A rush of feeling stormed through her, driving out the icy terror that clung to her. Odriel’s strength enveloped her like sturdy arms, shouldering her buried grief and steeling her against the weight of her doubts. She saw her father looking on proudly as she held fire for the first time, her face glowing with joy.
You have always had the power.
Her overcrowded thoughts fled in the face of the raw hope that flooded from Odriel to her, rushing through her veins like a river after a storm. Kaia locked eyes with the spirit guide as her chest swelled with pride and courage.
Odriel lifted his paw and eased himself back down onto the stone. Now, think of love, and draw strength.
Love, Kaia thought to herself, no fear. She thought of her family, her father, and then, to her own shock, the image of Klaus came to her mind. She felt Klaus’ arms around her, she saw his soft hazel eyes under his dark brows, imagined his teasing smile, and warmth filled her. The familiar heat rose within from her toes to the tips of her hair—the buzz brimming beneath her skin. She drank it in like a desert in a spring rain. She breathed deeply, savoring the sensation.
Then, with only a thought, an explosion of flames burst from the Dragon Heir’s body.
A whirl of spinning fire cocooned her from head to toe, and tears sprang to Kaia’s eyes as she laughed with relief—just before Gus barreled into her chest. The ragehound bathed her face with his tongue, and Kaia, still smiling, let the fire fade from her body. Had it really been so simple all along? She looked up gratefully at the monstrous bear, but her eye caught on the half-sun weakly glowing behind him. Her grin flattened into a hard line.
“What about Jago? Is he still alive?”
The bear followed her faze to the bruised sun. His soul has not crossed over.
Kaia nodded solemnly, understanding the unsaid. Just because he had not crossed over, did not mean he was still alive—that’s why they called them the Lost. Souls trapped by Nifras could not find their way to the other side.
“Odriel, what does Nifras want with us? Who is he?”
The bear sagged ever so slightly. His eyes seemed sad when the voice echoed in her mind again.
The demon’s true name is Idriel. The thoughts halted for a brief second in her mind as the bear turned his great head to look out over the lush green forest stretching below them. My brother.
Kaia’s eyes widened.
There are many lands, my dear Heir, and for each land, there is a spirit guide, my kin, who conducts souls from the world of the living to the world of the dead. My brother was dissatisfied with the confines of his own land. He saw himself and his people as superior—deserving of more. In his greed, he refused to let the souls depart for the afterlife, and sought out new worlds for his dead to conquer. Thus, began the great battle so many years ago. Now, he returns for revenge.
Kaia’s brows knitted over her eyes, “But, how could a spirit guide be so evil?”
Odriel smiled at her as a parent might to a child. Even I do not have all the answers. Wherever there is light, there is also shadow. The bear turned towards the sun. And now, my Heir, I must leave Okarria’s light in your protection.
“Wait, Odriel!” Kaia protested as the legendary being began to shift once again. His form glowed blue as he shrank and sprouted wings.
I have answered your questions, but walking this world exacts a steep toll. I must depart. Good luck, my dear Heir. Our people are depending on you.
Kaia brought her clenched fist to her heart in a silent salute as she watched an unassuming brown hawk take wing in front of her. Watching the legendary guardian spirit dissolve into the clouds, she thought of Klaus again, and a deep warmth suffused her. She let a small explosion of fire swirl around her fingers, feeling the untapped power crackle in her palm.
“Well, Gus.” Kaia smiled as she stroked his shaggy fur, “Now, we turn south.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Southward
The setting sun bathed the mountain rocks in a vivid tangerine as Kaia picked her way down the slope, sliding on her backside over the steeper parts. Gus slipped down the loose rocks with little hops while Sunflash skipped down in the bounding, sure leaps of a mountain goat.
Kaia’s breath condensed in smoky clouds as she felt for a sure foothold with her numb toes. Miraculously, she had only lost a day in the mountains, but if Klaus was pushing hard to the south, then she might not catch him. She knew the Deadlands was a week’s ride to the southeast, but she would have to depend on town gossip to locate Everard and their small army. That is, if the southerners hadn’t already fled north.
