Flanked by warm boxes of deep purple darkness, the moon laid two soft stripes of light across Dara’s bed.  Ever since she had been laid there, the two women had sat beside their princess.  Most of the time had been spent trying to draw out the heat infused by the Fire King.  They had not talked much as they worked and sat intermittedly.  But occasionally they had discussed the new rumours from Seoulician.  There were rumblings from many different factions within the land; groups had been formed that talked only of rebellion.  The young king ruling them was unreliable, dangerous, volatile; a threat to his own country.  Older people tried to calm the younger ones, telling them there must be an end to the dark twist their countries history had taken.  JiYong ruled by anger now and crippling fear was spreading through the land, chased by the Fire King’s flames. 

“He’s not as bad as this one though.”  Muttered one woman, standing up to rewrap a wet towel around Dara’s hands.  They had to be changed frequently as Dara’s body soaked up the dampness in an effort to combat the fire trying to devour her from the inside out.  “At least JiYong leaves his important people alone.  Not one of his advisors has been touched.  His brother, he killed two advisors for treason only the other day.  Princess Dara knows nothing of what he’s been doing in her land.”

“No, but I wonder if JiYong does.  They are brothers aren’t they?”

The older woman sighed.  “JiYong was never like that.  All he cared about was keeping his father’s kingdom functioning well and keeping Miss Dara happy.  Something’s happened to turn him sour, I reckon.  His brother on the other hand, he was born bad.  People like that need burning in their own flames.”

Nodding sagely to her own words the woman turned to place another damp cloth on Dara’s forehead and started as the girl’s eyes suddenly reflected wide and searching it the moonlight.

“What’s… happening in Seoulician?”

Dara had come back to consciousness and realised the ocean of fire she had been drowning in had died away.  Lying with the strange sensation of heat being drawn out of her body and too weak to comprehend it, her mind had gone back to the frozen rainbow Bom’s sister had brandished above her head.

Dara jumped off the last step onto the floor of the grand hall and turned to watch Bom slide down the last few feet of banister before landing lightly beside Dara.  No grown up had ever seen Bom sliding down the banisters in Ilindria Castle and Dara wasn’t sure they would be very pleased if they did see her.  But Bom was already laughing and poking her.  “Come on! Let’s go make the meadow pretty.”

Dara followed her friend willingly this time.  Making the meadow pretty was something she very much enjoyed.  She had been friends with Bom for as long as she had known JiYong.  Often the three of them played together and sometimes JiYong brought his other two friends, TaeYang and Daesung.  But they were shy and could not so easily get away from their homes in Seoulician.  Bom however lived in Ilindria and her family had been close friends and carers for the royal family for generations. 

Dara ran into the sun soaked meadow with her friend and sent a joyous arc of ice into the sky where it hung for a moment before falling to the ground, splintering light as it fell.  Bom giggled at her then flung her arms upwards and sent a soft, brilliant rainbow leaping across the sky.  Bom’s handiwork stayed where it was, a magnificent spread of colours spreading across the deeper blue sky.  Laughing together Dara and Bom played with ice and rainbows.  Bom would spread small rainbows between her hands and Dara shattered them with ice shafts that shattered the different colours into thousands more slivers before they disappeared.  Sometimes Bom would draw rainbows over a small flower in the grass and Dara would freeze another plant then place it on top of the other, using more ice to hold it up through the rainbow and they would layer and layer until the stack of crystalized flowers would shatter and both girl’s would explode into giggles as they watched light refract from the icicles. 

Finally Bom sat up and looked at Dara seriously.  Bom was not a sober child, she laughed easier than Dara could send ice from her fingers.  Seeing the grave expression on her friend’s face, Dara sat still and tried to look equally solemn. 

“Dara, what if I move away one day?”

Dara squinched her face up.  She didn’t want to think about her best friend moving away from her but it could happen. Bom wasn’t often serious but when she was, there were usually tears involved.

