To my surprise, Thackery nodded and closed his eyes. After several long moments, he nodded his head as though whatever he had done had worked.
“Are you sure they won’t be able to track us?” Wren asked.
“I don’t think they need to,” I said. “We were driven this way.” It had been a trap, though not the kind we had expected, laid by the Collector from the beginning to send us in this direction. In the meantime, we had only succeeded in moving farther away from our goal.
A bolt of red lightning pierced the sky, striking the ice with an audible crack. Before I even knew what was happening, the ice broke apart beneath our feet and we fell into the freezing water. Luka floundered as he struggled to swim, small icebergs around him offering no purchase. Thackery and Wren were in the water as well. I could feel my saddlebags filling with water, growing heavier and pulling me down. I abandoned my horse, swimming to Wren’s aid. I watched in despair as my Luka was sucked below into the deep and drowned.
Wren would’ve suffered the same fate with her horse as well, but I refused to allow it. Pumping my legs furiously, I dragged her and her horse up, willing them to stay above water.
Thackery was closer to the edge of the collapse and was able to haul both himself and his horse to safety with a burst of magic-infused strength. The wind was whipping past us so relentlessly, I could barely hear the sound of Wren’s scream. The ice was continuing to crack and the hole was widening around us. Thackery retreated away from us and towards the safety of the unbroken ice. We were soon separated.
“Get her to safety!” Thackery yelled. “I’ll find another way across and meet you there.”
This was the Collector’s doing.
My arms snaked around Wren’s middle, holding her fast as we struggled forward. The other side of the lake came into view and we headed towards it. It took all of our remaining strength to make it to the rocky beach. I had never been so happy to be on solid ground.
“Luka?” Wren asked softly, tears coming to her eyes. I merely shook my head.
Chapter 17.
Wren
Thackery had been separated from us on the ice, but I knew that he would somehow make it back. I was sure our unlikely trio would soon be made whole. I had to be. Otherwise I wouldn’t get the chance to apologize for anything—everything that had happened.
We must have passed outside the winter boundary the Collector had created, for the banks where we washed ashore were covered in a thick fog. More gray-green than white, and rolling, lingering, just above the water. There was no snow on the ground, only barren rocks. Beyond the beach stood a jungle with huge trees reaching up towards the sky. A thick canopy blotted out the light, hiding what lay beneath in shadow.
“How can a jungle be so close to the ice?” I asked.
Calen frowned. “Maybe another of the Collector’s defenses.”
Juko refused to take one step more and I couldn't blame her. The air felt warmer here, in a suffocating sort of way. I cast a drying spell that wrung out most of the water from my clothes.
“We have to hurry,” Calen said, “we still aren’t safe here.”
I looked around, dreading what dangers we might encounter next. Would the jungle really be any safer?
“You seem lost,” Calen said placing his hand delicately on the side of my cheek.
“At least we're lost together,” I said, knowing that wasn't at all what he meant.
“A lot of good that will do you,” Calen said with a smile, splashing me with the green water.
I scowled, having spent too much time soaked to the bone. Then laughed despite myself and splashed him back. For a moment life was normal again and we forgot where we were. Something must have been attracted to the sounds, thinking it the thrashing of an injured animal.
“Be silent,” Calen warned suddenly, “I see something moving in the water.”
His voice was so grave and overpowering, I would have wondered if he was putting me under a spell, but no, he was only trying to protect me.
There was a strange silvery splashing sound coming from behind us. It was almost like bells, underwater bells. The sight, however, was not nearly as serene. I watched as a tangled mass of translucent purple-black, the color of blue decay and dead things surfaced behind us.
Whatever it was, looked very much alive—twisting and slapping at the shallow water.
“Quickly, get to shore,” Calen urged me.
The blob broke apart into a hundred smaller segments, like a disrupted swarm of angry bees flying just below the surface.
“What are they?” Calen asked.