Step by careful step, she descended, while her mind wandered back to Klaus and his connection with her gift. The idea lightened and confused her at the same time, and fire wove between her fingers of its own accord.
Still, when Kaia thought of seeing Klaus again, her smile faltered. She hoped he didn’t stay too angry with her for disappearing. After all, her intuition had served them well. Meeting Odriel had not only returned her gift, but her confidence also. She had held her vigil through the night, and yet this morning, she felt wholly restored, as if finally waking from a deep sleep.
As Kaia rounded a protruding boulder, a flash of black caught her eye from down the slope. She squinted, and the figure resolved into a cloaked rider cutting briskly across the mountainside below. The rider turned in his saddle, scanning the slope. With a start, she recognized Odriel’s Tooth strapped to the saddle and the familiar movements of Klaus atop Stormshade, as if he’d been drawn by her thoughts.
Her stomach fluttered and knotted in turns. He came for me.
Gus barked, his tail wagging furiously beside her. Our boy! Our boy is here!
The Shadow Heir pulled to a sharp halt as he cast about for Gus’ familiar yap.
Apprehension and excitement still warring within her, Kaia waved a hand. “Klaus!” She scrambled through the loose rocks on her chafed feet, with Sunflash leaping ahead and Gus following more slowly behind.
“Hey!” she called again, trying to stay upright as she tumbled down the mountain. “Klaus!” she yelled once more as she ran up to the elegant Stormshade. “You’ll never guess—!”
She drew up short as her smiling eyes met Klaus’ flinty glare. “Okay, now, don’t be mad—"
“DON’T BE MAD!?” Klaus roared, swinging down from Stormshade’s back. “You run off in the middle of the night and tell me not to be mad!? I’ve been tracking you through these mountains all night!”
Bristling, Kaia’s grin fading. She took a step towards him. “Just let me explain—”
Klaus cut her off, waving his hand emphatically. “Without the dragon fire you could have been captured again, or even killed!”
Kaia raised her hands in exasperation. “Klaus—”
He whirled towards her, his face only inches from hers. “How is it you’re constantly finding new ways to drive me crazy?”
Kaia softened as she noticed the worry etched around the Shadow Heir’s eyes. Barely suppressing a smile, she lifted an empty palm between them. “It’s just one of my gifts, I guess.” With a whoosh, a perfect orb of flame spun in her palm.
Klaus’ face slackened with shock as he gazed at the sphere. He looked back up at Kaia, relief lighting his features like the sun freed from the clouds. With a sudden laugh, he wrapped his arms around her, lifting her off her feet as he spun her around.
“You did it, Firefly!” he breathed, putting her down and releasing her. He looked to the sky as he ran both hands through his hair. “Thank Odriel.”
“Well done, Guardian Dashul,” Shadmundar purred from his usual place in the saddle bag.
Kaia beamed, her heart thrumming from Klaus’ embrace. “I thought we agreed you should go south without me, Shad.”
Klaus’ retort was instant. “And I thought we agreed that no good has come of Heirs being separated.”
“I was useless to you without my gift.” Kaia turned her face away from him. “It was my problem to face, not yo
urs.”
Klaus grabbed her arm and squeezed it gently. “Fire or no, I could never just leave you out here on your own.” His mouth curved into a wistful half-smile. “It’s just you and me, after all.”
Kaia returned his grin, her heart ablaze in her chest.
“I tried explaining that you needed space to find your way,” Shad chimed in, obviously miffed. “But there was no talking to him.”
Kaia absently scratched Gus’ head as he leaned against her. “Well, I’m sure you’ll both wish you had caught up earlier when I tell you what happened.”
“Wait,” Klaus turned to Moonstreak and pulled her worn boots from a saddle bag. “I think you’ll want these first.”
The Dragon Heir laughed, a long ringing sound, as she shoved them on her battered feet.
