Ice Crown - Kay L. Moody (ereader that reads to you .txt) 📗

Wendy sat across the table, pursing her lips together. Talise didn’t have to guess the thoughts running through her friend’s mind since she’d already spoken them aloud several times. Ice is too dangerous, Wendy had said. It’s impossible. You’ll regret it.

It didn’t matter how many times Wendy protested, Talise knew what she had to do. She slammed the book shut and added it to the stack on her right.

“Here’s something,” Wendy said, though she seemed to regret having to let those words out of her mouth. “It’s from Master Shaper Luca. The one who discovered internal shaping.”

The passage was only a few paragraphs, but it gave Talise the courage to hope. It came from Master Shaper Luca’s personal journal. He had lived many years ago and worked for Emperor Flarius’s grandfather.

Water shaping comes from the eyes. Everyone knows this as easily as they know earth shaping comes from the feet and fire shaping comes from the heart. Lately, I have experimented with shaping elements inside of the body. It seems they all appear in different places while inside. Air travels through the muscles and bones. Fire seems to travel through the veins. Water, which I had guessed would travel through the veins, actually seems to travel just under the surface of the skin.

I discovered something else that deserves to be taught to all shapers everywhere. A warning no one should forget. After a fair bit of fire shaping, my insides were too hot for comfort. I thought I might cool myself by doing internal water shaping, and then freezing the water. I gave myself frostbite, and one of my fingers will have to be removed. Luckily, it’s only the pinky.

I’d heard ice shaping was dangerous, but I thought because I was cooling a part of my body that was already hot, it would be fine. I was wrong. I can irrevocably say, only a fool should ever attempt ice shaping.

“Are you sure you can’t adjust your fire ribbon demonstration?” Wendy asked while twirling her typical bit of hair. Her face was all pinched up.

None of that mattered to Talise because she finally had an idea. Master Shaper Luca had attempted to cool the heat inside his body, and it still led to frostbite. She had the same thought when she practiced her fire ribbon demonstration. What if she used ice to cool the heat?

Sitting here now, she could see it was all wrong. It would never work because ice was so much colder than the normal body temperature of a human. No wonder Master Shaper Luca had gotten frostbite.

But she had another thought. A magical thought. What if she tried it the other way around?

What if she didn’t use ice to cool the heat from a fire? What if she used fire to warm her body while she shaped ice?

That was the trick. She would have to use them both at the same time. That was the skill everyone else had always missed. Both she and Master Shaper Luca originally thought they could cool parts of the body that were only slightly higher than body temperature.

But what if she froze her skin and shaped a fire through her veins at the exact same time?

Simultaneously shaping two elements was difficult. For many shapers, it was impossible. But she wasn’t just any shaper. Ten years ago, she had promised Marmie she would be the best shaper Kamdaria had ever known. Now it was time to make good on that promise.

“I need some water,” Talise said. She knocked a stack of books over as she jumped from her seat. Not bothering to right them, she scurried to the back of the library where the containers of elements were kept. Just past the nearest bookshelf, she nearly toppled over Aaden.

His eyes went wide as he scrambled to grab a book off the shelf. He was suddenly pouring over the book with a little too much enthusiasm.

“Spying on me?” Talise asked.

He slapped the book shut, dropping all pretense that he cared about the words inside. “You’ll never be able to do it. No one has ever shaped ice without regretting it.”

She lifted her chin and stepped past him coolly. Of course it had never been done, but that wasn’t going to stop her from trying. It was the only way she could beat him.

When she got to the back of the library, she took a bowl of water and a bowl of dirt. Before she attempted ice shaping, she needed to practice simultaneously shaping two elements. She’d start with earth and air since they were easiest for her. Maybe she’d make dirt rings and blow bursts of air through them.

Aaden was gone by the time she made her way back to the table. Why did he care so much about becoming Master Shaper anyway? He didn’t need it like she did. Then again, he was from the Crown. This was probably the first time in his life he didn’t immediately get the thing he wanted on a silver platter. Whatever his reason, he’d just have to live without the victory.

She bowed unconsciously to the portrait of Emperor Flarius as she passed it. His rich fire orange robes were made of silk, but he also wore a brown cloak of speckled fur. His clothes were different in some of his portraits, but the crown was always the same.

Gold with rubies embedded around the middle. Each of the tines grew up to equal height so the crown looked the same from every angle. That crown was almost as old as Kamdaria itself, and Emperor Flarius loved it.

