Ice Crown, Kay L. Moody [ap literature book list .txt] 📗

see in her mind was Marmie’s empty gravestone until Talise would be able to put one tiny mark on it.

One mark that would look so little compared to the life that Marmie had led. Her sacrifice and love deserved a hundred marks. The only thing Talise could do now was make her mark so intricate and detailed that it would be marveled by all who saw it.

Wendy jumped to the center of the room when Mrs. Dew called her name. Talise dug her nails deeper into her knees. She needed to focus on this demonstration. She owed it to Wendy to pay attention at least to hers.

Every time Talise’s mind would wander to Marmie’s grave, she’d press her nails in deeper. Her mind still fought to dwell on the grave even while Wendy asked for the classroom windows to be opened.

The other judges looked bored, but Mrs. Dew gave Wendy an encouraging nod. Wendy lifted her bow and a single arrow from the ground. She took aim before shooting, but her demonstration began after the arrow left the bow.

Wendy dropped the bow and put both hands in front of her, sending a rush of shaped air after the arrow. With the added air, the arrow was able to travel three times the distance it could have without it.

The judges were impressed.

Talise was proud.

But then the judges asked too many questions, especially one judge wearing red silk. He asked about the military application of her shaping technique, and Talise’s head was filled with thoughts of Marmie once again.

When Aaden’s turn came, she could barely keep herself from losing the food in her stomach. He had improved his cherry blossoms to perfection. Even from the back of the classroom she could see how beautiful they were.

Her stomach roiled and clenched as she watched. No amount of nail pressing would help her insides now. When she was called up to do her demonstration, she already had a headache and her skin seemed to be on fire.

She’d been practicing with so much fire lately, she didn’t notice her internal temperature rising so much. But this time, she was pretty sure it was an actual fever, not from fire shaping. A stress-induced fever no doubt.

Maybe if she lost her lunch in front of the judges, they would let her do her demonstration another time.

They wouldn’t.

She already knew they wouldn’t. It wouldn’t do her any good even if they did. Marmie’s funeral was still an entire week after the final competition. How could she concentrate on anything before then?

She shaped her fire ribbons into the air and let them spin around her. Her veins protested at every second. Her temperature was rising much more than it ever had in practice. She gritted her teeth together and tried to think of something that would encourage her. She tried to think of Marmie’s sacrifice and how she couldn’t let it be in vain.

With a fire ribbon high above her head, an image of Marmie came into Talise’s head so clearly, it was as if Marmie sat next to her. Talise remembered sitting in that little room where she’d been tested for a shaping academy.

Talise had asked if Marmie could come live in the palace after Talise became Master Shaper.

“You already know the answer to that,” Marmie had said in a gentle tone. Her right eye had squinted, almost in a wink. The freckle under her eye bounced through the movement. So, the freckle was under her right eye.

For a moment, Talise’s heart soared with relief. She could see the face with perfect clarity. It felt as though Marmie looked down on her, offering love and approval through her memory.

But then reality settled in again.

Marmie was dead. Gone.

Forever.

In that moment, everything fell apart. When the fire ribbon fell, Talise’s shaping became jerky and rigid. Instead of falling in a swooping swirl, it looked more like a snake slithering down a spiral staircase, and not in a graceful way.

She managed to regain control when the fire ribbon reached her shoulders. She spun the ribbon around her body just like she had practiced all those times. But still, when the ribbon swirled around her ankles, she shaped it too close.

The skin over her ankle bone tingled with a burn, and the hem of her pants had probably been singed.

She didn’t care.

She tried to; she really did. How could she be so careless with the competition so close? She needed to know if her demonstration was good enough to beat Aaden’s.

But how could she care about anything when Marmie was dead?

Her senses seemed to sharpen at the thought of Aaden. He was an impressive shaper. She needed to beat him. All this moping wouldn’t do her any good.

Talise lifted her chin in the air and attempted a smile at the judges. Be brave, she thought. That’s what Marmie would want.

She ended her demonstration with one fire ribbon twisting around her arms and another twisting around her legs. They joined together around her waist only to sprout several new ribbons that shot out from her body like a firework.

The rest of the demonstration was flawless just like all of it should have been.

When Talise bowed to the judges, she noticed one of them was still gaping at her. Mrs. Dew looked smug as she glanced at that judge.

The walk to the back of the room seemed longer than it should have. It was made a little easier when Talise recognized a glint of fear in Aden’s eyes.

Good. He deserved to be as worried as he had made her feel.

Wendy looked delighted when Talise sat down next to her. “Very cool,” Wendy said under her breath. She paired the words with an encouraging nod.

That lifted Talise’s spirits. Not a lot, but when she was feeling so low, a little made a big difference.