“Jellyfish,” Calen said, and I saw them clearly then.
Strange, bulbous mushrooms with orange and red tentacles approached us. Gold flecks spread throughout their mushroom-like forms and they had glowing orange centers that pulsed with mesmerizing light. There were more of them than I could count and all with a deadly sting.
I reached for my power then, and it was there, but we weren’t the target. Juko, who had refused to move from the water, screamed as she was stung again and again.
“Juko!” I screamed. Her cries cut off quickly as she was paralyzed and sank below the water. Calen held me tightly against his chest. He refused to let me go back into the water. The horses head dipped below the waterline as the jellyfish swarmed around her. It was already too late. Without another word, Calen carried me away from the sight.
I'd raised Juko from a small foal and been there when she had taken her first shaky steps. I’d fed her and groomed her. I was the first person to earn her trust enough to ride. Even when father didn't think I could handle the responsibility and stepmother thought it unbecoming of a princess to spend her days in the barn. Full years of my life had been devoted to that horse. In a rush of tentacles she was parted from me forever.
I’d lost everything—my home, my family, my dog, and now Juko.
Calen ran with me in his arms, over rocks and rivets, through the trees and on and on. Until I made him set me down.
“Let’s rest here,” Calen said, his eyes combing my every crease as he placed me on the raised roots of an ancient tree. Taking my hand, Calen pulled me close and held me as I sobbed.
Ahead of us stood some sort of cut out, an alcove, a fingerling lake, that branched off the main one. I wanted to scan the horizon there, to see if there was any stretch of land, any way out this humidity that soaked us to our very souls, but I couldn't look that far, I couldn't look any further than two feet away.
After my tears dried, my stomach growled, and I knew I had to keep on living. Our supplies were almost gone, so we shared what was left of the dried meat in my bag.
Calen shushed me as I was chewing. “I’m sorry,” I said, “was my chewing too loud?”
“I didn’t say anything,” Calen replied, looking over my head and into the forest behind us. A soft hiss came again, but not from his lips.
Across a small pond and amongst the mossy rocks slithered a pair of huge, green snakes. They seemed to dance together, knotting up in great scaly tangles, even striking at each other with teeth as pointed as daggers. Venom and blood were already at their tips. Thankfully, the snakes hadn't noticed us yet, they were busy with each other. Huge monstrous creatures, nothing like the gentle corn snakes of my own realm that ate only insects.
I remembered catching a small one in the field as a girl. I had let the small snake crawl from one hand to another. The harmless creature had fascinated me for hours. These were almost dragons, even the smaller one twice as long as Calen was tall, and looked as though they could swallow down a man whole. There was an entire cave of them and several swam through the water in below. Water vipers. Standing there, shaking in my wet boots, I felt like a field mouse.
“Is everything here poisonous?” I whispered.
One of the larger snakes pulled back and struck more viciously at the smaller one, pumping venom into it. The smaller snake spasmed, writhing uncontrollably until it finally stilled. I looked on in h
orror as the larger snake unhinged its jaw and began to swallow it tail first.
Calen had drawn his black sword. It seemed strange in the shadowy light. Not glowing, but a different shade as before. Instead of smoke wafting off the blade, steam seemed to rise from it. Was it forever night in this jungle? If there was a moon, it refused to burn off the fog, nor could it or any stars penetrate the trees.
Silently turning to me, Calen began to whisper. “See that tree, the one with the knothole shaped like a bear?”
I didn't see a bear, but I understood where Calen wanted me to look. I nodded my head, not trusting myself to speak. I was not weak, but Calen and I were different kinds of strong.
“Slowly make your way over there, treading as lightly as you can,” Calen said. He released my hand and stood his ground. I did as he directed, stumbling only once over a protruding root—the sound it made was like thunder in my ears as I tried to keep my balance. I held my breath, imagining all of the vipers rushing at us at once—but the snakes didn’t seem to notice. Perhaps it was the cover that the sound of moving water provided. Calen followed, silent as a tiger and lifted me up onto a low-hanging branch. I realized he wanted me to climb up the base and scrambled up as best I could, using indentations in the bark for handholds.
