by Ellie Cypher
Cody were already there. He were stopped, looking up into the snarling face of a massive ice bear. This one were different than the others. Thorny cords of black and green wound tight around the bear’s body, digging sharp into its chest and neck. Cords that looked the same as those I’d seen winding about the neck of that white ox out on the Flats.
And where the thorns broke the hide, tiny drops of frozen red—little blooms of ruby in the ice—hung suspended. A few, those closest to the animal’s throat, swirled with something else. A black twisting just under the red’s surface.
The echo of slow dripping water filled the room. My hand stilled as I suppressed a wave of unease. Next to me, the muscles in Cody’s jaw cracked tight. But nothing moved.
The strangest one of all were yet to come. Set back, it were near as big as all the others combined. Massive scales the size of a prospector’s sifter covered a thick, ropy body. Long limbs were tipped by thick claws, talons gouging into the floor below. A thin collar of red encircled the sinewy neck, above which swirled deep blue eyes near as big as my skull.
“What is it?” I whispered.
Something akin to awe spread over Cody’s face. “I’ve read about these before.” He ran a hand over the curve of a talon. “Never in anything but story books, but they—uh—seem rather large.”
That were an understatement.
“One spoke about a great beast, stories long, that swam in the Northern Sea. With impenetrable scales of gold and ice, it roamed the ocean hunting prey. They say the last thing you would know were the crash of the harsh Northern Sea and a great pair of eyes that shone like slivers of ill-fated moons over the water. And when men tried to capture it, the beast would simply vanish in a burst of golden foam. Sailors said the breaking of a rose-red sky at night was omen for the beast’s arrival.”
“That don’t sound a very pleasant thing.”
“Oh, it really wouldn’t be. These teeth”—he reached up—“are shaped for tearing. Can you imagine the damage they could do?”
Well, that didn’t take much imagination. I opened my mouth to tell Cody so. A flicker of motion crossed the far wall. I jerked Cody away, darting us behind the sea beast’s leg. Pressing a finger to my lips, I pointed to the far wall. “I thought I saw something. Moving.”
“There,” Cody hissed, pointing to the far end of the chamber. “It looks like a cage,” Cody said, confused. “Why would they need a cage? Those creatures are all made of ice, aren’t they?”
Fear, quick as a knife in the night, bit into me as I glanced over my shoulder to reassure myself that yes, they were. But nothing had moved. I didn’t know what would be in a cage in this room, and I didn’t right want to find out. Besides, that itch were getting worse. I shivered. “You hear that, Cody?” A sudden awful line of thinking hit me.
“Dripping water?” he asked, picking up on my worry.
“No,” I said, gripping his shoulder. “Melting ice.”
Cody went still, nostrils flaring, fear replacing the wonder on his face. We crouched there, terrified for a long minute, just silent, just listening, neither breathing.
“Jorie, is it just me or did the temperature in here just get a little… warmer?” Cody whispered.
It sure had. “Cody,” I pointed. “That sure ain’t a shadow.” A slim strip of fabric protruded from just around the edge of the metal cage. “That weren’t there a second ago. I’d swear to it.”
A soft whimper broke the silence.
“It’s hurt,” Cody said.
We exchanged a long look.
Cody shifted to his feet. “I can see it.”
I grabbed his arm. “Get back down, or you trying to get us killed?”
He shook me off.
“Cody, get back here. Cody.” But he didn’t listen.
He waved back at me. “Jorie, come on, come here.”
I hesitated. Something in his voice were strange. Withdrawn. The pendant at my neck pulsed with a discomforting cold against my skin. The soft rumble of a mountain just before the fall. Before the avalanche broke free. That feeling of being watched were like a wildfire beating against my chest now.
“Cody, what’s wrong? What’s out there?”
He didn’t reply, just walked on.
Cody rounded the corner of the silver cage. And then, just when there were nothing to see save the shadow of where he had been, he let out a high-pitched cry.
I sprinted after him, sliding to a dead stop right beside where Cody were crouching down. Cause there, hands and feet bound, mouth covered, were a girl.
