Chapter Thirty-Four

The next morning, Loralie woke before Det and crept out of his bed, as she had done too many times before. This would be the last time, she promised herself, no matter what the outcome of events she was now setting in motion.

She went across the hall, into the guest room and packed a small bag to take with her. She wouldn't need much. She wasn't too far from the Citadel here, and it wouldn't take her long to get there and do what she had to do. Whatever that was.

She'd had to rethink all her plans in light of her newly acquired abilities. She wasn't sure what she would end up doing when she got to the Citadel, besides stop Skir by whatever means necessary. Whether it would end in her death, she was no longer certain.

A small part of her wished she could find a way to walk away from the Citadel with Skir safely put to sleep once more and everything secure, but she just wasn't sure. If she could, she would do all in her power to return to her children. And to Det.

She loved him so much. It wasn't fair, what had happened to them. She prayed to the Mother of All for a solution that meant she could spend more time with him and their beautiful, talented twins. Before she left, Loralie stopped into the twins' room and kissed their sleeping faces. Stifling her tears, she left them and snuck out of House Adain, into the dark courtyard.

Turning from the door she had closed so carefully behind herself, Loralie almost jumped when a dark form moved in the courtyard. She was familiar enough now with dragons to discern, after a moment, that it was Leasharra. Any of the snow dragons would have gleamed white, even in the darkness before dawn. Lea, though, was red and blended into the shadows that still covered the land.

"You are leaving," Lea said into Loralie's mind.

"Yes," Loralie answered the same way, keeping her words silent so as not to disturb anyone or make her presence known.

"What path will you take?" Lea asked.

"I thought perhaps to use the enclave's Gate into the Citadel, then get as close as I can from there," Loralie revealed.

"From your tone, that doesn't sound like an ideal solution," the dragon observed. "What is the optimal insertion point?"

"My childhood home is closer to the breach, and on the other side of the ice chambers from here," Loralie said, beginning to walk across the dark courtyard toward the street. She didn't want to get caught sneaking away at this point. "But it would add days—possibly weeks, if the weather is bad—onto my journey."

"What if I fly you there?" Leasharra asked unexpectedly. Loralie stopped in her tracks and looked up at the dragon.

"You would do that?"

"I am a dragon. By my blood, I am sworn to uphold the integrity of the Citadel. Right now, you need help to do that, and I can offer it. Will you accept?" Lea's words sounded almost like a challenge, but Loralie wasn't going to look a gift horse—or, in this case, dragon—in the mouth.

"Yes, I believe I will accept your very kind offer, since it will take a great deal of time off my journey and deliver me to the spot where I have the best chance of stopping the decay of the ice chambers." Then, Loralie thought of something. "But what about Penny? Can you get back here in time so she doesn't miss you?"

"You forget. Penny and I are connected now. She will be glad that I'm helping you so that you can do your duty then come back to her safely," Lea chided.

"You know I can't guarantee that," Loralie objected.

"I understand you think that is so, but your chances are better with me along. Now, climb on my back and let's get underway. The sooner we leave, the sooner we return."

"If you say so," Loralie grumbled as she climbed onto the dragon's back. A moment later, Leasharra had launched herself into the sky, and they were away.

Det saw Loralie and Leasharra depart from the shadows of the courtyard. Lea probably realized he was there, but Lora didn't. Gren was waiting and ready to follow them. This time, he wasn't letting Loralie leave without a fight.

*

When Leasharra landed in the courtyard of Loralie's childhood home, Loralie couldn't help but notice how things had changed since she had last been there. The home set aside for the Guardian was located at the center of the Citadel complex. It was magically protected in a way similar to how the fair folk's enclave was protected by their Veil. Although her home was technically at the top of the world, the weather under the protective magical dome was temperate.

The Citadel was actually a circle of ice chambers with the Guardian's home at the center. Each chamber held one of the ancient wizards who'd been on the losing side of the wizard wars. The chambers were all solid ice—or they should be. About a quarter of the house was now encased in ice as well. Beyond the chambers was a labyrinth of passageways and chambers leading to several Gates.

The Citadel had originally been a place of learning. A place of power and a retreat for wizards during their golden age. When the wars between them had ravaged the lands, the winners chose to repurpose the existing structure to hold the losers of the great wars. They'd chosen a Guardian and created a place for her to live at the center of the complex, giving her and her family the run of the place. All but the ice chambers, which the Guardian was tasked with overseeing to make sure they stayed encrusted at all times in the magical ice that held the wizards in a deep sleep state from which they could do no harm.

"It looks like the ice that my mother unleashed has retreated a little bit," Loralie said as she slid down off Leasharra's back. "And the color and quality of it looks different than I remember."

"How long has it been since you were last here?" Leasharra asked, looking around curiously.

"The last time I was here was before I met Det. Before that, I would come back every year to visit my mother's resting place. But meeting Det changed everything. Then, I had the children, and Gebel pounced almost immediately. My life has been a mess since then."

"Your mother lies here?" Leasharra asked in hushed tones.

"In the ice that covers the library," Loralie replied, gesturing to the block of magical ice that spilled out of an open doorway.

