“Won’t killing a wild sonoke disturb our mounts?” Enashoma asked.
“Never bothers them,” Narbenu responded. “The wild ones are a different strain. Savage, too, so you have to be careful around them.”
“Should I go and calm it with a spell?” Turesobei asked.
“I think Iniru and I can handle this,” Kemsu said.
Kemsu and Iniru drew their spears and rode off. A lot of time passed … enough that Turesobei grew concerned. When Narbenu began to fidget, Turesobei cast the spell again, putting more power into it than before.
“I think they must have just killed the sonoke. Its energy is fading. They’re farther away than I expected, though. Must have had to chase — oh no!”
“What’s wrong?” asked Narbenu.
“I’m sensing more sonoke coming toward them.”
Narbenu drew his spear. “How many?”
“Hard to know exactly, but … dozens. Thirty, maybe forty of them. Moving in on them fast.”
Enashoma climbed up onto the saddle with Motekeru.
“We have to get to them and warn them.” Narbenu kicked the flanks of his sonoke. “And fast.”
Lu Bei popped out. “I’ll fly as far ahead as I can, master, to warn them as soon as possible.”
“I’ll keep my spell up so I can judge their location.”
“As soon as we alert them, we’ve got to get away from the sonoke herd,” Narbenu said. “Packs that large are rare and incredibly deadly. If they smell the blood of one of their own, they’ll go into a frenzy.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Having been alerted in advance by Lu Bei flying ahead screeching warnings, Iniru and Kemsu appeared over a ridge, racing their mounts at full speed. Wild sonoke were charging after them, and two ahead of the pack were closing in fast. As they joined Turesobei and the others, the two pack leaders surged forward, going much faster than their tame sonoke mounts could. Probably because the wild sonoke didn’t have saddles, supplies, and riders to weigh them down.
The wild sonoke were different in appearance. Their fur was rust-tinged instead of gray. Their horns were larger, their fangs longer. Narbenu twisted in his saddle and jabbed at one with his spear, scoring a minor wound on its flank. The second beast tried to ram Kemsu, but his mount turned enough to dodge the blow. Iniru struck its tail with her spear, but that only angered it more. As it rounded on Kemsu again, Turesobei lunged with his spear, missing the beast entirely. But as his mount turned, Zaiporo got in a shot and stabbed the beast in the eye, causing it to fall back. The other wild sonoke nearby attacked Motekeru. He dodged his mount out of the way, then grabbed the wild sonoke by the horns and pulled it up off the ice far enough that he could reach in with the claws of his other hand and rip out its throat.
Narbenu and Kemsu gaped at Motekeru in awe, but only for a moment. Dozens more of the wild sonoke were closing in.
“We’re not going to get away!” Kemsu yelled.
Turesobei tapped Zaiporo on the shoulder. “Switch places with me.”
Carefully, while still riding, Zaiporo hopped ahead of Turesobei and took the reins of the mount. It was a maneuver they had practiced before on denekon, and it worked perfectly. Sitting backward in the saddle to face the enemy, Turesobei quickly cast the first powerful, non-storm spell he could think of that might affect an entire herd chasing after them, the spell of the flame wall. It was a poor choice in the Ancient Cold and Deep, but since the creatures would be unaccustomed to fire, he hoped it would terrify them.
A shroud of flame erupted between them and the wild sonoke. The beasts in the lead skidded to a halt, and then backed away in terror. But the flames flickered out, and Turesobei sagged in the saddle. He’d had to use a lot of internal kenja to pull that spell off with a quick-casting.
Lu Bei sped along beside him. “Didn’t work long, master!”
“I knew the spell would fail quickly.”
“I didn’t mean that. Look.”
The wild sonoke had conquered their fear and renewed the chase, their frenzy unabated. At least it had bought them a little time. Surely the wild sonoke would tire eventually.
“How good are their senses?” Turesobei asked. “If I magically summoned a cloud of fog, would it bother them much?”
“They can hear us and smell us well enough,” Narbenu said. “I think we’d be at more of disadvantage than them.”
