by A. C. Cobble
Ben sighed. “I didn’t do anything either. That…” He paused. “That was a bloody big demon. I don’t think you know how you will react to something like that until you see it.”
“Well,” replied Corinne, “I know now. I don’t think I can do this,” she finished with a grimace.
Ben frowned.
“A couple of months ago,” he started, “I lost a friend, too, a man named Mathias. I felt awful about it. I thought if only I had done more I could have saved him. I thought long and hard about what I had to do next. Let me tell you what I thought, and maybe it will help you too.”
Ben sat next to Corinne on the boulder and continued, “The world is a hard place. And this journey we’re on, it’s only going to get harder. If we stop trying, if we stop moving, we’re as good as dead. If we’re not committed to doing anything necessary to get through this, then we’re dead. Before last night was the easy part. That part is over now. Until we get back to Northport, we have to be ready. We have to be prepared for anything.”
Corinne stared at the arch-demon.
“I know it will take some time to get over Grunt’s passing. I know it won’t be easy,” consoled Ben, “but here we are, and going back isn’t any easier. We’re over a week from Free State and even further from what I would consider safe. We need you. We have to keep going and complete our mission. We have to make sure Grunt didn’t give his life for nothing. Are you still with us?”
“What other choice do I have?” responded Corinne, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.
Ben wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulder.
“Did you just quote me, extensively?” asked Amelie from her bedroll. “I seem to recall telling you something very similar to that.”
Ben put his arm back down at his side. “I…uh…”
Amelie stood up, smirking at him. “It’s okay. You respect my advice enough to use it as your own. As long as we are clear on that, you can feel free to share my wisdom with others. I suppose I should be flattered.”
She rolled her eyes at Ben then turned to look at the sleeping bodies of Lady Towaal and Rhys. Ben coughed discreetly and stood, shaking his arms and stomping his feet, trying to get some warmth. They’d used all of their firewood on the bonfires.
“How long do you think they’ll sleep?” asked Amelie.
Ben shrugged. “Towaal was out for two days last time she did that. As for Rhys, I’m not even sure what he did.”
Rhys’ eyes popped open. “I killed that big demon, right?”
Ben frowned down at him. “How long have you been awake?”
Rhys sat up, stretching, and yawned. “I figured when I woke up alive that you all had it handled, so I went back to sleep.”
“What did you do last night with the sword?” asked Corinne.
Rhys rose to his feet and looked over at the dead arch-demon. “I chopped its head off. I think that’s what finally stopped it.”
“Seriously,” said Ben. “It looked like your sword was… Well, I don’t really know what it looked like. Like magic, I guess.”
Rhys looked around and saw his longsword resting in its scabbard by his bedroll.
“It’s mage-wrought,” he offered.
“Yeah,” replied Ben, “but you said it didn’t have any special properties.”
“Oh,” conceded Rhys. “I may have lied about that.”
“What?” exclaimed Ben. “Why would you lie to us?”
“Sorry. For what it’s worth, I’ve done way worse things.”
Ben stared at his friend.
Rhys sighed and added, “Friends or no friends, some things are not meant to be discussed. The properties of that blade, well, that’s something I wasn’t ready to discuss at the time. It is a difficult topic.” He bent and picked up the weapon. “It’s something I’m not prepared to go into detail about now, either.”
Amelie interrupted the discussion. “However you did it, you cut down that demon and saved our lives.”
“Prolonged, maybe,” responded Rhys glumly. “Last night, we learned an important lesson about what we’re facing and what Northport is going to be up against even if we are successful. The level of coordination and planning that went into that attack was amateur by human standards, but unheard of by demons. Since the aftermath of the Blood Bay War, I don’t recall anything like that.”
“What lesson did we learn?” asked Corinne somberly.
Rhys walked to Grunt’s pack and nudged it with a foot. “Think he’ll mind?” he asked Corinne, not answering her question yet.
“He’s not in position to complain,” she snapped.
