Chapter 6

FREYA   Of course, there wasn’t enough space for me in the Beaufort tent. Even though it looks like one can fit a whole division inside of it. But who cares! It’s not like I want to be close with any of them!    My tent… Well, it’s hard to call it a tent even. In the sense that they call it. I mean… you can go camping with something like that.  But everybody else except for me has tents that are sizes of a small house. Even the servants that cake with us have a bigger one than me.   But at least I am alone and don’t have to share it with anyone. All this is not important! What’s important is that I need to be on my best behaviour, meet the headmaster of the Royal Academy and get my scholarship. Everything else is just temporary difficulties.   I drop my luggage inside and decide to go for a walk and explore. As soon as I get out of my “tent”, I bump into Troy, who came to tell something to Kai. Honestly, for a prince, he shows up a lot in person.   “Is that where you are staying?” he eyes my humble refuge with a smirk.   “Yes,” I reply honestly. There is no reason to be embarrassed by it.   “More reasons for you to come to me tonight,” he chuckles, “Just find the biggest tent with golden embroidery on it. I will tell the servants to wait for you. You will not regret it.”   “Of course I won’t,” I really want to roll my eyes, but hold it in. He is royalty after all. Who knows what the punishment for offending one is. I don’t want to find that out.   He smiles triumphally as if I am already in his bed, completely ignoring the fact that I actually haven’t told him that I’ll actually come there. And I don’t plan to.   “Have you prepared a ribbon?” he asks suddenly and I am a bit startled with that question.   “A ribbon?” I raise my brow, “I am afraid I don’t follow, your…”   “Highness,” he smirks, “I always forget that you have problems with memory. Ladies give ribbons to their favourite knights and then…”   “Oh, that?” I interject, “No, I don’t bother with stuff like that.”   His facial expression – priceless!   “Well, maybe you should,” he insists, “If the knight wins, he picks one of the ladies who gave him a ribbon to go to a ball and showers her with gifts. The expensive kind. The knight’s honour depends on it.”   Ok, this is getting interesting. I really don’t mind receiving expensive gifts. God knows Rickie, Annika and I need all the money we can get to live freely and happily. If I get something expensive and sell it then…   “Hello!” Troy waves his hand before my eyes, “Are you even here?”   “Uhm, yes, your Highness,” I reply calmly, “I am sorry, I was just thinking about those ribbons. You are right, I should give one to…someone.”   He looks satisfied with my answer and I have no idea why. There is no chance in hell he is getting my ribbon. If he wins the tournament he’ll have to shower with gifts someone like Eliza. I’d be damned if I spend more time with him. This guy smells like trouble. And I have enough of those already.   “Then see you later, Freya,” he says with a smile on his lips and I do a clumsy curtsy. Really, I need to practice those more.   He leaves and I can finally breathe again. I take a stroll around all the tents and all the arenas, trying to memorize what is where. But very soon I get tired. The journey was exhausting. So, I come back quickly. I can smell that the Beauforts have dinner. To which I wasn’t invited I guess. Luckily, this is something I have totally expected, so I get into my tent and crawl to my luggage. But before I can even reach it I become too annoyed with the whole situation.    “This is ridiculous!” I clench my fist and immediately see frost spreading around me. And then I have this absolutely crazy idea! I haven’t tried anything like this before, but it’s actually nothing too hard from what I read in one of Eliza’s books about magic. And it should hold for as long as I want it to hold. So, should I… try?   I bite my lip and walk out of my tent. I definitely have enough space for that! Wriggling my fingers and spreading my arms, I close my eyes and imagine how I create ice. This is how it should go… I feel magic flow through my fingers. A very satisfying feeling, I must add.   And when I open my eyes I see it – my own, personal igloo! And it’s huge! Not perfect, but still much bigger than what I had offered to me originally. I smile to myself happily, glancing at the Beauforts tent. You can’t build something like that with your stupid fire, suckers!    “Cold doesn’t bother me anyway!” I snort and mimic Elsa’s famous gesture. But since I don’t wear a cape, I just flap my hair to my back. See ya!   There is some work inside, creating something one can call a bed, a small table, and a chair. That would be enough for now. It feels so weird that my own ice never makes me cold. Although I can easily get cold outside in just a strong wind. But this is how this kind of magic works. Mages of fire cannot be burned with their own flames, Mages of Water cannot drown, etc. Very useful, I must add.    