Something was wrong, something was terribly wrong. The Snow Maiden lived in a cavity under the ground, not over it, this cavern was not as deep in the ground as it should be. She certainly didn't live in the tall palace across them in the cavern, the crystalline tall piece of magnificent architecture and art with the long arches and pointy ceilings, with the many gates spreading along its walls and the myriad elvish lights hanging from the ice.
No, nothing was right. Cassia had seen this place before, she had that feeling in her gut that she had been there sometime in her past. But how? Vastere was not an easily located place, not if you didn't know the coordinates at least. Vastere hadn't been invaded during the War, it was a small and unimportant Kingdom and it had never allied with anyone. It was the closest part of Tassiera to the Northern Islands and held a remarkable position in trading furs and pelts. Savage people, beings with claws and white, grey coats with eyes of pure sapphire, matching the shade of the Sea of Wings.
Then it dawned on Cassia like cold, desolate breeze sweeping over her face.
Kypriantha. Vastere was protected by Kypriantha's borders. She knew it, she had seen a map, an Adanei map. Bastard!
Cassia turned her head to the side and glared at Ael, she said, "Give me your hand."
"What?"
"Give me your hand, I'll flash us there, it's the fastest way."
"She will detect us, then."
Cassia cringed. "She is not the only one, we must move quickly."
Cassia moved forward, grasping Ael's hand in hers. She chanted the incantation in her head and willed her magic to form, those green sparks erupted underneath their feet, wrapping around them like a protective blanket of magic, transferring them towards those stalagmites on the Northern side of the cavern, behind the Ice Palace.
+ + +
Cassia was not to be fooled, not be toyed with, not be mocked and certainly not to be followed.
She shook her head and shoved Ael behind a broad, sharp stalagmite, he made to speak, but she shushed him as quickly as possible and moved to hide beside him. She bent down and grasped the golden pair of her pronged daggers. She twirled them in her hands, the blades sliding carefully over the underside of her forearms. She turned, her chest pressing against the ice, the leather gliding over the mighty stalagmite with precision as she bent down, feet braced, ready to give her the speed to strike down her victim.
She blinked, the whiteness of the snow petrified her gaze, dulled her senses and disoriented her. She gritted her teeth, clenched her jaw and took in a deep breath. She was Cassia Silverweaved, the King's Heir, she would not be afraid of a little snow and ice.
Ael, to her side, turned to mimic her position, he drew his daggers too for precaution and monitored the other side of the stalagmite. Cassia's senses kicked into overdrive as she willed her eyes to concentrate on the centre of the clearing before them. She forced her ears to listen with more caution. Her magic swept around the clearing, checking and then checking again for intruders, for any proof of life that might cause them harm.
A faint buzzing began, first in her head and then in her magical core. Her soul pulsed in her chest, in her veins. Someone was coming, flashing to the clearing by following her magical energy. She gritted her teeth and swore a foul, long word in the Dwarfish dialect that made the stalagmite to her side groan.
In the middle of the clearing, not far away from where she stood concealed by the ice, black mists of magic appeared, a macabre spoiling of the whiteness that surrounded them. White purity butting heads with darkness, impure and mysterious.
Cassia's back muscles flexed, she titled her head to the side hearing at the tension as it crackled away, the heavy cloak warmed her like a cocoon, but it would slow her down. She chastised herself, no, she had the element of surprise to aid her. She would move quickly, elegantly like the winds.
When the elf took verbal form between the mists, Cassia twirled her daggers and attacked. Her feet barely touching the snow, silent as the flying of a butterfly and swift as the winter breeze. Her golden daggers gleamed under the elven lights, her cloak of grey pelt billowing behind her, her black leather clothes, matching those of the elf before her, his back turned to her, vulnerable and an easy prey.
She attached herself to him, her one dagger pricking at the side of his ribs ready to pierce in his lungs and the other laying flat against the tender skin of his neck. Cassia leant closer, reaching around his silver hair, her breath ghosting over his pointed ear, she smiled, viciously and ferociously.
