Hanako Tepes's Arc

Chapter 3 of 8

The steward ran, as Hanako knew he would. Her guards cornered him inside the rune-carved tower before dawn. Now he knelt on the cold stone, wrists chained, a spear held at his throat by a masked sentinel in black Byzantine armor. Hanako wanted names. Who else served the Nordic Clan? But when she looked at the man who had smiled through her wedding rites, rage rose in her chest. Frost cracked across the floor. Her eyes flared white. The steward screamed as ice climbed his legs. The guard beside her staggered back from the killing cold. She would freeze them all before she got a single word. "Stop." The voice cut the room. The Mother stood in the doorway, her white veil trailing far behind into the dark. She was Dracula's first wife and Hanako's own kin, the witch queen who hid all of Walachia from human eyes. She looked at the frozen steward, then at Hanako's shaking hands. She did not flinch at the cold. She walked into it. "Your power comes from the Strigoi Vii blood in your line," the Mother said. "Old witch blood. It answers your fury, not your will." She touched the frost on the wall. It did not melt, but it did not spread to her. "You feel rage. The ice feeds. That is why it grows." "Then teach me to stop it," Hanako said. The steward's teeth chattered. His legs had gone blue. "You cannot stop the rage. You are not built to." The Mother stepped closer. "So do not fight it. Aim it. Choose one thing to freeze. Hold that thing in your mind. Nothing else." Hanako breathed. She pictured the chains on the steward's wrists. Only the chains. Not the man. Not the guard. Not the walls. Cold gathered in her palm. She pointed one finger. Ice sheeted over the iron links and stopped there. The frost on the floor pulled back toward her, like water down a drain. The guard lowered his spear. The steward gasped, alive, thawing. "Again," the Mother said. Hanako froze the lock on the door. Then a single stone. Each time, she held one target and let the rest of the room stay warm. The power obeyed. She turned to the steward. Her eyes cooled from white to red. "Now you can question him," the Mother said. "Without burying him in a mountain of ice." She turned to leave, veil dragging behind her. "The blood is yours. So is the blame if you lose it again." Hanako knelt before the steward. She set one cold hand on his shoulder. He felt the frost and did not doubt she could end him. "Every name," she said. "Slowly." He talked. He gave her a courier route and a meeting place three nights out. A cell of the Nordic Clan waited there, deep in the mountains. Hanako rose. She had command of her power now, and a new trail to follow.