The Call of Winter (The Harbingers of Light Book 6)

by Travis Simmons

  Not far outside the opening of the cave Abagail saw a bonfire that had elvish scepters stuck in the ground close-by. She made her way to the fire. Through the haze of drifting snow, she made out the features of Celeste tall, golden hair falling to her waist, a white dress that looked more like pearls and seafoam than it did any kind of material Abagail had ever seen. Over the elf’s shoulder the pixie Daphne hovered in a plaintive purple glow.

  None of the elves or the mountain dwarves looked up when Abagail neared their fire, except one. Skye looked disheveled, his normally messy hair unrulier than ever before. His violet eyes were dark with sleep and lacked the normal cheer Abagail remembered in them. But when he looked up and saw her, a smile split his face.

  He stood and gathered Abagail in his arms, he breathed a deep exhale of relief across her neck. Tears bloomed in her eyes and her stomach raged with butterflies. His embrace was strong and warm and comforting; everything she needed it to be just then. He kissed the crook of her neck, and ghostly fingers danced up her spine in response.

  “I missed you,” Skye whispered. “I didn’t know where you’d gone or if you’d be back. Leona insisted that you were okay, but I worried.”

  Abagail didn’t answer, only kissed him softly.

  “Where is Leona?” Abagail wondered. It was only then that she noticed the heavy air that surrounded the fire and wondered why all of these elves were suddenly here.

  Skye took her hand in his and led her back to the fire. She sat on a log beside him, and he wrapped her in a blanket.

  A young male dwarf with a short beard and dark hair that didn’t have a trace of gray in it, handed her a plate piled high with meat. She took it gratefully, but let it rest on her lap without touching it.

  “That’s why we are here,” said an older elf. There was a young boy elf sitting on her lap, wrapped in her blankets. His head rested on her chest, and he looked mostly asleep.

  “New Landanten has been taken by the dark elves,” Celeste told Abagail.

  “And Haven has fallen to the harbingers of darkness,” Skye told her.

  Abagail sat and stared at the two elves for a while, trying to let it sink in what they’d just said to her. When the world stop spinning and Abagail could feel something other than the emotions raging in her mind, she asked them again, “where’s Leona?”

  “She’s coming,” Olice said. “When I left, Rowan and the ravens were getting her out of Haven. They’re on their way.”

  Abagail’s head swirled with hundreds of what-ifs. What if they hadn’t even made it out of Haven? What if the darklings got them on the way here? What if they were being hunted? What if they were abducted like Abagail and they had been by the frost giants? What if they simply fell prey to the cold weather.

  “Tell me how you left them. Were they out of the town yet?”

  Olice sighed and looked down to Gab. Skye tightened his hand in hers.

  “They weren’t, were they?” Abagail asked. Her voice sounded shrill. “You left them in Haven? You didn’t help them get out?”

  “I had to get Gab out of there,” Olice said, motioning to the boy in her lap. “Skye was nearly dead, and I had to get him into his orb to heal. We came straight here but yes, we left them in your home. They were being attacked by Daniken,” Olice said.

  “Daniken is alive?” Abagail looked to Celeste for confirmation.

  “Apparently,” Celeste shrugged. “Abbie, all we can do is hope they made it out alive. Rowan is a strong harbinger, and Leona is wily. With the ravens, I’m sure they made it out.”

  “What does your gut tell you?” Skye asked.

  “That something’s wrong,” Abagail said. “I felt it when I woke this morning, but I thought it was because the God Slayer is missing. Now I’m not so sure.”

  “The God Slayer is missing?” Celeste asked.

  One of the dwarves whistled in disbelief, the other two dwarves looked around them as if they might spy the thief at any moment skulking around the edges of the camp with the cruel looking spear in their hands. It didn’t really surprise Abagail that they were aware she’d brought the God Slayer with her. The weapon had radiated power, it was obvious to her and probably anyone else that was sensitive to wyrd that the weapon was with her.

  “I’ve looked all over the cave, I didn’t find it . . . I also didn’t find Marggie,” Abagail said.

  The fire was silent for some time. Back toward the cave Abagail could hear the hushed hum of conversation. Someone coughed. In the distance a pack of wolves hunted, calling back and forth to one another before falling silent for their kill.

  “We need a plan,” Abagail said. “What are we going to do?”

  Celeste said, “Dular Cragg leader of the mountain dwarves sees the danger these harbingers and darklings pose. He’s joined forces with us. Olice is to lead the dwarves and the harbingers north to take back Haven and New Landanten.” She turned her attention to Abagail then. “Your top priority is to find the spear.”