Rhys squatted down and began rummaging through the pack. He pulled out the kaf pots. Finally, he answered, “That swarm was small compared to what Rhymer was telling us about. We had a mage with us and still had to pull out all of the stops to survive. Well, most of us survived. We can’t risk facing a larger swarm. Maybe we’d all make it through, maybe we wouldn’t.”
“How do we avoid the swarms?” asked Ben.
“First,” said Rhys, ticking off items on his fingers, “we make some kaf. Second, we get the hell away from here. This may draw others.” He gestured to the litter of demon corpses surrounding the campsite. “And third, we get somewhere Towaal can rest, and we tell her to come up with a plan.”
Two bells later, Ben stomped a trail through the knee-deep snow. Amelie and Corinne followed behind him, and Rhys brought up the rear, stumbling and staggering along with Lady Towaal in his arms. Ben knew even Rhys with his seemingly boundless energy would quickly tire carrying the mage. Ben offered to take turns, but instead, he ended up with Rhys’ pack, which was shockingly heavy.
When he asked what was in it, Rhys winked and said, “Liquid weighs a lot. Maybe we should drink some to lighten the load?”
“Not yet,” replied Ben. “Later tonight. Definitely later tonight.”
Ben sighed and shoved through a waist-deep snow drift that had accumulated between several boulders strewn across the creek bed. His pants and boots were treated to be water resistant, but he could already feel the damp cold seeping through the leather. By the end of today, the lower half of his body would be sopping wet, if it didn’t freeze. His feet and toes tingled painfully.
“How are you doing up there?” called Amelie.
“Okay,” he huffed. “I don’t think we’ll make it far today.”
“We’ve got to keep going,” she reminded him. “There’s a pile of dead demons behind us that I don’t think we can stay near safely. Besides, the quicker we move, the sooner we get done with this.”
Ben waved a hand behind him without looking back.
Shortly after that, he heard a groan. He looked back and saw Amelie walking with one palm held upturned in front of her.
“What?” he asked.
“Snow,” she replied with a grimace.
He looked up and saw she was right. High above, a swirl of light flakes was floating down to them.
“Let’s keep moving,” called Rhys from the rear. “It looks like heavy clouds, but it’s light so far. The further we get, the better.”
Ben nodded and started up again, raising his legs up and pushing them back down to pack the snow. He kicked and shuffled through it to blaze a path for the others.
Half a bell later, the snow stared coming heavier and faster. Thick flakes landed on his cloak and leathers and stuck. Others blew into his face and melted on his skin, stinging his cheeks and coating his eyelashes. Within minutes, his front was coated in white powder.
“Climb up the bank and head for the trees,” shouted Rhys.
“We’ll move at half the speed in the trees,” argued Ben.
“It’s getting heavier,” responded Rhys. “Pretty soon we’re not going to be able to move at all.”
“Shouldn’t we find shelter then?” asked Ben. “There could be another cave if we keep on the creek bed.”
“We don’t have time,” responded Rhys, shifting Lady Towaal in his arms. �
��Find us a way to climb out of here and get into that forest. I’ll show you something.”
Ben shrugged and moved over to the creek bank. It was shoulder high and not too steep, so he started to climb it. Halfway up, he tried to pull himself over the top using a thin bush. Suddenly, he was tumbling backward down the bank. A pile of snow followed in a mini avalanche. He thumped softly into the cold below and he felt two paces worth of snow come sliding down on top of him.
His feet were sticking up and he waved them wildly, trying to get his bearings. They were the only thing he could move and he realized the rest of him was packed under the snow.
A strong pair of hands gripped his legs and he was yanked out of the drift.
“Are you kidding?” muttered Rhys. The rogue went back and lifted Towaal off the ground where he had laid her.
“That bush came loose!” explained Ben.
Rhys stomped by, shaking his head, and easily ascended the bank, which was now almost completely cleared of snow. Amelie and Corinne followed him up and Ben scrambled after.
Up top, the snow was piled deeply between the birch trees. The white bark of the trees and the snow combined to make it seem like the entire world had lost color.