The most impossible girl I’d ever seen.
CHAPTER 36 The Girl and Her Pieces
The girl lay on the ice before us.
Her breath a canopy of mist above lips the palest pomegranate pink. Face illuminated by two golden-flecked eyes that hung over cheeks tinged by the softest of robin’s blue. Hair so white it shone silver spilled over her shoulders, save one piece. A thin lock of black hair, like a drip of warm oil, fell from her left temple.
From her position against the ice, the girl’s eyes met mine for the barest of moments. Before I could stop him, Cody moved away from me. Concern clear written across his face as he neared the girl. She couldn’t have been any older than him.
I held out my arm. To reach for the girl or for Cody, I didn’t right know. This girl. She weren’t real. Couldn’t be real. As if she had walked out of one of Cody’s favorite stories.
“Wait, Cody.” I’d taken too long. The girl took Cody’s arm, fingers digging into the warm fibers of his sweater.
“We must help her. I—I think can help her.” His voice held a note of awe.
“Maybe, but we don’t know what’s—” I lurched a step forward, words dying as I tripped over a tendril of ice snaking across the floor. I had not seen it there before.
“Cody, stop.”
He looked up.
“We don’t right know who she is,” I said.
He tilted his head, gaze swinging between me and the girl on the ground. “Maybe not, but I know she needs help. One worthy heart, Jorie, that’s all it takes. Remember?” he asked earnest. My heart gave a lurch at the almost-eager look he turned on me. “Come on, help me untie her.”
The girl didn’t seem to notice nor care that two strangers were having an argument at her side. I pressed my lips thin, hesitation. Sadness flashed across Cody’s face. Disappointment.
What were wrong with me? He’s only trying to help. Like I should’ve been doing, if I were a good person, like him. While I stood still, Cody were already struggling to get the ropes loose.
“Here, let me help with those.” I near to whispered it as I reached down. I took her bound hands in mine. I frowned. “Your skin is freezing. Whoever bound you here ain’t done you no favors.”
My hand grazed the edge of her throat. Near to perfectly still under my ministrations, the girl’s stare faltered for the barest of moments. My vision blurred. My whole body froze, as if I had just plunged into the sea. But then the girl was smiling at me, her face warm, eyes full and honeyed. And I forced myself to relax, to be less worried. To be less… me. Next to me, Cody smiled and finished removing the cloth cover from the girl’s lips.
“Better?” he asked.
The girl nodded, some of the stiffness in her arms and shoulders sliding off. I twisted at the long-ended knot binding her hands. Digging numb fingertips into the rough cords, I bit back a curse. I were only making the bindings tighter. The girl smiled at me calm.
But even if I undid the ropes, the nightmare around us weren’t changed. We were still trapped. In Vydra. The Rover gone and with it my chance to find Bren. I’d failed her. The ice-stone grew near to painful warm against my throat.
I failed. I were a failure.
The girl shifted a little on the floor. Rougher than strictly necessary, I tugged at her hands, scrunching my focus, narrowing it to the bindings. Forcing the world to this one task. The knots were strange. They were like the ones you used on
fishing lines, but not. I cursed, twisting the braided cord round and round. Until I finally found the right strand. With effort, I leeched just enough slack into the thread. The knots loosened. A moment later and the cords fell free.
Deep impressions, pressure marks, ringed the girl’s skin. In the well of which gray bruises bloomed. Seeing my gaze, the girl jerked her hands quick back to her side, pushing them in the fabric of her dress. An expression I didn’t understand flashed cross her face and was gone. She didn’t need to be ashamed. Reflexive, I reached for the long scar on my face.
I blinked the memory away, a little dazed. I don’t know how long I stood there, just staring at her, the bindings, the bleakness of this place around us. Then Cody were helping the girl to her feet.
Clear weak, she leaned heavy into his shoulder. Heat flashed inside my chest. I should have thought to help her up. Why had I just let her lie there on the ice when I knew she were cold? I found my hands straying to the pendant at my neck. To the pulsing of it. The cold made you everything worse than you were.