Without a second thought, Calen scaled the tree like a jaguar, carrying his sword and pack on his back. He seemed at home in the trees. We made our way higher than I had ever climbed before, the tree offering a hydra-head of thick branches and vines.
I had climbed trees at home all my life. It had nearly driven my stepmother mad, the way I'd scurry up them in my lacy skirts and return home with them torn an autumn's worth of leaves in my hair. Of course, I'd have preferred to climb in trousers and tunic, but I'd been too young to pick all my fights back then.
It was nothing compared to what Calen could do. I wondered if his other form had been a gorilla instead of a horse. Already my arms ached, but he wasn’t even sweating. The snakes had disappeared far below us—they couldn’t climb, could they?
I tried to mimic the grip the unicorn used and the clever way he found the right handholds. I thought I was doing pretty well—until I fell.
Chapter 18.
Calen
I dove for Wren, knowing I'd never catch her in time. Not before she fell off her branch and out of my grasp. I pushed off and let my momentum propel me downward. Focusing on my essence, I willed myself to become the heaviest thing in the world. Pushing aside branches and the very air itself, I embraced the feeling until I was falling with her—past her. Reaching out my hand, I caught Wren in midair as she fell. Catching her was only half of the problem. It was quite a challenge to shield her from the branches and not drop her as she thrashed and flailed about.
I cushioned our fall with my body.
Sharp rocks struck my back hard enough to break the bones of any man. Wren cried out from the tangle of limbs on my chest, but I held my tongue and accepted the pain.
Wren spun from my grasp as soon as she could unwrap herself from my arms. I had to make myself let go. Counting to three, I slowed my breathing and forced my muscles to relax. My fingers still clenched a tan piece of cloth that had ripped off from her tunic. For some reason, I couldn't persuade my fingers to release it. I felt the soft fabric between my fingers. At least it distracted me from the aching pain in my backside.
“How did you... “ she asked with a face not of concern, but complete shock.
“Unicorn,” I reminded her, as if she could forget. She probably wished she could.
That fiery rage was already taking hold of her. Anger was good—passion may very well be the thing to keep her alive.
We were back on the ground. I looked around with dread. Our fall was sure to have attracted the attention of the serpents.
“What weapons do you have?” I asked her, and that seemed to jar her more than the fall had.
She pulled two long knives from her boots.
“Will these do?” She said with more of a sneer than a smile.
I didn't have time to answer her. I could hear the undergrowth shift as the snakes approached. Wren sensed them coming as well. Still holding the knives, she took a half step toward the tree and looked up, wondering if she could make the climb back up in time.
I surged to my feet, hurried over and unceremoniously took the two knives out of her hands. “Keep on going. Don’t look back. If I don’t make it, continue on along the river and try to make your way to higher ground.
The shaking in her left hand worsened and spread to Wren's whole face. “You can't fight an entire viper pit by yourself,” she told me, but didn’t resist as I pushed her forward. She knew the people of Spellshallow need her and she was of no use to them dead. Wren began walking.
I turned my back to her, holding the deadly black sword in one hand, one of Wren's knives in the other, and the second clutched in my teeth. I widened my stance as the bushes began to rustle and the rounded heads of the snakes appeared, tasting the air.
There were fewer snakes than I had feared. Of course, they were also much larger than the others I had seen. The main advantage I would have in this fight was an immunity to the water snake venom. That was why I had to stay. If Wren was bitten… I might not be able to cure her before the poison struck her heart.
A large, brown-and-green scaled viper the size of a horse emerged first. Its body was lithe and powerful, the muscles rippling in a show of strength beneath the banded armor covering its form. My knife sprouted between the slatted black eyes. The monster gave a frightful hiss as it died.
