Rakel ran as Captain Halvor spun around and engaged the soldiers, his sword ringing when it hit their armor.
Rakel skidded into the courtyard just in time to see the weather magic-user—standing on the top floor of the municipal building—raise his hand. Thunder growled, and Rakel sprinted towards the center—where a small unit of thirty or so Verglas soldiers stood—penned in by Chosen troops. She threw a block of ice at two of the Chosen soldiers, creating a gap that she slipped through. She had just enough time to throw her hands up, creating a huge shield of ice as lightning fell from the sky. The ice shield bloomed like a four-leaf clover, shaking when lightning struck it.
Rakel gritted her teeth and increased the thickness of the shield as the lightning danced across its surface. When the attack was finally spent, Rakel shattered her shield, forming a cloud of razor sharp daggers, which she rained down on the surrounding Chosen soldiers.
The Verglas troops, free from magical assault, sprang against the Chosen, engaging them in combat.
She turned her gaze to the municipal building and saw the weather-boy gaping down at her. “Shoot!” he shouted—his voice barely more than an anxious peep over the shouts of the soldiers. He ran towards an observation platform, but a wall of ice pushed him straight over the edge of the roof. He shouted as he fell and landed in a large, cushy pile of snow Rakel had summoned for the occasion. He fell again when she whisked the snow away, and before he could stand, bands of thick ice spread across his ankles, knees, wrists, elbows, and hips, freezing him to the ground.
The young man shouted in frustration. Rakel ignored him and raised an ice shield behind her. The wolf that was leaping for her open back hit it—nose first—and was flipped head over tail.
Rakel put a loving hand on the ice shield as she smiled benevolently at the wolf. Her ice shield was not a crude, plain wall of ice, but a beautifully sculpted shield that possessed the same flourishes as the royal crest, except for the reindeer standing in front of a snowflake emblazoned on its center.
When the wolf lunged at her again, Rakel sent the shield forward, and it rammed into the wolf with the force of a stampeding bull reindeer.
The wolf yipped, hit the ground, andhowledwhen an ice collar snapped shut around its neck. The collar was connected to a short chain that held it anchored to a block of ice. The wolf barked and tried to transform—its fur going from a fluffy wolf pelt to the white of a snow bear. When its throat wouldn’t grow due to the constriction of the ice collar, the wolf choked and coughed. Rakel snapped a cage around it—one that had three interlocking layers of bars, and a ceiling cut like a gemstone.
The wolf changed into a fox and managed to slip from the collar, but in neither its fox, wolf, nor snow bear form could it break through the cage bars.
Ahh yes…so the shifter is their scout. We will have to keep an eye out for foxes in the future.Rakel smiled in satisfaction as the brutish magic-user gnawed on one of the bars of the cage, yelping when it chipped a tooth.
“Princess!” a soldier shouted.
The Verglas soldiers had subdued the Chosen troops whom previously surrounded them and reorganized their ranks so they were spread around Rakel in a protective formation. The soldiers on one end of the formation were tossed aside when the young girl with the strength magic pushed through them, wildly swinging her fists to clear her path.
She’s the tricky one, Rakel thought, her brow furrowing as she slammed her lovely ice shield into the girl. She shattered it with her elbow. Coming up with the plan to confront the girl had been the most difficult. If Rakel tried to imprison her in a cage—like the shapeshifter—she would, given enough time, be able to break out. The easiest route would be to beat her senseless, but such a brutal method didn’t appeal to Rakel, so after some deep discussion with Captain Halvor, Rakel had decided on an uncomfortable—but more humane—method of subduing her.
“Back up,” Rakel said to the soldiers. The Verglas troops took one look at her fingers—where snowflakes swirled and dazzled—and scrambled backwards.
The young girl laughed as ice started to encase her body. “That won’t work on me,” she said, cracking and shattering it as she moved in on Rakel.
Rakel allowed her to draw close, and then coated the girl’s body in ice that was as thick as a finger length. The girl rolled her eyes and stopped so she could flex her muscles and crack the ice.
The ice cracked, but as the girl had stopped moving, Rakel was able to snap an iceberg shut around her, encasing all but her head in a chunk of ice that was as big as the courtyard’s three-tiered fountain.
The girl squirmed, but the ice had conformed to her body like a mold with no wriggle room.
“I apologize. You’re going to get cold, but I do not expect the following battle to last long. So you will not experience hypothermia or frostbite,” Rakel said.
“What? That was not a fair fight! Stop—I want another go,” the girl shouted.
A soldier from Frodi’s squad saluted Rakel. “Well done, Princess. You were able to counter-attack so much better today!”
“Thank you,” Rakel said wryly as she stepped around the body of an unconscious Chosen soldier. “Though not having to fight off Farrin Graydim had more to do with it than practiced skill. Are we ready?”
“Just about. The courtyard and municipal building have been cleared of all enemy soldiers. You’ll be facing less than half their force, as some of the villagers took it upon themselves to help us. We’ve also heard whistles from all the squads. They will arrive in approximately two minutes.”
“And Frodi and the other magic users?”
“No problems reported.”
“Excellent. Thank you, soldier. You’d better join the others.”
“Yes, Princess.” He saluted and hurried towards the municipal building, scurrying behind it.
Rakel walked a circle—ignoring the cursing enemy magic users—and checked to see that Snorri’s promise of two smaller city gates within eyesight of the courtyard was correct. She tugged on her magic, smiling grimly.If a deep, uncontrollable sleep is the payment for my magic, today will almost certainly activate it. I hope Captain Halvor is wrong.
Rakel pulled her hair free from its braid, perking when she heard a handful of whistles that came from several different directions.