The girl balanced heavy on Cody’s shoulder. Stars above help him, the boy blushed to his toes. Cody put one hand at her elbow, the other around her shoulders.
“I cannot thank you enough,” she said soft. “I’ve been in this prison so very long.”
“My name is Cody.”
“Vela,” the girl said, face turned to his intent like.
“Just like my favorite constellation.” The green of his eyes caught the blue aurora of light around us.
Vela blushed. An embarrassment of emotion. If anything, the creamy red of her cheeks made her more ethereal. A rose in the ice. Enchanting.
Neither Cody or the girl paid me no heed.
“Great.” I cut into their murmur of conversation, the pull in my gut tellin me we should be gone by now. “Seeing as how we three are all familiar, I think that it’s past time we got ourselves out of here. Cody, don’t you agree?”
“Ah, yes. Right, leaving. Are you well enough to walk, Vela?” Cody asked.
Vela blushed again, giving a little stumble as she took a step. Cody reached out a steadying hand. She took it. “I’m sorry, I must be more tired than I thought. Thank you.” Slow, she reached up and brushed that strand of black hair from her face.
Cody looked to me. “We can’t just abandon her, Jorie. She needs our help.” Admonishment crimped the edges of his tone.
I took a step back, surprised. “I ain’t never said to leave her here.” The image of a boy, too cold and too foolish, slumped against a pine tree, flashed remorseful inside me. I’d not left him, but I could have. I could’ve done it and not hurt about it. Not for long. But now? I glanced at Cody. Is that really what he thought of me?
“I can help you,” the girl said, brushing a long strand of silver-white hair from her face. I blinked at her. But she were looking at Cody, not me.
“She can help us,” he said.
“Yes, she just said that.” I frowned at Cody. I had ears. “How?” I said to the girl.
“There is—”
“Maybe she knows a way out of here.” Cody cut Vela off. Something sharp flashed in the girl’s eyes, there and gone again. Oblivious, Cody ran a hand through his hair, scrubbing his face, eyes brightening as if a thought had occurred to him. “What if she’s seen your sister? The Rover said he sold her on.…” He let the implication hang. Vela were a prisoner. She had to have come from somewhere. And someone here kept girls. A bubble of memory burst to the surface. Of a Witch made of winter.
I dropped my fingers from Bren’s chain and went dead still.
“A sister?” The girl’s gaze widened on me for the first time in what I reckoned to be a genuine interest.
Way she said it, my heart sank. “She don’t know nothing, Cody. How could she, locked up in here like that?” I took a step toward Cody, only to have him step back. “What’s gotten into you?”
Cody gave his head a little shake.
“A girl?” Vela said. “Maybe fifteen? Blond. With one blue eye, one brown.” Vela’s mouth a perfect little circle of concern. “I have seen her.”
“What? When?” My turn to be surprised.
“Time is so hard to tell in here.” Vela gestured to the impossible starless world of ice above us. “But I do remember she was not alone. She was with that man and his wolf. He did go on yelling so much.” Vela’s voice were bare a whisper, her lips twitching ever so slightly upward at the corner.
“Where was this? Was Bren hurt?” I asked. A dangerous hope flickered beneath my heart.
“I cannot remember.”
“Please try.” Cody’s expression turned practical heroic. This were the story he’d have written for himself. Well, it certain weren’t mine.
“Try harder. This is not some game.” The words cut out of me. That dangerous bead of hope hardened into something else. If the cold made you everything worse than you were? Well, I were already freezing.
Disbelief flashed in Vela’s face. “Please, I only want to help.” Vela spun to Cody. “Tell her. I will help. I can lead you out of here, but she does not know what she is asking.”
“Jorie, be reasonable,” he said, looking at me if I’d sudden grown unfamiliar. A flash of hurt drowned in my cold.
“Reasonable?” I said, snapping my arm back. “I am the only one being reasonable. Or have you forgotten why we ran into the Flats in the first place? Bren, Cody. This girl’s seen Bren. And she will remember where. She will show us.”
