City of Ice (10 page)

Roxanna straightened up again and timidly extended her hands. “If I may help…?”

“Sure,” Scirye said.

Looking as if she were afraid she would burst into flame at any moment, the Sogdian girl gripped the heel of the boot and began to yank.

“Why are you acting so funny?” Scirye asked.

Roxanna dipped her head respectfully. “You're the chosen of the goddess. I saw the miracle with my own eyes.”

“That doesn't make me some kind of holy relic,” Scirye said, annoyed.

“I'm sorry, Lady. I didn't mean to make you mad,” Roxanna said. Between the three of them, they got off both of Scirye's boots. The Sogdian girl picked up the new boots and held them out in both hands as if they were an offering. “Do these please you?”

Scirye snatched the boots from her. “All I care about now is keeping my feet warm.”

These were easier to put on by herself, and when she was done Roxanna held out a scarf. “You'll also need to wrap this about your head, Lady.”

Uncomfortably, Scirye accepted it. “Thank you.”

Kles fussed over the scarf's arrangement and then noticed Koko had already swathed his head in a gray muffler. “It's definitely an improvement on your appearance,” Kles said.

The badger's snout was shoving the wool cloth outward.

“Yeah? Well, the only way to improve your looks is to cover you up completely,” the badger shot back.

When the hatchlings and badger were dressed for outside, they climbed up Bayang's tail again and onto her back.

Then Upach hefted up a basket, thrusting it into the air. “Hurry up and take it. I haven't got all day.”

Leech leaned forward so far that Koko grabbed his coat to keep him from falling. Even so, the basket was just out of his reach. “You've got to hold it closer,” the boy said.

“Right you are then,” Upach said, and shifted the basket over so Leech could grasp it, but it was still several feet away.

“Upach, can you see at all?” Bayang asked.

“I lost my eyesight long ago in a fight with an impertinent roc,” Upach said. Rocs were gigantic birds even larger than the clipper seaplane. “But Prince Tarkhun took me in.”

“And you've never stopped nagging us from that day on,” Roxanna teased. She'd torn a page from a little notebook and, after scribbling a note on it, left the page on Scirye's boots. Then Roxanna started to help her servant lift the baskets and boxes up for the children to secure.

“And where would you be without old Upach, my little chick?” the servant grunted as she made another effort to get the basket into Leech's hands. It wound up even farther away.

“Let me help you,” Leech said, getting ready to spring back down.

“Don't feel sorry for old Upach,” the ifrit said. “I manage better with my ears and nose than you do with your eyes. I know where you are now.” She thrust the basket into Leech's hands.

Then, having located Leech and Koko, she handed up the boxes as efficiently as a robot.

“Nothing escapes Upach,” Roxanna said as she scuttled up Bayang's tail and onto the dragon's back.

“Except my little chick,” Upach sniffed.

When the last box had been secured, Scirye looked at the blind old servant with some concern. “Upach, I hope you don't get into much trouble after we leave,” Scirye said.

“Oh, I'm not sticking around,” Upach said, straddling Bayang's tail and then shinnying up it.

Concerned, Roxanna commanded, “Stay here, Upach. You can barely stand the temperature inside here. How can you handle the cold out there?”

“Don't you worry about old Upach,” the ifrit snorted. “Do you think I'll let my little chick wander off without me?”

Roxanna put out a hand and tried to shove Upach back. “No. I order you to stay.”

Lowering her head like a stubborn goat, Upach tried to shove forward. “And I say that I'm going.”

Now Roxanna knows how I feel about unwanted passengers,
Bayang thought to herself, but she tried to help the Sogdian hatchling: “I can hear the fear in your voice, Upach. Don't think you have to go from loyalty.”

“She's going out of love,” Kles said as he looked out from inside Scirye's coat. “This is something I understand better than the rest of you. She's more scared of what will happen to her mistress than she is for herself.”

“I couldn't stand it if something harmed my little chick while I sat safe here,” Upach admitted. “Do you hear me? I couldn't stand it.”

“Don't mourn for me yet.” Roxanna relented and took the loyal servant's arm. “You can come, but no nagging.”

“That's one promise I can't keep, my little chick,” Upach said. “You need a firm hand.”

“Halt!” Randian shouted as he stumbled onto the roof.

“What if you miss them and hit me, Randian?” Roxanna demanded.