The judges began whispering as they compared their notes. Mrs. Dew had chosen Talise to go last because she knew it would be an impressive demonstration. Of course, it looked better for Mrs. Dew if one of her students won Master Shaper. That was how she kept her spot at the elite academy year after year.

The whispering among the judges lasted too long. Despite their years of studying patience and discipline, every single one of the students was fidgeting.

Aaden kept glancing over at Talise, but then his eyes would flick away, and he’d try to pretend like he had never looked.

His nervousness probably shouldn’t have made her feel so good, but she couldn’t help it. Whenever his eyes flicked, a shot of glee danced through her.

She did feel a little guilty, but this was for Marmie and Marmie wanted her to win.

After several more minutes of biting her bottom lip and checking the hem of her pants—which had been singed—the judges announced that they had made a decision.

The man wearing red silk stood from the judges table. He held a thick stack of papers which would determine job placements for all the students. With a good recommendation from pre-competition day, even someone from the Gate could get a job in the palace.

But not someone from the Storm. The only way someone could escape the Storm was by winning Master Shaper. Which meant Talise didn’t care one bit about the stack of papers in the man’s hand. She only cared about the words ready to spill from his mouth. Now she’d know once and for all if her demonstration was good enough to beat Aaden’s.

“We are most impressed,” the man began.

That was a good sign. Talise noticed the man wore a silver pin engraved with a miniature tornado. The silver pin meant he worked at the palace and the tornado meant air was his primary element. He wasn’t a Master Shaper, or his pin would have been engraved with the symbols for all four elements.

Talise wracked her brain, trying to think if she knew of any air shapers from the palace important enough to come to pre-competition day. Like all the students, she had been disappointed that no Master Shapers had come. They usually had at least one for pre-competition day.

But still, this man had to have a high level of authority to be here.

General Gale Asato. It came to her suddenly as he opened his mouth to speak again. No wonder he had been so intrigued by Wendy’s demonstration. He oversaw shape training for all military personnel, especially the royal guard.

“Never before have we seen shaping like we saw today. Mrs. Dew truly deserves a promotion after what she has helped you achieve.”

Mrs. Dew’s cheeks turned pink and General Gate gave her the barest hint of a wink. He licked his lips before he continued. “The winner for today was most difficult to choose. Not all the judges agreed on the same student.”

He paused, seeming to hold his breath.

Just say it! With the added anxiety running through her, Talise suddenly remembered her fever. She wanted nothing more than to lie down. And to win of course.

“Aaden is our winner today.”

Talise’s mouth dropped open at the words. Wendy let out a small gasp. Mrs. Dew frowned at the table. Every pair of eyes in the room seemed to wander over to Talise. Claye gave her an apologetic look before he glanced at Wendy and shrugged.

The fever inside Talise seemed to explode through her skin while a deep shiver ran through every part of her body.

Her teeth rattled, and she had to clench them together. Tears threatened to spill over her eyelashes, but she managed to hold them back. The last thing she wanted was to start crying in front of the judges.

She probably would have held it together too. She was strong. She had been through a lot. Yes, Marmie had just died, and she was devastated. But still, Talise wasn’t one to burst into tears with a roomful of eyes on her. She could have held it together.

Except then Aaden looked at her.

It didn’t even matter what expression he wore because his stupid face was the reason the past ten years meant nothing. The reason Marmie’s death meant nothing.

He dared to make eye contact, and she lost all semblance of control. Her body seemed to detach itself from her mind, so she had no control over it.

Springing to her feet, her legs propelled her out of the classroom, as far from Aaden as she could get.

 

ELEVEN

 

 

 

TALISE HUGGED THE WOODEN GATE THAT SEPARATED the academy grounds from the palace graveyard. Without a pass, she wasn’t permitted to leave the school grounds. And she’d never gotten a pass because she’d never had enough money.

From her spot behind the gate, she could just make out the marks on the late empress’s grave. Isla Tempest Malksur Ruemon had one thousand three hundred and twelve marks on her grave. Talise had counted them all.

Many citizens of Kamdaria had come to her funeral and been invited to leave a mark on her grave. Marks were usually reserved for family members only, but as empress, Isla Ruemon was considered family to all of Kamdaria.

Talise couldn’t bring herself to have bitterness toward the late empress. Isla had been murdered in cold blood after all. But why did Empress Isla get over a thousand marks when Marmie would only get one? One mark was a disgrace, even if it was an intricate one.

A crunch of gravel made Talise jump, but she relaxed immediately when she heard Wendy’s voice.

“I thought I’d find you here.”

Talise didn’t have to wipe any tears before she turned around. Maybe rushing from the