Page 27 of Winter's Dragons. Frozen Flames
"Yes and no," I answered. "She sent us to give you a warning. It's about Snegurka."
Jack's complexion had always been pale, but what little color he'd had in his cheeks completely faded when I said his half-sister's name. "W-What? What do you mean? Is she..."
He trailed off, unable to finish the phrase. Raijin did it for him. "She's free, yes. We aren't sure about the reasons right now, but Cassia thinks it's possible she might target you, especially now that you're here with Lerna."
I didn't go into too many details regarding his bond with the hydra, as we hadn't exactly gotten the chance to explain it to our parents. They did know she was here, but we hadn't revealed the whole soulmate business since we had deemed it a private affair and it hadn't been our place to make such revelations. It was probably why Cassia hadn't mentioned it at the palace either.
Lerna seemed to sense that we'd come here to disturb her lair, which surprised exactly no one. She emerged out of nowhere, in her human form, but somehow, still managing to be just as threatening as she usually was when she looked like an eight-headed serpent. "What is happening, Jack?" she asked. "Who is free?"
She must've heard at least part of the conversation, enough, at least, to alarm her. "My half-sister," Jack answered. "You know, the one I told you about."
"Ah."
It was just one syllable, but it told me everything I needed to know about Lerna's take on the issue. Clearly, Jack had given his hydra soulmate all the details about his past history with Snegurka, and Lerna wasn't any happier about it than we had been. "What must we do?" she inquired.
"For the moment, Cassia doesn't think Snegurka can leave Tou Cheimóna," Raijin replied, "and she might not be aware of the full details of your relationship. However, it would be useful if you could go warn Queen Phthinoporon."
A deep scowl settled on Lerna's face. "What happened to Karasu? He passed over the bridge recently. We were expecting his return."
"He was attacked by Snegurka," I explained. "We have no idea when he will recover. It appears that Snegurka can overcome the protection on the messengers, as Mariko is missing, and Oki disappeared with her. Cassia believes Snegurka must've harmed them in some way."
"I see," Jack murmured. "Of course I will go and warn Cassia's sisters of what is happening, as long as Lerna is safe in my absence."
Why was I not surprised he'd decided to take the same approach as Cassia? "Don't make me beat you, Jack Frost," Lerna hissed at him. "I'll be perfectly fine. I can defend myself."
"Not from that kind of ice magic, you can't."
The two of them glared at one another, and not for the first time, I wished I'd gone with Cassia instead of sending Emmerich with her. It wasn't that I thought we'd made the wrong choice. On the contrary, I still believed we'd been correct in our strategy. It was just maddening to have to run into the same argument over and over again.
Our parents must've been as exasperated as I was because Jerika intervened before Raijin or I could. "Look, not to interrupt here, but we've just witnessed the same exchange between our sons and Queen Cheimon earlier. I think you are both aware that the matter at hand is much too serious to let your concerns about one another get in the way."
"It's perfectly normal to be concerned about your female," my father added, "but we don't have time to argue."
Jack stared at them in disbelief, at which point it occurred to us that we'd completely forgotten to make the introductions. "Right. Jack Frost, we'd like you to meet our parents, who recently arrived in Tou Cheimóna to congratulate us on our mating." That wasn't accurate in the least bit, and it would've probably been more polite to allow our families to introduce themselves in a proper manner, but like my father had said, we didn't have too much time at our disposal. I swept over the whole thing in a rush, not bothering to pretend I thought it was that important."This is my mother Brigid and my father Devin Thurlacht, Raijin's parents, Kasumi, and Noboru no Kurapati, and last, but not least, Emmerich's parents, Isebrand and Jerika von Adalberd. Everyone, this is Jack Frost. And of course, you already know Lerna."
"Yes, yes, dear." My mother rolled her eyes. "We know, and we'll have time to catch up later."
I was grateful that they had chosen to be practical and sensible about this. "Good. Now, Jack, there are a few more things you should probably know. The injury on the tengu? It was some kind of possession. Snegurka's spirit took over Karasu's body. Cassia attempted to use that to trap your half-sister, but your father got in the way and she escaped. I'm afraid this won't end well for him."
Jack let out a slow breath. "I can't say I didn't see that one coming. He took my exile poorly."
"There's more. Mere minutes after Snegurka fled the palace, we were notified of an attack on the amarok pack stationed next to The Bridge of Melting Snowflakes. We don't have a lot of information about it, but it is worth noting. We've already told the yeti here to stay put, but you might want to keep in mind as well."
"I will remember," Jack answered. "Thank you for telling me. I'm heading out now. You all be careful. Cassia will kill me slowly if something happens to you. Lerna..."
Lerna shot him an exasperated, but fond look."I'll be fine. Don't worry."
I didn't know what to say that would make things better so I said nothing. Raijin managed a simple farewell, using the traditional words Cassia fell onto for the formal goodbyes she hated so much. "May the serenity of the gods guide your steps."
"And may their bounties grant you the perfect weapons to smite down your foes," Lerna replied.
I was pretty sure that wasn't Pandora's equivalent of the words Raijin had offered, but at the end of the day, we were dragons. Serenity could only help us so much. Smiting suited us far better.
Ironically, I suspected Cassia was the same, this time around, at least. If she had been inclined to display mercy before, she would definitely not hold back in any way after what Snegurka had done to the amarok pack.
Turning away from Jack and Lerna, we launched ourselves into the air once again and headed back the way we'd come. Now that we were done here, the next issue on our agenda was Cassia's missing undead guards. They would not be so easy to find since we had never actually been to Snegurka's prison, nor had we met the wendigo who guarded it. We did know the general location of the outpost in question, but we hadn't deemed it any more important than the other garrisons. We hadn't run into December on the way here as we had hoped so he would not be able to help us. Perhaps he was already at the prison.
As it turned out, our concerns over a possible inability to find the missing people proved to be for naught. On the blindingly white terrain of The Realm of Eternal Ice, everything that wasn't of that color stood out, and minutes after we had crossed the Topaz once again, we noticed a prone black figure lying on the ground beneath us. I might not have met Oki before, but even from the distance, I could identify the body as belonging to a wendigo.