"Hello, Griswold."
He stilled, but only for a fleeting moment, before he snarled and tried to escape from Cassia's grasp, but she felt onto him with precision practised for hundreds of years, trapping him in her limbs and her daggers.
She tsked. "One more move, darling and I won't hesitate this time."
Griswold chuckled, he tried to turn his head to the side to look at her, but Cassia pressed her dagger to his skin, stopping him. He chuckled again, trying his best to unnerve her, but she remained unfaltering. "Charming, really." He said. "You believed you could invade my borders without my knowledge. You are extremely vain."
"Vain, I may be," she gritted her teeth, growling softly but animalistic to his ear. "But I am not a slimy bastard like you."
"Always in a fine mood, I see."
She growled again, pressing the dagger deeper into his skin, she was going to slit him open. One scar for every scar he had given her during the War, revenge for her own blood, her blood that had soaked the grass and had watered the soils as she had laid there, opened and bleeding onto Mother Nature's floor. Oh, she would take her revenge and it would be sweet and sour and bitter and salty, but altogether satisfying to her very marrow.
"Cassia," Ale's voice came from behind her as if sensing her thoughts. "He doesn't deserve it. Let him go."
She gritted her teeth. No, Griswold Blackthorn didn't deserve a piece of her soul, a piece of her mind and her afterlife. No, he didn't deserve it. Her daggers moved fast, slicing the cold air around them as she pulled her hands to her side and kicked Griswold’s knees in hopes that he would crawl to the ground, where he belonged.
He didn't, though, and instead, he turned around, smirking and snarling in the evilest way Cassia had witnessed in her life. He pulled one hand inside his cloak and over the handle of his sword. He said, "Now you listen to lycans." He huffed and raised an eyebrow. "Of course, I didn't anticipate something better from...someone like you."
She shook her head, she could stuff his head another time. "Why were you following us?"
He shrugged. "Vastere is under my protection, I know who comes in and who goes out and..." He trailed, surveying Cassia from head to toe. "When I detected your most...peculiar magic through the wards of the City, I can't deny, but my interest was piqued."
"Leondir had an affinity for lakes." Cassia shook her head. "You bastard, you knew all along what I was up to, didn't' you?"
"Indeed,” he spared Ael a disapproving look and pursed his lips. "I do not know the specific reason you wish to find the Sword, but you should know that it is well guarded and the King shall never find it. My..." He trailed, his features turned uninterested as he gazed over Cassia with contempt. "Gracious, elven father took care of it."
"Elven?" Cassia questioned.
Griswold tsked, shaking his head and sporting a dashing smirk. "Of course, you don't know anything about me, traitor."
"I don't want to know anything about you. Now, if you please flash back to your sandcastle and leave us alone to save the world."
Griswold smiled, taking a few steps forward, eyes never faltering from the mismatched gaze of the she-elf before him. "Now, it would be a shame to miss all the fun and besides, you would need a guide down there."
"Down there?" Ael asked.
Griswold’s eyes flickered to the elf behind Cassia. "In the Snow Maiden's maze, of course."
Cassia might have blanched if Griswold didn't stand a few feet from her, smirking in the most
devilish way he could muster and gazed at her like a dragon ready to be fed with her flesh and bones. He was a vile elf, strange and virulent, there was not much Cassia could say about his character because she didn't know him well enough to draw conclusions, but...but he infuriated her and maddened her. How could he know everything? How dare he sneak his filthy nose in whatever she did?
Cassia growled, attracting his impossibly grey eyes. She hated those eyes, she hated them because every time he glanced at her something snapped inside her, snapped and crumbled and crawled and pleaded. She would have her revenge, indeed. One day, not far from now and she would scream and dance and sing over his burned flesh, over his ashes and she would laugh and destroy everything he had created. Yes, she would have her revenge, but not now, not when war raged young and violent at their doorstep.
