Tomas Kyriel's Arc

Chapter 2 of 7

The snow stopped by morning. Tomas and Elara left the frozen keep and followed the ridge toward the uncle's ice estate. It rose ahead of them, two stories of pale blue stone, its sharp spires wet with frost. Somewhere inside was the man who could break the curse. Tomas needed to reach him first, alone, to learn how many guards waited. He could not send Elara into a killer's house blind. "Wait here," Tomas said. "I'll scout the doors." He walked twenty paces down the slope. Then the curse seized his chest like a hook. His legs turned back on their own. He fought it and dropped to one knee in the snow. The binding dragged him toward Elara until the pain eased. He could not leave her. That was the whole design. "You can't do it," Elara said. She knelt beside him. "I felt something too. A pull." A white fox slid out from a snow den near the path. Silver marks glowed on its coat, shaped like small hearts. It circled them once, calm, and pressed its head against Tomas's frozen glove. He held still. The marks brightened where it touched him. "It senses something," Elara said softly. She reached out. The fox leaned into her hand too, and the light ran between them both like a thread. Tomas understood then why the curse fought him so hard. It was not only made to keep him near her. Something in him wanted to stay. He looked at Elara in the snow, her cheeks red with cold, and did not want to leave her side even without the chain. A second fox appeared. Its coat carried red marks, and it did not come close. It stood stiff, ears flat, staring toward the estate. Then it bared its teeth at the ice house and bolted. The doors of the estate swung open. A short, heavy man stepped out onto the frost. He was bald, robed in purple, a gold chain heavy on his chest. Tomas knew him from the maker's mark. Elara's uncle. The man who had ordered her death and who alone could unmake the binding. "You brought her to me," the uncle said. His voice was flat. "I expected the assassin. I did not expect him to bring the girl himself." Tomas rose and stepped in front of Elara. The curse let him. Standing between her and the threat cost him nothing. "Break the binding," he said. "You want it gone." The uncle almost smiled. "So do I. But the girl dies first. Then I'll free you." Guards filed out behind him and spread across the snow. Tomas counted six. He had wanted to scout them in secret. Instead the enemy had seen everything. The choice was made for him now. He drew his sword and set his feet, no longer guarding Elara because a curse forced him, but because he chose to.