Bayang took advantage of Randian's confusion to spread her great wings. With a beat that sent the loose snow swirling across the rooftop, she sprang into the air. With rapid flaps, she flew above the central courtyard, where surprised faces were staring at her, and then out over the street. And for the moment the skies were empty of Mounties.

She found herself smiling as delightedly at Leech when he was soaring through the air. Nothing beat the joy of flying with one's own wings.

“I'm riding a dragon!” Roxanna yelled to the wind.

“Humph,” Koko grumbled. “My idea of a good time is twenty bucks and a sunny afternoon in Frisco—neither of which happens very often.”

“I know how you feel, Roxanna.” Leech laughed. “The next best thing to flying with my disks is riding on Bayang.”

It was a compliment of sorts, but one that her dignity could have done without. “Which way?” the dragon asked.

“Follow the coastline for now,” Roxanna said.

The coastline ran along the ocean's edge like a broken zipper with teethlike headlands and then gaplike bays, which were several miles in length.

Leech was looking skyward, yearning to be soaring among the stars. “How about I take a load off your back and go for a spin on my own?” he suggested.

“Yes, it seems calm enough right now,” Roxanna observed. “I'd love to see you fly in the open sky.”

Bayang was flying with her head thrust out ahead of her. Her words floated back to him: “Will you stick close to me?”

It's a trap, stupid,
jeered that strange, savage voice.

The boy wrinkled his forehead almost in pain as he tried to understand where the malevolent words were coming from.
No,
he said to himself,
she gave me her word and honor is everything to a dragon. She's trying to protect me.

She's pretending to baby you and you're falling for it,
the voice mocked.
She's just keeping you near her so she can kill you any moment she likes—just like she did all those other times.

The voice vanished as soon as it had come, but it had left Leech feeling shaken, because those ugly things could only have come from some part of his mind—some secret, dark part.

It made him feel guilty to have such notions. Hadn't Bayang proved she'd had a change of heart? And after all these years of being picked on in the orphanage, it was nice to have someone on his side for a change. Primo had made him feel the same way, but Primo was gone. And Koko was…well…Koko was as likely to get him into some scrape as get him out.

Scirye broke into his thoughts: “Leech?”

“Uh…okay,” he said absently. “I'll fly.”

Bayang frowned. “What's the matter now? Isn't that what you wanted?”

He would have been ashamed to tell Bayang what he had been thinking, so instead he said, “Of course.” Then, because he thought he owed her more, he added, “And thanks.”

She turned her face forward again. “Bah, I shouldn't spoil you this way.”

Leech grinned. Once he was off, he intended to stay out there as long as he could. In the caravanserai, Roxanna had been too busy orchestrating their escape to pay attention to the transformation, but now she could give him her full attention. Aware of a fascinated Roxanna watching him, he pulled the disks off his armband and spat on them. “Change,” he said.

Carefully he strapped them on and rose into the air and instantly began to swerve from side to side in the strong, chill winds.

Bayang was keeping an eye on him. “It's trickier than it looks, isn't it?”

Cheeks reddening, he managed to regain his balance. “I'll get the hang of it.”

“Amazing,” Roxanna said raptly.

Cautiously he drew level with the dragon's head, proud to be flying side by side with her.

Bayang glanced at him. “Not bad,” she conceded.

But the constant adjusting for the wind soon tired him out, and in five minutes, despite Pele's charm, he could feel his arms and legs growing stiff with the cold.

The whisper crept into his consciousness like a trickle of ice water:
Finish her now while her guard's down.

It surprised him so much that he dipped suddenly.

“That's enough,” Bayang declared, and her paw caught his collar.

Are you going to let her boss you around like that?
the voice demanded.

Shut up, shut up, shut up,
Leech said to that inner voice as Bayang hoisted him toward her back.

He looked down at Koko and Scirye, who were holding up their hands to help him re-mount. What would they say if he told them about that strange wicked voice? More than likely they'd call him crazy. He knew what he would think if the situation was reversed. Worse, they'd be horrified to discover just what sort of person he was. He was shocked himself.

When he had resumed his seat on the dragon, he sat in silence for a long time.

Scirye was still so haunted by what had happened in the caravanserai shrine that she barely took in the scenery. She felt less like the goddess's chosen one and more like a plaything whom the goddess teased as if she were a pet kitten. She had heard of the City of Death, of course.

