Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,145
do you mean?” Tala wheezed. “You put Maidenkeep under ice!”
“This was not my queen’s doing, little Makiling. My queen brought the frost to Avalon, but something else froze the castle, forced her to abandon the kingdom before she could find the sword and conquer the maidens. We had always believed it was the castle defenses at work.” The ice maiden laid a hand against one of the stone monuments, the energy crackling against her palm. “And now we shall take what is our due.”
“What you’re going to take,” said a voice behind her, “is a mouthful of fire. Burn her.”
The ice maiden snarled, whirling to face Alex, who was staring back at them through the transparent layer of ice that had formed over the exit.
It was the wrong threat to concentrate on.
A great roaring sounded from above. Tala looked up to see a raging furnace bearing down on the ice maiden, enveloping her in a huge fireball. The firebird flapped down, took a deep breath, and let loose another torrent of fire.
Alex lifted his hand, and the ice barricading the passageway melted at his touch. He walked to the center of the stone circle, and the energies flowing around it parted to grant him entry.
“Alex?” Tala could see the circle’s energies shifting, linking to Alex’s form. It was like he was serving as their living conduit, letting him tap into their magic. A strange taste filled her mouth, more sensation than anything else: the scent of flowers, a soft breeze, a babbling brook, sunlight against her face. It felt like spring.
“I’m sorry.” Alex raised his hands, and the lights followed the path they shaped. “I told you I had a curse, Tally. The frogs were only part of it.”
“What are you doing?”
“Protecting Maidenkeep. Like I did all those years ago.” One of the stone monuments glowed a bright emerald, the air growing even chillier than before. “This is Thoronoe, ‘elemental’ in the Avalon language—a green-marked glyph. Avalon kings could use it to control the weather, if they wanted to. I wasn’t strong enough then, but I am now.”
“You caused the frost?”
“Remember the story I told you about Talia, the Briar Rose? I couldn’t stop the Snow Queen back then, so I altered it instead using Mazoe and Gliten here, ‘time’ and ‘enchantment.’ Wherever the frost reached, my people slept, and time slowed.” He smiled grimly. “I guess I did it well enough that not even the Snow Queen could dispel it, or reenter my kingdom.”
“Using the Nine Maidens?” Queen Melusine, King Steadfast, Helga of the Marshes. They eventually paid for control of the Nine Maidens with their lives. “Alex, what have you done?”
“I didn’t have a choice, Tala. I had to accept her offer.”
“Her?”
“I told you. The Baba Yaga.” Alex raised his arms, then brought them down with grim finality.
The monument reacted. Streams of light shot out from the circle and melted everything it touched.
Ice slid down from the walls in large, heavy chunks, and Tala realized the castle was thawing rapidly.
Water gushed out of the ice maiden’s eyes, her ears, her open mouth. “My queen commanded the frost,” she croaked, fighting to stand, “yet we could not penetrate this room. It was you who barred our path.”
Alex grinned. His hands danced rapidly across the air before him, like he was conducting an orchestra, and the monuments’ humming increased. One began to glow with an unearthly light, the resulting energies from it drifting into the center of the circle and coalescing into sharp shifting ice above their heads like a halo of thorns. “If you thought I was an asshole at five years old, think of what a fantastic bitch I am now,” he said.
The ice maiden leaped for him, but Alex’s hands swept down with swift finality. The ice contracted briefly, then expanded.
Great shards lanced across the room, several catching the ice maiden in the midsection. Many more lodged themselves into the surrounding walls, onto the stone floor. What Alex had gained in power, he made up for with a lack of accuracy.
The monuments glittered and faded out of view for several seconds. And then they were back, as solid as ever, but Maidenkeep shuddered from the shock wave, and ripples of the spell continued spiraling outward, faster than light, to encompass the whole kingdom.
Forests melted, icicles dropping off tree branches to reveal small leaves and buds hiding underneath. Ice melted off houses and roads and vehicles, and in one village, the residents cheered as the dark clouds above