I bring my luggage in and get my clothes out, and then my books and lastly, the food Annika prepared for me. Since we anticipated all this. I have bread, some kind of biscuits, cheese, and water enough to last me a few days. Digging deeper I even find a couple of apples. Not to mention, that since everything is covered with ice it’s pretty much the same as putting those in a fridge. Sweet! Time flies fast and it’s getting darker by the minute. I seal my door with ice, hopefully, I will be able to destroy it tomorrow to get out. But I did it before – the ice I created back at home was good practice since only I could make it disappear.    So, making sure I am safe now, I get onto my bed with a book and an apple. I am trying to get as much knowledge into me as is only possible. I need to progress fast…   Lost in reading I don’t even notice at first the sounds outside. But soon they become impossible to ignore. I come closer to the entrance and put my ear to the ice, trying to hear what is going on there.    “I can see you!” I hear Kai’s muffled voice and for the first time, I realize that this icy igloo of mine does have some disadvantages. Since it’s clear and pure, it’s a bit see-through. You can’t see anything peculiar, but you can see shapes and stuff. Damn, I really haven’t thought this through, have I?   “What do you want?” I shout and see my poor icy door become orange, realizing that he is trying to melt it with his fire from the other side. Well, good luck with that! He tried that before, but somehow he is too weak for my ice!    “The prince is waiting for you! What do you think you are doing?!” he growls and I can just about imagine how red his face must be now.   “Well, I can’t come!” I yell, holding back a snort.   “Why the chaos not?!” he is getting more and more furious by the minute.   “As you can see I accidentally locked myself!” I bite my lip saying that. Do not laugh, Freya! Don’t you dare to laugh!   “You are absolutely impossible!” he shouts, “Don’t you get what kind of trouble this can cause to us?”   Nope.   “Well, tell him that I do apologize! But you do know my ice. I will need too much time to open a passage enough to walk out!” I almost choke with laughter, “Oh, I know, why don’t you send Eliza there! She would be thrilled to take my place!”   “Freya!” he grits through his teeth.   Huh, I thought so. He doesn’t want his stupid sister to be the prince’s bed warmer. Yet in my case, he doesn’t mind!   “You’ll pay for this!” he shouts, “These are going to be days full of starving for you! Until you learn to behave!”    I see his figure leaving and chuckle, taking another bite of my apple. Yeah, yeah, you are big and scary!     Soon it’s getting too dark to read and I have to give up. I have just one small magical lantern with me and I just might need that later. The reserve of power in that thing is not limitless and I need to think everything through.    Sleeping on a bed made of ice is not fun. No, I am not cold. But it’s freaking hard. I put my cape as a kind of pillow, but it just doesn’t work well. Somewhere in the middle of the night darkness consumes the exhausted me. But, of course, I wake up with the first sun rays. And everything hurts! This is the worst sleep I had in my life! Again, I didn’t think this through too well.   But today is important and I am not going to feel sorry for myself. Today we meet professor Arsene and hopefully, he will take me to the headmaster! So, I need to look my best.    I get out a small mirror and accessories, clean my teeth with a special magic powder. Which I have to say works so much better than any kind of toothpaste! I do other necessary procedures and then finally get a small packet that Annika, Rickie, and I prepared together. Annika spent her whole month’s wages on that. So I owe her now.   I get out a simple baby blue dress. It’s from an expensive shop, but this is the simplest and cheapest garment they had there.  But I kind of like its simplicity. It has a deep round collar and long slim sleeves. It hugs my body nicely to my waist and then the fabric flows beautifully to the ground. It’s a day dress, but I love it. I know that everyone will be wearing their most luxurious gowns here. But since I don’t have those, this will do. Maybe it will even be for the best. After all, I am begging for a scholarship here. It would look weird if I was wearing an expensive dress at the same time.    I also have new blue lace ballet pumps and a small pale blue ribbon to tie my hair. I do a simple braid and make the ribbon longer than necessary. This is kind of my one and only decoration now. I twirl a few times to check that everything looks fine and prepare to leave my safe refuge.   Time to play!