Child of a Dead God

by Barb

  Glistening as if he alone were the only “whole” thing she saw . . .

  Or wrapped in white vaporous fire as he assaulted his own kin to save her. . . .

  Wynn sank into inner visions, until they blocked all else from her senses. Then her mind slipped into one past moment.

  Chap sat before her in a room at Byrd’s Inn, staring into her eyes. At the feel of his thick fur in her fingers, with her thoughts working upon what he was, her mantic sight overwhelmed her. The room had turned shadowy beneath an off-white mist just shy of blue.

  It permeated everything, like ghosts overlaying her normal sight. These showed where the element of Spirit was strong or weak. Only Chap remained whole.

  In her mantic sight, his fur glistened like a million threads of bristling white silk. And his eyes scintillated like crystals held before the sun.

  Wynn clung to that memory as she opened her eyes.

  Cold, wind, and snow assaulted her, and the world looked exactly as it had when she had closed them.

  Perhaps she was too exhausted, too cold, too weak. As much as Wynn feared what the sight did to her, its absence toppled her into despair. And still, she struggled to her feet.

  Leesil and Chap were out here, somewhere, and she had to find them.

  Chap fought through the drifts, trying to track Magiere, but no odor lingered on the snow. His nose was useless unless Magiere stumbled directly into his path, upwind and close. He searched by sight between the crags, but the blizzard had covered any trace of her footsteps—if she had come this way at all.

  “Magiere!” Leesil shouted.

  Chap slowed, reaching out with his awareness to pick up Magiere by any rising memories. It was a worthless act of desperation, for he knew he needed a direct line of sight.

  “Magiere!” Leesil shouted again.

  Under the blanket across Chap’s torso, his body heat was fading. Leesil would be suffering the same, but they had to keep trying.

  Chap lunged onward—and a whiff of sweat stung his nose.

  He halted, looking about, but the swirling wind twisted so much that the scent vanished before he could draw it deeper.

  “What?” Leesil asked, his voice faint beneath the wind even from a few steps behind.

  Shallow gullies led upward through varied breaks in the mountainside. If they took the wrong path, they might bypass Magiere, not even seeing her. Chap had to be certain.

  He stood his ground and raised his face into the wind. Every time the wind shifted, so did he, turning into it as he paced in half-circles.

  “Damn it, Chap!” Leesil shouted. “What are you doing?”

  Chap snarled back. He could express nothing more without Wynn to speak for him. He paced into a rise between two outcrops.

  Magiere’s clear scent filled his nose.

  Chap bolted into the wind with a howl, charging between the spires. Leesil pounded through the snow behind him. Chap’s thoughts raced as well.

  How could Magiere be sweating in this cold?

  They struggled on, weaving through more outcrops and past stone spires. Then ahead in the darkness, the flat face of a gully’s wall sprang up before them. Wind whipped around in the wide boxed space, making snowflakes twist like a slow-turning cyclone.

  Chap pulled up short in anguish. They had reached a dead end.

  But something was moving at the far wall’s base.

  It was barely more than a shadow against the dark stone beyond the whirling snow.

  Chap threw up his head and howled. The wind drowned his voice, and the shadow in the dark space did not turn. Leesil came up beside him, looking ahead, and Chap bounded into the dead end. Only one person wandered these barren heights.

  Leesil’s shout chased Chap across the box gully’s floor. “Magiere!”

  And it was her, but Chap slowed to a stop as he closed in.

  With her back turned, she was clawing so hard at the gully’s sheer face that her fingers were marred with her own blood. Even in the turning air, Chap smelled a thick stench of sweat at close range. Thin traces of steam flowed around her head, as if she were breathing too hard and fast.

  She did not even seem aware of him.

  Leesil caught up, dropped Magiere’s coat, and reached out to her.

  “Magiere, we have to go back!” he called, and his grip settled on her shoulder.

  Magiere lashed back with one hand.

  Her arm struck his, knocking it away. She let out a snarl, more panicked than angry. Chap caught a glimpse of her profile.

