ICE

181. Almost Time

"IT WILL TAKE almost a week to travel to the Capitol on foot," Caelan said, his grim expression partially hidden behind a mask of stoicism. He glanced at Ravenna and she saw a hint of amusement swimming within his eyes. "Flying would be faster."

She stared at him for a moment — just registering his words within her brain.

"Yeah, that is not going to be a thing that happens," she said simply. She lifted her hand. Tiny shards of ice danced across the skin of her palm. "That is way too far to fly. I can't promise that I won't get sick. Can we not just create a portal?" she asked. "Similar to the spell that you used to transport Eoin and I into the Capitol?"

Caelan frowned. "While that would be ideal, I do not recommend it. Vyses will be watching for any signs of magic or a portal within the walls of the Capitol. He would most likely ambush us. We need to try to maintain the element of surprise, if possible."

She felt her stomach twist a bit. A frustrated sigh escaped her. She turned away from him and started to pace around the interior of the tent. Flying couldn't be their only option for timely travel to the Capitol.

As she paced, she could feel his gaze focus on her. It was distracting — but not enough to keep the wheels from turning within her mind. From the peripheral of her vision, she noticed him fold his arms across his chest and lean against the wooden table that sat within the center of the tent. Behind him, she saw the human guard shift around uncomfortably. His arms were still locked within giant spikes of ice, preventing his escape.

The more that she examined the human, the more that he reminded her of one of the guards that had patrolled a town that she and Vyses had visited. Their path throughout the country had been quite random, with no particular direction — preventing the royal guard from being able to track their movements.

A thought occurred to her.

She whipped back around, facing Caelan. "What if we use portals to move between towns?" she asked. "But instead of moving linearly through the kingdom, our movements can be more sporadic and harder to track."

He arched an eyebrow at her, curiously. "Elaborate, please?"

"After the altercation between you and I, Vyses convinced me that we needed to go on the run," she explained, wincing a bit at the memory of Caelan's fake-death. "We moved from town to town, but each movement was based on how close the next town was. It did not matter if that town was more to the north, or back down to the south. I did not think about it at the time, but I have a theory that Vyses did this purposefully. If someone had been tracking our movements on a map, it would have appeared very confusing. It would have been much harder to track."

Her palm turned upwards and a slender disc of ice appeared, hovering just above her skin. Tiny cracks appeared within the ice, outlining the shape of the mountains and rivers that surrounded them — as well as marking the location of several towns. She moved closer to Caelan and pointed at one of the towns.

"Say that we start here," she said. Her finger then moved to point to another town — a town that was much farther away, situated just east from the Capitol. "And then move here next."

The next town that she pointed to was closer to the Capitol, but more southwest in comparison to the previous town.

Caelan's eyes lit up with understanding.

Ravenna grinned. "If we move fast enough, and randomly enough, then it should be harder for Vyses to track our movements."

A hint of a smile pulled at Caelan's lips. "I do believe that could work," he said. The pride that filled his voice made Ravenna's heart beat a little faster. He glanced back over his shoulder, at the human guard behind them, whose eyes still glowed faintly with crimson. "Naturally, that specific path will not be the one that we take. Just in case."

Ravenna looked over Caelan's shoulder. It did not occur to her that Vyses could potentially be using to the human to listen to them. She nodded and then smiled slightly at the human. "The ice should melt soon after we leave," she told him. "Both you and your men outside will be free again."

Relief flooded the man's expression. His voice quivered as he said, "Thank you."

Her gaze shifted back to Caelan. His proud smile had grown. He held out his palm. A light white glow coated his skin. It gathered within the center of his palm, glowing brighter and brighter. It then stretched into a disc-like shape — similar to the map that Ravenna had created. Small crimson dots depicted the location of Vyses' soldiers around them.

There were not many.

With his free hand, Caelan reached out. His hand gently touched the small of her back and pulled her closer toward him. Her eyes widened in surprise, her hands lightly touching his chest.

His proud smile twisted into a smirk. "Are you ready?" he asked her.

"Yes," she answered. Her voice shook a bit.

"Hang on tight," he warned her. His arm wrapped tighter around her, almost squeezing her body against his. She squeezed her eyes shut. "This is going to be fast."

She nodded distractedly and wrapped her arms around his torso. Her cheek pressed against his chest. A familiar burning sensation flooded her cheeks as she listened to his heart beat. She heard him chuckle.

The spell kicked in fast. A sense of fuzziness entered the depths of her mind, fogging her thoughts and making it hard for her to think straight. Her arms tightened around Caelan. She tried to focus on his steady breathing. Bright light illuminated a spider web of veins within her eyelids. Her eyes cracked open and the air in her lungs caught within her throat. An abyss of pure white surrounded them. Movement teasingly danced within her peripheral vision, no matter which way she looked. The only thing that she could make out were flashes of muted colors. Greens, sky blues, and deep earthy wood tones appeared briefly within her field of vision, exploding across the white landscape around them.

It took her a moment to figure out that the flashes of color were from each town as they transported through.

She blinked and suddenly the white abyss vanished entirely — replaced with the browns and evergreens of a lush forest. Her stomach lurched and she felt her ears pop. Caelan stumbled a bit backwards but quickly caught himself. His arm held her upright.

"Oh," she said. The word came out broken, somewhat hoarse.

"We are just outside the Capitol now," Caelan said. His own voice was somewhat strained. Both of his hands grasped her shoulders. "I told you that it was going to be fast."

She took a small step backward, away from him. She swayed on her feet a bit, her head spinning. "Oh, my head," she muttered under her breath. Her hand lifted to clutch at her head.

Caelan chuckled a bit. "Just take a moment to breathe," he told her. "Your body is just trying to catch up. We transported through about ten different towns all over the kingdom."

She focused her gaze on his face. He seemed to be recovering a lot faster than she was. She watched as he glanced around the forest for a moment. Then he pointed.

"The entrance to the Capitol over there," he told her.

She nodded and they started to walk. Her stomach twisted a bit with anxiety. It was almost time to face Vyses.

The trees parted, revealing the glittering diamond bridge that marked the entrance into the Capitol. Both Caelan and Ravenna abruptly stopped. Their gazes fixated on the thousands of glowing crimson ice soldiers that awaited them on the bridge. The soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder, crammed together so tightly that they could hardly move.

Ravenna's stomach sank low. "Oh crap," she said.

"Oh crap, indeed," Caelan agreed grimly.

"We are not going to have enough soldiers," she whispered in horror.