“I know.”  Dara stood up excitedly, trying to avert the tears she could see already glistening in Bom’s eyes.  Looking down she spread both hands and fashioned a love heart shaped piece of ice then held it out to Bom.  “Can you put sunset pink into it please?” 

Bom sniffed then placed her own small hands over the ice and a moment later it glowed a hot, rich pink in Dara’s hands.

“Now…”  Dara gazed at the love heart for a moment in awe.  “This is from me.  When it melts, I won’t be your friend anymore and you’ll know I don’t think about you anymore.”

Bom took the heart which gave no sign of melting and smiled delightedly.

“Ok!” she replied enthusiastically.  Putting the love heart in her pocket she held her hands out then smeared a small rainbow through the air in front of her.  Knowing what she was doing, Dara reached forward and holding her hands before the colours, let cold flow into them, freezing the rainbow solid.  Bom stared at the rainbow for a few moments.  “It’s so pretty I don’t know if I do want to give it to you!” 

Dara started to huff in mock offence but Bom shoved the rainbow at her and blurted out quickly, “When the colours in this begin to fade then you’ll know I don’t want to be friends with you anymore.” Then Bom hugged her friend tempestuously and ran off home.

Dara remembered they had continued to play together for many years until Bom had finally moved to Seoulician to be near Daesung.  For months after she left her younger sister, Minzy pined for her until Dara was afraid she would die.  Often while Dara and Bom played together Minzy would play with them, making marble shapes and toys to add to their games.  But After Bom left the marble shapes no longer appeared from Minzy’s fingers.  In desperation Dara had given Minzy the rainbow Bom had made when they were young and asked her to keep it safe.  Minzy had taken the responsibility seriously and gradually had become well again.   Dara was just remembering this with a slight smile when the older lady’s words broke into her hearing for the first time.  With a tremendous effort she voiced the words which shad startled the servant beside her.

*  The older woman was opening to reply when Dara suddenly sat straight up in bed, her eyes wide and searching. 

“Where’s my necklace?!” 

The two servants stared at their princess blankly.  Dara never wore any jewellery to their knowledge except the wedding ring JiYong’s brother had slid onto her finger.  Dara knew the stone was a light blue colour but what she didn’t know that nestled into her neck as it did, the stone looked almost transparent and was almost impossible to see against her white skin with the faint ice-blue current beneath it. 

 Realising the women didn’t know anything about her necklace Dara turned back to her original question.

Quietly they told her all the stories, JiYong’s continuing temper flares that were becoming worse.  “The country isn’t trading at all now.  Shops are closing all over the land, people are beginning to leave and those that stay are beginning to go hungry.”

Quietly they told her all the stories, JiYong’s continuing temper flares that were becoming worse.  “The country isn’t trading at all now.  Shops are closing all over the land, people are beginning to leave and those that stay are beginning to go hungry.”

Dara heard everything they said then assured them she was fine and would be able to sleep for the rest of the night.  After they left she curled on her side and tried to ignore the tears sliding onto her pillow, making it uncomfortably damp.  What had changed JiYong so much?  The tears did not stop so Dara reached up and froze them carefully before breaking them off and turning onto her other side to sleep.  When she finally did go to sleep she dreamed JiYong had his older brother’s face and Bom was cowering before him on an ice floor with rainbow fires lurking around, waiting to pounce on her.

*  From the next morning Dara noticed the change.  Everywhere she went ice followed her.  She started at every sound and seeing her husband induced dizzying fear.  She had been on time for breakfast and sat rigid in her chair, not hungry and desperately hoping her husband would not see her trembling.  Gradually she became aware of the ice spreading down over the seat cushion and legs of the chair.  Lifting her hands hastily off the seat cushion Dara clasped them in her lap.

“Sir?”

The king looked up so sharply that Dara flinched and swallowed, suddenly feeling sick.  Beneath her, the floor was beginning to whiten into ice. 

“What?”  Growled her husband and Dara forced herself to breath out.

“Yesterday… I lost my necklace.  Do you…” She swallowed.  “Do you know where it is?”

