by Rosie Scott
And so went our voyage inland for the next few hours. I continually raised minions along the coast to keep the majority of attacks off of our ships. Despite the others waging war on the western coast and attracting attention, there were still so many of them. Glacia was not the largest country in the world. Even though it had never been drawn on any map I'd ever seen, I knew that just from the memories Cicero had given me. Despite the relatively small size of the land, it was packed full of people. It made all the sense in the world that they were desperate for land. Glacia was overrun, and this was after sending sixty thousand soldiers to Eteri over the past two years.
“Stop the ship!” Cyrus yelled back to our men. The warship slowed to follow his direction. The Sentinel watched the waters of the inlet nervously. “It's much too shallow going forward. We have to disembark here.”
Ciro came up beside me. He pointed one golden finger farther past the narrower split, where a castle made of ice blocked most of the morning sun's glare from the east. “Is that Yseult?” The god asked me.
“I believe so, friend,” I replied. “Let's ask your brother to come out and play.”
Ciro chuckled. “Before we do, Kai, I want you to have something.”
I turned my attention to him as the men prepared to lower the ship's ramp on the icy coast. Ciro tugged at a gold ring that had claimed its home on his left pointer finger. When it finally came off, its impression left the skin of his finger indented and smooth. He handed me the ring, reminding me of when Calder did the same years before.
“This means something to you?” I questioned.
“It will,” Ciro said vaguely, watching as I turned the ring over to inspect it. The front face of the ring was carved in a design which mimicked the sun. The orb of fire was depicted by an inset ruby. On the inside of the gold, someone had etched the numbers 3404. “Vertun has one similar to mine,” he went on, as I put the ring on the only thumb which didn't yet have one. It was the only finger it would fit on. “We were both younger than you are now when we got them made by a jeweler in Chai. We didn't hate each other yet. The older we got, the more our powers grew. Including the envy, the pettiness.”
When I glanced back up at his face, he was smiling. “3404 G.E., I'm assuming. It doesn't specify.”
Ciro nodded. “Yes, but back then, the year needed no classification.” The god paused, before reaching out and letting his finger graze by the ring affectionately. “I overheard that you will display the weapons of your friends, Kai. The ones killed at the Battle of Highland Pass. I have little to my name, but this ring has been with me longest. Use it however you see fit.”
“To spread the word of your deeds,” I said, smiling over at him.
Ciro appeared more introspective than amused, and he said, “I'll be honest, Kai, that would be nice, but as much as I've asked you do that, what would it matter? I will be dead. I am giving you this because I know you take care of items which are sentimental. Use it to spread the word of my deeds, or don't. I simply feel comforted knowing that something of mine has the chance to last forever.”
“It will last for as long as I do,” I promised.
Ciro smiled and patted me on the arm, leaving it tingling with warmth. “Then may you last forever, Kai.”
Crash!
The boarding ramp landed harshly on thick ice. Half of our soldiers stayed on deck, shooting spells into the elves on the coast. The rest of us rushed forward, spilling out onto the ice. Even though my boots had thick soles which had once kept me from slipping around the rock of the underground, they were a little uneasy here. Within a few yards, however, the slick ice was covered in snow. As our small unit of one hundred and fifty men ran forth into the snow, it was easier to move. But now, we were in the thick of battle.
I wasted no time in raising a golem from the ice. As it pulled itself from the glacier, I directed a second spell to its inhuman body.
Ades in meta. Slivers of charcoal metal swirled within its magical barrier before the magic was released, crawling over the ice of the monster like it was growing its own armor. The golem growled at nearby foes, its voice little more than the crackling of ice. As soon as the metal encapsulated the entire monster, I sent it forth. The Icilic could melt ice, but they'd have to get through the earth magic first.