  She shuddered in the cold, yet beads of sweat had crystallized on her pale skin. Her black irises had expanded so much they nearly blocked out the whites of her eyes. She turned back to the sheer rock and tried to reach up.

  “Magiere!” Leesil shouted. “Look at me! Wake up!”

  Leesil tried to reach her again, and Chap shifted into his way.

  Magiere was enwrapped in some delusion, and Chap worried she might not recognize even Leesil. He tried delving for her thoughts, hoping to catch any rising memory that might reveal what she saw inside her head.

  He could not touch dreams any more than conscious thoughts. He only saw or experienced rising memories, triggered by whatever entered a person’s awareness or where their conscious thoughts turned. But as Chap looked into Magiere’s deluded mind, a barrage of flickering images flooded through him.

  The castle from a distance, just for a moment . . .

  The same dim and desolate winter wasteland he had seen in Magiere before, but no blizzard raged. The ancient fortress sat in pristine stillness, deceptively peaceful upon a white plain surrounded by distant peaks like black teeth.

  Then, approaching massive iron gates, Chap felt the overwhelming urge to pass through, to press his hands against the gates’ scrollwork, push them wide, and rush for the steps to the doors. . . .

  Hands? No, this was Magiere’s memory—not his.

  Chap struggled free before her obsession swallowed him.

  He called up her past memories, one after another, of Miiska and warm nights in the Sea Lion Tavern. He dug in her mind for anything he could use to break this waking dream or make her stop and question where she was . . . and what she was doing.

  Magiere kept trying to climb, her boots scraping for footholds.

  Chap pulled from her mind and lunged. He clamped his teeth on the leg of her breeches and jerked back.

  Magiere snapped her leg out, kicking him squarely in the chest, and he tumbled away in the snow.

  Chap righted himself as Leesil shouted, “Magiere, stop it!”

  Large flakes of snow powdered her black hair. Her half-closed eyelids fluttered as the pupils rolled up in her head. Magiere’s slack lips trembled as if she were whispering, but Chap heard no words. And before Chap could move, Leesil charged.

  He wrapped his arms around Magiere, locking his hands across her upper torso to pin down her arms.

  Magiere screeched like an animal and shoved off the wall with her foot. They both stumbled back, and Leesil’s grip broke. Magiere instantly turned on him, drawing back one hand with fingers hooked like talons.

  Chap snarled and lunged in.

  Magiere faltered, staring at Leesil in sudden silence. Her hand began to drop, fingers shaking, as fear spread across her pale features.

  Chap halted, watching her closely. More than once, Leesil’s presence had cut through her fury and brought her back to reason.

  Magiere’s eyelids fluttered again.

  Her black pupils rolled up, leaving nothing but white. She swung as Leesil’s amber eyes widened.

  Leesil sidestepped, catching her forearm in both hands, but his legs buckled under her force, driving him to his knees.

  Chap rushed in and clamped his teeth around her boot top. He ground his jaws closed on her shin. Magiere cried out as he dug in with his paws and yanked, pulling the leg from under her.

  Magiere twisted on one foot and toppled, and Chap released his grip. He wheeled away, but she fell straigh
t into Leesil. They both slammed down in freshly fallen snow. Leesil threw his arms around Magiere lying faceup against his chest.

  Chap scrambled to get at Magiere before she turned on Leesil. The instant his paw ground upon her chest, he snarled into her face.

  Magiere’s black eyes opened wide. Instead of answering him in kind, she shrank from his bared teeth.

  She began shaking with true cold. She rolled her head, looking about as if not knowing where she was.

  Chap backed up, pulling his paw from Magiere’s chest. The dhampir had receded, leaving only Magiere. Leesil pinned her tightly against himself, not allowing her to move.

  “Shhhhhhh,” he murmured in her ear. “It’s me.”

  Magiere’s eyes finally cleared, and Chap watched her black pupils shrink and fade to dark brown. She looked directly at him.

  “Where . . . ?” she whispered but never finished, and then heaved a panicked breath.

  She curled to one side, covering her face with bloodied fingers.