She took in a deep breath, forcing herself to hold his grey gaze. "You'll come, but under my conditions."
He raised his hands in the air and smiled. "By all means, I would never dream of defying you, my Lady."
"Spare me the chit-chat, bastard." She clicked her tongue. "Now, if you are lying, I'll personally hand your stuffed head to the King and I'll keep your heart in a silver box on my desk."
"Oh, I am so scared." He said mockingly.
Cassia pursed her lips and glared at him. "You will speak of this to no one, you will do nothing to jeopardise my mission and you will not try to trick me because if you do..." She trailed shaking her head. "If you do, you'll hope I had killed you in the War."
He winced jokingly, "I am so scared, I soiled my pants."
"You should."
Ael cleared his throat, trying to ease the tension. He asked, "What do we do now?"
Cassia turned her head to the side but always kept a careful eye on Griswold. "We flash underneath."
+ + +
The underground parts of the hidden caverns were a curious perplexity of ice and magic. Cassia had insisted on flashing all of them down, but Griswold refused and instead he flashed a few seconds after they did, almost bumping onto Cassia. She threw him a spiteful look and turned to gaze at the Labyrinth across them.
A strong ice maze stretched itself in broad curlicues and whorls before them. Cassia stood before the entrance of the maze, Ael remained beside her, gazing at her with wonder and Griswold decided he was far too bored to even spare Cassia a look.
The torches, that hung from the walls, burned slowly, the little flames flickered and moved, dancing around themselves as a slow breeze blew. The growling sounds that came from the centre of the maze attracted Cassia's attention.
Whatever awaited on the other side of the maze could not have been good. The whole cavern, with the tall ceiling and the prominent stalactites hanging from the roof, and there across the maze, over the many bumps of rocks and stones of black, dark hematite, over the whorls of ice curved and morphed to resemble serpents and monsters of a land far away. Music echoed in the cavern, a lullaby of sorts, a lamentation for what was lost during the Wars.
It was what made Cassia recoil and cringe. The words, the words were spoken in fluent Common Speech, allowing everyone to understand of what monster the Maiden sang about...
"Silver blood and silver nails, the beast of north and west..."
Cassia cringed again. She knew the Adanei and their allies cursed and sworn over her very name, but she had never heard people mourning over those she had killed and damning her name to the most hellish pit in the Underworld.
"A child of spite, a child of coil, what toil it brought on Nature's golden crest..."
Cassia clenched her jaw. If the Underworld was what she deserved then she would gladly face Ramos himself and condemn him to the same torture she would be inflicted with.
"The gods respite, the gods collide, but wrath never comes..."
Griswold laughed, snapping Cassia's attention away from the fairy to the other side of the cavern. He snorted and shook his head. "Of course,” he said laughing. "You can't believe the foolishness of fairies."
Cassia ignored him as best as she could, the fairy was correct. Cassia was the wrath of gods spread over the world to take revenge and the Underworld should be her home. She shook her head, snapping her mind out of the trance she had been in.
She walked forward, entering the maze. The thick ice walls reflected the small flames on the torches. Cassia gazed at her reflection on the ice, her mismatched eyes blinked, Cassia shuddered, averting her gaze. These walls were enchanted, enchanted to keep unwanted visitor out and confuse those that had gone there with a purpose.
She snapped around, glaring at Griswold who kept an uninterested smile over his face. "By all means, do what you are here for. Do guide us," she narrowed her eyes. "But don't you dare trick me, snake. I will know." She pointed a dagger at him.
He quirked an eyebrow, a small smile rising to his lips. "I wouldn't dream of tricking you, darling."
They walked down the narrow passage of the maze. Griswold leading them with unparalleled arrogance. How could Cassia resist the urge to shove her foot up his arse, she still didn't know. The need to take a revenge, the need to see him bowing before her as a faithful servant, someone who had been humiliated just as she had, was great, ardent and violent.