It was the site of a famous battle where Kushan defenders had delayed their enemies long enough for the emperor to gather an army and destroy the invaders. But why did she have to go there?

She glanced at her gloved hand. Was it her imagination or was the “3” glowing faintly through the material?

And as if that weren't bad enough, the magical sideshow at the shrine had convinced Roxanna that Scirye was some kind of saint—which Scirye was most definitely not. She couldn't help noticing that the goddess's mark had also made her friends uneasy.

Despite her worries, she couldn't help watching the broad promontory that gleamed like a porcelain tray. Two miles wide, it jutted out into the sea and reached deep into the mountainous interior.

“What's that?” Leech asked their Sogdian guide as he flew by Bayang's side.

“That's the Kristiana Glacier, young lord,” Roxanna said. “There's so much ice that it doesn't melt in the summer. But icebergs split off from the front, so the ships have to keep an eye out for those.”

“I see two fliers,” Roxanna said, jolting Scirye from her thoughts.

Leech squinted, trying to see them. “Freebooters?”

Tensing, Scirye scolded herself. She had gotten quite a few bruises from Nishke during training bouts because she had let her mind wander. After each hit, Nishke had certainly lectured her enough that a Pippal, one of the elite guards of the empire, was alert at all times. So if Scirye wanted to join them, she had to stay focused.

Scirye's eyes were sharpest of the friends', so she stared hard. “No, they're riding owls, so it's probably Mounties.”

“Your father calls the cops faster than a bill collector,” Koko said. “How's the chow in a Mountie hoosegow?”

“I don't think you have to worry,” Scirye said. “They're coming in from the ocean, so they were probably searching for Roland. They couldn't have heard about us yet.”

“Still, we'd better hide.” Banking, Bayang glided gracefully down to the surface of the glacier, landing with a puff of snow from the flakes covering the ice.

“There's a large crevice to our left,” Roxanna said. “Upach, cover our tracks.”

Some geological quirk had thrust up a shelf of ice from the glacier's top and something else had cracked its surface, forming an opening at the base of the upthrust shelf.

“Just when I was getting used to riding on that hard hide,” Upach grumbled. “Go here, go there. I won't stand for it, you hear? I just won't.” But she slid off anyway with a sack in her hand. Once she was standing on the glacier, she took items from the sack and stowed them in the pockets of her multiple layers of clothing so that she bulged even wider. Then she began to back up, dusting Bayang and her tracks so that the snow became smooth again.

The crevice was wide enough to fit Bayang with all the gear once her riders had dismounted, but it quickly narrowed at the top to cover them. The crevice also tapered quickly at the rear, so that Bayang was forced to coil her tail around herself.

Scirye and the others stood in front of her.

“Father's bound to tell the Mounties,” Roxanna said. “So we'll have to keep an eye out for them as well as Roland.”

They waited awhile, their breath misting before them in streamers where Upach joined them. “Sit up here. Let your feet get warm,” Bayang said kindly, patting her tail.

Upach stared up at her warily. “Are you keeping me handy as a snack?”

“Naw, ifrits give her gas,” Koko said, starting to climb up on Bayang's tail too.

“Do I look like a sofa?” Bayang said, and shoved the badger off with her muzzle. “The invitation was just for Upach.”

Koko stood up, dusting the snow from himself. “Aw, who wants to sit on you anyway. You're hard as a rock.”

“Quiet,” Kles snapped.

Scirye felt her shoulders tightening, wondering if they were going to be discovered. The others were too scared to move—except for Koko. The enforced silence was hard on the talkative badger, and he fidgeted and tapped a hind paw until Bayang wrapped a big forepaw around him so he couldn't move.

Finally, Bayang flicked a claw to the griffin and Kles slipped out of Scirye's coat and fluttered outside. He returned a moment later, shaking his head. “There's no sign of them.”

“Then we better get going,” Bayang said, releasing Koko.

“I hope that paw was clean before you grabbed me,” Koko said sourly as he padded outside.

Scirye caught her friend in her arms. Kles's body felt cold despite the charm, his fur, and his feathers and she slipped him quickly inside her coat, wrapping her arms around him as another layer of insulation.

Once they were outside the crevice, they quickly mounted Bayang and took off again.

Scirye looked at the vast wilderness, wondering where Roland was. Even a thousand searchers might not be able to find him.

“So where do we go from here?” Koko asked.