“Creatius la wava a tyda!” An Icilic water mage screamed the spell just before releasing it from both palms. A tidal wave rushed over the ice and toward our men with an evil roar. Each and every one of us had been double-shielded, but the shields could only prevent damage, not force. Those of us caught within the water were forced back toward the ship, boots skidding over ice until the pressure tumbled us off balance. I was only kept on my feet by Maggie, who was strong enough to withstand the onslaught and held onto me with one hand, and Cyrus with the other.
I lost track of the others, but I heard allied soldiers cursing and sputtering as they were forced off the glacier and into the water of the shallow inlet. I fought for an idea of how to combat this. The more the water that hit our shields, the weaker they became.
“Tranferra la agua ti friz!” Cyrus yelled, forcing clear energy into the rushing waters. It rapidly crystallized, hardening into ice around our shields. The spell even traveled up the stream still rushing from the enemy water mage's hands, solidifying it into a ramp of ice which swooped up to the skies. The force of the water had stopped, saving many men from falling off into the inlet. But now, the ice still weakened our shields, and they flickered, threatening to disappear entirely. Much of the ice encapsulated the protections, keeping us within its robust embrace. By trying to save us all, Cyrus had also put us in danger. He could attempt to turn the surrounding ice into steam, but that had the possibility of melting the land beneath our feet as well, leaving us at the mercy of both the ocean and the Icilic's water mages.
“Kai!” The Sentinel's voice from the other side of Maggie was panicked. I understood how he felt. His story of friendly fire came to my mind, comparing itself to our current and similar situation. I remembered my own panic in the battle for Esen when I'd tried to avoid tragedy from happening twice. “Kai, please!” Cyrus continued desperately. “Please tell me you have something to fix this!”
My mind raced through options. I could not use fire without killing everyone. I could not—
I stopped. Focused. I had a spell in my repertoire I'd never used before. There'd never been a reason for it until now.
Circa a wava de therma. I funneled every bit of excess energy I had into both palms, seeking maximum power and circumference. Hot winds swirled above both palms, giving my skin a welcoming warmth before I thrust the energy to the ground. The hot air rushed outward in a rapidly widening circle, immediately melting the ice entrapping our men and simultaneously shattering through the remnants of their alteration shields. The ripple of air even reached the ice golem which still fought valiantly against foes, heating up its metal protection and melting its internal ice. The golem fell at the mercy of my own spell, leaving nothing but shards of metal floating amongst excess water.
The air magic had melted through the surface ice, but the lower strength spell left most of the glacier beneath us solid. There was still ground beneath our feet, though it was now covered in freezing puddles.
“Thank the gods,” Cyrus breathed from feet away, before adding, “literally.”
“Kai! Help!” Azazel's shaking voice yelled from somewhere behind me, and I spun to find him. The archer was trying to pull himself out of the water of the inlet, but his hands were slipping off the blue ice.
“Maggie!” I called back. She immediately ran beside me to the edge of the glacier, using her long war hammer as a means to pull the others out of the water. Azazel, Cerin, and Ciro had all been swept over, along with a few dozen soldiers. Even Ciro shivered as he came out of the water, the freezing temperatures finally getting to him. Our men were now at risk of hypothermia as if that hadn't already been a concern. I threw death magic into the onslaught of Icilic, regenerati
ng energy which I then funneled into fire shields for the shivering men. I hoped that the warmth of the surrounding fire would help them thwart any ailments.
“We need to keep moving!” I screamed to our men, pointing to the ice castle to the east. We could not dally. It wasn't as if killing more Icilic would clear the area. The longer we took, the more foes came.
As the men collected themselves and hurried to follow my command, I raised another ice golem and surrounded it with metal. Although Cerin was distracted by the cold and shivering intensely, he raised all of the recent dead to fight alongside us. My lover's long black hair started to glimmer as ice crystals formed over the tendrils peeking out of his hood. Fear and concern for him only encouraged me to fight harder. The quicker we could finish this and get back to the ship, the more likely he would be safe.