  “Why would Marggie want it?” Skye asked. Everyone looked at him. “Is that a dumb question?”

  “Is she a harbinger of darkness?” Celeste asked Abagail.

  Abagail nodded. “I think the essence of Hilda must have carried through the portal from Muspelheim with me. I think Marggie is playing host.”

  “Hilda . . .” one of the dwarves breathed. He shivered. The other two dwarves cast glances between one another.

  “That would make sense,” Olice said.

  “They’ve been after the God Slayer for some time now,” Celeste said.

  “They want to release Anthros,” said a female dwarf. Her accent was thick making it hard for Abagail to understand her completely. She wore fur robes, which was different from what the other dwarves wore. Abagail found herself wondering if the dwarf was some kind of scholar. Her hair was dark, like all the mountain dwarves, and the loose braid she wore over her shoulder was shot through with locks of white. “In order to do that, they need the God Slayer to get past Heimdall.”

  “What I don’t understand is how they can use it?” Celeste asked. “The hammer would only respond to Leona, someone who was worthy of lifting it.”

  “Not with the spear,” Abagail said. “Anyone can lift it. I think it has more to do with how the weapons were forged.”

  “What do you mean?” Olice asked.

  Abagail began, “When the hammer was forged, the original God Slayer, it was done so by using the blood and soul of the human Hafaress had loved. In a cruel joke, Olik captured the human lover and gave her over to Surt. He did this, he said, in order to keep Hafaress’ true love with him always. I believe the soul of his beloved ultimately controls who can wield the weapon.”

  “And this spear has none of those restrictions?” Olice asked.

  “No,” Abagail said. “The new God Slayer was made with a single purpose in mind: correcting the error the All Father made when he created a god that no darkling wyrd could touch. In doing so, he fractured the void and gave a foothold to the darkling tide. The purpose of that spear has always been to correct what the All Father had done. Since he created a God, Boran, who couldn’t be touched by darkling wyrd, he allowed the darkling tide to spread unchecked. This God Slayer can be handled by either darkling or not.”

  Skye shook his head. “So if Heimdall dies, does that mean darklings are able to access Eget Row?”

  A chill slithered up Abagail’s spine at the thought of darklings being able to penetrate Eget Row. “That means they can come and go freely from one world to the next!”

  Celeste spoke up, her eyes studying Abagail, “That means the darklings can infect all of the nine worlds until they are the ones who rule. All of the nine worlds will become as Agaranth is now.”

  Abagail tried to imagine her home, devastated by an endless winter. The bees that infected her, all dead from the extreme cold. The fire they kept burning in their front yard, Hafaress’ Hearth, which guarded them from the encroaching darkling tide would be one of the only s
ources of heat they had. Endless expanses of winter and snow. Would the trees between her home and Rorick’s become like the Fey Forest? It was too much for her to think about.

  “What about my sister?” Abagail asked, pushing to her feet. What about my mother? She wondered, thinking about Rowan. She had many questions for the woman, and though she didn’t despise her as much as she could feel Leona did during their dream, Abagail wondered why she would forsake them so easily.

  “There’s nothing you can do for her now,” Olice said.

  Of course not, Abagail glared at Olice. There’s nothing any of us can do for her now, not when you left her in the middle of a hostile camp. Abagail opened her mouth to say just as much when Skye tightened his hand in hers, scattering her anger to the wind. A calmness she only knew when Skye was around washed through her. She was filled with the presence of his power, her nose filled with his woodsy scent. She sighed, and let the rest of her anger ebb from her body.

  “They’re heading back,” Skye told her. “The dwarves and the harbingers are marching on New Landanten and Haven today. As long as she made it out of Haven, she’s out of danger.”

  “She’s killed Daniken before,” Celeste said. There was no trace in her voice that she was speaking of the death of her own sister. “She can do it again.”

  Abagail nodded. They were right. There was nothing she could do for Leona. There was no way she could make it to Haven in time to save her if she needed saving. Likely whatever happened was over now. For better or worse.

  “In the meantime,” Celeste went on. “We need to get you to Eget Row. There’s a place not far from here. If Marggie is a darkling, it won’t be hard to follow her trail.”

  “I’m going with her,” Skye said. “The army will need your help more than mine.”

  Celeste nodded as if she thought that were a wise choice.

  Daphne fluttered over to Abagail and landed on her blanket shrouded shoulder.

  “Daphne is going with you as well,” Olice said. “She will be a great light for you if the darkness has spilled from the void onto Eget Row.”

  Abagail didn’t bother looking at the older elf. She didn’t think she’d be able to without throttling her.

