Jean Lorrah - Sorcerers of the Frozen Isles

Time was suspended as Torio held Melissa’s body, shivering with cold and shock. Then slowly, instinctively, he Read around them.

Maldek was alive… barely. Not only was he unconscious, but he did not Read like a Reader- there was no trace of his special powers.

Zanos and Astra lived, as did Cassandra. Gray struggled to crawl toward Torio, whining.

Dirdra and Kwinn lay dead in one another’s arms, Bryen fallen over them.

And Torio held Melissa’s lifeless body, too deep into shock for tears.

He could not have said how long he sat on the cold stone steps to the burned-out throne, frost settling onto his hair, onto Melissa… but finally Gray nudged him, transmitting urgency as he butted Torio with his great head, over and over.

Torio looked up-and realized that although the draining force was gone, the castle was colder than any winter he had ever known. If something was not done soon, those who now only slept would slip across into death.

More deaths to my account , he thought. There had to be something he could do.

Even if he had had Adept powers, he could not have started a fire-there was nothing left to burn!

Except-

Their clothing had escaped. In fighting the fire off their bodies, they had protected that as well.

Laying Melissa down tenderly, Torio took Gray over to Zanos and Astra, making the dog lie down against them. Then he moved Cassandra next to her daughter, and finally dragged Maldek down off the steps-only because any body warmth he might have left could serve to keep Torio’s friends alive.

Feeling like a grave robber, he forced himself to strip the outer garments off Dirdra and Bryen and placed them in the grate in the fireplace-but there was nothing with which to strike a light.

Fires here were started by people with Adept powers, of which Torio had none.

The numbing cold was making it difficult to think. They had not brought a tinderbox on their journey, for Zanos, Astra, and Melissa could all start fires. But he could Read no lighted torch, no glowing coal in the castle. All had been victim to the energy-draining power Maldek had loosed upon I his land. Torio realized he was going to die. Then he would be with Melissa. Gray let out a mournful howl-right into Zanos’ ear.

The gladiator came to sluggish wakefulness, looking around-but it was pitch-black in the windowless throne room. It took him long moments to begin to Read-and then he was as awake as possible in the unremitting cold. “Torio-what?”

“Can you… light the fire?” Torio forced out.

Zanos struggled to sit up, could not stand. Torio could feel his deep longing to sink back to sleep, but Zanos had the concentration of an athlete. He forced himself to focus. Finally a small flame flickered in the bunched-up cloth.

Zanos crawled to the fire and tried to warm his hands. “We’ll need more than this,” he said. “I’ve never been so cold in my life!”

“I don’t know if there’s anything left,” Torio said dully.

“You’re a better Reader than I am,” said Zanos. “You tell me where to find fuel, and I’ll get it.”

There were some charred remains of the doors to the throne room. A wooden chest in the hallway had been scorched but not consumed, and the two men dragged that in and broke it up.

Soon they had a small semicircle of warmth right around the fire-but ever at their backs hovered the implacable cold.

“We’d better wake everyone,” said Zanos. “They could die in their sleep before it’s warm enough in here to protect them.”

When her husband touched her on the forehead, Astra’s eyes fluttered open. She smiled weakly at him, then sat up and began to examine her mother. “Torio-”

“I Read it,” he replied. “Her hands and feet are frozen. She cannot recover without healing.”

“I’ll try,” said Astra-but her own powers were so drained that she could not produce the healing fire to restore Cassandra. “We need Melissa,” she whispered. But then she looked toward Maldek. “He has the power-”

“Had,” said Torio. “Read him, Astra. He is more in need of healing than your mother-his whole body has been burned, inside and out. He simply refuses to die.”

“Zanos,” Astra appealed. “Please help me!”

Cassandra’s heart rate slowed drastically. “No!” exclaimed Astra. “Mother, I’ve just found you. We’ve lost Zanos’ brother. Don’t you leave us, too!”

But Cassandra’s life was fading.

Torio was used to Adepts handling such situations-but he had had emergency training in his last years at Adigia, before there were Adepts to help with healing. Any boy old enough to participate in battle was taught life-saving techniques, including how to start a heart that had stopped with shock.

So as Cassandra’s heart stuttered to a halt, he knelt over her and began to press sharply on her breastbone.

“No,” said Zanos. “I have enough strength for that.” And as Torio sat back, he started Cassandra’s heart beating again at a steady rate. Soon it continued on its own. “Other healers must have survived,” Zanos said. “Astra, if we can keep her alive, as cold as it is her flesh will not turn putrid before someone can heal her. You will-”

“Zanos, I’m not half the healer Melissa is-was. Nor were the healers we met in the City infirmary. Oh, blessed gods, I know enough of healing to know that her blood will clot where her flesh is frozen-and eventually a clot will hit her heart or her brain-”

“Hush,” said Zanos, taking his trembling wife into his arms. “Astra-we’ve come this far together. We’ll heal Cassandra, or find someone who can.”

It wouldn’t be Maldek, Torio knew. The Master Sorcerer still showed no signs of consciousness- and he had not done what any wounded Adept did automatically: he had not gone into healing sleep.

Probably he would die.

Good riddance , Torio thought, stroking Gray and trying not to think of Melissa as Zanos and Astra comforted one another. Astra was murmuring words of sympathy to her husband now about his brother, as both wept shamelessly.

Not to intrude on their privacy, Torio Read elsewhere-and could not escape the fact that Melissa’s body lay at the foot of the steps, ice starting to creep-

It was not yet frozen inside! As he Read it, he remembered that moment when she had grasped Maldek’s hand, become a conduit herself for the terrible force-and her shock, surprise, fear-!

Blessed gods! Melissa never feared death . She had cried out to him-to say goodbye? To call him into death with her?

No-Melissa was a giver of life, not a taker.

But her cry had been an appeal, not a leave-taking. She had called on him for help-and he had let her die! Just as he had let Detrus die-!

It was not Melissa’s time to die. He suddenly knew that as positively as he knew any of his other prophecies. And if it was not yet her time-

What if she is lost among the planes of existence?

“Zanos! Astra!” Torio exclaimed. “We must have a healer-and Melissa needs my help!”

“What?” Zanos asked in confusion.

“Make Melissa’s body live!” he said. “You can do it-make her heart beat. Make her breathe!”

“Torio!” exclaimed Astra. “Have you gone mad? That is what Maldek did to create orbu. You do not want Melissa condemned to that!”

“I’ll bring her back!” he said. “She died Maldek’s death, not her own! That’s what the prophecy meant, I’m certain of it. It is not Melissa’s time to die. I’ll go among the planes of existence and find her-unite her spirit with her body.”

“Torio,” said Astra, “no one has ever done that.”

“Yes they have!” he insisted. “/ did it-along with other Readers and Adepts. We brought Master Clement back when he was lost on the planes of existence. Zanos, Astra-Melissa may be lost the same way. Please-bring her body back for me!”