Ice Burns (5 page)

Chandra didn't know what to make of the locked door and guards. Master had always been strict, but this was new. She wondered if it was due to a loss of faith in her. The fleeting thought of running entered her mind again. An odd urge to laugh almost overwhelmed her.

Running away had been a ridiculous thought before, but now it seemed impossible at best. How would Chandra ever get past the locked door, or the guard and Andre? Where would she even go if that was possible? Chandra couldn't even look at the kitchen girl after she set the meal tray on the table. The girl bobbed a curtsy and left the room. Chandra had no desire to eat. She pushed herself away from the table and circled it a few time as she and fought equal urges to scream, run, or throw things. She felt like the girl in the tale she had heard a servant telling her child one evening when she was raiding the kitchen after being denied dinner as punishment for her most recent failed spell.

3

Chandra had been ten years old when Master had sent her away without dinner. When the painful growling got to be too much, she snuck down the night-cloaked hallways to the kitchen.

The child had been crying from a nightmare, and the young woman put the child on one of the big tables in the kitchen while she heated milk to give to the child. Chandra had only heard them coming because of the child's hiccuping cries as they came down the hall and had ducked behind the larder and settled into the shadows to wait for them to leave.

"Shall I tell you a story?" the young woman asked, and the child sucked on two fingers and nodded. The little one couldn't have been more than four; half Chandra's age at the time. Her curly blonde hair stuck up at odd angles, and her soft face was red from tears around dark brown eyes.

"Alright, I'll tell you the story of the Weaver," the woman said and stirred the pot.

"Once, a young lass a bit older than you was in the forest and lost her way. It got dark, and she was scared, but she kept moving because she hoped that she would be able to find a hunter or farmer to help her find her way home.

"Eventually, she found this beat-up cottage with a massive, overgrown garden behind it and a stream nearby. The lass decided that she would use it as a shelter until morning when she would better be able to find her way home.

"The cottage had everything she needed, despite how it looked. It had fruit trees to feed her, clear, clean water to drink, and a fireplace where she could build a fire to stay warm. The lass made herself right at home. Once she had supped and quenched her thirst, she curled up at the fireplace to sleep.

"It seemed to her that she had barely drowsed but a moment when the sun was suddenly shining on her and the birds called out their morning ruckus. She stood and stretched before walking away from the cottage without a second thought."

The child gasped, and Chandra started in her hiding spot. The young servant smiled at the little girl and nodded.

"She din say fank you?" the little one said, her eyes wide and her mouth open around the two forgotten fingers in residence.

"She did not. Instead, she headed home. She was able to find the trail much faster with the sunlight overhead and hurried along because she was sure her Ma would whup her hide for being gone so long. But do you know what she found when she got back to the village?"

"What?" the little one asked and Chandra mouthed the question as well.

"The entire village was covered in white fluff. The doors were wedged closed and the chimneys full; everyone was trapped in their homes. The lass couldn't step on foot into the village because the wool was so thick that she wouldn't be able to walk through it.

"An old blind beggar woman showed up to the lassies right and said, 'Well, isn't this a turn?'

"The lass said, 'Who are you?' as she had never seen the blind woman before in the village, and it wasn't aught but a small place filled with no more than six families so that she would know.

"The woman said, 'You would know me iffin you had thanked me for my hospitality as one aught to.'

"The lass realized that it had been the old woman's cottage where she had slept and remembered what her grandma and ma had always taught her about thanking for help, even if no one is around because the fairies and guardians of the forest get upset otherwise.

"She bowed her head, 'I'm sorry. I thank you for your hospitality.'

"'Tis too late for all that,' the old woman said, lifting the lassies head up so she could look in her eyes. The old lady's eyes glowed gold as she looked and the lass was afraid.

"'You owe me a boon, child,' the woman said with a sharp nod. 'And if you can do it, I shall free your village and let you go.'

"Wha did sthee do?" the little girl asked. The woman handed her a cup of milk to drink and the child took it, blowing on the top for a bit as she watched the other woman.

"What could she do? She agreed, and the woman sent her on a journey; an impossible journey for one so young. But, she went all the same because she had to make right what she had done."

"Did she come back?" the little one removed the fingers from her mouth to sip at the cup, not taking her wide blue eyes off of the young woman.

"I don't know. My Ma said that no one ever heard from the girl again, but it was as it should be since she had to make right what she had done wrong," the servant shrugged and reached for the now-empty cup with a smile.

"Wha viwwage was it?" the little one had put her fingers right back in her mouth after finishing the drink and resumed her lisp.

"Ma never told me that part, either. Mayhap we can ask her tomorrow, but for now, back to bed with you! You've your own impossible tasks to take care of in the morning, like cleaning up your dolls," the young woman said and scooped up the little girl who laughed.

Chandra had waited for the sound of the two's laughter to die away before crawling out from behind the larder. She stared at the cup in the wash tub and wondered what it would have been like to have someone tell her stories like that or joke about her "impossible task."

Now, though, she faced various levels of impossible that she had never thought she would. Chandra looked at the cup of water on the tray that reminded her of her failures. She wanted to fling it at the wall. That cup was a sudden representation of everything she had ever done wrong and she wanted to destroy it.

