Read Online Crown of Ice by Vicki L. Weavil - Free Book Online

remain Snow Queen forever.”
    “No, you won’t fail. Not with my help.” Kai touches the back of my hand with his fingertips. “It seems we both have much at stake.”
    A human touch. Something I haven’t felt in years. I tighten my fingers as my hand trembles slightly
    Luki slides in between us, breaking Kai’s contact with my skin. I pat the wolf absently and glance outside. Over that distant mountain ridge, across valleys, past the rise of mountains beyond, is another world. A world I may never see. Yet I can, at least, hold on to what is mine.
    “Let’s consider, then”—I whirl about to face Kai—“how to break into a wizard’s lair.”
    He smiles. It’s a smile that does nothing to warm his expression.
     
    ***
     
    The door to Voss’s chambers has no knobs or obvious clasps. Kai runs his hands over every symbol, feeling with his fingers for any hidden latches. We study the door for some time. After a while I give Luki leave to depart for his daily run, a necessity if I want to avoid him dashing recklessly down the palace halls in the middle of the night.
    Kai argues with me, claiming we might need the wolf. “Who knows what’s behind these doors? He could provide valuable protection.”
    “We have to pass through the doors before we need to worry about that.” I narrow my eyes as I stare at the recalcitrant portal. “There’s obviously magic at work here. Stand off and allow me to concentrate.”
    “Very well, my queen.” Kai executes a sketchy bow as he backs away.
    I shoot him a fierce glance. “It’s in your best interests to follow my lead.”
    “No doubt,” says Kai. He leans against the icy wall next to the door. The magic I’ve wrapped about him is obviously working. He never shivers anymore, not even when dressed in only a woolen tunic and breeches, as he is now.
    I close my eyes for a moment, concentrating on nothing but openings. A tendril of heat tickles the back of my neck—the echo of the spell holding the door tight. The sense of warmth reminds me of growing things; of green vines curling about the hidden, hard buds of new fruit. I reach for that vine and grasp it with my mind. A simple incantation, in the end. It’s clear that Voss doesn’t hold my powers in high regard.
    A swooshing sound fills my ears, and I open my eyes. The door stands ajar and Kai’s staring at me. It’s a look I remember from that day in the church, when he first recognized my mathematical abilities.
    “I keep forgetting,” he says, “that you’re no longer simply Thyra Winther.”
    “Wiser for you to remember,” I reply as we step through the doorway.
    “Can you conjure some light?” Kai’s hands are stretched out before him, exploring the thick darkness.
    I call forth a ball of cold flame. Stretching out my cupped hands, I spy tapestries draped over rods that run along the opposite wall of the room. “I think there may be windows.”
    Kai’s already several steps ahead of me. He reaches the stone wall and drags back the heavy drapes with both hands. Sunlight pours into the chamber, illuminating every corner.
    It’s a large room, but buried by objects. Every inch of space is filled with shelves and counters, which are, in turn, groaning under the weight of ceramic urns, wooden boxes, tin pails, and glass vessels filled with liquids of every hue and viscosity.
    “This isn’t going to be easy.” Kai crosses to the tall wooden table that divides the room. “Forget a needle in a haystack; this is like looking for one snowflake in a blizzard.”
    “Rather my specialty,” I say, joining him at the counter. I lift an odd tangle of roots tied into a bundle. “I think we need to concentrate on papers, or notebooks, that type of thing.”
    Kai’s gaze sweeps the room. “Why don’t I start searching those two walls? You can investigate this table and the third wall. There appears to be nothing of interest on that side.” He points to the window wall.
    “Very well, but remember we’re