Starrlings 1: House of Fire

chapter 59

A R I

There was a small hidden staircase that led from the garden into the basement of the House of Fire. Ari had noticed it as she'd been staking out across the street. And now, in the cold shadows of night, she slipped inside and then from there up a crooked staircase at the back of the house, meant for servants. No one had seen her come in. No one ever saw her.

Ari knew that Lumi and Tai's rooms must be on the top floor. When she reached the landing, she peered out to find the hallway dark and quiet. The candles had not been lit. She could hear the sound of students below, laughing and chatting, but their voices were muffled.

The building was square, with an internal courtyard that Ari could see from a window as she slipped down the hallway. It held a pond and garden, empty of students because of the cold. As well as the large chambers for the prince and princess, there were rooms dedicated to studying, lined with desks. Ari passed it all, to find the prince's chamber.

If she could find anything - the letters that Tai had been collecting, or any proof that he'd planned the attacks - then Ari was determined she would feel better. She had to feel better, to know that someone had been responsible for her sister's death.

She found the prince's chamber, which was unlocked. It contained a huge bed and a desk covered in what looked like schoolwork, and she identified a pair of his shoes and his coat slung over a chair. Then she noticed a drawer under the desk that was locked. She pulled her sister's pin from her hair and jammed it into the lock, wiggling it backwards and forwards with little success.

She eventually gave up on the lock, afraid that she was running out of time, and looked around the rest of the room, hoping to find a key, or something else. She felt under the mattress, looking for documents, and along the bottom of the cupboard.

All the while she listened intently, her ears pricked for any noise that might mean one of Tai's fellow fire students was approaching his room. Her worst fear was that Tai's ward may enter the chamber, to change Tai's sheets or tidy up, the way Ari often did in Katja's room when the ice princess wasn't there.

She rifled through Tai's school books, looking for loose sheafs of paper, and then under the single armchair under the window. There was no other secret hiding spot other than the locked drawer in the desk, and she knew that if Tai were hiding anything, it would be in there.

Taking her sister's hair pin again, Ari once again attempted to pick the lock. Bell had mastered the art of lock picking when she was only eight. She'd delighted in the sport of it, in the way she'd been able to spring open doors to chests and chambers and even houses. Ari had been mortified at her sister's talent, but now, she wished she'd learnt something from her.

Giving up on the pin, Ari inserted it back into her own hair and stared at the lock. It wasn't a particular difficult lock. It looked old and loose, and really a good hit with a sturdy object might be enough to break the drawer open. But lacking a hammer, Ari realised she would need to use the only weapon in her arsenal. Her magic.

Winter magic was all about pressure. Ice and snow, blizzards and snowstorms and frost, it all came from pressure systems, and part of Ari's magic was about creating that pressure. If she could manage, somehow, to create enough pressure within the lock, it may burst open.

She pressed her palm to the lock, and concentrated on forcing ice inside the mechanism. The metal burned with cold, and Ari kept pushing. If her powers were stronger, she'd be able to do this in a heartbeat. But she knew that if she pressed too hard, the whole thing might explode in her face, and Tai would know that she'd been there.

A sound outside of the room made her stop, and she listened intently, and then heard footsteps descending the stairs. She got back to work, breathing heavily, forcing the lock with the ice.