“We might as well follow his route and aim for the Wastes,” Bayang said. “He'll have to re-fuel his plane, and if he didn't stop in Nova Hafnia he must have some fuel stashed along the way.”

“Maybe that's one of the reasons why he didn't want anyone snooping around,” Leech suggested.

“Then we're going to ruin his plans,” Roxanna said, and at her instructions Bayang altered their course out onto the ice.

Beyond the glacier, the land retreated from the ocean, leaving them heading out into the vast expanse of frozen, empty sea.

Scirye had expected it to be as flat as a skating rink and it was at first, but then it became rather lumpy until they came to a zigzagging line of ice boulders that wandered for miles in each direction. It looked like the broken wall of a vanished ancient city. Some of the irregularly shaped ice blocks were as big as hills. “What made those?” she asked, pointing.

“It's a pressure ridge, Lady,” Roxanna explained. “The ice isn't one sheet. It's really thousands of ice floes, some many kilometers across, that jam together. When the temperature thaws a little, the edges where the ice floes meet are the first to melt and also the first to freeze again when the temperature drops. But that new ice gets squeezed between the original floes and rises in a ridge.”

Ahead, the frozen sea slid on to the horizon and Scirye could see line after line of pressure ridges dividing the surface. Salene the Moon cast shadows that seemed to limn the mounds with stark, black lines, and the ocean resembled a vast quilt of white patches sewn together with ragged, clumsy stitches, but each patch was the size of a county and the stitches ran for kilometers and were as high as a two-story house.

The Arctic is so overwhelming,
Scirye thought, and then added to herself,
just like Nanaia.

Roxanna took it upon herself then to explain the rules for survival in her homeland: “You must be careful, Lady, and listen to me. You've never been in a land as hostile as this. It will make you pay for any mistake.”

Scirye had always disliked know-it-alls because their advice was usually the first step before they tried to bully her. “We've been inside a volcano, remember?”

“Yes, of course, Lady,” Roxanna said, chastised.

Scirye was sorry she had said anything, but then, to her surprise and annoyance, Leech came to Roxanna's support: “Yes, but there we had a goddess's help.”

“How hot was it?” Upach asked wistfully as she clung to the dragon.

“Too hot even for you.” Leech laughed.

“Yes, well, you've jumped from the frying pan into the icebox,” Roxanna said to Leech. “It can get below minus sixty-eight degrees centigrade. So even your magical charms might not protect you for a long time, and if you take off your gloves or hat you could lose your ears and fingers.”

“Ouch,” Koko said, putting a paw under his hat to check for any damage.

The snowy wilderness seemed so vast and lifeless and hostile that Scirye was glad to be flying above it.

“I think you could call the whole place the Wastes,” Koko observed. “It's all dead down there.”

“You're wrong,” Roxanna said. “There's plenty of life below the ice in the ocean and above it; you just have to know where to look.”

“I don't see anything,” Koko stubbornly insisted.

“There, see the tracks?” Roxanna pointed to a line of paw prints that looked like twin lines of stitches across a white handkerchief. “It's an Arctic fox.” It looked like a ball of ivory-colored fluff. “Often they trail polar bears, hoping the bears will leave some scraps for the foxes' next meals.”

“See, Koko,” Leech said. “There is life down there and Roxanna can show it to us. I mean, there's not a lot of it, but you got to hand it to the critters. They're real survivors.”

Suddenly, Scirye was beginning to get an inkling of what Roxanna meant. “Yes,” she agreed, “sort of like when you see a flower coming up through a crack in the sidewalk.”

She tried to see the harsh landscape through Roxanna's eyes: the huge white expanse that dwarfed humans, their ships, and their cities. It took a certain type of creature, or person, one who could take pleasure in meeting its challenges, one who felt good at meeting this hostile, merciless land on its terms. In the countries to the south, humans boasted about taming rivers and jungles, but any idea of conquest up here was nonsense.

And when Scirye adjusted her attitude that way, she began to glimpse the loveliness of the Arctic—the grand sweep of the ocean, the long curtains of snow drifting like the veils of a dancer, the delight in seeing the tracks of another creature because one was no longer so lonely.

Koko, however, was unconvinced. “Humph, a Frisco pigeon'd take any of the critters apart in a minute.” He tried to snap his claws, but his glove only made a whuffing sound.

“Perhaps we should have taken one of them along instead of you,” Bayang observed, and flew on into the darkness and the cold.