by Dante King
And then, we were standing in the snow.
After the snow, the next thing I noticed was the wind. It was one of those lazy winds that cuts right through you rather than bothering to go around. I looked about us and saw that we were still standing in the middle of a stone circle, but the stones were differently shaped, sharper and covered in ice.
There was another little booth set not too far away from the portal terminal, but this one looked more like a mini Alpine ski chalet than the little stone one back in Avalonia. The stone circle in which we stood was set on a plateau on the side of a mountain. On one side, was a sheer cliff, sliced in two by a narrow gorge just wide enough for a horseless to fit. And, on the other, was… I turned around on the spot, and my gasp of wondrous surprise was whipped away from my lips by the chill breeze.
A vast and icy vista spread out below me. The land was all dark green forests, icy rivers that sparkled like discarded silver threads, and undulating white hills illuminated by a huge moon that sat in the sky like a silver dollar. Wood smoke trailed up into the sky, here and there, like thin gray pencil shadings gilded in moonlight.
“Well fuck me sideways with a boomerang,” I said quietly to myself. “Ain’t that a sight.”
So captivating was the view that, for at least a minute, I forgot all about the cold. Then a touch on my arm brought me back to the present, and I remembered what this night was all about. I turned and found Cecilia looking at me. I looked right back at her.
“Not a bad view is it?” she asked me.
Rather than turn back to the breathtaking landscape, I kept my gaze locked with Cecilia’s. “Not bad at all,” I replied.
“Come on,” Cecilia said and turned away, heading toward the portal porter’s hut on the edge of the circle.
“Aren’t you cold?” I asked.
Cecilia shook her head as her thin blue dress whipped about her slender form. “I’ve cast a Frost Magic-based spell,” she explained.”It’s the first spell that any magic users in these parts learn when they are young. Keeps me nice and insulated and snug against the elements.” She regarded me, my hands stuffed into my pockets and the collar of my tuxedo turned up against the wind. “You don’t have any Frost Magic spells, do you?” she asked me.
It was the tactful, delicate, diplomatic way of asking me whether I, as a Creation mage, had banged any Frost magic users yet.
“No,” I said. I gave her one of my cheekier, impish grins. “Not yet.”
“Hmm, you sound very sure that it’s only a matter of time,” Cecilia said lightly.
“It’s that happy-go-lucky nature of mine, I guess,” I replied.
Cecilia gave a little snort of amusement. Her blonde hair fluttered about her face and naked shoulders in a way that would have had Khaleesi taking notes.
“We can borrow a yeti hair coat from the porter I’m sure,” Cecilia said. “They have a selection of them here in case people show up without the proper attire.”
I was about to tell Cecilia that an extra layer would be just what the doctor ordered, when I was suddenly struck by a thought. The only question was whether Igor’s cloak had the ability to help me out. With my black crystal staff in one hand, I grasped one of my lapels with my free hand and envisioned the sort of thick sherpa-style coat that was made for this sort of frigid environment. Immediately, my tux morphed and thickened and—
“Oh, I say! That is very chic, darling!” Cecilia said. “And very, very handy. That sort of magical attire is very rare, and could save you a lot of wardrobe space.”
I looked down and saw that I was now wearing a thick and stylish black woolen coat that went down to mid-thigh. The collar was soft wool and snuggled up around my neck and ears in a most pleasing fashion. I was instantly cut off from the raking claws of the wind. Snug as the proverbial bug.
“Yeah,” I said, “it’s handy alright. Who would have thought that that drug-addled bastard would come through with the goods, huh?”
Cecilia wagged her finger with mock reproof at me. “Ah, darling, you don’t know the Chaosbanes half as well as you should yet. You’ll learn that nothing should surprise you as far as they are concerned. They’re probably the one of the most dangerous, unpredictable, and liberalminded families on any world going.”
We trudged along through the ankle deep snow and into the skinny mouth of the gorge. Despite the fact that she was wearing high heels, Cecilia did not falter once and led with a surety that spoke of a keen familiarity with this place.
