The Hammer Unfalls

2.27 Catching Cold

˳˳.⋅ॱ˙˙ॱ⋅.˳˳.⋅ॱ˙˙ॱᐧ.˳˳.⋅ॱ˙˙ॱᐧ.˳˳.⋅ॱ˙˙ॱᐧ.˳˳

A cool breeze from the open gate of Hiehaven brought scents of pine tar and snow to her. Lhani sat at the table outside their hut in the village square, holding a fat sheaf of flax fibers in her hand. She watched her mother’s deft movements and tried to copy them, dragging the wisps of flax through a comb of spiky nails, separating the smaller fibers from the longer, glossier ones. The silky fibers felt soft against her fingers, but rough nubs of fiber caught in her fingertips.

“Like anything worth waiting for, it takes time,” her mother said, noticing the clumps of flax chaff Lhani tried to shake from her fingers.

Nearby, Papa Tom sat with her brothers. He held up a rough glass jar filled with a handful of water. He swirled it in the sunlight, causing ripples of light to dance across the table. Arrad and Tomyko stared intently at the display of light and shadow.

“Notice the way the light is scattered when I hold the jar far away. But when I bring it close, what happens?”

“—the pattern gets smaller—” Tomyko said, at the same time Arrad spoke:

“—the focus tightens.”

Papa Tom laughed. “Both are true. Now watch when I make the smallest spot of light I can…”

He moved the jar of water closer and closer to the table, narrowing the wavering patch of light more and more, until it shone intense and white on the table. He held it still. A wisp of smoke rose from the rough wood of the table.

Tomyko clapped with glee. Arrad nodded with a look Lhani had come to identify as bored-impressed. As he did when things interested him, but did not surprise him.

Few things surprised Arrad.

“Now then, Tomyko. This is what you must do. Close your eyes. Sense the essentiæ simmering in your skin. They are the scattered dots of light. Your mind’s eye is the jar. Pull it closer. Bring the sparkles of essentiæ into a smaller and smaller place. Bring them together into a white-hot spot. That’s right, son. Now, open your eyes.”

Lhani set the flax down and watched her brother. His brown eyes popped open, filled with wonder. Something was happening in his mind. She leaned forward, anticipating the next moment.

“Keep the sparkles together. Now, aim them at the table. Bring them all together to the same place. Just like the jar in the sunlight.”

Tomyko held his breath and stared at the table. He fought a silent battle in his mind. At first, Lahni saw nothing. But then a wisp of smoke curled up from the table. A dark spot spread, until a tiny flame flickered.

Tomyko shouted, jumping up onto the table and shaking his fists in the air. He shimmied around, moving his hips in circles and making more whoops of triumph. Lhani laughed, and clapped for her younger brother. Mother and Papa Tom both ran to him, hugging him and showering him with praise.

Arrad sat still at the table, watching the last curl of smoke fade into the air.

Papa Tom sat down next to him.

“I’m sorry, son. I don’t know how it works for Icers. I don’t have any experience with Ice at all. I’ve never seen it cast.”

Tomyko draped his arms around Arrad’s shoulders and kissed his cheek. “You’ll get it, Arr-rod,” he said encouragingly.

Arrad smiled and ruffled his brother’s spiky black hair. He lifted the younger boy into the air and spun him around, until Tomyko chortled with glee. Arrad set the boy down and walked away.

Lhani ran her hand down the sheaf of flax she’d dropped earlier, torn between finishing it or following Arrad. She could sense his turmoil. It drew her curiosity, pulling her thoughts towards him.

“Go on, girl,” her mother said, as if reading Lhani’s mind. “I’ll finish up here. Be with your brother.”

Lhani stood, brushed the tenacious fibers from her linen dress, and ran after Arrad. She took his hand as she slipped in beside him.

He allowed the momentary contact then let go of her hand. They walked in silence for awhile, walking in no particular direction. Lhani had learned long ago: silence from Arrad meant nothing in particular. It could be the calm before a storm of intensity. It could be a sign of concentration. Or simple shyness.

They passed Gertie and Gerard, who were drying herbs in the sun, and waved at them.

“Nice day?” Gertie said.

Lhani couldn’t tell if it was a statement or a question. She nodded.

“Let’s take a walk,” she said once they’d passed the gardeners.

“Isn’t that what we’re doing already?”

“Come on, Arrad. Let’s go somewhere and figure this out.”

“Lhani, I’m ten years old. You’re ten-and-a-half. I don’t think we’re going to solve the mystery of plying algidon when mother and Papa Tom can’t figure it out.”

“Not if we don’t try,” she said, in her haughtiest big-sister voice.

“Where do you want to go?” he asked, smiling in a way that told her he was humoring her.

“Somewhere cold.”

