House of Winter

Chapter 29, Part 2

Two of the Reunsgardians were now holding his hands back so that he couldn't move, and Lumi bit her lip and concentrated more. She could feel it coming out of him, like he had lost control and it was all slipping away. It seemed so easy. Her palms burned with the effort but they were not blackening. She was meditating on the method of it and she knew to allow the ebb to come naturally rather than to force it like she had with Tai. It was almost as if she wasn't doing anything, just letting it happen. Letting the magic ebb away.

And then the man let out a piercing scream and kicked his legs, sending Lumi flying backwards. Lumi yelped, and behind her Tom tried to reach her, but two of the Reunsgardians tackled him and pulled him backwards and away from her.

Lumi coughed. She'd been kicked in the stomach and all of the air knocked out of her. She gasped for air, feeling like she was suffocating. Two Reunsgardians were on top of her, and another two were on the man, and suddenly she realised they were beating him, attacking him with their fists and he was on the ground with his arms bound behind his back, completely helpless to their attacks, and Lumi took a great gulping lungful of air and tried to pull the Reunsgardians off him but by the time they even noticed she was there the man wasn't conscious.

She managed to push past the Reunsgardians and bend over the man's lifeless body. She could feel the magic within him still and she knew he was clutching to life even with blood across his face and his nose broken and his mouth nothing but a bloody gaping hole.

"Quell him, Lumikki," Eero said.

"He'll die."

"And so be it. It'll be a lesson to the others."

Lumi pressed her hand once more to the man's chest and felt the weak flow of his magic in his heart. She knew that if she pulled gently at this string she would pull his magic out of his body and that would be it, but she was sure that it would kill him.

Lumi closed her eyes and did it anyway.

He didn't make a sound as he passed away in her arms, but the others in the room did. A few of them struggled against their bonds and their captors, but no one was able to move.

Lumi suddenly felt a strange coursing of power within her, and when she lifted her hand it was almost spontaneous that a burst of bright flame came to life in her palm. Her fire was back. It had only cost her the death of a man.

"Toss his body to the wolves," Eero instructed. "Hopefully she won't kill the next ones."

But Lumi was crying now, and she knew she couldn't go on. She didn't care that they were threatening the lives of everyone. She couldn't contain her sobbing. She looked like nothing short of a little girl.

"Don't make me do it," she whimpered.

"You must learn, Lumiko," Doctor Hart said. "You are still too powerful. You must learn to control it."

"I can't do it."

Lumi struggled against Eero and Armo, struggled against the other Reunsgardians, and found herself out in the snow again with the wolves. She saw there were lions chained to the wall, shivering in the cold, and she felt a horrifying stabbing of pity to see them there. She thought of Jinni and felt a desperate sob escape her. She missed her tiger so much.

"I can't do it," Lumi said into the cold wind. The wind sucked away her words, and then like icy claws crawled into her nose and mouth and lungs.

But she turned back into the room and knelt before the next man.

"Please," she murmured. "If you don't struggle, then you won't get hurt."

The man was shaking with fear. To lose one's magic was not so different than to lose one's life. The lions would no longer recognise their starrling companion. The light starrlings here might die of starvation or cold before they ever managed to get back to Lombardia. And once there they would be rejected from their old roles and perhaps even from their families and communities.

"You will have a new life, and it will bring you fulfilment in some way," Lumi murmured, as she knelt before the man.

He struggled despite her wishes, and the Reunsgardians had no qualms in kicking and beating him too, but this time Lumi managed to quell his magic without killing him. It was easier, the second time, and now she recognised the feeling of her fire growing stronger within her. She didn't need Tai or Jinni to create her fire magic. If she continued to quell, she would regain all of her lost strength.

There were ten of them in total. By the tenth light starrling her fire was stronger than it had been even when she was with Tai, and she knew then that there was no way she would follow the Reunsgardian's instructions any more. She needed to escape.

She feigned sadness and weakness, because that was what they expected of her. She sobbed more and she cried out and she struggled pitifully against her Reunsgardian captors. They did not expect that she had grown stronger with fire. They didn't expect it until she turned to face them. If they had looked closely they would have seen the new white hairs that streaked her once pure black hair.

Lumi turned to Armo and Eero first. "You are my people, but you have betrayed my trust."

She would not kill them, but she would do the next thing. This time she didn't even need to touch her hand to their hearts. She pulled at their magic even while she stood across the room from them.

"No, Lumikki!" Armo screamed.

But she pulled and pulled and their magic was gone just as smoothly as the light starrlings' had gone. She knew now how it was to quell.

As Lumi pulled the magic from the brothers, she felt the world around her crumble.

"Lumi!" Tom yelled. "We need to get out of here, now."

Lumi spun back to look at Tom. He was helping Doctor Hart out of the little building and back out into a sudden blizzard that had struck the darkness.

Tom broke the chains from Kobuk and Mondli with ease, then helped the chancellor onto her lion. He looked back to pull Lumi back onto Kobuk, but Lumi was staring up at Doctor Hart, who had reached out with a grip like ice and grabbed onto Lumi's hand.

"You must go to Vulfholm," Doctor Hart said. "Tell Queen Lisbet that the liquid star has already been compromised. Listen to me, Lumiko, listen to me. Your grandmother had no idea the true power of the liquid star when she signed it away to Matthias Stone."

Lumi stared up at Doctor Hart, bewildered. "You're not coming with us?"

"I need to go to Alamadi, to see if my worst fears are realised."

Lumi had no idea what Doctor Hart was talking about, but the old woman released Lumi's hand, and within moments Mondli the lion had taken off into the sky. Lumi turned to look at Tom, and then accepted his hand so that he could pull her onto Kobuk's back. Kobuk took off, just as the sound of an explosion sounded behind them.

Lumi twisted in her seat to look back, and saw with horror that the horizon seemed to be on fire. The world was collapsing, and Lumi was certain that it was her fault.

She felt she had given up some of her integrity long ago, when she had gone against her wishes and eaten the meat that King Matthias had forced upon her. She had lost her integrity again now, by quelling so many innocent Lombardians. She knew she was no longer innocent, no longer good. Anyone would look upon her and see the evil that had sunk inside her. It was deep within her now.

to be continued...

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elle