“Vertun!” Ciro was screaming it toward the ice castle of Yseult even as his bronze ax sent a head tumbling over the ice. The cut was so clean and swift that the body still stood on its own for a moment. One of the arms shook with a spontaneous nerve error before the corpse fell backward, spilling thick blood from the neck. “Vertun, you fucking coward! Come and face me!”
It was the first time I'd heard Ciro so intensely angry. Like my own voice during the Battle of Highland Pass and Malgor's before me, his tone was so deep and tortured it sounded inhuman. I'd just discovered something new about the gods even this many years after finding out I was one: when our powers consumed us, it affected even the tone of our voices.
The Icilic seemed to recognize this as well. Many of them put two and two together to single Ciro out, and the rest of us were forgotten. I rushed forward, refreshing Ciro's fire shield even as he stalked forward, unwilling to stop. Icilic warriors came to clash with the god, but he dispatched them either with a quick ax swing to the throat or by ramming his buckler into their chests, where they were staggered enough for me to leech from without further incident. Maggie finally hurried to be beside me, coming to battle with the snow elves Ciro didn't have time for. Soldiers and the undead followed just behind us, and my golem was wreaking havoc along the outskirts of our group, impaling elves with metal-lined ice and throwing them with such force to the hard glacier below that it broke skulls, leaving them out of the fight for good.
“Vertun!” Ciro screamed again, his deepened voice rattling coarsely off the nearing walls of ice. We were quickly approaching the edge of Yseult. The capital city of Glacia was the closest thing to a regular settlement that the glacier had. Multiple towering ice palaces dotted the glacier here, and there was even a rising cliff side in the ice far to our left, where entrances were leading into what I assumed were caverns or other developments beneath the surface. Between these structures, hundreds of tents popped up over the landscape. Sounds of fighting brought men and women out of flaps of animal skins, where they prepared to defend their city by rushing toward us with weapons and strengthening spells.
BOOM! A bolt of lightning cracked out of the sky, sizzling as it pumped energy straight into the alteration shield just above Ciro's head. The magic spread over the protection before dissipating into the god, who laughed as the bolt finally retracted.
“You'll have to try harder than that!” Ciro yelled. The bright lights of the spell floated around my eyes as I refreshed the god's shield. I then hesitated for a moment to raise a new golem and encase it in metal. The first golem was still fighting behind me, though some of the shards of its protection had chipped and fallen, leaving a trail of glimmering silver across the ice. I allowed myself to take note of the battle still raging between us and the warships. Corpses and our soldiers alike were fighting off the Icilic which followed us, and corpses alone were defending the areas farther than that. The dead caused some casualties, but they couldn't fight as diversely as the Icilic. Though we'd raised hundreds and the Icilic reinforcements could not come quickly enough to overwhelm them, the snow elves were adept at fighting through them. The dead were only a blockade.
Both warships waiting in the inlet were entirely turned around and prepared to leave, and the boarding ramp of our ship had been pulled back to keep enemies from utilizing it. Magic was being thrown out of ship shields and into them. Zephyr was focused on lightning attacks to keep the energy in the area recycled, and even though she was on our side, I couldn't help but feel a tug on my heart as she summoned a lightning storm over the coast. Her life and death dual caster must have given her excess energy because the spell was intense enough to crack open the ice with every hit. Even if the Icilic weren't hit directly, they were left gathering themselves from the spell's vibrations.
“Vertun!” Ciro screamed it one last time, tugging my attention back to the ice castle before us. “Come out and fight me you son of a—!”
“I'm here, you raving lunatic!” Vertun's holler was as intense as his brother's, mimicking the howling winds of a tornado. For the first time since he'd sunk the Galleon Stallion, the god of the weather and seasons appeared before us.