  Chap sagged in exhausted relief. They had found her, and she was herself again—for the moment. He barked twice to gain Leesil’s attention, then rushed toward the gully’s opening to stand and wait. They must get back to camp, and fast.

  Leesil struggled to his feet, pulling Magiere up. He managed to get her into her coat and then stumbled out of the gully, half-dragging her. Chap paused, gazing up the sheer wall at the back of the gully.

  There was no way Magiere could have climbed it. But in half-consciousness, driven by instinct, she had chosen a precise direction to reach that castle in her mind.

  “Can you find our way back?” Leesil called.

  Chap turned out of the gully and struggled into the lead. Their tracks in the snow were all but gone. He quickly traced any remnants, but soon there were none left.

  Leesil followed him, half-dragging and half-carrying Magiere. Chap plowed through the unblemished drifts, searching for a way to their camp.

  Leesil was merely cold at first, but even in his coat, he began having trouble breathing. His leg muscles burned as his skin chilled, but he kept hauling Magiere through the snow and wind, trying to shield her with his body.

  “Not far,” he whispered to her over and over. “Almost there.”

  In truth, he didn’t know where he was and only put one foot before the other, blindly following Chap—then the dog halted and barked. Leesil lifted his head.

  In the dark, a narrow slope ran along a sheer rock face. He almost groaned but didn’t want Magiere to hear. They had wandered in a circle, returning to the narrow alley into the boxed gully.

  Chap lunged straight for the rock wall and turned down the slope.

  Leesil thought the dog had lost his wits. He managed a last burst of strength to follow, but when he neared the slope’s bottom, he didn’t see the gully’s far wall. The corner of a cold-hardened canvas tapped against the stone in the wind. He stepped around the rock face’s gradual turn.

  The canvas was staked across the opening of the depression. Leesil’s last few steps into the shelter were the hardest of all.

  He crouched to drag Magiere inside and settle her against the side wall. For a moment, all he could do was catch his breath as Chap wriggled by to the shelter’s rear. The dog came to him, dragging the bag of droppings in his teeth.

  “Yes,” Leesil breathed.

  He took the bag and turned back to the fire’s smoldering remains. He wished he could get word to Sgäile, but he could barely walk, and he wouldn’t ask Chap to go. They were both spent.

  Magiere slid along the wall and slumped on the floor, watching him as he blew on the embers, trying to coax a flame.

  “What happened?” she whispered, barely loud enough to hear.

  “I don’t know,” he answered.

  Chap pricked his ears. He ducked around behind Leesil and out through the canvas.

  Leesil heard the dog bark loudly, and Chap returned before he could peek out.

  Sgäile followed an instant later. Panting, he held aside the canvas for Osha, who immediately crawled to the depression’s back and collapsed. All of Leesil’s exhaustion was mirrored in Sgäile’s relief as the elf dropped to his knees at the sight of Magiere. Leesil glanced at the closed canvas and then looked at Osha.

  “Where’s Wynn?”

  Sgäile stiffened and lifted his head. “With you . . . she insisted on going with you.”

  “When I didn’t find her here, I thought she’d gone with you.” Leesil shook his head in disbelief. “I told her to stay. . . . You were standing right above her, Sgäile!”

  Chap snarled at both of them and bolted out of the shelter.

  Leesil started to follow, but his legs were so cold he couldn’t get to his feet.

  “You not see her come for you?” Osha demanded. “She run behind you!”

  “No!” Leesil growled back.

  Magiere weakly pushed up on one elbow. “What’s going on?”

  Frozen canvas crackled sharply as Chap burst in. He raised one silver paw and hit the floor over and over. He barked twice, paused, and barked twice again.

  Leesil didn’t like what he heard. Chap had found no tracks but still intended to search. The dog was the only one still on his feet.

  “You can’t . . . not alone,” Leesil whispered.

  Chap wheeled about, and before Leesil could grab him, the dog rushed out.

  Leesil jerked the canvas aside, peering into the empty night. Then he felt Magiere’s hand close on his arm.

