Free Ice Burns by Charity Ayres Page B

told him with a smile. Chandra felt like a child wishing on a star that the dark things that haunted her dreams would go away, but she read on with a touch of hope in her eyes. “Here we go...”
    The writing style seemed to indicate it was a diary.
     
    I was tending to the herb patch because my parsley had begun to encroach upon the lemon balm when I found myself staring into a clear set of eyes. As you can imagine, I was very startled. No creatures ever wandered thusly. My gardens have several wards up to prevent scavengers and foragers from destroying all I had worked for. Despite this, before me was a great minx cat staring at me with what I can only describe as a rather joyous expression on its face.
    Its eyes had no color except an outline to show where the iris should be, and its coat was a blue that might be mistaken for gray if the observer wasna a foot from the feline as I was. I honestly thought I was knackered from my time in the sun. I wondered if I hadna made some cross-hybrid herb that had managed to bewitch me.
    The great cat, though... It sat there, smiling its feline smile and watching me with eyes big as saucers. O'course, the only reason I knew there was a difference in its eyes was that its pupils looked dilated; hypnotically-like in those strange, colourless eyes.
    When it started to move closer, though, instinct woke the fear in me. I knew there was something unnatural about the cat. I wasna willing to take chances with it until I determined what was amiss. That thought in mind, I reached out one arm to call the rake I had left near the cottage. The derned thing about took my head off with the force of the calling.
    The tool flew at me like a daemon of raw power, the like of which I had ne'er seen afore. My abilities had ne'er been anything of significance. I was able to call objects and use magic to make tasks easier.
     
    Chandra stopped reading. She looked at Frostwhite, who was so close he was almost in her lap. Part of her brain called for caution, but she found that she was no longer afraid to be close to the hawk. Frostwhite's glistening silver-white eyes were staring at her. There was no cocking of the head or angling to look at her with one eye this time. His lack of human language was not a barrier just then.
    "That’s what you are," she whispered. "But, if that's true, then I must have some magic trapped inside me that you're making stronger?"
    Frostwhite bobbed his head, and she knew it was more than normal bird behavior. Chandra reached forward and gently stroked the feathers on his head with her fingers curled into her palm.
    Keek
    She smiled at him and wondered at how soft he was, and great it felt to have the knowledge that she could touch him, and he would welcome it. She felt a pressure in her mind similar to when she had accidentally drawn water up her nose in a bath but without the pain; it was pressure. Her eyes widened, and she looked again at Frostwhite, knowing that the pressure was him, somehow. Slowly, like when she had understood a math problem in one of her childhood classes, the realization of everything that had happened made her breath catch.
    “You mean there is actual magic in me? It isn't parlor tricks and randomly uncontrolled ability?”
    A well of emotion and thought swelled through the young woman. Chandra had never acknowledged how completely afraid she was of not having any mentionable power. Failure seemed to follow her like a shadow that she could never separate from. A tightness in her chest that she didn’t know was there, loosened. She could do as Master needed her to; she could truly be his apprentice. It made Chandra want to shout her relief and joy.
    "Okay, so now I have to figure out how to call and control magic," she ran both hands up the side of her face and tucked stray locks of hair on either side behind her ears. "It's only the thing I've been trying to do since I was little and what will allow me to stay at the estate. No pressure."
    Frostwhite