Loralie went over to the door and looked in, and there she was, as Loralie remembered her. A tear ran down her cheek. There was her mother, just visible through the wavery blue-tinted ice block. Still sleeping that magical sleep. Never to be freed.

Or… Maybe…

Loralie thought about how she'd been able to unfreeze Gebel with such precision, but immediately shook her head. She couldn't take chances here of all places. If she got things wrong, and Skir escaped, Loralie would be condemning all the lands to chaos and havoc. She couldn't do that. She was the Guardian now. Her duty had to come first.

"You said the ice looks different. How so?" Leasharra queried, drawing Loralie's attention away from her problem momentarily.

Loralie put her hand out to touch the ice that her mother had set free when she'd used the failsafe in the library. It felt…different. Wet, almost, rather than the cool dryness that Loralie remembered from the rest of the Citadel's ice chambers.

"This isn't right," Loralie said. "The ice shouldn't be wet. And it shouldn't be blue. The ice always had a greenish tint when I was little."

"Is it losing some of its potency?" Leasharra speculated.

"Judging by the way Skir has been able to communicate with his acolytes, I would say that's more than likely."

"Then, how will you get it back to where it should be?" Leasharra asked in a leading way, as if she was guiding Loralie to some conclusion that should be obvious.

"There are other failsafe spells planted all around the Citadel," Loralie told the dragon. "I have long planned to set off one of them. That should shore up the ice long enough for Penny to come up with a better solution."

"No." Leasharra's tone was final.

"I beg your pardon?" Loralie didn't know what to make of the dragon's statement.

"Do you remember saying you would give me anything that was in your power to give back at the manor house when we faced down Gebel together?" Loralie remembered her hasty, though heartfelt words, and nodded. "I told you I would remind you of that moment when the time was right. This is that time, Loralie. I am calling in my marker. I need you to find another solution. Setting off a failsafe that traps you just like your mother is not the way. It didn't work that well for your mother, and it won't work for you… Or for Penny. You need to do something else. Not simply repeat the actions of your mother. I'm asking you to come up with something new."

"I've tried thinking of an alternative, Lea. Don't you think I've agonized over this?" Loralie was in turmoil. She could see the library books through the ice, frozen along with her mother in the Guardian's library. Maybe one of those could have given her an idea of what to do, but they were locked away in ice. Out of her reach.

Or were they? Temptation stirred again, but she tamped it down. She had to reason this out and make Leasharra understand.

"If I try to unfreeze this ice, I could cause a catastrophic failure that brings down the entire Citadel structure." Loralie almost whined in her desperation. Why couldn't Lea understand?

"If that happens—which is highly unlikely—then you can still trigger a failsafe and go with your original plan, can't you?"

"Well…maybe," Loralie admitted uncertainly. "Possibly. But I'd have to be fast. I'm not sure I could be fast enough."

"But I could," Leasharra said slyly. "I could be your backup, Loralie. I wouldn't let the worst happen. I can trigger a failsafe just as well as you can. Better, perhaps, since some of the protections in this place were built specifically with dragons in mind. Or didn't you realize that?" Leasharra blinked down at Loralie as amused ringlets of smoke twirled upward from her nostrils.

"How?" Loralie almost stuttered. "How can that be?"

"He who created my kind, Dranneth the Wise, was on the winning side of the wizard wars. He had a great deal of input into the building of this prison. He foresaw a time when dragons would need to help shore up the fabric of this place. All dragons know this, though I think I'm probably the first to speak of it to a human. Then again, you are the Guardian, so you really need to know." Again, the amused smoke tendrils rose upward.

"I've always heard that dragons kept secrets," Loralie groused a little.

"That we do," Leasharra agreed easily. "And there are more that I cannot tell even you, Guardian."

Loralie waited, but Leasharra was apparently done. If a dragon's face could look smug, Leasharra had that expression now. Loralie felt a bit manipulated, but she also felt a tiny bit of relief. She didn't have to do this completely alone. The red dragon was going to back her up and if Loralie failed, the dragon would be there to pick up the pieces.

"All right," Loralie shook out her hands and took a deep breath for courage. "Where should I start?"

The dragon craned her long neck toward the library door and the ice within. "Well, you showed great skill when you unfroze only Gebel's head and shoulders."

"I was aiming for just his head, so I wasn't as accurate as you may think," Loralie muttered.

"Still, you did it very well, so why not working with the magical ice again?" Leasharra suggested. "And why not start with the library where your mother lays trapped?"

"Freezing or melting?" Loralie posed her next question, needing to make sure she was hearing the dragon correctly.

"If you could get to the books, they might help you," Leasharra offered innocently. "If you could manage to free your mother, I'm sure she would be even more help."

Loralie's knees went weak. She hadn't dared let herself think about the possibility of freeing her mother from the ice. Would she even still be alive? She wasn't an immortal wizard, though Guardians did have a much longer than average lifespan because of all the magic entrusted to them.

"Do you think—" Loralie whispered, but could not finish the sentence.

"I think you need to try," Leasharra said gently.