The Snow Queen's Shadow

beg your pardon?”
    “Typical human sloppiness,” Bellum concluded.
    “I’m not—”
    Danielle grabbed Gerta’s arm and squeezed. “Don’t upset them.” To Veleris, she said, “She is our friend. And there must be some way you could help us. I give you my word we’ll do whatever we can to aid you and your people in return.”
    “The help of a dead woman’s little use to us,” Bellum muttered.
    “Come with us,” Veleris said. “We will give you what aid we can, within limits. We won’t risk our people’s safety.”
    “I understand,” said Danielle. “Thank you.”
    “That’s it?” Talia asked warily. “No price, no bargain? What kind of fairy are you?”
    Veleris smiled. “The kind who recognizes that the things I want are beyond your power.”
    “Or the kind that doesn’t expect you to survive long enough to fulfill your side of any bargain,” Bellum added with a chuckle. “Come along, O short-lived ones.”
    The giant led them through another tunnel to a large, rectangular doorway. A dragon guarded the door, this one larger and darker in color than Koren. A thick chain ran from his leather collar to a bolt in the floor. He lay curled on his side against the wall, eyeing them warily as they approached. He must have decided they were safe, because he stretched, then curled his neck down and began to spit tiny gouts of flame against his own backside.
    “What is he doing?” asked Gerta.
    “Cleaning himself.” Veleris pounded the dragon’s neck as she stepped past. The dragon climbed to his feet and rubbed the top of his head against Veleris’ palm, like a dog begging to be petted. Veleris chuckled as she opened the door. “If I wasn’t with you, he’d already have barbequed you and your friends.”
    Danielle wished they had been allowed to reclaim their weapons. Tame or not, the creature was still large enough to rip off an arm or leg with a single bite. Though she doubted the dragon would even notice an attack by anything less than an enchanted blade.
    The giant’s room was modest, little more than an oversized storeroom with wood-planked walls and old support beams. At some point in the past, the wooden wall on the back had been torn down and crude shelves carved into the rock. Oversized parchments, each tightly rolled and tied, were stuffed onto the shelves. A dirty curtain partially concealed a smaller cave, where rumpled blankets were tossed over a woven mat. A small oil lantern hung on the wall to the right of the doorway.
    “Make sure you shut the door,” said Veleris. “The beast likes to sneak in and steal a snack.” She patted a barrel that smelled of old fish.
    “What’s his name?” asked Gerta as she pulled the door closed.
    “What gives me the right to impose a name upon another creature?” Veleris began digging through the parchments, scanning small symbols jotted on the ends of each. With a satisfied grunt, she yanked one out and unrolled it across the floor. “Hold that, will you?”
    The parchment was the size of a small carpet, covering more than half the floor. Line after line of tiny brown characters were broken only by meticulously precise drawings. Danielle had spent enough time with Snow to recognize various summoning circles.
    “What kind of skin is this?” asked Gerta.
    “Dragon,” said Bellum. “It lasts much longer than ordinary parchment.”
    “My mother trapped the demon within a mirror,” said Gerta. “Bound by a platinum frame. The summoning ring was built into the palace, but it was the mirror that held the demon.”
    “Mm.” Veleris scowled. “Your mother summoned the creature in spirit only. Clever. But even so, no simple circle would have held this demon.”
    “What would?” asked Talia.
    “Power.” Bellum bared her teeth. “There are techniques to trap magic within the metal. Build a forge fueled by the bones of a hundred wizards, quench the white-hot metal in their blood . . . you might be able to contain even a major demon for a while. But that frame lost its hold when the demon escaped, and it has a body now”
    “What does that mean?” asked Talia. “Do we need the bones of two hundred wizards? Give me a week in Kanustius, and—”
    “Snow gives the demon physical form.” Veleris grabbed another scroll and unrolled it over the first. “That can be a weakness as well as a strength. Snow White’s power is added to its own, but the demon’s magic is now channeled through her human body.”
    Bellum grunted.