They rode as fast as possible, but the wild sonoke gained on them steadily. Turesobei cast the spell of dark-fire. A crackling, black and purple globe of fire appeared in his hand. He tossed it at the lead sonoke. It struck the beast, melted its face, and sent it tumbling, slowing several others — but it didn’t slow the herd.
“Wow,” Kemsu said. “I didn’t know you could do … something like that.”
“Turesobei …” Kurine muttered in amazement “... how …”
“The bloodlust is in them strong now,” Narbenu said. “How many times can you do what you just did?”
Panting heavily, Turesobei said, “Unless I use storm energy, two … maybe three more before I pass out.”
“Doesn’t sound like a good strategy,” Iniru said.
“I could cast a wind spell to kick up loose snow to blind and disorient them. I have plenty of air energy to draw on here.”
“Do it,” Iniru said.
“Master, the spell of the screaming wind-blast from Chonda Lu’s grimoire. That would surely knock them back and disorient them. It would be much more powerful than the spell of heaven’s breath. Do you remember it?”
“Lu Bei, I can’t do that spell.”
“But you can draw on all the power of the air kenja here to make up for lacking the internal power and knowing the proper channels, just like you did with the storm spells using the Mark of the Storm Dragon.”
“It’s not scripted, and I haven’t rehearsed it.”
“But you do know it, yes?”
“You know I do.” Turesobei rarely forgot a spell, even after studying one only once, but it was dangerous to recite one without having practiced it perfectly several times. One mistake could be fatal, or just lead to a lot of wasted energy. But then, this was a dangerous situation anyway.
“Master, imagine you are Chonda Lu, like you did before, and quick-cast the spell from memory. I think it will work. If it doesn’t …”
“All right. Everyone, clear away. Give me some room. The spell could backfire.”
Zaiporo slowed their mount just enough that the others could pull ahead. With the wild sonoke nearly on top of them, Turesobei began chanting the spell. Since he’d only studied it once, he cast the spell slow and steady. As he did, he thought of the dream he’d had, of being Chonda Lu out on the plains battling Vôl Ultharma. He tried to feel exactly what Chonda Lu had felt then.
One sonoke got close to them while he was casting, but Motekeru dropped back and fended it off.
Turesobei fell into a trance where he became Chonda Lu, much like when he sometimes became the Storm Dragon. He was sitting over the grimoire, recording the spell of the screaming wind-blast, chuckling as he thought of the first time he’d cast it, in a contest against a short, dark-skinned Kaiaru rival. It had been a breezy day, and they were out on a hill, a kite flapping lazily overhead.
The spell went off, ripping Turesobei back into the present. A screaming, wailing, eardrum-assaulting blast of wind erupted behind Turesobei and his companions. Despite substituting air kenja, the spell drew on so much of his internal kenja that his eyes rolled back in his head as he slumped back against Zaiporo, but he stayed conscious, just barely. Air and ice energy poured into the spell, overpowering his intent. The energies far exceeded what the spell called for. And given that it was a Kaiaru spell he’d never practiced before, he had no control over it now that he’d cast it — like when he’d attempted the lightning spells at home the first time.
The wind blast struck the wild sonoke herd. Despite their forward momentum, some slid rapidly backward. Others flipped over and
tumbled violently away. Even those that hunkered down were pushed back until they were out of sight.
The wind-blast kicked loose ice and snow up, forming a cloud behind them … a cloud that began to spin up into the sky and kick snow back toward them, increasing the intensity of the flurries that had fallen all day. In minutes, a heavy snow began to fall over the area as a giant cloud billowed overhead, expanding out in all directions.
“It’s rebounding,” Turesobei said listlessly, his eyelids fluttering. It was all he could do to stay conscious. “The cloud, the magic. It’s all rebounding. I’ve accidentally triggered a snowstorm. And it looks like the prevailing winds overhead are bringing it toward us while the lower winds I summoned are kicking snow up into the clouds.”
“You can’t stop it?” Kurine asked.
“It should’ve stopped on its own, once my connection to it was severed, but it didn’t. And I can’t take back control of a spell that powerful. We can take shelter, or we can try to outrace it. The magic will have to end eventually.”
