Soul of Ice

Chapter Thirty-Seven

"You're still here!" Carina chortled when she re-entered the room hours later, disregarding the fact that it was impossible to escape. She flicked a finger. Her wind slammed Astra to the back of her chair and kept her there while the ropes from before wrapped around her again, finishing off with an elaborate knot.

The wind wraith slid back into the seat she'd sat in earlier. "Nice patch up with his finger, Astreia. Hopefully, it won't get infected. Wouldn't that be awful?"

The dried blood on Carina's dagger caught Astra's eye. She asked, "What did you do?"

"Oh, this?" Carina waved the blade. "I meant to update you on the events. So exciting, really. Originally, I was going to kill off all the adult wraiths. After all, what's the point of keeping around something you can't control? It's like asking for trouble, and I can't afford any more enemies.

"But then, I ended up catching up to Solano." She rolled her eyes and smirked. "Here's a tip: guardians might be immortal, but they're nowhere near invincible. I managed to snag a few of the children—lucky for the dozen adult wraiths I kept alive."

"How many did you kill?" the prince asked, sounding almost nonchalant. The hours of waiting and silence must had helped him recover a bit from his wound.

Carina shrugged. "Me? I only killed five. One of the adult wraiths tried to light me on fire. Foolish. I gutted a kid for his stupidity." She stared lazily at Astra. "Don't worry your little heart. It wasn't Timothy. Stupid boy and his siblings got away, but his parents paid for it."

Despite herself, Astra breathed a sigh of relief, though she felt a pang for Timmy. Orphaned—never a good feeling, and especially in one so young. She could only hope Solano would take care of him.

The wind wraith sat down on the table in front of Astra and waved her hand flippantly. "My soldiers are disposing the bodies right now, good riddance. While they're dealing with that, I came back to decide on what I should do with the two of you.

"Killing you would amuse me, but you could prove to be useful," she mused. "Can't keep you in prison either. I'll bet these gorgeous earrings he's going to come back and find who else he can save." She paused, then said, "Ridiculous thought, but I wonder if we could use something as bait and kill the guardian once and for all."

Astra stayed quiet, unwilling to offer any input that might be turned into ideas. Next to her, the prince seemed to have the same idea. A few minutes passed in silence as they waited for Carina, who was muttering quietly under her breath.

She smiled widely—exactly like a predator about to lure in its prey, Astra thought. "Perfect. Come with me," she ordered even as she raised a hand to lift up Astra's chair with her magic.

Astra twisted to see Dalen—perhaps for the last time. He'd turned his head away. She could only see the back of his head.

They exited the conference room, and Carina ordered the soldier outside, "Lock yourself in one of the other conference rooms with the Solasian prince. I'll send a soldier to pass on a message whenever I want you to chop off one of his fingers." She ignored Astra's protest. "Will you be able to do that?"

The soldier saluted in response and went into the conference room to retrieve the prince.

"Don't," Astra pleaded, unsure what else to say.

"I won't," Carina promised, "unless you act up. Then, you can kiss all his fingers good-bye. I wonder what we should move on to after that."

Astra shuddered. If the threats on her brother had ever become reality, she would have expected Xernes to be carrying out the acts. She would never have expected someone else. If only to remind herself to not mess up, to do everything right, she said out loud, "You won't get trouble from me." There was a part of her that hoped, and knew, Solano would definitely give Carina trouble.

"Excellent." Carina gestured toward the soldiers that were guarding the hallways. "Come with me." She laid out her plan to the soldiers as they made their through the castle. "It'll take another few hours, I suspect. Even with his powers, it would take a long time to get all those kids away and safe. So this is what we're going to do..."

Her voice quieted to a hush until Astra could no longer hear her. It didn't escape her notice either that Carina had purposefully left her floating farther and farther behind in her chair so she couldn't eavesdrop.

Perhaps she shouldn't want to eavesdrop either. It made her tense with the fear that one wrong move could cause her brother to lose another finger.

They entered the ballroom again, and on one side, Astra saw soldiers dragging bodies out of the room. On the opposite side, soldiers were circling a much smaller group of wraiths that were still alive. She didn't look too closely at the faces. Not for the first time, she wondered if Jemma and Ciril had survived. If even Anya, bitch that she was, had lived. Aaro had allied with Carina, but Rousel and Jesper, where were they? She wasn't sure if she wanted to know. Perhaps they were also being tortured for information. Certainly, the pair was an enigma, one she wished she had more time to get to know.

Wishes were for the living.

Astra jolted as the chair she was in slammed down and scraped against the ground.

"Take the other wraiths out and shove them in the kitchen. I need them, and I don't want any possibility of them being rescued." Carina leaned down and smiled at Astra. "Don't talk. Don't scream. Don't make a fucking sound, or your brother will lose another finger." She turned away before Astra could nod or gesture that she understood.

"Don't blockade the doors," Carina ordered as she swept through the room, organizing her men. "He'll suspect something if we do. I want twelve archers on one side of the room." She stopped to listen to someone's question before snapping, "Get out of this room before you accidentally kill someone."

Carina continued on with her orders without checking if the soldier had left, although Astra saw him being led out by another archer.

"No, don't bother aiming for Solano—he'll just pull up a shield or send the projectiles flying back at you." There was a pause, then she heard, "Trade, thanks."

Astra couldn't turn her head to see what exactly Carina had traded.

"We'll be here for a few hours yet, but he'll come. I expect all of you to be alert." Carina's voice was strong and authoritative. A ruthless leader, Astra realized now, a dangerous foe. "Whoever impresses me gets a special report from me to Anwealda."

The soldiers Astra could see suddenly seem to perk up. Being in the Pelosian leader's good graces must have excellent benefits.

Carina appeared in her peripheral, and she held a clean dagger to Astra's throat. She purred, "The wait is the best part, isn't it? I wonder how likely you are to mess up in this period of time. How many more fingers will your brother lose?"

Astra gritted her teeth, willing herself to not rise to the bait.

"Do you know why I'm using you as the bait?" Carina continued.

No. Yes.

Carina hissed, "He knows who you are."