The dark passages gave her chills. The hematite stones around the cave, on the cave's walls, reflected a certain darkness onto the ice, turning them black, silver and terrifying.
Ael and Cassia followed Griswold as he turned to a corner, and changed passage. Cassia winced, she distrusted him to her very marrow and that was saying something. She kept her hands close to her daggers and closer to her sword if possible. At least, she wanted to be prepared to attack him if the occasion should surface. Cassia raised her serpentine eyes from the ground and gazed at Griswold’s head. It would be easy, oh, so easy to pull her dagger up and plug it on the back of his skull. Guide or not, she didn't need him to find her way through the mysterious maze of a lunatic fairy queen. Cassia had met many lunatics in her years, she was family with the greatest of them all.
The passage became narrower and narrower, suffocating and the ice didn't help to ease the confusion of the mind. It added more terror, more gut retching fear. The floor turned slippery and Cassia had to remain always alerted, she had to keep her magic unfaltering underneath her feet, where she had conjured a magical carpet of green sparks.
Ael used his sword as a leverage, trying to keep himself from falling, slipping down the ice and most definitely receive Griswold’s crude remark about the situation of lycanthropy. Cassia shook her head. If all the Adanei were like him then she would gladly have aided the King to whatever purpose he had in mind. At least, for the sake of her sanity, most Adanei she had met were more than amiable entities with decent minds, unlike that bastards'.
She glared at the back of his head again, willing her eyes to spit flames and burn him to ashes. That despicable excuse of an elf knew he knew of her plans, of what she intended to do with the Sword. Oh, how she hoped he slipped and fell on his bum, just to have the honour of humiliating him just a tiny, little bit.
Her eyes travelled back to the slippery floor. She narrowed her eyes and went for her daggers. "I think we are doing circles." She said and stopped walking.
Griswold froze and turned around, sporting a smile. "How did your brilliant mind came to that conclusion?"
"You did have me tricked there for a moment," she smirked, doing her best not to snarl. "The gashes on the floor."
He shook his head, at least he had the decency not to look at them. "You asked me to lead you to her, now, didn't you?"
Her smirk turned sour, narrowed eyes, clenched jaw and determined hands over her daggers. "I've had people hanged for less."
"Yes, of course, but this is my territory. Be careful, your threats might backfire."
"Look here, you bastard-"
"The maze is enchanted, Cassia." Ael cut in, his eyes turned away from the arguing pair before him as he gazed in terror around them, towards the icy w
alls.
Cassia huffed but did not turn around to look at Ael, the real threat was Griswold. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"We have to separate."
The maze was madness, there was no way for them to leave it alive, no way to survive if they separated. Cassia did not want to possibly let Ael alone wandering around that maddening maze, nor did she want Griswold to walk alone, unsupervised. Cassia moved towards the left corridor. She stopped before entering it; she turned around to face them, she bit her lip and walked back to stand before them. She placed a hand on Ael's left shoulder.
"You are coming with me."
Ael winced. "Are you going to let the Lord all by himself in these place? Cassia, no. You don't know what he is up to."
Griswold chuckled. "By all means talk as if I am a mere child that needs surveillance."
Cassia ignored him as she continued speaking to Ael. "I can't stand being with him for more than a minute Ael. Don't even suggest that I follow him."
"If he tries to use magic, I am afraid I won't be of much assistance."
Cassia flinched. He was right, correct, as always. "Fine," she exclaimed with distaste. "Be careful." She said and walked towards the left corridor. She turned around and glared at Griswold. "Come along, I won't wait for you."
Cassia shook her head; there was little hope for survival in this place and having to drag Griswold around with her added to her stress; perhaps they would get lost in the long, curious, living hallways of the maze. Cassia stood a few feet inside the corridor, her eyes inspecting the ice, her magic flaring, searching, monitoring. She turned around and shook her head before deciding to follow Griswold.
She failed though, to see a matching pair of grey eyes, surveying her through the thick ice.
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A War of Silver and Gold Page 43