The Exiled King | ✔

Chapter 18 - Icy Shenanigans

The frozen Eruen ocean glistened in the sunlight. It radiated a chill that did not dull, even bathed in warm sunlight and it showed no signs of melting.

A strong sea breeze ruffled Kylian's long black hair as he knelt down by the ocean's edge and inspected the ice. He'd unceremoniously taken a dagger and hammered it into the ice to determine the thickness, but the dagger—unsurprisingly, got stuck.

"It's probably still thick enough," Kylian hollered over his shoulder without looking back, "The ice doesn't seem to have melted at all."

"Did you get the dagger out?" Came the shouted reply.

Kylian shook his head and looked over his shoulder at the blonde haired man, who stood next to a pair of funny carts with two long curved beams instead of wheels. The northerners called them 'sleds' and they were good for sliding on ice and snow—and not much else, judging by Lasair's red face and the obvious trail gouged into the dirt behind him.

Loaded on the sleds were their weapons, bundled along with some tools, food and drink and furs. Lasair grabbed a pair of odd-looking boots and tossed them at Kylian.

Almost as an afterthought, he casually said, "Catch!"

Kylian leveled a glare at him, but smoothly caught the boots anyway. He inspected them with growing skepticism.

"What in the Abyss...? Someone's ruined these boots!" He muttered.

"The northerners use them for walking on ice, apparently," Lasair replied, kneeling to put on his own pair.

"There's nails- They put nails through the soles!" Kylian protested, holding an offending boot up in the air and staring it down as if the sunlight was going to transform it.

"Shut your trap and put them on, you dimwit! Oh hang on, I forgot these-"

A pair of thick woolen socks sailed through the air and, with remarkable precision, hit Kylian smack in the face.

Lasair, you little-

Kylian peeled the socks off his face and directed a death glare at the man unsuccessfully trying to hide his snickering.

Grumbling curses under his breath, Kylian put on the socks and wrestled the hobnailed boots onto his feet, then stood up on unsteady feet.

A loud cracking sound made him jolt and he lost his footing, toppling over like a fallen tree.

He expected Lasair to bombard him with mockery, but he stood with wide eyes and a slack-jaw staring behind Kylian.

"The ice! It's melting!" Lasair cried, and Kylian twisted to look.

A large crack had split the ice and it shone wetly, now covered in a sheen of water.

Kylian scrambled to his wobbly feet and stumbled to the edge of the ice, tentatively touching the frozen surface. His hand came back cold and wet, and he frowned.

Why is it suddenly melting? Why now? He wondered.

Behind him, Lasair was shuffling around and when Kylian turned around to ask him what he was doing, he replied, "Getting our stuff ready. We gotta go before the ice completely melts!"

Kylian shook his head and said firmly, "No, it's too dangerous!"

"But-" Lasair protested, waving his arm over the sleds he'd dragged over there.

"The ice is melting really fast! It could melt out from under us if we cross and then we'll be stranded in the middle of the ocean... Can you swim?" Kylian asked pointedly.

Lasair paused, then mumbled sheepishly, "...No."

He gestured to their things and asked, "Well, what about the stuff?"

"Whose bright idea was it to get them, hmm?" Kylian asked sarcastically.

"You agreed it was a good idea!" Lasair yelled, and Kylian shrugged with a smirk tugging at his lips.

Conveniently, he didn't know what Lasair was talking about.

Lasair glared at him, but his face soon turned sober and he said quietly, "You know those stuffy nobles are going to have a field day when they hear about this..."

Kylian's mood darkened instantly. Lasair was right, and Kylian was not looking forward to explaining the situation to the nobles. They were like a pack of wolves, just waiting for the right opportunity to tear them to shreds.

Kylian stretched his legs out and began to undo the laces of the boots, thinking out loud, "Right, so we have two options. Firstly, we wait until the ice melts fully and find a boat to go to Silvardor. Or we pack up and report back to Adrian as soon as possible."

Lasair mulled over his words for a while, then leaned against the sled and also started to peel off his boots.

He asked, "What good would it be to report back to Adrian now? We don't know anything."

Kylian took off the boots and woolen socks and slipped back into his own comfortable shoes, then stood up and walked over to the sled, rummaging through his bag for Adrian's order.

He pulled out the scroll and smoothed out the crumpled edges and unrolled it, reading, "The bearer of this scroll is acting on behalf of King Adrian the First... uh, let's see... full authority..."

Kylian paled visibly and looked up at Lasair.

"Oh gods, I forgot the order scroll!" He whispered in horror.

"What?! Then what in the Abyss are you reading?!" Lasair cried, striding over to peer over Kylian's shoulder at the scroll.

Kylian wordlessly handed the scroll over to Lasair and pinched the bridge of his nose, groaning, "There were two! Oh, marai vrae! We're so doomed!"

"As much as I'd love to laugh at you, I'll hold it back for now because we're in this together," Lasair said.

"Right, so he wanted us to investigate. Do you remember if he said we should go to Silvardor or not? I feel like he would have said that, since it doesn't make sense for us to just be twiddling our thumbs here until the ice melts," Lasair mumbled.

Kylian frowned, wracking his brain to try to remember something... anything of what Adrian had ordered.

He definitely mentioned Silvardor! He thought.

Out loud, Kylian said, "I think we should go to Silvardor and figure out why the ocean froze. I'm sure that's what he told us to do."

Lasair nodded in agreement, then looked at the sled and the hobnailed boots and let out a long sigh.

"It took a long time to find these!" He whined.

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Lying inside a forgotten pouch at Blackrose castle was a missive that stated that they were to investigate the cause of the freeze and report back immediately when the ice melted.