After discovering her true identity, Claire must escape the Program and the Module and return to Lessaenes, where the threat of the Ice Queen who is out to kill her will only grow worse.
Highest ranking- #8 in Science Fiction
Cover by @elphadora
The only sound I heard as I slowly and painfully walked down the Flame hallway was the clacking of my crutches against the linoleum floor. The complete silence was almost creepy...it was obvious that the Order of the Flame didn't invite very many people to their late night meetings.
"Stop!" I felt something cold and hard prod me in the back.
"Relax, Jackie, it's just Sophie. Lady Myers told us she was coming to the meeting, remember?" Ashlynn rolled her eyes, and Jackie lowered her staff, stepping in front of me.
"Aw," Jackie pouted. "Sorry, Sophie. I was really hoping you were an Iceheart spy."
"You were hoping she was an Iceheart spy?" Ashlynn gave her an incredulous look.
"Well, yeah! So I could turn that spy around and be like 'DIE, YOU EVIL LESSAENITE!' and smack her in the face with this staff!"
"Not all Lessaenites are Icehearts and Iceheart supporters, Jackie," Ashlynn sighed. "Just like not all Rhenans are Flames."
"You know what I meant!" Jackie said. "Anyway, Sophie, proceed," she pointed to the door in front of me with an exaggerated flourish and I laughed as I walked up to it, yanking it open. The stitches in my stomach threatened to split open from the effort and I drew in a sharp breath of air to suppress the pain.
Curse you, Sierra.
"Hello, Sophie," Lady Myers gave me a warm smile as soon as I was inside. The Order sat at a table shaped like a semicircle, with a single empty chair across from them.
"Sit down," Lady Myers gestured to the chair. "We wouldn't want you standing too much, not with those injuries."
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*Eleanna Myers, current leader of the White Hot Flame*
"Thank you," I returned the smile, resting my crutches against the side of the table before sitting down.
"It's so nice to see a family member again," my long lost aunt, Alsiyah, beamed. "How's your mother doing?"
"Fine, I guess," I looked down at the feet.
"Oh, Alsiyah, stop making the poor kid homesick! She's been through enough already," another Order member- Jennifer, if I remembered correctly- shook her head.
"Guys, guys, listen up!" Lady Myers yelled, brushing a stray strand of frizzy, red hair behind her ear. "We asked her to come here for a reason. Sophie, I was going to ask if I can use you to promote the Flame cause."
"How?" I asked.
"We need someone to set Lessaenes up for Princess Viviana's arrival. There needs to be a huge hype, and you're the perfect one to do it!"
"What exactly do I have to do?"
"Think of something catchy and anti-Iceheart to say, and come back here first thing tomorrow so we can film it."
"That's it?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Never underestimate the power of inspiring quotes with dramatic music in the background!" Lady Myers grinned, and the entire Order laughed.
"I'm ready to call it a night, are you?" Jenny asked.
"Yep!" Tamarius nodded in agreement.
"Okay, everyone, meeting's over," Lady Myers waved her hand, and the Order members stood up, pushing in their chairs and preparing to leave.
This was so much less tense and formal than the Council of Icehearts meetings.
After they had all left, Lady Myers and I were the only ones still in the room. Before I could grab my crutches, I heard some shouts and the scuffle of feet above us.
"What's going on?" I gasped. "Has the base been discovered!?"
"No," Lady Myers laughed, walking over to the window and adjusting a security camera. "The Ice Guards are here. They come in the middle of the night every year, when the villagers are least expecting it."
"Why?" I knitted my brows in confusion.
"To get the people who didn't pay their taxes," she sighed. "It looks more like a battle scene every year. Come look," she pointed to the camera and I craned my neck, watching the scene on Lady Myers' laptop.
Hordes of Ice Guards spilled out of hovercrafts, kicking down doors and storming into huts, dragging out unsuspecting, half asleep Rhenan villagers and gathering them in the center of the tiny village.
I was horrified, the Ice Guards were never like this in Glaisse! They were supposed to protect people, not to invade their homes!
"Why am I out here?" A man in a ragged shirt and patched up leather pants growled, trying in vain to push his way out of the circle of Ice Guards.
"Increase in income and property tax this year, remember?" An Ice Guard shook his head, shoving the man back into the circle.
"Tax, tax, tax, Queen Saralee's killing us with her accursed taxes!" The man yelled.
"Yeah!" Another villager protested. "I have five children to feed, and I can't do that if half the profits from my store go to the Council of Icehearts!"
"You can and will pay!" The Ice Guard- a Captain, judging from the red stripe across the back of his helmet- snarled. "Or you'll pay with your labor! We could always use more slaves to build the new Grand Warmatch Arena!"
"Sometimes I wonder if there is any good left in this world," Lady Myers sighed as we watched the Ice Guards herd more villagers into the middle of their own town like animals. "Sometimes I wonder if we're fighting for nothing."
"You're right, there isn't any good left in this world!" A warm tear slid down my face, and I didn't even try to blink it away.
"People like Queen Saralee and Sierra took it all away! This struggle is hopeless!" And in that moment, I let all the sorrow, anger, and frustration I had been holding in loose.
"We're broken people, on a broken planet, in a broken Empire, and nothing can fix us. Not even Princess Viviana, NOTHING!" I screamed, crying into my sleeve as Lady Myers put her arm comfortingly around my shoulder.
"Shh, Sophie, I know it hurts," she whispered. "I lost my husband and my daughter just weeks apart. I know how it feels to die inside. But dead trees catch fire the fastest, don't they? And then they're not trees anymore, are they?"
