Fantasy of Flight by Kelly St. Clare Read Free Book Online Page A

my advantage of surprise gone, it wasn’t as easy as the round with Crush.
    Shard taps his longer than average nose. His eyes twinkle as he looks down at me. It strikes me the expression in his eyes is too old for his age. I’ve assumed he’s in his late twenties. It’s obvious the twenty or so years haven’t been easy.
    “Can’t tell you that. Then you might win.”
    Shard shows me how to escape the hold. I practice on Blizzard first. Then Shard motions for Flurry to pin me so I can try it on a different body type. I look up at Flurry who has his forearm across my chest. Jovan pinned me like this twice. The first time to rip off my veil, the second while overreacting to my decision to learn the dog sleds.
    Flurry’s cheeks are flushed and though we’re only a couple of finger widths from each other, he somehow avoids my gaze. He’s always hesitant around me, yet I’ve seen him act perfectly normal with the men, and other women. Maybe he’s just shy.
    As soon as I get out of the hold, he jumps away and returns to the weights section. Blizzard laughs at his retreating back.
    “What’s up with him?” I ask. Shard and Blizzard share a look and snigger. They turn away, ignoring my question and I remember Shard’s earlier comment.
    “Wait, you didn’t tell me what I’m doing wrong,” I call out.
     
    The fight next week is in Sector Six. I keep careful track of the lanes and occasional landmarks as we go. Once we escape the packed mass of low overhanging roofs, I’m startled to see how close we are to the Oscala. I never realized my position. The Bruma call it the Great Stairway. The floating rocky islands are the only means of access and communication between our two worlds.
    We crunch and slip through settled snow in the shadows of tall brown and green trees until we come to the twisting lanes of the Sixth. Travelling by foot doubled the journey from one area to the next.  It was much quicker to travel through the larger streets between each sector, or by a sled and team, but Shard says we travel this way to avoid alerting the Watch. I’m impressed by Outer Rings tactics. The people here are technically the least influential on Glacium, but they have numbers. If they want something badly enough they have the power to take it. Turns out the pits qualify as a good enough reason.
    Like my world, Glacium is split into six sectors. Where Osolis is unimaginably hot and in constant danger of fire, Glacium is the extreme opposite - deathly cold. Both of our worlds depend on the other for a livable climate - ironic considering our mutual hate. The point where the worlds are closest, the First Sectors, have the mildest temperature. The Fourth Sectors - the furthest from the other world - are unlivable. This wouldn’t be so bad if the Fourth in each world could be avoided. But the two planets rotate, meaning every part of each world moves through the Fourth position. It’s impossible to stay in one spot for the entire three years it takes to complete a revolution. Instead, the Solati and Bruma migrate every one and a half years to avoid the fire and smoke, or blistering freeze. This necessitates there be two castles on Glacium, and two palaces on Osolis. And so, like the rest, Alzona has two barracks. A spare to use when the other was in the Fourth Sector. She doesn’t own a compound in the Sixth, so we’re staying with Tricks’ group. Tricks owns a compound in every sector. We stayed with him in Sector Two, as well. In the six weeks I’ve been here, his fighters have done almost as well as Hale’s group. I don’t know why he’s taken Alzona under his wing when her barracks are so far below his own. He seems genuinely nice, maybe this is reason enough.
    Darkness is falling by the time we finally reach our destination. Our group sits at one table in the far corner of Tricks’ fancy mess hall. The other four tables are full of their fighters. If you closed your eyes you’d never know what these men did for a