Sergei sat on a nearby boulder the entire time Vika was crouched beneath her shield of ice. If he could, he would have helped her. But he couldn’t. It was part of her training. She would face dangers greater than this when she became Imperial Enchanter. At the end of five hours, Vika had charmed the last of the fifty fallen trees to rise off her shelter, and the ice melted. She emerged in a puddle, shivering. She clucked her tongue at Sergei. “Father, you could have killed me.” “You know I would never do that. If I did, who would fetch my bread from the bakery every morning?” “Well, the joke
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