The Heirs turned and walked down the rocky slope with Kaia’s tale bubbling into the crisp air around them. The Shadow Heir and the cat listened raptly, drinking in every detail of her story of the caelidrake and the great spirit guide. When she finished her tale, she looked up at them expectantly. Klaus’ eyes were unreadable, and Shad looked to the horizon reflectively.
“So, Nifras is a spirit guide as well,” Shad murmured.
Klaus looked south. “And we still don’t know what happened to Jago.”
Kaia turned her eyes to the ground but said nothing.
Klaus nudged her. “We’ve been managing well enough without him though.” He cocked an eyebrow. “But there does seem to be something different about you.”
“I—”
Kaia’s words died on her tongue. Beneath her feet, the world started to shake, and she grabbed Klaus’ arm for balance as the ground rolled and rocks began to pound down the slope around them. The Heirs whirled towards the peak just as the cliff cracked away from the shoulder of the mountain, a slew of boulders tumbling towards them.
“RUN!” Kaia yelled over the first thunderous crashes of the darkening sky.
In seconds, the peak of the mountain came down around them. The Dalteek whinnied in panic as they hurdled down the slope, Gus close on their heels. The Heirs half-ran, half-stumbled after them.
“We won’t be able to outrun it!” Klaus shouted over the clamor.
The earth beneath Kaia’s feet convulsed, and she fell, slicing her back on the sharp rocks as she slid. She glanced behind her and gaped at the giant rocks bearing down on them in the near darkness. She scrambled to her feet just as Klaus grabbed her wrist and pushed her back down under a pathetically small outcropping. He dove beside her, narrowly avoiding a boulder rushing by. His breath came quick against her cheek as he pressed her up against the rock and covered their heads with his arms.
Their hearts raced against one another as the outcrop shuddered—rocks crashing up against their small shield, their momentum carrying them over and past it without crushing the two Heirs on the leeward side. She winced as the boulders grazed Klaus’ hair and freed her hand to pull him closer to her under the rock shelf. Finally, a great shattering rent the air, and the crashing once again came to an end. The only sounds were the remnants of the landslide careening down the slope, like weak echoes of Nifras’ thunder.
Kaia squeezed Klaus tight as she waited for the darkness to lift.
The sun will shine again. It will brighten. It will brighten. It will brighten. She thought to herself over and over.
At last, a faint glow lightened the sky, and she released a heaving sigh. Klaus lifted his head to peek over the outcrop for the last falling rocks.
He stood. “Earth below."
Kaia followed his gaze. “Oh no.”
A gibbous shadow blotted out all but a golden sliver of a crescent sun. In the weak light, the sky had frozen in a perpetual dusk.
Klaus offered her a hand up. “We’re running out of time.”
Coming to her feet, Kaia’s scanned the mountainside. “Wait, where’s…” Her heart stammered as her head whipped around in a sudden panic.
Klaus put a hand on her shoulder. “Relax.” He pointed down to a grove of trees where Gus and the Dalteek huddled together. “They’re fine.”
Breathing a sigh of relief, the Heirs jogged down to their mounts.
Hackles raised, Shad paused his pacing on Moonstreak’s back when he saw them. “Thank Odriel you’re all right,” he breathed. “The yanai barrier won’t hold much longer.” His whiskers trembled. “Mount up. We leave immediately.”
✽✽✽
For the next three days, they pushed their mounts and themselves as hard as they dared, making camp late and breaking it early with few rests in-between. Klaus, Kaia, and even Shad kept a worried eye on the sun’s last shard, as if it might disappear if they looked away for even a second. As they rode south, clouds gathered about the mangled sun, and snowflakes drifted down onto the world.
After that, the cloud cover made it hard to tell the days apart from the nights. In the unnatural weather, the Heirs wrapped blankets around themselves beneath their cloaks, but the cold still bit through. On the fifth day, the steady snow grew into a blizzard, and Kaia woke from an uneasy doze in her saddle to a sheet of white swirling around them. She could barely see Gus wading through the snow right beneath Sunflash’s belly.
“Klaus!” She tried to shake off the exhaustion that weighed on her eyelids. “Shad!”
“Here,” a muffled voice called from close by.
