Queens of Ice

Chapter Six

Taiga pressed Moon against the wall. "You were never meant to use my gift," she hissed. "If you were meant to use animus magic, you would've been born with it."

Moon pushed her away. "I may not have been born an animus, but Arctic was. He told me what he planned to do, and I made sure he could still give it to his tribe, even after his death."

"He is dead! His gift died with him!"

"No!" Moon roared. She lashed out at Taiga. "I gave him his legacy! I made sure his wish was fulfilled! All he ever wanted to do was help his tribe. I gave him that! You never cared about him! You would have let his gift, his greatest wish, go to waste!"

Taiga screamed with fury and lashed her talons across Moon's face. Moon screamed in turn as Taiga's claws dragged through her right eye.

As Moon held her claws up to her face, Taiga hurled her to the floor, pressing her talons down on her sister's neck. "I have the power here," she hissed, her jaws inches from Moon's ear. "Not you. You are nothing, and no one. You are powerless, and always will be."

She pressed down one final time on Moon's neck, then let go. She disappeared down the hallway. Moon staggered to her feet, talons clamped to her eye.

Tree, she thought blearily, seeing her blurry reflection in the walls.

Moon limped down the hallway, talons clutching her bleeding face. She took off into the air, flying towards the tree she had carved and enchanted. She landed clumsily at the base, and leaned against one of the great curving roots to steady herself. The pain in her eye disappeared, and she blinked the blood away, then picked up a handful of snow and rubbed away the extra blood on her claws and face.

She heard a scraping above her, and looked up at the branches. Two young dragonets were perched on one of the branches, staring down at her. At that moment, she was glad that she had been able to convince Aurora to remove the guards that had been stationed around the tree.

"What happened to you?"

Moon hesitated. "There was a misunderstanding."

"A misunderstanding that ends in you losing your eye?"

"Not quite. But close. Why are you here?"

"Iceberg thinks she can climb faster than me."

The first dragonet glared at Iceberg.

"I don't think I can, I know I can!"

Moon grinned. "I'll leave you to it, then."

She turned away from the tree and flew towards the palace, then turned and flew east, towards the site of Arctic's death. Seeing Iceberg and her brother had reminded her of the relationship she and Arctic had shared, over three years ago.

She landed on the ice, head bowed. Unbidden, the memories of that day surged into her head, as though carved in stone. Once again, Moon saw Arctic's body splayed on the ice, his mangled wings, his torn eyes...

Moon opened her eyes and frowned. The memory of Arctic's eyes had triggered another, much more recent memory; that of the image of the cuts Taiga's claws had left on her own face.

That's crazy, she thought. She forced her thoughts away, but the idea tugged at her mind like a rouge current in the ocean.

Moon shook her head. She turned back to the palace, beating her wings quickly as though she could escape the thoughts that plagued her.

She reached the palace, and climbed the long, winding stairs.

Just before she reached her room, however, she heard a cry from below.

"Moon! Taiga! Get down here, now!"

It was Frostbite. And from the tone of her father's voice, Moon knew this was no joke.

She barreled back down the stairs, almost flattening Taiga as she raced from her room. Together, they raced down the winding stairs towards their parent's rooms. When they skidded to a stop in the doorway, they found Frostbite standing over a pile of pale green scales. Queen Aurora's body.

No, Moon thought. Please, no, not again.

But Aurora's body wasn't mangled like Arctic's. The only wound was her slit throat.

"You know what this means, you two," Frostbite said hoarsely. "There are two heirs to the throne. I don't need to remind you what happened the last time something like this happened."

Moon nodded. When the old SandWing sisters Blister, Blaze, and Burn had vied for the throne, they had plunged five of the tribes into a twenty-year war. And none of them won the throne in the end.

She looked at Taiga and saw a strange look on her sister's face.

"Taiga," Moon whispered. "If you challenged her, just say so."

Taiga shook her head. "If I had challenged her, there would be more wounds on her. This looks like an assassination."

"Who would do this?" Frostbite asked.

"There were a lot of unpopular orders sent out over the years," Moon offered, not mentioning that many of the dragons in the kingdom suspected that Frostbite was actually the one giving the orders. "But I don't think anyone hated her enough to do this. Besides, how would they get into the palace?"

"Whoever did this, and whatever their reasons were, you two have something to work out. I'll leave you to it."

Frostbite left the room before Moon could say anything.

As the door closed, Taiga turned on Moon. "This will not end like the war of SandWing succession," she hissed.

Moon shook her head sadly. "No. It won't."

"Neither of us will leave this room until one of us is dead."

Moon shook her head again. "We won't go that far." When Taiga stared at her incredulously, Moon continued. "I don't want to be queen. You take the throne."

Taiga stared at her in shock. Moon nodded politely to her. "Queen Taiga."

She left the room, seeing Frostbite waiting outside. Before he could say anything, Moon answered the question she knew was on his tongue.

"Taiga's the queen."

Moon left her father and her sister where they stood, and walked up the long staircase for the second time in an hour. She walked into Arctic's room and lay down on his bed.

Did I do the right thing? she thought. Should I have met Taiga's challenge?

Whatever I should have done, she's queen now.