Soul of Ice

Chapter Two

Pascal gripped her elbow tightly as they wove back through the crowds.

"Why are there so many guards out and about?" she asked as they skirted around the edge of an outdoor cafe that had a crowd of patrons mingling outside on the main cobblestone path. The guard—her guard, she corrected a moment later—gave her a disbelieving look, his dark brown eyes squinting.

"There's always this many guards," he explained. Then added, "It's been like this since the war."

Oh. She'd always assumed that Pelosia and Varaly were the militaristic ones. Soldiers in uniform everywhere, as numerous as civilians. It had never occurred to her that Auxerre might be the same. "Right. I've never been to Auxerre before."

Pascal nodded to a city guard they passed before turning, leading them down another road that left behind the constant smell of fish Astra had been forced to bear with for the two and a half hours she'd spent in line. There were several small stores lining this particular path—a few clothing stores, a hair salon, a jewelry boutique.

"Then why were you planning to leave so soon?" Pascal asked lightly. His casual tone was nonchalant—too innocent for what he was actually suggesting. "Agent Mullins told me the reason you chose Auxerre over Aeris and Varaly was to attend the Firelight Festival."

Astra turned away to grimace as she feigned inspection of some hats a street-side vendor was selling. Leaving without accomplishing either of what the real Calayne had set out to do was a calculated risk. There were no ships leaving to the Beaukarou Basin until three months after the festival. Her destination, after all, wasn't exactly popular, what with its year-round freezing temperatures. Most people didn't arrive there without having spent months preparing supplies. No one, of course, except for ice wraiths.

"That was my original plan, yes," she agreed. She'd anticipated this sort of question and had practiced this particular explanation several times already in the darkness of abandoned farmhouses and factories on her way from the border to the capital. "I have extended family living in a village a short distance away from the Beaukarou Basin. I receive letters from them every few months, for a few years now. I've always heard about how beautiful the Firelight Festival is, but I wouldn't be able to leave to see my family for months."

Pascal nodded understandingly. "There aren't any ships leaving for the Beaukarou Basin for a while."

"Exactly." They turned left, and from here, Astra could see the spires of the royal palace rising above the closely packed cobblestone buildings. She was running out of time, so she added, "But the Correrá will have left the harbor by the time I get my clearance documents. Perhaps I'll be staying in Venierre for the Firelight Festival after all." Experimentally, she tugged on the arm the guard still clutched and walked away, under pretense of inspecting some lanterns that the vendor was proclaiming were hand-made. To her disappointment, Pascal frowned and held on tighter to her elbow and followed her to the lanterns, annoyance and impatience slowly growing on his features.

"Ma'am, regardless of whether or not you plan to board the Correrá, or to stay in Venierre, you will have to come with me to gain the appropriate clearance forms."

Astra stayed silent for a moment, lightly touching a fabric lantern with a copper wire base. There was no way around the clearance documents then, just as she had suspected. So it would come to violence.

"Just a moment," she told the guard and held up a single finger at him. She turned to the vendor. "Sir, how much for this lantern?"

The vendor, a graying man who looked to be nearing sixty with faded clothing that hung loosely from his thin frame, carefully unhooked the spherical lantern she'd picked from the repurposed clothing rack.