“Let’s try to outrun it, then,” said Narbenu. “We don’t have time to take adequate shelter.”
Turesobei doubted they could outrun it, but said nothing, because he was sure Narbenu knew that. Minutes later, a blizzard engulfed them. Visibility became poor … and then nonexistent. None of them could see each other unless they were side-by-side. They tried to gather close, but then a howling wind struck them so hard it blew them apart from one another. Turesobei shouted to the others, but the responses he heard back were unintelligible. Turesobei couldn’t see anyone. He thought he heard a shout from Narbenu.
“What we do?” Zaiporo shouted.
“I don’t know!”
Turesobei and Zaiporo’s sonoke crashed suddenly into the mount Iniru was riding. She must have stopped for some reason. As the two sonoke struck each other and recoiled, they plunged over a ridge, screeching, and slid down a steep incline. The sonoke tumbled, and they were thrown out of the saddle. Inadvertently, they triggered an avalanche of loose snow that had piled up on the slope and along the ridge.
Turesobei slid until he plunged into a deep snow bank. A wave of snow then crashed over him.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Buried under an avalanche of snow, unable to breathe or move, Turesobei fought back the urge to panic. He attempted a spell, but when he spoke, snow filled his mouth.
A clawed hand shot down, grabbed him by the collar, and yanked him free. “You okay, master?”
Gasping for breath, Turesobei gazed up into Motekeru’s horrible, jagged bronze face, and nodded. He’d never before been so glad to see that ugly face. “The others?”
Motekeru nodded to where Enashoma and Iniru stood huddled together beside two sonoke. “Still looking for the rest.”
A small section of snow nearby lit up and melted somewhat. With another burst of light, more snow melted. A spark fired upward, and Lu Bei burst free, shaking the snow from his wings. He zipped over and flew into Enashoma’s arms.
Turesobei stumbled toward Iniru and Enashoma. Judging from their ruffled, snow-covered, somewhat battered appearance, they had gotten buried in the avalanche, too.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I’m okay,” Iniru wheezed.
“Bruised,” Enashoma panted. “Motekeru rolled over me. Zai … we gotta find him.”
Lu Bei zipped up into the sky immediately and began circling. Motekeru stomped around. Though the snow still rained down heavily, it wasn’t as bad as it had been. Visibility had improved to the point where Turesobei could clearly see Motekeru from twenty paces away, probably because the snow was only falling down from overhead and not also blowing in from the side.
As he prepared to cast the spell of sensing presences, a sonoke squirmed free from the snow bank. Zaiporo came up along with it, one hand clutched to a saddle stirrup.
Enashoma ran to him, and gave him a hug which made him groan. “He’s all right … I think!”
Narbenu and Kemsu rode out of the blizzard — unharmed.
“We were worried you’d gotten buried in the avalanche,” Narbenu said. “Kemsu thought he saw you go over the edge. Took us a while to carefully work our way down the slope.”
“We collided,” Iniru said. “Motekeru dug us out. Zaiporo and Lu Bei dug themselves out.”
“Kurine’s not with you?” Turesobei asked.
“Haven’t seen her,” Narbenu replied. “She’s not with you?”
Iniru shook her head. “She wasn’t in the collision.”
“We’ve got to find her,” Kemsu said. “Fast! If she’s buried she’ll suffocate soon.”
“Lu Bei?” Turesobei shouted.
From where he was still circling above, Lu Bei called down, “No sign, master! I can’t go any higher! Winds are too strong!”
“Kurine!” Kemsu shouted.
Turesobei cast the spell of locating that which is hidden. He thought of Kurine … of kissing her, because he needed the best connection he could make in case she was far away or buried deep. Her presence popped into his mind instantly.
“That way!” Turesobei said, pointing. “She’s not far.”
“Hop on,” Narbenu said.
Turesobei leapt into the saddle behind him. A few minutes later, they found Kurine. She was leaning against her mount, gasping, and clutching her knee. The amber hounds, Rig and Ohma, were nestled against her. They barked happily as Turesobei approached. Kemsu leapt down, and Turesobei followed him.