The cup leaped off of the tray and flew into the wall where it shattered into shards that sprayed Chandra across the room as much with powdered sand as it did with water. One tear slid down her face, and she knew that what she had done didn't count as "control." A noise outside her window called her attention away from self-pity and remorse. She opened up the window open hard enough to crack one of the panes, which she immediately regretted. Unless she could suddenly conjure enough magic to repair the damage, she would have one more thing with which to face Master.

Outside, the seedeaters were in a highly agitated state again, but sparrows were also diving around as though they were in defense of their nest. Again Chandra leaned forward to see if she could spot a predator. Instead, she found a place where the forest seemed without color. A branch halfway down the massive hickory, that appeared to be a favorite nesting area for many of the birds, was a complete absence of color. The browns and greens of the tree seemed to fade away into a hazy white smoke that was easily the size of a small Jaguar or tree cat. It didn't move, though, and the sparrows dove toward it but veered away before they reached the spot of emptiness on the branch.

Chandra couldn't look away or blink because she was so intent on watching for movement or some clue what she was looking at. The birds continued to call to each other in a distressed way, and the thing seemed to waver and then slowly faded away. Chandra continued to stare at the spot as though it would re-manifest and explain itself long after the birds had resettled themselves. Her conscious mind should have noted that as a cue that whatever she had seen was gone, but she stared for a good deal longer until the light outside started to fade in the passing of the day.

Odd event in the trees aside, Chandra remained at the window with no desire to go back to the task at hand.

Was it an appearance of something odd or the disappearance of something normal?

Chandra shifted to look out across the nearby desert. The Master's estate was situated on a hill and had unobstructed views of the desert as well as the forest from the northern side. Chandra imagined an invisible line between trees and desert drawn by a mage many millennia ago that neither sand nor plant could cross. She wondered if the maker of everything had done that in the first creation.

The sun sunk behind the rolling dunes. The lazy path of light was in no hurry to push down the azure sky until it reached the horizon and seemed to be in a much greater rush to be on its way. The light created red and brilliant golden streaks across the sky as though the sun had expired in a kaleidoscope of color. The luminescent fading light caused the sands to shimmer like a million tiny gems and crystals, blinding in its stark beauty. It was hard to think that something so rife with beauty could be so deadly. It was rumored that the sands were endless, and few who ever attempted to traverse them had managed to find their way out. None had ever found the other side or crossed the desert from what she knew. Master said it was a wasteland and power void.

"Not only does the desert prevent any plant growth, but it drains magic away in the same way it takes the moisture from a body until they die of dehydration," he had tapped a copy of the massive map in his study as he explained. "Of course, a land without magic is not worth seeing or traveling."

Master had then returned to a discussion about the abilities in certain elemental capabilities, even talking about a mage who had once tried to use the power of the wind to break a path through the desert only to go mad in the process.

The sands faded into purple and the night sounds of the outside world began. Chandra was hesitant to light a lamp and return to her reading. For the moment, she was able to enjoy the quiet night sounds and feel the air begin to cool. Between the moist heat of the forests and the stark reflection of heat from the desert, Master's estate on this side of the house was usually more warm than was comfortable.

On Master's side of the building, there was only the forest. Add to that the wind mage instructors who circulated the air in Master's quarters and it was pretty comfortable. Chandra stood at the window and breathed deeply of the night air. She could smell the green, mossy dampness of the forest and the flowers that bloomed at night, away from the harsh, overly critical light of day. The scent of blossoms wafted through the air like a fog of evening mist to wrap around her with a gentle sweetness that made her want to wander among the foliage as though part of the plant. For a moment, she was simply Chandra; carefree and enjoying the symphony of night creatures and the music of the breeze.

A quiet call began in the forest, silencing the other night callers in their songs and laments. The young woman closed her eyes and listened to the stark sound. The short bursts of sound identified the creature making the noise was a hawk. It sounded as though someone was noisily coughing. As Chandra listened, the call changed to something longer and almost inquiring. The creature sang out in an echoing, desolate cry that struck a chord within her. The lone song reminded her of her isolation within the estate.

As a child, Chandra had only attempted to speak to others in the estate a few times. Being apprenticed to Master Dreys had never done much to show her as approachable. Most of the students and staff avoided the estate Master unless they were called on by him; his presence seemed to be enough to frighten any would-be friends away. His disapproval of the idea of Chandra interacting with the other students did the rest.

"They cannot fathom what you are meant for and will always hate and envy you for it," he had told her once when she had attempted to join a game with other children who had called her names and run away. "Your future holds great power, and a great purpose at my side; they are meant to trail behind you in ignorance."

Chandra had heard the emphasis that she was better than the others. Master reminded her over and over, and as the years had gone by, less of the others would come near her unless they were intent on harming her. So instead, she had decided to prevent anyone from hurting her by keeping them all away and focusing on the greatness that Master promised. For a while, the young woman wore a mask of arrogance around others. Master made her feel that the only one she would ever need was him and that she was better than any other student there.

Now, Master treated her differently because her magic would not manifest. She knew he still held her in a higher regard than any of the students but he was losing patience at an alarming rate, and she was losing time as quickly. She knew she had only a few fortnights until she came of age and would be at the apex of her power, or so Master told her.

All Mages were at their height of power upon maturity at twenty years of age. Though Master said he did not know for certain the date of her birth, he imagined it to be in the midst of the hot season which meant she was almost out of time. Even if Master was wrong by a bit of time, Chandra should still be able to do a great deal with her magic by now unless her powers were so insignificant that she was at the highest level she could be.

The song of the hawk continued in the forest outside her window.