Cigarette's Arc

Chapter 5 of 5

Queen Smirnoff cupped the cracked seed in her hands. Light leaked from the split, thin and steady. Cigarette watched the leak and felt cold in her chest. The seed was safe here, but not safe enough. Jack Daniels was still alive on the ice. He knew the warm passage through the wind wall. He could walk it and come back for the seed while it lay cracked and weak. As long as he lived free out there, the seed was never truly hers to guard. "He'll come back," Cigarette said. "He found the passage once. He can find it again." King Four Loko's jaw tightened. "Then close it." Cigarette understood. The passage only stayed open where the seed's warmth touched the frozen wind. Take the warmth away, and the wall froze solid again. But she could not carry the dying seed back into the cold. That would kill it. She needed another warmth. She thought of the glowing cascade north of the kingdom. Frozen, yet warm. A steady heat that never left the ice. She had rested there once. The mermaid fairy lived in its glassy water. "I need the falls," Cigarette said. "The water there holds heat on its own." She flew north again, alone, over the frozen ground. The cascade rose ahead, layered sheets of glassy water frozen mid-fall, shimmering and warm. Purpose lifted from a pool at its base. Her tail curled below her. She had helped Cigarette before, when her wings froze. Now she looked at the empty hands and frowned. "You lost it?" Purpose asked. "No. It's home. But the thief still knows the way in." Cigarette pointed south, toward the wind wall. "I need warm water from your falls. Enough to freeze the passage shut behind me." Purpose studied her, then nodded. She swept her hands through the glassy sheets. The frozen water broke loose in warm, floating shards that hung in the air and glowed. "It stays warm until it meets true cold," she said. "Then it freezes hard. Harder than what's there." Cigarette gathered the warm shards and flew to the wind wall. The passage still hung open, a narrow warm gap in the roaring cold. She hovered at its mouth and cast the shards inside. They drifted the length of the gap, glowing. The cold hit them. The warm water froze at once, filling the passage with thick clear ice. The gap sealed. The wind wall stood whole again, one solid sheet from ground to sky. Cigarette pressed her hand to the new ice. Nothing came through. On the far side, somewhere on the open ground, Jack Daniels had no way back. The seed was safe from him now. She flew home. But the cold thought stayed with her. She had shut out the thief. She had not saved the seed. It still cracked in the queen's hands, leaking light, dying slow. That was the next fight, and it was already losing.