Queens of Ice

Chapter Ten

On the third day of her imprisonment, Moon was awakened by a slash of pain across her cheek. She couldn't actually close her eyes to sleep, but her mind would slip into a sleep-like state when darkness fell.

She saw Taiga standing in front of her, a smear of blue blood on her claw. "Wake up, Moon Stone," she ordered. "I know you want to say something, so say it."

"How- how did you enchant me?" Moon croaked.

Taiga smirked. "If I told you, well, you still couldn't do anything about it. But I still won't tell you."

"What do you want?"

"What do I want?" Taiga's eyed hardened into ice. "I want to break you, humiliate you, torture you for the rest of your miserable existence. I knew you would conspire to take the throne from me, but you acted all noble as a dragonet, feeding those idiot weaklings outside the aristocracy, giving them moon globes, making yourself look good to them, then refusing to challenge me for the throne so when you had me killed in some 'accident', you would look like a good, benevolent ruler with no blood on your claws. And you had a good act of it too. The only time you slipped up was after I got rid of our useless brother. You finally let your murderous side show."

"Whereas you have no murderous side and you've only ever killed other dragons when your claws were forced."

Taiga smirked. "Don't try to deny it. You're as bad as I am. The only difference is, I never hid it. I stayed true to myself, and if other dragons didn't like it, then they could go eat their tails. I may not have pretended to be the perfect little heir you were, but at least I was honest about it."

"Honest? You lied to me, Frostbite, and Aurora about Arctic's death. If that's honesty, I'm a NightWing."

Taiga just shrugged flippantly.

"Why not just kill me, then?" Moon asked. "I can tell you want to."

"Oh, I certainly will eventually," Taiga answered casually. But while I have you, I think I'll have some fun with you first."

Moon opened her mouth, but Taiga waved her talons and her jaws slammed shut.

"I don't want to hear you talk anymore. Right now, it's time for you to listen."

Taiga lifted the diamond sitting on her desk. "This is what I use to enchant my guards' talismans. Basically, I enchant this, and the same spell is cast on all their bracelets."

She plunked it back down on the desk, keeping her claws on it. "But that's not what I wanted you to know. What I wanted you to know is the exact nature of the spells I put on them. My guards can see in the dark, yes, your friends got that one right. But they can also fly faster than any other IceWing, heal faster, even without touching that lovely tree of yours, but I can also use it to see what they see, and hear what they hear, and so on. While it's regrettable that your friend killed Snowstorm, at least it got me access to see what that resistance group is doing. Unfortunately, that one dragon... Avalanche, was it? She has the powers that the bracelet brings, but I can spy on them, thanks to you."

Moon's heart started racing, but she tried to stay calm.

She's a liar, Moon told herself. She's making it up.

"Let's see," Taiga mused, as though reading Moon's thoughts. "There's Avalanche, Orca, those dragonets Iceberg and Walrus, and then your dear friend Beluga. I should start writing these names down. I won't kill them yet, though. I think I'll wait for Avalanche to expose more of them. Oh, I want to hear this."

Taiga closed her eyes. "Aww, Moon, they're discussing why you didn't come back. Beluga and the dragonets think you're dead. They seem more upset about that than I expected. Oh, Orca and the other one got it right. They think you betrayed them. Avalanche isn't saying much, though."