Queens of Ice

Chapter Eight

Moon hauled the walrus into her home. In the four years since Taiga had exiled her, she had gotten a decent home for herself. It was no Ice Palace, but then, she was no animus. Her cave had began as a narrow crevice in the cliffs by the sea, and Moon had carved and shaped the inside as she had needed to. It was now slightly smaller than her room in the palace, with a raised part of the floor for her bed.

She dropped the walrus onto the floor and started to eat. But before she had finished, she heard a noise from outside. She took a step towards the opening, then leaped out, almost colliding with another IceWing. The other dragon leaped back with a yelp, and Moon realized how she must look, with the walrus' blood on her claws and mouth. Then she frowned.

"Beluga?"

Beluga gasped. "Princess Moon Stone! I was beginning to think I would never find you!"

"What are you doing here?"

"Look. We need you back at the palace. It's Taiga, she's gone crazy."

"First of all, I'm in exile. I can't go back. Second of all, she's queen. I may be her sister, but even if I could talk to her, I would still have no authority to change the queen's decisions."

"Frostbite did! The orders we got were his, never Queen Aurora's, right?"

Moon stared. "How did you know?"

"Look, Moon, don't deny it. She never left the palace, except on the day your brother died and a few other occasions. Also, plenty of the royal guards that patrol the villages now have compared her to the old SandWing princess, Blaze."

Moon flinched inwardly. She'd made that same comparison herself a few times.

"And while we're on the topic of comparing, there's also Taiga, who fits the descriptions of both Blister and Burn, both of them! She's probably the most dangerous dragon in Pyrrhia!"

"Beluga, I know how it may seem to dragons like you, no offense. But Taiga's not evil. She can be a bit extreme at times, but not evil."

"You haven't seen what she's done. If a dragon disobeys her, sometimes for even as little as falling asleep on guard duty, she kills them and leaves their bodies in the snow. If anyone touches them, they're also killed. It's the only time she ever leaves the palace. She's extended the rankings to every single dragon in the kingdom, except the royal family of course, and if any dragon is left in the Sixth or Seventh Circles at their seventh hatching day, she kills them, too. She makes a ceremony out of it! She says that if they aren't good enough, they don't deserve to live. She has guards posted, day and night, on every single animus gift that could benefit dragons who don't 'deserve' it, even the one you made for us, in Arctic's name."

Moon shook her head. "Have you actually seen any of this?"

Beluga snorted. "No, I only heard the rumors from a drunk NightWing over in the Five-Tail delta. Of course I've seen it! Every dragon within a mile of the Ice Palace can see and smell the bodies of the dragons she's killed. She orders dragons who aren't doing well in the rankings to come watch the executions. I've spoken to the guards around the animus gifts, Moon. I've seen it all. I wouldn't come to you with rumors. You're my friend."

Moon sighed. "Even Frostbite wouldn't stand for this. Why don't you talk to him?"

"He would stand for it, Moon. He does stand for it. He leads the raids on villages suspected of disloyalty or hoarding. Sometimes he's the one who kills dragons in the lower circles. Moon, you're the only one who can stop her. Challenge her for the throne!"

Moon sighed again. "Look, Beluga. As I said before, I'm in exile. The guards would kill me before I even got near Taiga."

"That wouldn't have stopped you before. You always used to help dragons who needed it, what's changed since then?"

"I've grown up since then, Beluga. I realize now that some battles can't be fought. Now leave me alone."

Beluga choked out a sob, then turned and ran, her eyes misting with tears. Moon turned away from the opening, trying to harden her heart.

I told her the truth. There's nothing I could do. Taiga's the IceWing queen, she has authority.

But if she's really doing what Beluga said...

Moon looked at the bracelet Taiga had given her so long ago, then wrenched it off and hurled it against the wall. She reached down to throw it again, but froze as she felt the sudden worms-crawling-beneath-her-scales, standing-on-a-cliff-in-high-winds sensation of animus magic.

She poked the bracelet nervously. Why had Taiga given her an enchanted bracelet? And what had she enchanted it to do?

Moon thought back to the day Taiga had given it to her, the day after Arctic's death...

It hit Moon like a bolt of lightning. Arctic's death. The killer they had never found, because they had looked in the wrong place. They had looked outside the walls, when all the time the killer had been inside.

Taiga killed Arctic.

The bracelet had been enchanted to make her believe Taiga's story. It had also stopped her from really resisting when Taiga wanted her to do something.

Moon bit her tongue as her anger rose. Knowing Taiga, it had also been enchanted to show her its location, and, by extension, Moon's.

Moon burst out of the cave, in the direction Beluga had flown. She could still see the distant shape as she flew as fast as she could after her.

"Wait!" Moon cried as she got within hearing range. "Beluga, wait!"

The younger IceWing spun around, eyes bloodshot. "Come to list more reasons why I wasted my time?"

Moon winced. "No. I've come to say I want to help you."

"Well, you certainly changed your mind fast. Why this sudden change of heart?"

"Years ago, after she killed Arctic, Taiga gave me a bracelet that I recently found out she'd enchanted to make me believe her story and to stop me from making trouble for her. She must've gotten a good laugh out of that."

Beluga's eyes narrowed. "Wait. Taiga killed Arctic? Why?"

"I don't know yet."

"So you'll help us stop her? You'll challenge her for the throne?"

"The hard part will be getting close enough to her to do anything. You said she never leaves the palace."

"We'll work on that," Beluga answered.