“Is anything broken?” Kemsu asked.
Kurine shook her head. “Just wrenched my knee. I’ll be okay. My mount got free on its own, but I was buried. Not deep.” She scratched Rig under the chin. “The hounds pulled me out.”
Kurine took Turesobei’s hand. “You found me with magic, didn’t you?”
“Um … yeah,” Turesobei said. “How’d you know?”
“I just knew you would,” she said. “We have a bond.”
Kemsu sighed. “It’s not like you were all that far away. We would’ve found you by searching.”
Narbenu checked Kurine’s mount. “He’ll be fine with a little rest; sonoke are tough.”
They helped Kurine into the saddle, and then rode back to the others. While Narbenu examined Turesobei’s mount, Turesobei checked to see if any of their gear was missing. Zaiporo’s spear was snapped in half. “We’ve got a broken spear, and one of our supply packs is gone.” Motekeru dug around searching for it, but came up empty-handed.
Luckily, all the mounts were fine, having suffered no more than a few bruises and scrapes. The snow had cushioned the impact. Kurine’s wrenched knee was the worst of their injuries.
The snow kept falling, showing no signs of letting up.
“We need cover,” Kemsu said. “Maybe there’s a cave or an overhang somewhere nearby.”
“What about snow houses?” Turesobei said.
“Not an option,” Narbenu replied. “We’d likely get buried inside. They’d be our tombs. Unless we can find shelter, we’ll just have to keep riding. Do you have some sort of spell that can help us find shelter?”
“Nothing that I can manage,” Turesobei replied.
There was a geographical spell in Chonda Lu’s grimoire that gave the caster an impression of the area around them, in a way similar to the way the spell of sensing presences allowed one to detect other creatures or people nearby. But it was primarily an earth kenja spell, and the earth energy in the Ancient Cold and Deep was slightly depressed. Most of it was air and water kenja because of all the ice. There was no way he could do that spell.
“Let me try to study the kenja currents, see if I can get a feel for the terrain that way. That might help.”
They rode slowly, with Turesobei concentrating. A solid cliff face that went straight up stopped them a few minutes later.
“Can’t go this way,” Narbenu said. “And the slope we came down is too steep for us to ride back up.”
“We must be in a canyon then,” Iniru said.
“Eew!” Kurine said to Turesobei. “Your eyes.”
Enashoma chuckled. “They’re supposed do that.”
“It’s creepy,” Zaiporo said, “but you get used to it.”
Turesobei’s eyes turned a solid milky-white color when he studied the kenja currents. It hadn’t occurred to him that the goronku had never seen this effect before.
With the snowstorm overhead, air and water currents swirled violently all around, making it difficult for him to get a feel for anything. He dismounted, knelt, and placed both hands on the ice. Slowly, he attuned himself to the flow of the earth kenja in the area. Once he got a good sense of it all, he climbed back into the saddle.
“We’re definitely in a canyon, but I can’t tell which way we should go. I can’t feel the flow well enough for that. I’m guessing it’s fairly steep on both sides, and the ends, whatever they’re like, are far away from us.”
“I’ve heard about this place,” Narbenu said. “It is a canyon — a very long one, twenty leagues or more. I’ve heard the rangers talk about it. There’s a way out on one end, but I can’t remember which way that is or anything else about it. Don’t even remember the name of it. Sorry.”
“Twenty leagues?” Iniru said. “That’s massive. We could be stuck in here for days, maybe weeks.”
“Once the storm clears, I may be able to get a better sense of it,” Turesobei said.
“Until then?” Kemsu asked.
Turesobei pointed to his right, the direction he thought was north. “That way seems as good as the other to me.”
Narbenu shrugged. “Why not?”
* * *
They rode north, miserable, bruised, and cold. Visibility worsened again as the blizzard grew stronger. Tiny beads of moisture slicked Turesobei’s skin under all his clothing — the result of having been buried in the snow. He knew the moisture would freeze on his skin, and ultimately kill him, but there was nothing he could do about it until they got out of the storm; changing clothes with snow falling down on him wouldn’t do any good.
Storm Phase Series: Books 1-3 Page 78