Page 26 of Winter's Dragons. Frozen Flames
Chapter Seven
Helpless
Kerryn
When Cassia had sentenced Jack Frost to exile, I had expected to not have to deal with the man anytime soon. I'd selfishly been glad about that, as despite Cassia's obvious attachment to him, I'd still felt resentful over his actions and the pain they had brought onto Cassia. We'd wanted Cassia to punish him a little more harshly, but since that hadn't been possible, I'd contented myself with the knowledge that he would not be in her presence for quite some time.
The fact that Raijin and I were once again forced to go find him would've irritated me greatly had I not had other more important concerns. I was not in the least bit happy with the prospect of our female having to face Snegurka alone. As we flew through the skies of The Realm of Eternal Ice, I wondered if Jack Frost had any idea on how we could better support Cassia, maybe another weakness Snegurka might have that our female had not been aware of.
The silence in our small group stretched awkwardly since our parents' presence made it impossible for me to discuss the issue with Raijin. I valued them as fighters and understood that their abilities might come in handy, but it was so frustrating to have to worry about their interference at a time like this. Jerika's earlier comment about the enchantment troubled me deeply. The only bright side of the situation that I could see was the fact that our female wouldn't have to handle their unavoidable prying.
As if to confirm my thoughts, Noboru decided to shatter the quiet and asked a question that had probably been on all of their minds since before we'd even left The Palace of Serenity. The question itself was, however, not one I had expected. "Do you truly think this creature is as powerful as Her Majesty says? I do not mean to place doubt upon your female's words, but I can't help but deem it unlikely that this Snegurka would be able to defeat all of us as easily as Her Majesty seems to believe."
Despite Noboru's level and reasonable tone, I couldn't help but bristle at his words. Raijin intervened before I could say something regrettable to his father. "That is because you haven't seen the true extent of Cheimon's power. She can immobilize any one of us with a thought if she so pleases. That is the whole point. Our reptilian blood makes us very vulnerable to the cold. And even if that hadn't been the case, we'd still be no match for her magic."
"Your female is that powerful?" my mother asked. "You've witnessed it before?"
"Yes, of course," I replied, pride surging through me and sliding into my voice despite the seriousness of our circumstances. "The most powerful female of all. And if Cheimon says that Snegurka is that dangerous, we trust her. You have to understand that this is not Terra Dracones, Mother. The authority we had there is meaningless in Chronikos. We would not have agreed to leave her side if we hadn't known she was right."
"We appreciate your desire to help," Raijin added, "but remember, this is not a game. Don't say anything that would question Cheimon in front of the people we are about to see. It's the last thing we need right now."
"We will be careful, darling," Kasumi said. "We understand the necessity of respecting your female's position. But again, you can't blame us for being concerned. This whole business with the demonic enchantment is very strange."
I would have probably trusted her promises of "being careful" more had I not still suspected them of being the indirect cause of all of this. The only other option was Jack. I wondered if Jack's actions and those of our own parents had both contributed to Snegurka's ability to escape her prison, and the thought made me seethe.
"We don't like it any more than you do," Raijin said tightly. "The spell that brought us here ended up hurting Cheimon. We were investigating the issue at the time, and we returned to her side to find her... practically dying. We managed to fight it back, but it was pretty ugly. And now, this. I just... This is all wrong."
I understood exactly what Raijin meant. The incident with Jack was still fresh in our minds, but in some ways, our current problem was worse. We were all flailing, trying to find the best way out, and fighting a shadow that almost seemed to be in two places at the same time. The only thing we knew for certain was that Snegurka was our enemy and possessed skills beyond our ability to challenge, but that didn't help us that much.
To top it off, a small, petty part of me was angry at my secretive female. Even before this whole thing had happened, I'd noticed some reluctance in her demeanor, but since we hadn't courted her properly, I'd deemed it natural and had not wanted to push her. To a certain extent, I still understood her point of view. This wasn't something that could be brought up in casual conversation. However, considering the fact that Jack had used Snegurka's own spell to harm Cassia—albeit by accident—one would think our soulmate would trust us with the whole story. She hadn't, and that burned.
Fortunately, our parents did not question us any further, although that could've had more to do with the fact that we were reaching our destination, rather than their sudden decision to trust our assessment.
The Bridge of Frosted Leaves was straight ahead and Abominable—or Abby, as Cassia called him—had stationed himself in front of it, together with a handful of others. Before we could go talk to Jack, we needed to speak to him.
As expected, Abby noticed us as soon as we started to descend from the clouds. However, he showed no sign of the fear and anger he'd displayed in the past. Instead, he waited patiently until we landed in front of him.
Yetis were an odd species. They weren't the most intelligent bunch, but at the same time, they could communicate through their own language, a language Cassia understood. She claimed their vocabulary tended to be oddly flowery when they spoke to her, which didn't suit their appearance at all.
In any case, we didn't have her skills, so our conversation with Abby went about as well as we had expected. "We were sent here by Queen Cheimon," I said. "The former queen of this land, Snegurka, has escaped and may be headed this way in the future."
The only response we received was an infuriated roar from Abby and some snarls from the others. They apparently remembered Snegurka—or were at least familiar with her identity—and weren't very happy with her. We could empathize, but we didn't have time to wait until the yetis roared themselves hoarse.
Raijin used his magic to make them stop and sternly continued, "You are to be very careful and stay put. Do not engage Snegurka if she shows up. That is the queen's command and you must obey."
The yetis had no trouble understanding that. They nodded, although they still chose to express their obvious displeasure through a series of grunts that I suspected might hold a hefty amount of insults.
Since there was nothing more to do here, we left the yetis, and took off once again, crossing the bridge and heading into The Realm of Eternal Bounties. As we entered the land Cassia's sister ruled, we started looking around for the den we knew had to be around here somewhere.
Raijin and I had never actually visited Lerna's lair in the past. We'd spoken to her when we'd been searching for Jack, but we hadn't gotten the chance to do much more than that and she hadn't invited us into her home either.
Even so, it was not difficult for us to locate it. I'd originally intended to just use my senses to track Jack down as I had in the past, but it wasn't necessary. Not long after we crossed the Topaz, we caught sight of a small building being erected in the shade of some weeping willows. It reminded me an awful lot of Jack's original cottage, minus all the ice and snow, although I also suspected it concealed the entrance to whatever Lerna had used before as her home.
We had made tentative plans to build Cassia a lair as well. The idea had been temporarily set aside, as we'd decided to get used to Tou Cheimóna a little more before we could push for such a thing. A part of me wondered if maybe Cassia had in some way sensed that we'd taken an inappropriate approach to our mating, and that was why she had not trusted us with her secret.
Frustrated with my own morose thoughts, I pushed back my bout of self-pity and focused on the matter at hand, finding Jack. Mercifully, this proved to be even easier than finding Lerna's lair. He was in front of the cottage, slicing through some vines with a knife made out of ice. He must've heard us approach because he abandoned his work and looked up. The moment he saw us, his knife dissipated into a flurry of snowflakes. Despite the fact that he'd set his weapon aside, I had a feeling that he had already realized this wasn't a courtesy visit.
As we landed in front of the cottage, he came to greet us, his brow set in a deep frown. "Raijin, Kerryn. Err... Welcome." He stole a glance at our parents, visibly confused by their presence. In the end, he seemed to decide their identity was irrelevant and asked, "Is everything all right with Cassia?"