It was only a portrait, but his eyes seemed to watch her as she walked back to the table. What would he think of her plan? If she succeeded, she’d easily become Master Shaper. But if she failed? He’d think her a fool.

Her heart pattered as she sat at the table. The thought of seeing the emperor in person always made her nervous. All she could do now was practice.

Claye had joined Wendy at the table. They both stopped talking the moment Talise appeared, giving her the impression they had been talking about her. Claye raised an eyebrow when Talise began shaping dirt rings. Both he and Wendy were surprised when Talise shaped bursts of air through the dirt. Wendy let out a breath of relief.

Talise sighed. “I’m just practicing simultaneous shaping so it will be easier when I start shaping ice.”

“You’re still going to do it?” Claye asked. He and Wendy shared a look that told her everything she needed to know about what they’d been saying behind her back.

She ignored them and kept shaping. It didn’t take long to learn two things. One, simultaneous shaping was easier when she could focus one half of her body on one element and the other half of her body on the other element. And two, that method wouldn’t work when she started shaping ice.

Hour after hour she practiced in the library. Wendy and Claye had long since left. Wendy begged her to take a break so she could come to dinner, but Talise refused. The muscles around her eyes were starting to tire from all the strain she put on them when she narrowed her eyes.

The more she practiced, the easier simultaneous shaping got. She would have liked another week to practice, or truthfully, another year, but two days was all she had.

The next day, she skipped her shaping lessons altogether and kept practicing in the library. There weren’t any lessons left to learn anyway. At this point, everyone was just preparing for the competition. It was much easier to practice simultaneous shaping without the other students gaping at her.

Aaden hadn’t returned to the library. Or maybe he had, but she’d been too busy to notice. She tried not to think of it too much because it made her as nervous as the thought of seeing Emperor Flarius.

By the end of that day, she had started simultaneously shaping fire and water. Nothing inside her body yet. Her latest exercise involved bouncing balls of water through the air while fire arrows would shoot straight through them. It would have been enough to beat any other student besides Aaden. Against him, it would still be a tie.

When the exercise became too easy, she shaped the water back into its container and let the fire die around her.

One more day.

She just had one more day to practice. The day after that would be the competition. She always intended to rest the day before the competition, but she knew now that wasn’t an option. She hadn’t even shaped ice yet, let alone decided what to make with it.

Even as she had that thought, the image of Emperor Flarius’s portrait came to her mind. Aaden’s idea to make fire sculptures of the cherry trees Emperor Flarius loved was brilliant. An idea like that might be worth copying.

She wouldn’t make trees. Her ice shaping would never be as detailed as Aaden’s, especially with only one day to practice. She needed to make something the emperor would recognize and love, but something that would be easier. Something flashy.

His crown.

The crown would be easy enough to replicate, but it would still be recognizable. It wouldn’t be gold or have red rubies, but the emperor would still understand even if it was made of ice.

Sitting the library chair, Talise closed her eyes as she took in a deep breath. It was close to evening now and the other students were all busy getting ready for bed. She had nothing left to distract her mind. The time had come for her to shape ice.

Fear roiled through her. Her brow glistened even though her fever had healed.

This was it.

She took in another deep breath and sent a fire burning through her veins. The heat felt nice at first, but it grew unpleasant after only a few minutes. During those minutes, she figured out how to localize the heat in specific parts of her body. The fire always began in her heart, but once it was started, she could move it to only burn inside the veins of her arms and hands.

Now the true test came. She shaped the water out of the bowl, so it levitated over one palm. She started with a small amount of water, no bigger than a coin.

The fire burned harder inside her, and she took a steadying breath to calm it. Based on Master Shaper Luca’s journal, she knew to note her heartbeat, her internal temperature, and her breathing. If any of these seemed off, she’d have to adjust her fire shaping to compensate.

Talise shaped the water into a square. Then she shaped it into a flower, and then a fish. She was stalling, but the shaping helped calm her nerves.

At last, she shaped the water into a simple ball. With her eyes narrowed to tiny slits, she internally shaped water around her fingers. The urge to hold her breath was strong, but she knew it would be best to keep breathing normally. She had to regulate her breath to know if frostbite or hypothermia were imminent.

Now.

She froze the water in her fingers and let the cold air rise so it could freeze the levitating water into ice. Again, she paid special attention to her vital life signs. Her heart kept beating at a steady tempo. Not too fast. Not too slow. Her breathing remained constant. The skin temperature in her hands was cold.

Feeling the fire in her veins, she sent it just a little closer to her hands. Too close and it would melt the ice in her fingers. Too far and she’d have frostbite.

She spent a few seconds