Cody frowned. On his other side Vela had gone still as stone, her eyes fixed on mine. She did not look away, did not blink. “I will take you. If that is what you want.”
I crossed my arms. “Look at that, she does remember.” That cold knot inside me tightened, making it hard to swallow.
“Jorie…”
I waved Cody off. “Good. She helps us and we help her, but she’s your responsibility. I don’t need another one.”
Cody nodded grave serious.
“And Vela? You can start by showing us exactly how to get out of this room. Then we find my sister.”
CHAPTER 37 A Single Hound
We walked, the three of us, for what felt eternity.
Curve after curve, archway after veiled archway, all marked by a slow downward slope through the never-ending string of tunnels pearling out before us. From high above, little glimmers of light hummed down through the darkness. Pools of cream and gold. They seeped along the cold walls, doing little to dispel the gloom around us. And even less to scatter the sensation rising in my gut that we were very much not alone.
“This way,” Vela called, turning down another corridor. I don’t know how she saw the entrance. But she did. And we followed.
More and more I stepped away from the high walls and into the center of the hallways, avoiding a darkness that had begun creeping ’long about the edges.
Vela appeared at my side. I started. I were certain she’d been ahead of Cody. Not behind me. I gave her a sideways glance.
“I should thank you,” she said, her step falling in perfect time with mine. So that only two sets of footfalls and not three filled the dark. “I have been in here so long, I forget what it is to be free.” Her gaze trailed over my face, the words unsaid. Do you?
“Don’t trouble yourself about it.” I rubbed at a spot just under my heart. The cold there gone painful.
“I won’t.” Vela gave me a flick of a smile. Her fingers tracing slow circles over the back of her hand. The ticking sensation in my chest grew faster. “You worry about your sister. Tell me about her.”
I near to missed a step. As if for just that moment there had been no floor beneath me. When I looked back up, Vela were very close. A flutter of regret at my earlier anger rose inside me. She were helping. And the tunnels were long enough that the righteous flare of anger had settled into something else. A rawness I didn’t want to right look at. The glances Cody kept shooting at me didn’t help either.
“Tell me about this place,”
I asked, avoiding her question.
Vela’s smile faltered. She ran a hand over the curve of her neck. Fingers tapping at the sharp edge of her collarbone. “Are you concerned I will get you lost? You do not need to worry.”
“I won’t.” I echoed Vela’s words back at her. She gave me a thin smile. “I should thank you for helping us.”
“Hardly all I could do,” Vela said, her fingers stopping their tapping. She looked away. “Do not thank me yet.”
Before I’d replied, Vela darted ahead. Her arm finding Cody’s, who had appeared right in the center of the tunnel no more than a few yards away. A light laughter trickling sweet from her throat. I frowned at her ease. Cause nothing with other people were ever easy for me. I wrapped my arms round my chest, trailing behind.
Vela didn’t try to speak with me direct again, instead choosing to walk at Cody’s side. I didn’t blame her. I weren’t good company at the best of times. Still, every once in a while I would catch Vela staring at me. But never for long, and never long enough for me to say nothing back.
Finally, we came to the end of the tangled passageways. A low metal door rested on rusted hinges. Lonesome and very much closed.
Whispering something I could not hear, Vela leaned into the metal. A moment later, she pulled back and waved a hand to indicate Cody should open the door. Under his hand the hinges opened with not even a squeal of cold protest.
Past the door were a poorly lit chamber, and it took me a long moment to focus in the low light. Expecting more of the same, more cold and ice. Only here the floor, walls, ceiling, everything were made entirely of uneven black rock.
It may have just been my imagination, but I could swear the air here smelled of trees. Of fresh-drained sap and slashed heartwood. Without hesitation Vela drifted off into the dim, her feet bare gliding light over the floor.
I turned to exchange a glance with Cody, only to find that he weren’t looking at me. The urge to talk to Cody grew, but he were already trailing after Vela. So I too had no choice but to follow.