We wound through the narrow gorge. It was dark in there, and Cecilia guided me by taking my hand. The spell that she cast must have been working wonders because her flesh was warm and soft against mine. After five minutes, we emerged from the gorge, out of another split in the relatively thin band of cliff. I saw now that we were standing at the base of a mountain. Actually, that was not entirely accurate. We were standing at the base of the peak of the mountain. Above us, looming like a child’s picture of a mountaintop—by which I meant a perfect triangle of rock—was the pinnacle of the mountain, and on it was a tower.
“Fucking hell,” I said, “you wouldn’t get any builders on Earth up here trying to knock that thing up.”
The tower looked like a giant ice stalagmite rising from the very top of the mountain. Technically, from an engineering standpoint, it made absolutely no sense. It was as thick at the bottom as it was at the top and, because of where it was sitting at the pinnacle of the mountain, there was no way that it could have any footings.
And yet, there it was. Standing against the night sky like a pearlescent silver spear of ice. The radiance of the moon flowed across its surface, making it shimmer like something out of a wonderful dream.
“Magic,” I said.”Fucking magic at work right there.”
Cecilia laughed and tugged at my hand. “Of course magic. You are in Chilaria now, Justin. Magic is in the very air.”
We carried on and started up a path that wended backward, forward, and around the mountain.
“Now, as pretty and sparkly as it is up here,” Cecilia said, “you must keep your wits about you. This is private land. Like I said, it is a special and sacred place.”
We moved into the quiet of a patch of pines where the snow lay deep around the boles of the trees. “And how,” I asked, “do you know so much about this place? About Chilaria?”
Even as I said the name, something in the back of my mind twigged.
Chilaria… Chilaria… Chillgrave…
“Is this—is this your homeland?” I ventured.
Cecilia turned to me. Her eyes glinted under her long, pale lashes.
“Oh, well done,” she said, sounding genuinely impressed. “I thought you might put two and two together, but was hoping I’d at least get you to the top of the tower before you figured it out.”
I cocked my head to one side. “So, you brought me home?” I flashed her a mischievous smile. “Are you going to introduce me to your parents again?”
Cecilia laughed and slapped me on the shoulder. Both of us recalled, I was sure, all too vividly the way that her parents had looked at me at the end of the Exhibition Matches, when I had kissed her in front of them.
“I told you when we went on our picnic why they were so shocked and horrified. They know who you are, who your parents were. You have to try and see it from their perspective, darling.”
“From their perspective. Right…” I said slowly. I screwed up my face in concentration. “Yeah, you see, I don’t think I’d be able to get my head that far up my own ass.”
Cecilia put her head back and laughed loudly at the stars above. “Gods, you are a bad man, Justin,” she said. “Let’s keep going.”
We carried on trudging upward, the only sounds being the wind among the rocks and the creak of snow beneath our feet.
“So, how come you decided to bring me here?” I asked after a minute.
Cecilia took a few seconds to answer. Then she said, “I’ve been dreaming—thinking hard—about this day f
or a long while now. And, if what I think is going to happen, then it has to happen at the zenith of the Tower of Argenti.”
I looked up at the tower above us, then at the back of the young elf woman walking ahead of me through the snow.
“Dreaming of what day for a long while?” I asked. “You and I have only known each other for a month or so now.”
Without breaking her stride, even on this treacherous ground, Cecilia looked at me over one shapely shoulder. There was a faint color to her cheeks, and I realized that she was blushing. “The truth is, Justin, that I am a virgin,” she said simply.
I’d always had a good poker face. I’d won a lot of money with it while playing Texas Hold’em at university. This little bombshell though, almost cracked my impassive mask.
“Is that right?” I asked.
Cecilia smiled. “Humans are usually easy for me to read. You hide your incredulity very well, darling.”
I laughed softly. “I’ll admit that I wasn’t expecting that. Although, it kind of makes sense now.”