Her husband put down the spoon he was holding and the knife next to it.  “Is it important to you?”

Dara swallowed again.  He didn’t sound angry.  The ice that was now quite thickly spread over the floor, stopped climbing the walls.  “Well… yes.  I mean, it was a gift.”

“Was it expensive?”

Dara paused.  She knew that calm.  She had felt it in him just before his fire had ravaged her body in the carriage only the day before.  His eyes locked onto hers and Dara’s fingers tightened on her chair once more.  The fear that had abated momentarily was back with heart-thumping certainty.

“No.  I just… it was a gift and, no, please…”

The last word was strangled as her husband flung his chair back.  One hand around Dara’s plait, dragging her head back cruelly he pressed the knife against while the fire in his hand made the metal glow red-hot. 

“Was it from my brother?  Is that why you treasure it so? You would value a worthless stone above the priceless wedding band I gave you?  Do you have that little gratitude in you?” 

From blurred vision, Dara saw him drop the knife and gasped in relief then held her breath as he brandished the necklace before her face.  He jerked her plait again and tears bit harder into Dara’s eyes.  Pressing her lips together she forced herself to look JiYong’s brother in the eye.  For a moment he held her gaze, his hate and anger so strong that Dara felt cold seeping from her in copious amounts.  Ice coated the walls around them until the fire king became aware of its presence.  Letting go of his wife’s hair he stepped back and let furious fire sweep around the room, melting and evaporating the ice.  Dara wrapped her arms around the back of her chair and hung her head, trying to breathe normally.  She was aware of silence, broken only by the heavy breathing of her husband.  Staring at his wife, the fire king raised the necklace once more in his fist and glanced at it.  There was nothing worthwhile in the stone itself.  The worth had to be in who had given it to her.  Rage burning within him, he stepped up to her and Dara cried out in pain as he backhanded her across the face, knocking her off the chair onto the floor.  Picking her up he slammed her against the wall and let fire pour over her.  The flames died and Dara hung limp against his hand.  Only when he angled her face up did she meet his gaze.

“Remember, whose power you are in.  And remember; who has the power.  Do you still prefer the weakling brother?”

His breath was sulphur and heat.  Dara’s gaze faltered and she would have fainted if he had not dropped her then, flinging the necklace at her head as he strode out of the room.  She stayed there for some time, unable to fasten the necklace around her neck with such trembling fingers and unable to stop the occasional sob from breaking into the empty room.

From then on Dara spread ice on everything she touched.  If she kept her hands on it long enough it would turn to solid ice.  Her husband railed on her for it, branding her with burn marks when she did not stop spreading ice.  Huddled in a corner of the palace with ice over the walls and snow falling softly around her, Dara tried simultaneously to stop the sobs and ice breaking from her body.  She could do neither.  Always in the past, Dara had been in full control of the ice flowing through her veins. Only when she had flung herself from the carriage and stopped Bom’s house being burned Dara had felt no control over the ice flowing from her hands.  When the flames had been smothered and she turned to stare at husband, Dara felt real fear running through her.  The fear had turned to sheer terror as he struck her onto the floor then held her against the wall.  Now she stared helplessly as her feet as ice spread slowly over the floor, treacherously slippery in its beauty.  The rumours from Seoulician hunted her when she slept and the king of Ilindria tortured her in her waking hours. 

One night she lifted JiYong’s necklace over her head and held it over her heart one last time while she sobbed until her shoulders were forced to bow and she had no breath left to cry anymore.  Then she held her breath and with tears tripping down her cheeks, she placed the necklace in a case and put it on her bookshelf.  Dara wondered briefly if JiYong still felt he had caused as much pain to her as a child as his gift to make up for the pain had caused her recently.  For a moment she let one hand rest on it, while the moonlight danced over her fingers, lighting up the ice moving restlessly beneath her skin.  “Let it go Dara.  It only causes trouble.”  One more tear slipped down her cheek then Dara’s finger lifted from the case and Dara turned away, slamming the door of her bedroom behind her.