  “Where’s Wynn?”

  Her pale face was windburned, and worse, she wasn’t demanding or angry, as in any other crisis. She just sounded lost.

  Leesil didn’t know how to answer her. He stared out into the blizzard. Snowfall was already burying Chap’s tracks.

  Hkuan’duv took second watch, but A’harhk’nis did not retire.

  “I will check upon the other camp,” he said, “and make certain they remained at the cave. It is doubtful they pressed on in this blizzard, but I would have difficulty tracking them if they did.”

  “Yes,” Hkuan’duv agreed. “Be quick, and then return to rest.”

  A’harhk’nis vanished, and Hkuan’duv settled against the tent, trying to stay out of the wind’s worst force. After a while, he looked in on the others.

  Dänvârfij seemed fast asleep, and Kurhkâge breathed easily, wrapped in his cloak and blanket. Hkuan’duv returned to scanning the mountainside.

  Snowfall thickened as the wind picked up. Fortunately they had found rock formations to shield their tent, but he hoped they neared the end of their purpose. The prospect of facing Sgäilsheilleache, when the time came to seize the artifact and eliminate Magiere, was still discomforting.

  Hkuan’duv would do it, regardless of the costs—he would protect his people, as always. But he had never before been placed in conflict of purpose with a member of his own caste. Until the recent gathering of the clan elders, he had never even heard of such an occurrence.

  Hkuan’duv was startled from his pondering as A’harhk’nis hopped over the rocks and landed before him—with a wild glitter in his eyes.

  “Wake the others!” A’harhk’nis urged. “Something is happening in Sgäilsheilleache’s camp.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Wynn bent over and stumbled in the wind, too numb to even call out. She still hoped to find Leesil and Chap, or happen upon Sgäile and Osha. But as night dragged on, hope faded with the heat in her body. Odd fleeting notions kept popping into her head.

  How long until dawn? Could she keep moving until then? Would the storm break and let in a little sun? What would Sgäile say if he were here?

  He would give her another lecture about her foolishness. No doubt followed by the threat of more stringent methods in his guardianship.

  Wynn wished he were here to do just that.

  She lost track of the rise and fall, the twists and turns of her path. Then the blizzard’s white blur before her turned black in the crystal’s light�
�as though a large, looming shadow had suddenly appeared.

  Wynn did not even flinch.

  She raised her head and blinked frost-laced eyelashes. A rock face blocked her way—another dead end. Before she dropped her head, weakly resolute to turn about, she spotted a blacker space along the wall’s surface.

  She forced her legs to move. As she neared the black space, it became a hollow in the ridge wall. Peering around its edge, she looked up a steep chute where the ridge wall had cracked through. Its rock-strewn bottom was clear of most snow, for heavy wind could not drive the snowfall inside the narrow space.

  Perhaps she had been wrong about Chap going back. What if he and Leesil had found this passage as well? And if not, at least she might hide from the wind.

  Wynn stepped in and took some mild relief as the wind cut off. Loose stones turned under her numb feet, and she slapped a hand against the chute wall to catch herself.

  She wanted to slump down—just for a while, to get out of the wind— as she could not stop shivering. Maybe sleep a little before going on. A small voice whispered in the back of her mind.

  “If you stop, you will freeze to death.”

  Oh, yes, that was such a good sign—now she was talking to herself in her own head.

  Wynn took another step upward, pawing along the chute’s left wall. She had to keep her blood circulating, but that thought just brought despair. She needed to rest—not sleep, just a rest—but she forced herself a little farther.

  A rock shard shifted beneath her foot, and her ankle rolled.

  She barely winced, for the pain was dulled by cold. But as she fell, her gloved hand struck the chute’s floor and broken rocks ground through her glove against her palm. She lifted her head, looking up the chute with tears freezing on her face. The top opening lay just above, and she started crawling. But when she looked out the chute’s top, only more ice and a snow-coated landscape awaited.

  Nothing else—no one else.

  Wynn rolled away, curling up on her haunches against the chute’s wall. Better to just close her eyes and hide from this world.