Rhys nodded ahead. “Let’s try that way.”
Ben started breaking a new path. The snow was nearly mid-thigh now and he struggled to keep pushing forward.
One hundred paces further, and Rhys called a halt. “This is silly. Let’s stop here. It’s as good as any other place.”
Ben glanced around. They stood in a small circle of trees. They were leafless and the thick snow fell heavy and silent on top of them. There was no sign of shelter.
“Uh, Rhys…” started Ben.
“I said I would show you something. Here.” He handed Lady Towaal to Ben. The mage was dead weight in his arms. He knew carrying her in this weather would wear him out in minutes. He couldn’t believe Rhys had lasted as long as he did.
Ben looked on with Amelie and Corinne as Rhys quickly pulled all of the tarps out of their packs and started stomping around the small clearing, packing the snow down tight. In minutes, he’d covered the entire area and started stringing the tarps tightly together over the packed area. He laid one down on the ground. After the tarps were tied, he began feverishly piling snow against them.
Ben looked at the girls and raised an eyebrow, wondering what Rhys was doing. Corinne’s eyes lit up in understanding.
“A snow hut!” she exclaimed and rushed forward to join Rhys, dropping her pack and weapons. Together, they tossed handful after handful of snow onto the tarp structure then packed it down tight.
They kept going until the entire thing was covered in hard pressed snow. In nearly half a bell, they’d accumulated a pile that was even with Ben’s head.
“You’d be warmer if you helped,” called Corinne.
Ben shifted slightly, lifting Towaal up. The mage was breathing softly in his arms.
“Right,” said Corinne. She looked at Rhys and asked, “Think it’s good?”
“Only one way to find out,” he answered.
She dove into the snow and wiggled underneath. She was burrowing a hole below the tarps.
Ben frowned at Rhys, but the man just kept circling the snow hut, as Corinne called it. Rhys continued to put on and pack more snow.
Soon, Corinne called from within and said, “I think we’re good.”
Amelie sighed and dropped down, following Corinne into the structure and dragging her pack behind her.
When Ben came in dragging Towaal, he saw Corinne had pulled down the tarps and they were sitting in a cone of snow. She was moving around the interior, pressing up against the cold mass to shore up any weak spots. Holes were poked near the top but only a few flakes made their way within.
It was cold inside, but away from the light wind and falling flakes, it felt better. Ben laid Lady Towaal down on one side and checked her breathing. Slow but steady.
“It will warm up soon,” said Corinne.
“This,” Amelie asked, gesturing to the snow surrounding them, “will warm up?”
Corinne nodded. “Our body heat will warm it. Some of the snow may melt, but it should refreeze and create a barrier between us and the outside. It’s not going to be hot, but it will be a damn sight better than out there.”
Rhys poked his head in and instructed, “Ben, you come with me. We’re going to collect fire wood. Corinne and Amelie, let’s make this as comfortable as we can. The snow is coming down faster and faster out here. I suspect we may have to hole up for a day or two.”
The ladies nodded and Ben crawled out of the snow hut after Rhys.
Ben stood up and brushed the snow off of him. Heartbeats later, he realized it was futile. Fat flakes landed on him faster than he could brush them away. Looking around, he complained, “Rhys, I don’t think we’re going to find dry firewood in this. We won’t be able to get anything lit.”
Rhys grinned. “I have a plan for that, too.”
Quickly, they dug through the powdery snow and eventually came up with two big armfuls of damp wood.
“A fire will help warm that thing up, if you can get it started” said Ben doubtfully.
Rhys shook his head. “No, can’t have smoke from the fire in there. We won’t be able to breathe.”
Ben looked at his friend blankly. “You think you’re going to get a fire started with damp wood outside in a snow storm?”
“I’ve got a plan,” responded Rhys calmly. “Make a fire pit and I’ll be back.”
“If it’s not for warmth, do we even need a fire?” argued Ben.