The wind whipped wet flakes into Kaia’s hood and collar as she squinted through the heavy snowfall. She could barely make out the silhouette of Dalteek and rider through the whiteout. She called flames to her palms to warm feeling back into her fingers and then brought her heated hands to her icy face. The numbness in her toes was harder to get rid of, but she curled them in her boots to make sure they still worked.
The voice rose above the wind again, and Kaia realized it must be Shad, cocooned in a spare shirt in his saddlebag. “We’re still a day from the Deadlands, but we’ll have to stop until the storm passes,” he said with a sour feline growl. “I can’t determine our direction of travel.”
Kaia looked for shelter among the few trees that lined the road. “Stop where?”
“There’s a big evergreen next to me that’ll have do,” Klaus said. “We can shelter in the lee of the trunk. I can’t see anything else.”
Kaia turned Sunflash to follow Moonstreak off the left side of the road, the Dalteek lifting her hooves high to break through the snow. The base of the thick evergreen wasn’t exactly dry, but the leeward side had only a thin layer of snow beneath it, and the thick branches held off the worst of the driving snow like a porous green roof.
The Shadow Heir dismounted and rubbed his hands together. “It’s too wet to make a fire.”
Kaia smirked halfheartedly as she climbed down from Sunflash’s back. “Have a little faith, Shadow Heir.” She waded over to the trunk. “Just find me something to burn.”
Conjuring flame from her hands, she used the heat to dry off a small area underneath the thickest branches. Klaus broke off some of the smaller boughs and placed them at her feet. It took a minute or two, but Kaia’s blaze soon dried them enough so that they caught fire and brightened their dim world.
The thick-coated Dalteek bedded down together on the edge of their little clearing, not daring to wander off into the storm. Gus shook the snow off his fur and curled up in a furry red ball as close as he dared to the crackling flames. Klaus leaned back against a tree trunk, holding his cloak close and shivering slightly.
Shad leapt from his perch atop Stormshade and padded over to Klaus. He paused for a moment; his ears pressed flat against his head in embarrassment. “It pains me to ask, but might I share your cloak?”
Without a word, Klaus opened his coat to let the cat settle into his lap before snapping it shut again over the two of them.
Kaia would have laughed but for the weariness that threatened to overtake her. She pinched the bridge of her nose, took a deep breath, and tried to ward off the siren-call of sleep.
�
�If you’re looking for a place to rest, Shad and I could use another warm body over here.” Klaus patted the bare earth beside him. “The Dragon Heir must be warmer than most, right?” he teased through chattering teeth.
Chuckling, Kaia leaned against the tree and sank down next to the Shadow Heir. Klaus leaned his trembling form into hers, and Kaia threw her blanket over their legs. The toes of their worn boots practically touched their small campfire. Kaia’s skin prickled at Klaus’ closeness as she relaxed against him.
“Have I ever told you how glad I am that you can conjure fire?” he joked as he blew on his hands.
Kaia heated her palms with fire once again, letting it fade before reaching out to massage life into Klaus’ icy fingers. “That must be a recent change of heart, because that’s not what you used to say when we were small.”
“Yes, but you were such a cocky little thing.”
“I was not!” she protested, her teeth chattering despite herself.
“You were so!” He adjusted his hood to keep the snow out. “Every day you wanted to fight.”
“That’s because you were always teasing me!”
“But I still tease you now!”
“With the Lost and the necromancer running about… who has time to scrap with you anymore?”
Klaus fell silent for a moment as they watched the white curtain of snow fall and fizzle into their bustling fire. His fingers tightened around hers before she could withdraw them. “Things have changed a lot since those days. I never really thought it would come to this, and so quickly.”
Kaia nodded. “A few moons ago all I wanted to do was go to the village dance with friends like a normal girl.”
He grinned. “And now all you want is to save Okarria.”
“I’ve danced, and I’ve made friends.” Kaia closed her eyes and stifled a yawn. “So, defending the land is obviously next on the list.” She turned her face into Klaus’ shoulder to shield it from the stinging wind. “And what do you want?”
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