She dragged him off into the forest, where the sun’s rays never fully warmed the ground. As they walked through the brown-and-purple foilage, shoving branches aside, she voiced her fledgling plan to him.

“Papa Tom and Tomyko gather their own heat to make flame. Maybe you need to seek cold to form ice.”

They walked deeper into the forest than Lhani was comfortable with. Just when she thought of turning around, she heard the bubbling of water over rocks.

“This way,” she said, taking his hand and pulling him down into a dell. Shadows and patches of frost dotted the ground. Her breath clouded the air. They took a seat on the ground.

Arrad closed his eyes. His breathing deepened. Lhani quieted her own, to not distract her brother. She breathed as he breathed. Her mind drifted. She sensed concentration, and experimentation.

Lhani gasped from a sudden surge of outrage. Her vision went white for a moment.

Arrad’s eyes flew open and he pounded the ground, grunting in anger with each strike of his fists.

“I can’t figure it out, Lhani! I can’t summon the cold into myself.”

“Maybe you don’t need to summon it at all? Pappa Tom says cinders just move their own heat around.”

“But I am just as human. I have heat too. It’s not like I have icicles in my blood.”

“Maybe you need to get rid of your heat somehow?”

“How?”

“I don’t know, Arrad! But ice is the opposite of flame. You need to do whatever the opposite is of what Papa is telling Tomyko to do.”

Arrad nodded. He crossed his knees and sat calmly on the ground, his breath deep and measured.

Lhani watched, lulled into a stupor of something like boredom. Curiosity tingled in her mind. She wondered if she could help somehow. She leaned in towards her brother, sensing the cold of the river.

Arrad leaned to the side and plunged his hand into the ice-cold water.

He held it there far beyond the point where Lhani grew concerned. Her hand tingled in empathy, almost painful, as she imagined his pain. At last she could no longer hold her tongue.

“Arrad! Stop it!”

“Wh-wh-why?” he asked, through chattering teeth.

“This isn’t working. We have to get you warm!”

Lahni’s stupor vanished and her heart beat in her own ears for a moment. How odd! She didn’t ususally hear her own heartbeat, and the suddennes of it surprised her.

“Come on!” she said, dragging Arrad to his feet. She pulled him through the woods, back up the hillside, until they came to the forest’s edge. She touched a nearby patch of exposed rock, which had been warmed by the sun.

“Lay here!” she demanded.

Arrad’s hand felt cold and damp. She massaged it between her own, willing her heat to warm his chilled flesh. She took off her cloak and draped it over him.

Arrad sighed appreciatively. The sun bathed them in its warmth.

“My hand tingles,” he said.

“That’s… good? I think?” Lhani hoped it was a good sign.

“The sun feels good. It tingles too.” Arrad tossed the cloak aside. “I want to feel the sun.”

His hand warmed between hers, and Lhani finally relaxed.

But she tensed up again almost immediately. Arrad’s hand had warmed up. So much so that hers were growing uncomfortably warm. As if he’d somehow found a hot coal to hold onto.

She dropped his hand and stared at it. Steam wafted from his palm. Then a thin sheet of ice formed over his skin.

“Arrad!” she hissed, pointing.

He looked down and his blue eyes grew large. He held his hand up and concentrated. The sheet of ice thickened, like a glove, covering his fingers. He flexed his hand and it shattered, tinkling onto the rock.

“It’s heat!” he said, sitting upright. “I summoned heat, and ice formed.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Lhani said, though not unkindly.

“I know! But it’s true. I thought of sunlight and ice formed.”

“What does that mean?”

“I have no idea, Lhani.” He stared at his own hand in amazement, wriggling his fingers to dislodge the last of the ice. “But I know one thing. Ice and flame aren’t opposites. They’re the same, somehow.”

“That doesn’t make any sense, either.”

“No. It really doesn’t.”

Lahni thought for a second, shrieked, and hugged him. “You did it! You’re an Icer!”

Arrad smiled, without irony. He looked at her with trembling eyes, holding some monumental emotion in check. She touched his cheek.

“It’s okay, Arrad.”

His shoulders shook and he seemed about to laugh. But a heartwrenching sob came from his lips. Arrad shuddered and inhaled, silent, and then sobbed once more.

He broke down in tears. Lhani rubbed his back, murmuring encouragement, as her brother released the pent-up frustration he’d been carrying.

At last his shuddering slowed and his ragged breath calmed. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.

“You have it toughest of all. I have mother to guide me and Tomyko has Papa Tom. None of us know how to help you.”

Arrad looked at her with an expression she could not read. Something like sympathy, only turned in on itself?

“You do help me, Lhani. But no one can solve this but me.”

“You cut that out, Arrad. We are family. I will always help you.”

They walked back to the village with the afternoon sun slanting towards evening. By the time they returned, Arrad had lapsed back into inscrutable silence. She felt further from him than she ever had.