“What does?” Cecilia asked, leading me around a shoulder of rock. Ahead of us, the path narrowed and went through a steep cutting in the rock, which formed a natural corridor about wide enough for five horses to ride abreast.
“It makes sense that you’re a virgin,” I replied. “In a place that is pretty loose when it comes to people fucking one another, you and I have hung out almost every day for the past fortnight, gone on three dates, and still not done more than kiss. You’ve been testing me.”
Cecilia looked surprised. “You are perspicacious.”.
“I have my moments.”
“And you’re right. It was a test—or, not so much a test, but an assessment of what kind of man you are,” Cecilia said. “I was curious to see whether you would wait around for me. You basically have your pick of the Mazirian Academy—and even more so after our victory at the Exhibition Games. You could have chosen any other user of Ice Magic to gain your affinity. But I wanted to know that you would wait. For me.”
I had to laugh at this. Women it seemed, no matter how cool and aloof they acted, still shared the same insecurities that most of us did.
“Man, you make me sound like some sort of randy Lothario!” I said.
Cecilia shook her head. “Who’s Lothario?”
“Never mind.” I reached out, caught her arm in my hand, and stopped her just before she led us into the natural stone corridor.
“Cecilia Chillgrave,” I said, “there is no denying that I think you are one smoking hottie.”
Cecilia giggled. “Oh, so romantic, darling. Pure poetry.”
I grinned back. “Right. I think you’re a hell of a woman, but I wasn’t just hanging around you hoping that eventually we’d get to fuck and I would get some great new Frost Magic spell added to my arsenal. I’m a simple man: I say what I mean and I mean what I say. I don’t waste my time with people that I don’t like. Life is too short for that shit. I hung around you because there is something about you that I find undeniably, irresistibly intoxicating.”
Cecilia blushed a little more deeply and regarded the snow beneath her shoes with sudden deep concentration, a smile playing around her perfect lips.
“I enjoy your company, Cecilia,” I said. “I enjoy it very much.”
She looked up at me then and her little shy smile bloomed into a fully fledged beam of mischievous delight.
“Well then,” she said, her voice growing a little husky, “if you want to enjoy all of my company then we should get our asses up to the top of the Tower of Argenti.”
The two of us pressed on, but, as we passed into the mouth of the corridor of stone, I felt something slide under my foot. My sharply honed survival instinct tried to make itself heard over the fuss that my imagination was making over what Cecilia had just said. Then I heard a click and a slight grating rumble, as of a…
“Counterweight!” I yelled. “Cecilia!”
The first ice-tipped spear only missed Cecilia’s head because she turned at my call. It hissed past her face and buried itself in the snow between us. When the second spear was released from its secret alcove above us, I was already moving. I grabbed Cecilia by the shoulders and spun round to the right, pulling her with me. I felt the spear pass by. Heard it thwack into the tight-packed snow of the path.
Then we were running up the corridor as spear after spear flashed down at us. I ducked another projectile, and it shattered against the rock wall just behind me, shards of icy shrapnel pattering against the back of my thick coat.
Well, this date just got a whole lot more dangerous.
Chapter Six
A pair of spears came at Cecilia and I simultaneously from hidden launchers on both sides of the steep corridor. I still had Cecilia’s upper arm in a vice-like grip as we sprinted along, but it was obvious that the elf had the situation well in hand herself. With a wave of her hand, she sprayed particles of ice up and into the air above us, which coalesced and froze into a solid barrier of enchanted ice. It was a spell similar to my own Flame Barrier spell by the look of it. The spears smacked into this thick sheet of frozen water, and it shattered, absorbing the power of the two shafts and sending them falling harmlessly to the snowy ground.
The end of the corridor was drawing nearer and, with one final burst of speed, we were through. I was panting after having run uphill through the snow, but when Cecilia whirled around, I noticed that she wasn’t puffing in the slightest.
“That was unexpect—” I started to say.