Rhys grew serious and nodded. “Towaal has some herbs in her pack that make a tea. We need to boil it.” He said no more, but Ben understood. If it would help the mage get on her feet quicker, then it was necessary.
Rhys crawled into the hut. Ben grumbled, digging down to the hard dirt and clearing an area of snow. He was going to wait to see what Rhys had in mind before he started trying to dig into the cold, frozen dirt.
“Perfect,” said Rhys when he reemerged. Amelie followed behind him. She was pulling her cloak on still. A sour look painted her face.
“I’m not sure I can do this,” she complained.
“Sure you can,” encouraged Rhys.
Ben looked on silently.
Amelie squatted down near Ben’s makeshift fire pit and studied the stack of wood. She turned and gestured to Rhys and Ben. “Come close. This isn’t going to be pleasant.”
“I know,” murmured Rhys.
“Are you ready?” asked Amelie.
Rhys nodded.
Ben asked, “Ready for what?”
Amelie placed a hand on his leg. Suddenly, a chill swept through his body. It was like a cold ache that started in his feet and crept up to the top of his head. He felt like his body heat was being drained out.
He started to stumble backward, but his muscles locked up, freezing both figuratively and literally.
“Too much,” groaned Rhys through gritted teeth.
Amelie clenched her jaw and remained focused on the stack of kindling.
Ben, unable to move, saw a tendril of steam break loose from the wood. Soon, more steam was boiling off. Before his eyes, the stack ignited in a burst of flame.
Amelie fell backward away from the sudden heat.
Rhys, moving slowly and stiffly, edged toward the rest of the wood. “Quick. Before that burns out, add more,” he instructed.
Amelie, getting control of herself, stuck thicker sticks into the quickly diminishing blaze. More steam billowed up and the wet wood popped and hissed.
Ben watched in amazement as the new pieces slowly caught fire and the original wood burned to ash.
Rhys rocked forward and expertly added more fuel, setting the newer, wetter sticks on the perimeter where the moisture could cook out and arranging the burning pieces into a neat, efficient fire.
“Did you just use magic on me?” demanded Ben, stunned.
Ameli
e sighed. “I think it’s more accurate to say I used you for magic. I drew heat from your body to warm up the firewood. I’m surprised it worked.”
“That’s not right,” complained Ben. “You shouldn’t be able to just do that without asking people.”
“She couldn’t do it if you stopped her,” pointed out Rhys. “Remember what Lady Towaal taught you at the farmhouse? If you hardened your will, you could easily prevent Amelie from drawing your heat. Hopefully, in addition to getting a fire started, this serves as a good lesson. Always keep your will hardened.”
Rhys boiled water for Towaal’s tea and Ben cooked a simple meal for dinner before letting the fire die down. As he cooked, the snow continued to dump, and he was ready to crawl into the snow hut as soon as he could.
It wasn’t warm, but it felt downright hot compared to the bitter cold outside. Even next to the fire, shivers had wracked his body.
He stripped off his wet outer layers and reclined with the others while they ate. Their only light was a small candle Rhys found in Towaal’s pack.
“Who brings a candle into the Wilds?” asked Corinne.
“Someone who plans to read,” responded Rhys. He dug out the book Lady Towaal had brought with her from Northport, one of the four they’d borrowed from the Librarian.
He flipped through it idly before coming to the map page.
“I think this is why she brought it, but for the life of me I can’t see why.”
They all took turns looking over the map, but no one was struck with any brilliant insights on how it could help their situation. The map depicted two ridges extending out from the base of the mountain. They formed a bowl that was open at the bottom. That’s where they planned to enter. Ben thought maybe they could make it over the ridges, but to be sure, they would have to see them in person. Other than that, they assumed any geography drawn on the map was guesswork at best. It had been centuries or maybe millennia since the map was made.
Before long, the low light and exhaustion from hiking in the deep snow overtook them. The snow hut had warmed with their body heat, and despite the cramped quarters, they felt more comfortable than they had in days. One by one, they fell asleep where they lay.