Icefire Read Online Free PDF

insisted. “Doesn’t it, Mom?”
    “In a manner of speaking,” Liz said quietly. “Go and fetch Bonnington now.”
    Lucy pushed back her chair.
    “What about Gawain, then?” David said quickly.
    “His fire tear didn’t go into the ground. When Guinevere caught it, what did she do with it?”
    Lucy looked at her mom, who said, “Go on. I asked you to go.”
    “But —?”
    “Now, please.”
    With a sigh Lucy exited the kitchen.
    David, now wary that he’d overstepped the mark, chose his next words carefully. “I’m sorry, I know this means a lot to you both. I’m not belittling the story, honestly. It’s just … the legend of Gawain is a great angle for my essay, and I really want to win that prize. I’d appreciate any help you can give me.”
    Liz rested her hands in the washing-up suds. It was several seconds before she replied. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, David, but neither myself nor Lucy can answer your question. No one knows what became of the fire of Gawain. The legend is that Guinevere caught the tear — and hid it.”
    “What?”
David sat up slowly, feeling a knot oftension in his stomach. “I thought she absorbed it into herself and became a sort of … human dragon?”
    Liz laughed and looked back at him over her shoulder. “None of us could possibly endure such a force.”
    “But if she hid it? Then … where is it now?”
    “David, if I knew the answer to that I’d —”
    Before she could finish, Lucy hurried in, fighting to keep a hold of Bonnington. “Mom, he’s hissing and clawing and — ow!”
    Bonnington wriggled out of her arms, only to be scooped off the floor by David. “Hey, hey, what’s the matter with you?”
    “Do you think he’s been bitten?” asked Liz.
    David checked him over. “Doesn’t look like it. But something’s spooked him, that’s for sure. Look at his eyes.” They were wild and staring, as large as pennies. David loosened his grip and the cat jumped down and ran straight to the door. Lucy, wary of being scratched, backed up, covering Bonnington’s cat flap. They watched him turn a frustrated circle before he bounced onto a chair and then onto the drainboard.
    “Now what’s he doing?” Liz said, astonished. “Perhaps he’s seen another cat,” said Lucy. David shook his head. “He’s looking at the snowman.”
    “Snow
bear,”
said Lucy. “I can tell the shape now. Do you think he’s scared of it?”
    “I’m not sure,” said David, and he glanced at Liz.
    She was staring at the snow bear and stroking Bonnington to calm him down. And then she said something quite unexpected. “I’d like to meet your Dr. Bergstrom, David. He does sound very charismatic. I feel as though I know him, in a strange sort of way. Thank you for cooking dinner tonight. Lucy, be an angel and do the drying up. I’m going to the den to finish G’reth.” And she pulled the blinds down again and left the kitchen, shutting the snow bear out of sight.

6
O NLINE WITH Z ANNA
     
    W ith nothing better to do after dinner (no soccer on TV; no girlfriend to visit) David retreated to the quiet of his room and decided to make some notes for his essay. His mind was a jumble of polar bears and dragons and he needed the stark simplicity of a computer to separate those elements and keep things focused. But as he waited for his computer to boot, he couldn’t resist another glance into the garden. The ice bear — or snow bear, as Lucy liked to call it — stood regally in the center of the lawn, being steadily sculpted by the drizzling rain and looking more and more like its real-life counterpart. Why was Bonnington so mesmerized by it? Could the cat see something that human eyes couldn’t? And if he could, was he scared or awed by itspresence? David closed his eyes and put the ice bear into darkness. But even as that visual shutter came down, a virtual world opened and there, at its bleak and frozen center, was a genuine polar bear. David jerked in surprise but held