Cecilia threw up her hand and fired a blast of frost over my shoulder, so close to my face that I could almost feel the stubble on my cheek crisp up with rime. I spun in a crouch, instinctively perceiving what she was doing. I was just in time to see one final spear—which had been flying straight in the direction of the back of my head— drop to the earth, encased completely in thick ice.
I looked at Cecilia. She looked back at me and smiled ruefully.
“That little protective measure was not here the last time I visited,” she said. “Must be one of my parents’ new additions to the security of the tower.”
“Right,” I said, shaking my head and puffing out my cheeks.
“I told you it wouldn’t be like any date that you’d ever been on.” Cecilia laughed a little as she patted her hair down.
“Yeah, but I thought you meant we were going to go to dinner at, like, a vegan restaurant or something.”
“What’s a vegan restaurant?” Cecilia asked.
I shook my head. “Don’t get me started. Let’s just say I’d rather face potential death at the point of a spear any day.”
Cecilia, in a display of nonchalance that acted as quite the turn on, checked her makeup in the little mirror that she had produced back at my frat, snapped it closed after a moment or two, and said, “We’re close to the base of the tower now. It’s not much further.”
“I guess we should keep our eyes a little more open now, huh?” I asked.
That, of course, was easier said than done, seeing as I was at the rear of our two person procession. Due to the gradient of the path, more often than not, my face was on a level with Cecilia’s fantastic ass. It made it hard to concentrate.
When we seemed to be right under the shadow of the enormous icicle of a tower, there was a low roar from up ahead. It sounded like an avalanche coupled with the noise of two cinder blocks grinding together. It was the bellow of something big and angry.
At least this time, I thought as I twirled my black crystal staff in my hand and prepared myself metally for battle, I know that there’s something coming.
The two of us waited, feet balanced and weight spread, as the roaring continued unabated. After thirty seconds or so of tense waiting, nothing had shown its face from around the rocky escarpment in front of us. The sound of roaring continued though, and now that I listened more intently, I determined that it was coming from multiple sources rather than just one.
“Let’s keep going, but we
’ll keep our wits about us,” I said to the elven woman at my side. “I don’t want more of my time with you cut into than needs be.”
We rounded the outcrop of frosty rock and peered cautiously around the jagged edge of a fallen boulder. We were standing on the edge of a clearing surrounded by pines that were bent under much snow. In the middle of this clearing were three, what appeared to my eye at least, yetis.
“Holy shit,” I breathed, “are those yetis?”
Cecilia nodded.
“They look just like people think they do on Earth!”
“Of course,” she said airily, “yetis are always finding their way through spontaneous portals caused by tremendous electric storms. It’s no surprise that some find their way through into your world.”
The yetis were about eight feet tall and covered in grayish white fur. The skin of their hands, feet, and faces was purple, their eyes yellow, and their teeth were like the tusks of wild boars. The three huge humanoids were gathered around a figure that they had managed to trap—a traveler, I assumed.
Still, with me being a good Samaritan and all, I started forward with the intention of helping this traveler out of the dire fix he had found himself in. I managed to get right up close to the yetis without alerting them to my presence as they harried their cornered prey.
Then, all of a sudden and with an explosive bellow, the traveler in the center of this yeti threeway threw out his hands and started revolving so fast on the spot that his features were a complete blur. With absolutely no warning whatsoever, a twin set of arcane scimitar blades materialized in the air. I just caught a glimpse of the deadly steel weapons, before my common sense overcame my interest, and I threw myself to the deck. The blades, held in the hands of the man in the center of this vortex of death, were a silver streak as they revolved with the effectiveness of a giant blender. The yeti’s visceral roars were cut off as they were diced into bloody chunks. Hot red blood sprayed in all directions.
It lasted only for a couple of seconds—the yetis were all very dead by then and were a lot shorter than they had been a few seconds before. When the whirling maelstrom of metal death slowed and then stopped, the man in the eye of the storm of cutlery was revealed. Metal teeth flashed in the moonlight as he grinned down at me. A hand reached out. I took it and allowed Ragnar Ironskin, my Physical Fitness Training master, to help me to my feet.