Ice Crown by Kay L. Moody (good books to read for adults .txt) 📕

Talise tried a bird. Her epic failure of that produced a giggle from the boy, who then clapped his hands and said, “More!”

Before she could think of something else to make, the riverboat floated to a stop. Talise made the clump of dirt bounce a few more times while the other passengers unloaded. When no one was left in the lowest deck besides her, Marmie, the boy, and his mother, Talise finally let the dirt fall to the floor.

“Thank you,” the mother said, lowering her head so she could be eye level with Talise.

After Marmie poked her in the back, Talise remembered to respect her elder. Lowering her head in a short bow, she said, “You’re welcome, ma’am, but it was nothing.”

“Are you going to be tested for the academy?” the woman asked.

After Talise nodded, the woman gave a smile so genuine it didn’t seem possible for someone from the Storm. She wiped a bead of sweat off her forehead, leaving behind a short streak of dirt. “A shaper from the Storm,” she said, shaking her head with disbelief. “I never could have dreamed of something so wild.”

Marmie nodded to the woman and started nudging Talise forward. “Come. The testing begins soon.”

“Wait,” the woman said. “I just wanted to say how special you are. You made my son laugh when everyone else just scowled. And you’re a shaper from the Storm. You’ll change Kamdaria for the better, my dear. I’m sure of it.”

 

TWO

 

 

 

TALISE’S HEAD BOUNCED RIGHT TO LEFT AS she tried to soak up her surroundings. They had arrived in the middle ring of Kamdaria—better known as the Gate.

The streets were gravel just like the woman on the riverboat said they would be. There were no clouds of dust as people jogged past. A few people pulled wagons, but many of them had horses. Horses! Every so often, a stagecoach would fly past, and Talise’s mouth would drop all over again.

The stores looked bigger than they did in the Storm as well. Shop keepers in the Storm were terrified of risk, so they only stocked the absolute necessities. Sometimes they didn’t even have those, which meant their stores were even tinier and emptier than the ones here in the Gate. These stores had all sorts of items.

And everything was so clean. Marmie had scrubbed Talise’s face a thousand times that morning and brushed her hair until her scalp seemed raw. Now Talise was grateful for the effort. She only wished her cotton dress were a little less weathered. The ugly patch near her hem seemed infinitely brighter in this light. At least it was clean.

Even the people seemed different. They didn’t look so worn. So tired. They looked like they could think about something other than the hunger creeping at them from every side.

A man bumped into Marmie as they crossed the street. He looked apologetic at first until he saw the state of their clothes. He bared his teeth as he jumped away from them. A sharp intake of breath went through his teeth like a hiss.

He muttered under his breath, but the only word Talise could make out was vermin. Nobody liked people from the Storm. Even people in the Storm didn’t like people from the Storm. Now that they had traveled to the Gate, everyone shot them angry glares and suspicious glances.

Marmie seemed oblivious to the entire interaction. Her eyes were set on a nearby building with unpainted walls and a gabled roof with cypress bark shingles.

When they arrived, Talise was ordered to sit on a nearby bench outside the building while Marmie went in and did the paperwork. Not that Talise minded. She was too busy soaking in more of the Gate. They weren’t even in the inner circle of Kamdaria—also called the Crown—but everything already seemed a thousand times better than the Storm. There was so much water, so much vegetation, so much life.

Her eyes wandered when the sound of a wooden hammer rippled through the air. She took a few steps down the cobblestone path until she could see inside a courtyard that stood next to the building where Marmie was.

She recognized the scene at once, even though she had never seen anything like it in the Storm. A wooden podium stood at the back of the courtyard with an orange tree on the right and a cherry tree on the left. A man stood behind the podium wearing a red silk hat with a ball and tassel at the top. A judge. A woman sat on a chair next to the podium.

This was a trial. But not a regular trial, a card-marking trial.

The judge had two stamps on the wooden podium in front of him. Talise knew one of the stamps would be of a silver crescent moon and one would be a black X. Judging by the woman’s face, the moon stamp wouldn’t be used today.

The woman clawed at her tunic hem as she chewed her bottom lip. She kept nodding and shaking her head in answer to someone’s questions. Talise was too far away to hear the questions, and she couldn’t even tell who was talking.

The woman began gulping and didn’t seem to notice when her chewing teeth drew blood from her lips. All at once, she let out a gasp and her hands flew over her open mouth.

“Guilty!” The judge’s booming voice erupted through the courtyard.

Jumping to her feet, the woman screamed, “NO!”

The judge sneered at her and glanced toward a wooden platform where a dozen people sat. The woman’s family. It seemed the woman had five generations with her. Talise picked out a couple who must have been the woman’s parents. Another man and woman who must have been grandparents. There were also a few people the woman’s age, probably her siblings. And then, three adults who must have been the woman’s children.

