Daggers of Ice

Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

The Northern Lands.

Corradyn.

Corradyn trekked through the forests that winter never left, icicles clung eternally to the twisted and gnarled branches. Once the forest had been lush and dense, filled with exotic ferns and bushes, with brightly coloured flowers that bloomed in the early morning.

But that had been long begore he and the White Witch had battled atop the mountain. It had been long before the White Witch had betrayed him.

For many years he had felt the pull of her magic; and it had taken him two years of searching but he had found the babe, blissfully unaware in her enchanting sleep. She had been brimming with the magic of Charn, so alike his magic, but so different. The magic that Jadis had lost.

So he had awoken her, with a single drop of his magic-infused blood.

And he had felt the magic in the world shift.

Something fundamental.

He had held the babe in his arms and those emerald eyes had looked up at him.

He should have known that Jadis would have felt that shift, for when he had turned, the White Witch had been there, fury etched into each feature of her ethereal face. For seven days and seven nights without food or sleep they had fought atop the Western Mountains.

She could not destroy him, so she had turned him to stone, sending him body deep into the mountains where no one would find him.

But now the White Witch was gone.

And he would approach her once more. She was ready.

She was ready to rise by his side.

She ruled her own land, he could feel her touch on every winter-kissed tree, every frozen pond. His excitement beat steady and heady inside him. His heart pounded in anticipation as he followed the newly-awakened dryad.

She knew the woods of the Ice Queen's kingdom; for she had been raised there, she had lived the entirety if her first life there. And he was not fool enough to think there would be no traps around the castle, more than the enchantment that the dryad told him lay upon the castle.

He glanced at Lilyn at his side, her brows furrowed, a growl upon her lips. For like him, she had no love for the cold. She had the same fire as he within her veins.

For she had been his first.

And then the forest opened before them, the dryad landing deftly at his side in a silent crouch. Before them was the frozen lake, a lake which had once housed the most beautiful of mermaids. And at the far end, nestled between the mountains, rose the castle, spiralling from the ground like a unicorn's horn. It glittered with the light of a thousand stars, the icy facets reflecting the dim light that peeked through the thick clouds.

"Wait for us here, my dear," his words were soft to the dryad, who looked upon the castle with troubled eyes. For though her memories were not entirely complete, there was something that pulled her forward. With a grateful smile, she turned and disappeared into the trees once more, no evidence she had been there save for the shallow footprints in the snow.

With Lilyn at his side, he stepped out onto the ice, revelling in the slight hissing sound that arose.

Fire meeting ice.

Then he felt it, the tugging on his mind, a beautiful siren call that drew him towards the castle. A spell that would entrap him. A spell he recognised well, for he had cast the same enchantment upon the cave in which he had slumbered.