were spoken. Her unearthly voice cut through the air again. "All things happen for a reason," Min said for her. "You were brought here for a reason."
Frost wasn't sure how to respond to that diplomatically, so she remained silent and waited as the elders conversed amongst themselves again, this time aloud. If she was brought to the village for a reason, she didn't think she wanted to know what it was. They didn't seem to be arguing, just discussing something, most likely whether or not she would be allowed to go, not that she would allow them to keep her there.
"It shall be as you wish," the grizzled elder finally announced. "If you truly wish to go, you shall. Fate will show us who was right."
Then she faced LiXue, "LiXue, n'ath dan faelin han." The younger woman's face turned bright tomato red and she then stormed from the hall suddenly, stomping the whole way out. She obviously didn't agree with what had been decided upon. The elder didn't call her back, simply just watched with contempt before returning to their muttering with the others. Wei looked very satisfied with the decision.
"What did she say?" Frost whispered, eager to hear what had pissed LiXue off so badly.
"LiXue has been charged with making sure you get home," Min said with a bit of a smirk.
"There's no way in hell I'm going to go anywhere with that bitch!" she insisted, a little more loudly than she meant to. "It's not like we can talk to each other anyway…how will she know where I need to go?"
Min didn't have time to answer before he, too, was spoken to by the elder. He merely nodded solemnly to whatever she said, like he was resigned to his fate. Then the crone waved her hand dismissively, and he turned back to Frost. "The language problem has been solved," he said mildly.
"You somehow got dragged into this?" she asked with a sigh.
"They've been trying to get rid of me for years. Now was probably just a convenient time."