Vertun stood in the doorway of the ice castle. He was much more intimidating up close than he had been when I'd seen him on the shore of the wildlands years before. For being a god that wielded magic he was very muscular, the late morning sun shimmering off of the curves of the strength within his bronzed skin. The ends of his black hair brushed by his waist in stark contrast to the light cream of the thick Icilic coat he wore. This close to him, I could now see he had silver streaks throughout his hair, but Vertun did not appear older than his brother. His skin was mostly smooth and perfect save for the creases of overwhelming annoyance at seeing Ciro, and two golden eyes moved from his brother to me. Given the vast amount of hatred and disgust exuding from his glare, I couldn't tell if he loathed me or Ciro more.
“Wait, you fools!” Vertun hollered at the Icilic who ran past him to fight us. “Leave Ciro to me! Kill the others.” The god looked back to Ciro. “You have always been a nuisance, brother, but to get involved with the cursed half-breed?” The word was a hiss. “You have lost your mind. Are you truly such an idiot?” Vertun managed a dry chuckle.
“Are you?” Ciro retorted. “Many people in Eteri would see you dead, brother, and it was your decision which allowed Cicero to escape and give them intel on your whereabouts.”
Vertun visibly ground his teeth. “Why are you here?”
“To kill you. Once and for all.” Ciro's grasp on his ax was so tight that his golden skin turned cream with the pressure.
“You didn't need the Eteri Army for that.” Vertun glared over at Cyrus in recognition.
“No, the Eteri Army needs me,” Ciro retorted. “After all, your new friends threaten their land.”
“Do you know how many Icilic are here?” Vertun spat. “Thousands upon thousands upon thousands, you idiot.” He nodded toward the Eteri soldiers fighting against the Icilic just behind us. “Fight as their Sentinel all you like. We will overwhelm you.”
Ciro chuckled cruelly. “I am the god of the sun, brother, and this is a country of ice. The ocean will overwhelm you.”
Vertun's face visibly paled as he came to realize just what Ciro meant to do. The god of the weather decided to say nothing more. With a look of pure rage, he lifted both muscular arms to the skies, and a shadow fell upon all of Glacia.
Forty-four
With the energy of dozens of Icilic foes, I gave Ciro an alteration shield that was meant to withstand many hits of lightning. As the clouds continued to accumulate thickly overhead, I realized that Vertun wasn't summoning lightning at all.
“Ciro!” I threw a finger toward the ice caverns along the cliff to our left. “He is summoning a tornado!”
“I'm not going to run from him, Kai!” Ciro retorted, rushing forward nonetheless.
“Then you will die! You need immense shields of two types to survive this! Trust me, it's how I won the Battle of Highland Pass!”
Ciro's nostrils flared, and he skidded to a stop, his golden eyes on the skies. Because the atmosphere hanging over Glacia was below
freezing temperatures, Vertun was forced to change even the temperature near the surface ice to allow his tornado to form. Even still, the storm promised to be massive. Charcoal clouds crawled into a central point, and just the beginnings of a funnel cloud started to form. “Fine,” Ciro finally decided.
The god darted to the left, and the rest of us followed him. Snow elves came to clash with us, but we rammed straight through them when we could. Maggie tried her best to clear a path, swiping her massive hammer through groups of foes and not stopping to check if she'd killed them. If the storm reached us before we sought shelter, it wouldn't matter if they were dead or not because we would join them.
The roaring of thick winds was deafening at our backs as we rushed into the ice cavern with Ciro at the front of the pack. Our group was surrounded by thick bluish-white ice, but the temperature felt considerably warmer. Icicles hung above our heads, some longer than others. The ice beneath our feet was created with such pure water that I could see a few feet into its depths.
The cavern was quite narrow and led deep down into the glacier itself. A variety of hunting tools and weapons were scattered over the ice along the right wall. Perhaps this cave led to an underground of sorts. In any case, I was thankful there was so much room here. The soldiers piled into the cave behind us, nervously looking around at unfamiliar surroundings. Some of the corpses followed us next. Evidently, the other undead and my two golems were still outside fighting.