Queen Glaciana Frostborne Alpineglow's Arc

Chapter 28 of 33

They climbed at first light, the dragon leading the way up the broken slope. Glaciana rode near the front, one hand on her belly, the other on Victor’s arm. Victor kept his hand on Glaciana’s back. Kira ranged ahead on foot, her tail low, her ears pricked at every crack of shifting ice. Frosty flew slow above them, her ice wings dull in the thin sun. The fairy had given most of her magic to save Victor, and it showed. She landed on Glaciana's shoulder to rest, light as a leaf. "It's close," Frosty said. "Under us. Feel the ground go soft." Glaciana felt it. The snow beneath the hooves had turned to slush. Water ran in dark lines down the rock. The dragon stopped at a hollow where the ice had caved in, and it snarled low. Something moved in the melt below. Not a dragon. Not the beast she had braced for. A pale creature uncoiled from the water, thin and long, more root than animal, blind and reaching. It had been frozen with the crystal, and now it was starving and awake. It turned its head toward the sound of them and lunged up the slope, straight at Glaciana. She reached for the cold and found only a trickle. She could not raise a wall to shield the child inside her. "Down!" Victor shouted. He commanded his dragon. Frosty pushed off Glaciana's shoulder. She flung out both hands and froze the creature's reaching limb mid-air, holding it the way she alone could hold a storm. But she had no strength left. Her wings shook. The ice cracked. "I can't hold it," the fairy said, quiet now. "I'm empty. I need to go back home to recover.” Glaciana nodded at Frosty and the fairy went back to the kingdom. Kira leapt onto the rock above the hollow, teeth bared, but the creature was too large for claws. Then Victor put his hand flat on the dragon's neck. "Now!” he said. The dragon knew the child inside Glaciana was the way it had known Victor as a boy. It had sworn to guard them both. It reared over the hollow and breathed. Not fire. A blast of clean white freeze, sharp as any blade. The pale creature froze solid in an instant, then shattered on the rock like glass. Pieces slid down into the melt and lay still. Silence held the slope. Water still ran, but nothing moved in it now. Glaciana let out the breath she had held. She rubbed her belly and felt the child kick, whole and safe. Glaciana looked at Victor, at the dragon lowering its head to her, and knew the thaw was finally finished. But her own power had run dry when she needed it most. So they all went back home and the Queen was carried to bed by her loving husband.