Two other snakes paused, seeming to register the threat of my steel before splitting off to both sides to flank me. The red-and-yellow diamond-patterned one disappeared into the bushes at my left and the black-and-white-striped one vanished to my right. I was about to chase after the black-and-white one, when a huge male, all-black serpent appeared in front of me. This must be the dominant male.
The viper locked eyes on me and slowly slithered forward, its head up in striking position. The massive eyes held my gaze, attempting to hypnotize me into stillness as the smaller snakes approached me from behind. They hunted like a pack. Smart snakes then.
Swaying from side to side, the viper drew ever closer. It opened its mouth, exposing long fangs dripping with venom. I twirled my sword, willing it to glow with hot white light. The brightness reflected off the snake’s face and made it blink against the shine. The deadly mouth closed. It regarded me curiously.
I stared right back, turning the creature’s own trick against it. The snake’s confidence seemed to falter and the head lowered slightly. I spun suddenly, swinging my sword in a wide arc and slicing the head from the body of the black-and-white snake as it struck.
Remembering the red-and-yellow viper, I turned back to my left, barely in time to thrust the long knife up through the bottom jaw. The snake died instantly, but the weight of its coils slammed into me and I staggered backward, dropping my sword.
The giant black snake shook its head, casting off the daze it had fallen under. With my sword on the ground and my other knife lodged in the red-and-yellow snake’s skull, I was forced to catch the immense fangs on my forearm as the black snake attacked. They cut deep into the sinew of my arm, glancing off the bone and pumping in an unbelievable amount of burning venom. I gasped as the fiery agony traveled through my blood towards my heart. Struggling against the viper’s weight, I fell backward to the ground.
The black coils pinned me down while the poison took its course. My breathing became ragged and my right side went completely numb. The power in my limbs seemed to fade and my vision blurred. Perhaps I have overestimated my abilities. A giant eye gleamed in victory and the snake tried to pull away, content to swallow me later when I was fully paralyzed.
My left hand shot out and held the vicious head in place—the fangs were still lodged deep in my arm. The burning in my blood cooled and my strength began to return. The creature panicked as it was unable to free its
elf.
Dragging the head to the side, I screamed as the right fang tore through my arm toward my bicep. The snake’s left fang snapped as I grabbed hold of the neck and rolled the serpent to the side. The back of the viper’s head cracked into my nose, breaking it as it tried to free itself.
I braced my legs against the thrashing tail, refusing to give way as my left hand grabbed the remaining fang. I pulled as hard as I could, tearing it free with a wild yell. The snake spat a mixture of blood and venom. With the last of my strength, I stabbed the snake’s own fang through its eye and deep into the brain. It died, convulsing with a taste of its own poison.
I looked around for Wren. She was halfway up the tree, with a viper wriggling after her.
Blazing fire fell from overhead, slamming into the body of the snake, and setting the entire base of the tree alight. A momentary fear struck me, but no, Wren hadn't used the Eternal Flame—just an extra potent version of her own fire spell.
More of the vipers were attracted to the light.
“Let’s go!” Wren yelled, throwing another fireball into the jungle behind me. I retrieved my sword and shoved one of the knives into my boots. My limbs were weakened by the venom, but I steadied myself and climbed on through the pain.
Wren smartly crossed over to another tree as the base of the one she was perched on blackened. I followed her lead, climbing up and then pulling myself over to her branch and sitting in the crook of it.
“You were bitten,” Wren said, her eyes large with fear.
“There's no venom that can kill me, Wren, it will be cleansed from my blood by morning.”
She insisted on fussing over the wound anyways. I suppose it was oozing venom out of the two puncture holes like puss. After applying a makeshift bandage, we continued to climb higher. The fire began to spread, filling the air between the trees with smoke. Wren coughed and I urged her to move faster. “We have a way to climb before we can rest.”
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