Snowmancer

Chapter 6, Part 3: Ilyas

Ilyas

I'd won the last laugh. Jem had been struck witless, staring down at the black and white pieces strewn across the stone floor as his shoulders trembled. All while I gloated. Not very princely, I know, but he deserved it, for...

Saving me from death. For caring for me. No, for thinking he could outwit me.

All at once, Jem had grown still. He even stopped blinking. Then he crawled around the floor, picking up the discarded pieces to return to their boxes. I stumbled back into a wall, unable to remove my eyes. He crawled with such languid grace, even as his face hardened into marble. He knelt in front of the hearth, staring into the fire. The white pieces had charred black, ruined. He raised his hand and reached for the flame. I jumped forward with a wordless yell, but he snatched his hand back into his chest. He pressed his lips thin, and his eyes moistened as if he were about to cry.

I froze. Jem didn't cry. He didn't do anything but look dispassionate. The wavering gloss in his eyes was only a trick of the fire. The plummeting of my stomach and the pinpricks in my chest were only... Only...

Jem stood, hands clenched against his thighs. Without a word, a look, or even a stern warning that his snow demons hungered for my blood should I step one foot outside, he charged out the door.

I waited a long moment for him to return. Then another moment. And another.

"Finally, a moment to myself." I laughed. It sounded hollow. I stomped my foot. Why should I care about Jem? He'd abducted me and planned to either sell me as a slave or sacrifice me to some god.

Jem would expect me to run. But as I'd already discovered, running was suicide, and a knee-jerk reaction. Even if Jem didn't lurk at the bottom of the stairs, his demons flew by the windows. He'd know in minutes if I tried to leave. But I had a far better use for the privacy.

I rose and positioned myself facing the door, in case he decided to return early, and swept my arms over my head, my chin following. My back sang in ecstasy. Jem had kept me cramped and stiff, my muscles wasting away. With my back and thighs knotted, I couldn't think, couldn't breathe, couldn't outmanoeuvre Jem. But with Jem gone, I gave my body, my temple, its offering and it would bless me in return when the time to act arrived.

My arms swept down, my back following, bending forwards, allowing the blood to rush into my head, and for my hamstrings to lengthen. I moaned. Too, too long. I was never going without this for more than a day again, even if I must strangle Jem to do so.

My body swept through the rest of the positions of the familiar sun salutation. Lengthening, stretching, strengthening. All thoughts dropped mercifully away. No worries about my usurper, no irritation about Jem, nothing but the way my body moved. The way it cried for joy as I unleashed it.

I balanced on one foot, sending the other behind me, reaching for the impossible.

"My, you've grown comfortable."

I jerked at the words, my knee buckling. My hip struck the flagstone. I growled, half due to the pains shooting up my side, and half in embarrassment for anyone glimpsing my private joy. I glared around me, ready to bite the head off whomever dared intrude upon me.

But the door remained shut, and outside the window was a sheer drop to one's death. I was alone.

The same blue light from the cell flicked in front of my eyes.

"Although your balance could use some work." The voice was distant, as if speaking through a metal pipe.

I poked at the light, but it dodged my hand.