Firebrand

Anna was right—there were more, about a dozen appearing out of nothing, joining the others, and all rapidly advancing. Karigan removed the pin that secured the chandelier at its present position at the ceiling. The winch’s hand crank started spinning, spinning out of control, letting out chain and lowering the chandelier. She made no attempt to control it even as it gained momentum. The flames of burning whale oil in their glass chimneys flared as the whole apparatus descended at an alarming rate. She did not wait to witness it crashing to the floor, to see if it crushed the whirlwinds, or if the splash of flaming oil melted them. She took Anna’s hand and led her away at a run, just hoping she didn’t burn down the castle.

AUREAS SLEE

They continued on into the west wing, where the royal apartments lay, finding more ice statues or their shattered remains along the way. To Karigan’s dismay, she saw some of her fellow Riders frozen in various positions of fighting. Scorch marks on the wall, and singed tapestries, indicated Mara’s handiwork.

They paused at the bottom of the stairs. There appeared to be no whirlwinds nearby, but there was more evidence of their passage, more frozen Riders and at least one Weapon. The distant din of fighting broke the eerie silence. She slicked sweat from her brow with her bloody, bandaged hand.

When she caught her breath, she asked Anna, “Are you all right?”

Anna looked to be in a perpetual state of shock, but nodded.

“Good,” Karigan said. “You are doing well. We are going up these stairs to the wing that houses the royal apartments. I don’t know what we’ll find. Do you think you can stay with me?”

Anna nodded again, and Karigan gave her a reassuring smile. At least, she hoped it was reassuring.

They ran up the stairs, and Karigan was dismayed to find Mara sprawled on the top landing. She was not turned to ice. On the contrary, when Karigan knelt beside her she felt waves of heat rippling off her body. Her face was flushed and glistened with beads of sweat. She had used her ability to full capacity. The magical abilities of Riders exacted a price for their use, and Mara’s was fever. Karigan had never heard of a Rider dying because of overuse of an ability, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t happen. Mara seemed to be breathing normally and Karigan prayed she’d be all right, but she could not linger to aid her friend, for there was fighting ahead.

Soon enough, she, with Anna shadowing her, came upon her fellow Riders, about a third of the complement they’d started out with, battling the ice creatures. There were a couple of guards in black and silver also fighting. Riders with torches swiped at their attackers, but the wild wind the creatures emanated blew the flames backward and snuffed some out.

Steel rose and fell, and the fury of the wind raised by the creatures ripped tapestries and paintings off the walls. Karigan ducked as a portrait of Queen Isen barreled toward her, the heavy wooden frame splintering when it hit the floor. The temperature was numbing.

“Stay close,” Karigan told Anna.

She added her sword to the fight, trying to batter her way through the whirlwinds so she might reach Estora’s rooms. She had started the day tired, and though her body felt the exertion of so much sword work, it was exhilarating to have an enemy to demolish, a clear-cut problem to solve. No traveling through time, no mirror eyes, no loss of memory, just creatures of ice to crush.

She went for the legs of the skeletal creatures to topple them, and left them for someone else to finish off. She booted skulls aside and into the wall. She helped others stab into the whirlwinds to eliminate the veil of churning ice, and then helped to chop apart the bones within. All the while, Anna managed to remain with her, not getting in the way, and not getting picked off by an errant sword or being frozen into an ice statue.

It surprised Karigan when she finally reached Estora’s door. Turned to ice was Rory, caught in what looked like a shout of alarm to warn others of the attack. She ran inside, Anna on her heels, and when she reached Estora’s sitting room, she found three Weapons at work attempting to dispatch several of the creatures. The king wielded a poker and bashed it into the skull of the nearest one. Estora was off her sofa with her back pressed against the wall beside the great hearth.

The fire was dying. “Anna,” Karigan said, “you must build up the fire to help keep the queen safe. I will get you there.”

Fighting the creatures became a mindless chore. Now well-versed in what to do to destroy them, her technique became methodical. She began to wonder, however, if more would simply reappear and fight until they all collapsed from exhaustion.

The Weapons, Fastion, Donal, and Ellen, were dervishes themselves, twisting and turning with blinding sword work to demolish one creature after the other in an explosion of ice. King Zachary was no less agile with his poker.

Finding a gap in the action, Karigan led Anna along the wall toward the fireplace, ducking as an ice skeleton cleaved its sword at her. She hacked off its sword arm, then its leg, and it clattered to the floor in a heap.

They maneuvered around furniture, Karigan keeping Anna between herself and the wall. The Weapons seemed to be keeping the creatures occupied, so they reached the hearth quickly.

“You concentrate on the fire,” Karigan told Anna. “Make it too hot for the creatures to get near the queen. I’ll make sure nothing bothers you.”

Anna nodded and started selecting sticks of wood stashed in a niche next to the hearth.

“Karigan!” Estora cried. She’d gone white around the lips, her face showing strain, and her hand on her belly.