A son and his wife and then a daughter who looked barely eighteen. Most concerning of all was the baby, quietly sleeping in the son’s arms. Since ID cards weren’t given out until a child turned eighteen, any of the woman’s children under eighteen wouldn’t be present.

“ID cards out,” the judge said, pulling one of the stamps off the podium. He held an ink pad in his palm, which must have been black.

“No!” the woman shouted again. “Please don’t. Punish me. Punish me instead.”

The judge turned on her as his eyebrows furrowed together. He spoke in a tight voice that was just loud enough for Talise to hear. “You dare question the laws of Kamdaria?” he asked. “It has always been obvious that we care for our children better than we care for ourselves. It is only fitting then, that our punishments should pass to our children as well.”

“But they did nothing wrong.” The woman had lunged from her chair and reached so desperately for the judge that two guards had to hold her back. “My son’s baby is just a newborn. She won’t survive winter in the Storm.”

The judge whirled around to face the woman. “Then you will suffer knowing what fate awaits them and knowing your actions brought them there. That is the greatest punishment there is.”

“Please, she’s just a baby. Please. I beg you.” The woman’s face had been pressed into the gravel by one of the guards, but it did nothing to stop the words spewing from her mouth.

The judge ignored the woman as he traipsed over to the wooden platform where the family members sat. They all had tears streaming down their cheeks. One of the older women was convulsing as her body shook with sobs.

But none of them protested. They knew the laws of Kamdaria. The card system had been implemented centuries ago and since then, crime was almost non-existent except in the Storm. People could hurt themselves easily, but no one wanted to force their children and children’s children to bear a punishment they themselves deserved.

A perfect system. Supposedly.

The son clutched his baby closer as he held his ID card out to the judge. A look of resignation paired with his dwindling tears. His wife wore no resignation. Instead she buried her face in a handkerchief and couldn’t look as the judge stamped her card with a black X.

The barely eighteen-year-old daughter had eyes so wide someone could walk straight through her irises. She gasped when the judge stamped her card, as if it wasn’t real until that moment.

When the son, his wife, and the daughter all had their ID cards marked, the judge waved at a nearby guard. “Take them to the docks immediately. A riverboat will be leaving for the Storm soon.”

“Now?” the son asked. He gripped his wife around the waist with one hand and clutched his baby to his chest with the other. “Don’t we get to say goodbye to our friends?”

“No,” the judge said without a shred of sympathy.

“What about our things?” the wife asked. “We need the baby’s sleeping mat and her books.”

“Books?” The judge let out a laugh that shook through the courtyard. “Children in the Storm are not taught how to read. You’ll get none of your things. You’ll start life the same as everyone who has been sent to the Storm. With nothing but the clothes on your back.”

“Mama,” the eighteen-year-old girl called out. Her voice wobbled as reality seemed to hit like a brick on her vocal cords.

The wife began trembling. The son gripped his family more desperately, but he seemed to realize his grip wouldn’t save anyone from anything now.

As if sensing their fear, the baby let out cry. When his family only sobbed in response, the baby cried harder.

“Talise.”

Talise jumped at Marmie’s quiet voice. “It’s time for you to come in now.”

Marmie spoke in a whisper with her eyes on the family that was in the midst of falling apart. She tugged Talise by the elbow, not taking her eyes away from the courtyard until they stood in front of the building where the testing would occur.

Just when Marmie touched the door handle, she turned to Talise with misty eyes. Her mouth quivered, but Talise already knew what she was going to say.

“I know,” Talise said. She tried to set her jaw the way Marmie did when she had won an argument. It made Marmie look powerful. Talise needed some of that power now because Marmie’s unspoken words were just as heavy as the scene in the courtyard.

Unless she sought an early death, Talise had to get out of the Storm. Honor or not, the academy was her only chance.

 

THREE

 

 

 

THE ROOM SEEMED TOO HOT FOR THE spring air outside. Maybe it was nerves or maybe it was the little balls of fire that would erupt from a hand every few minutes.

A woman guard in a yellow silk tunic and black belt ushered Talise and Marmie into a corner of the testing room. She didn’t say it, but it seemed like the woman was trying to hide them.

Children about Talise’s age stood in different parts of the room. One girl wore an expression coursing with excitement. One boy kept tapping his feet together before he would grab his mother by the waist and give her the world’s shortest hug. But it would only be a moment before he did it again.

Another girl was showing off for some of the other children. She could shape two elements. All of them would be able to shape all four elements by the time they finished the first stage at the academy, but for now, shaping more than one element was impressive. The girl tucked her hair behind her ear before