Little Statue Encased in Ice

By Diya Goyal

Alice is nothing more than a peasant girl in a small village. Yet when she comes across a magical amulet with the power to transform people into miniature ice statues, her life takes an unexpected turn. Philip is a prince, destined to be king, his perfect girlfriend Esmere

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fresh Ink
• Release date: Feb 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9781956380118

Book preview

Little Statue Encased in Ice

By Diya Goyal

Contents

Prologue

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Epilogue

Author's Note

About the Author

Prologue

A necklace. An amulet, to be precise. That’s all it is. Not gold, or ivory, nothing special. Certainly not something worth causing a war over. Yet, that’s exactly what it did.

Where is it? a deep voice asked.

He was a soldier. His lip was bleeding and he had many scratches. He was fortunate. He faced a far better fate than others. A soldier beside him jerked her head around just in time to see a thief sneaking away with the precious jewel which had rested on a pedestal in the middle of the bloody battlefield.

After it! she called.

The thief turned around. A dark hood obscured her face, much like her black cloak. She wordlessly took out a mysterious powder from within the amulet, and flung it at them, her hands turning blue as she did so. The woman soldier jumped away immediately, but the man soldier was too late. The woman soldier watched in horror as he froze over, and then shrunk down into a statue.

No, she gasped.

She picked him up, gazing down at him with sadness in her eyes, then put him on the pedestal that held the amulet. The thief took that moment to flee. The soldier spun around, enraged, and pursued the thief. The thief was nimble and the soldier was tired and worn out from war so the thief got away. The thief took charge of a kingdom, where her subjects lived in fear of turning into a statue, so served her every whim. She called this kingdom Chalice. When she passed away everyone celebrated, and Chalice became known as the kingdom of freedom. Guards, nobles, and even peasants searched all over her castle, but the amulet was nowhere to be found. She had hidden it well. Or so the villagers thought. For, this dead queen had a pet crow. When she passed, the crow took the amulet, intending to keep it in his nest, but dropped it in the forest. A decade later, a hut was built at that location. As time passed, the forest turned into a village, and the hut turned into a house. Almost a century later, a baker bought that house, and he, his wife, and his daughter moved in. The amulet lay lodged in the floorboards, but as the house grew old the floorboards did too. Slowly, the amulet emerged, bringing heartbreak, destruction, and war for years to come.

One

Alice

Honey, time for school! my mother called.

Yes Mother!

I ran out of my room and to the front door. As I ran, the floor creaked. What an old house. I stepped on something round, like a pebble, and winced in pain. I looked down. It was a gem. Not just any gem—an amulet. I pulled it out of the floorboards and realized it was a necklace. I slipped it on, admiring it. It was dusty, but still sparkled, and the prettiest thing I ever saw. It was wedged between the floorboards, so surely it was ours. No need to search for its owner, right? Wait, it might belong to Mother.

Mother! I called.

What is it sweetie? She stood between the doorway from the living room to the kitchen.

Is this yours? I held up the amulet.

She studied it closely. No, but it might belong to someone else.

But it was stuck between the floorboards.

How odd, she puzzled over it for a moment. "Well then,