  “We don’t have much time,” Celeste said. “The army is leaving this afternoon when all the preparations are set. Are you strong enough to go to orb with Abagail?”

  “He shouldn’t be traveling like that by himself, let alone with another person. If you have to go to orb, you should be the one to carry Abagail,” Olice told Celeste.

  Celeste nodded. “I’m unsure I will make it back before the army departs.”

  “Follow us,” Olice said with a wave of her hand. “I will travel by orb so you have a wyrded trail to follow.”

  “All right,” Celeste nodded. “We will go by foot. If we get into any danger, Skye, we will have to travel by orb. I will take Abagail.”

  Just the thought of traveling by orb made her stomach flip. She’d traveled through the mirror to Eget Row in order to get to Agaranth. She’d also traveled through fire to Muspelheim, but that was different. When the fire had consumed her, she had ceased to be. Abagail didn’t remember the transport. This time she’d be merging with Celeste’s wyrd and flying over the land.

  Celeste was already standing. She seemed somehow taller than Abagail remembered her being. Her presence commanded power; that was another thing Abagail didn’t remember of Celeste. Her delicate hands gripped the sun scepter placed in the ground behind her. It had been opened, maybe that’s where her power came from? Her sister Daniken had used Celeste’s scepter as a weapon to kill Abagail. With her dying blood, the sun scepter had opened.

  Skye stood as well and retrieved his scepter from behind where he’d been sitting. At his side was a long sword that he used more often than the power of the scepter.

  “You will be needing a weapon,” the female dwarf said. She motioned to the younger male who had given Abagail the plate of meat that she hadn’t touched. “Duggar, would you mind giving her your sword.”

  “Really, I can’t take his weapon,” Abagail said.

  The female dwarf held up her hand to ward off Abagail’s protests. “We have no attachments to our weapons. It is a simple thing for him to replace his.”

  Duggar stood and unstrapped the long sword from his back. He handed the leather sheath to Abagail. The weapon was heavier than she was used to wielding, that would take some getting used to. She pulled it out of the sheath enough to check the blade. While it was sharp and well maintained, the dwarven sword was much cruder than she would have imagined. There was little ornamentation to the steel and the hilt was wrapped in leather and wire.

  With Skye’s help she positioned the sheath on her back and secured it.

  “It’s better to be prepared than to go out there unawares,” the woman said.

  “Maise, don’t frighten her,” Celeste chided the woman.

  “What kind of things?” Abagail asked, ignoring Celeste. She’d been through enough already. If the undead wreaking havoc in Muspelheim didn’t terrify her, she doubted much could.

  “Things that haven’t been in ages. Things we thought were only myth until recently. I haven’t seen any myself, but in the last few weeks we’ve had patrols come up missing, never to return. We’ve heard rumors of an unknown dead stalking camps at night. Great snow snakes attacking villages to the west. Even wolves venturing into towns where they’re normally too scared to lurk.

  “It’s a dangerous time out there, better to be prepared than to face it without protection.”

  If the morning had seem overcast when Abagail awoke, then it was a downright blizzard by the time they headed out. Abagail didn’t like the way the sword felt strapped to her back, so she switched it to her hip before they left. Still, Maise hadn’t thought it was enough. Though she argued with the woman that she’d never wielded more than one weapon at a time, she pressed an axe on Abagail as well. The weight of the axe slapped against her leg even as the tip of the sword skimmed the surface of the snow.

  Skye had no issue bundling up with two swords,and his scepter. When Abagail asked if he had a third arm somewhere that he could use to wield all those weapons, he only gave her a wink and one of those smiles that made her insides rearrange themselves.

  Celeste, somehow, had managed to leave the dwarf camp with nothing more than the sun scepter she carried in a holster on her back.

  They hadn’t been more than a few hundred yards away from the camp when the clouds thickened, blocking out more of the dismal light morning light. The morning was quickly cast in darkness, and if Abagail turned she could still see the plaintive fire of many camps behind them, though it seemed as though they’d been traveling from the mountain dwarves for a good while.

  “Is that another storm?” Abagail wondered, looking up ahead of them where the clouds wept to the ground. Abagail had seen that many times before on O when a raging rain storm had swept over the land. It was as if the clouds themselves were too heavy to stay in the sky and were falling one by one to shower the ground. “Does it do nothing but storm here?”

  “Of course it does,” Skye said. “You had a couple hours of near sunshine this morning. You should be happy!”

  “I think her time in Muspelheim has spoiled her,” Celeste called over her shoulder. Ahead of her Daphne drifted through the ever thickening snow. “But I fear that if we don’t find Marggie’s trail soon, we might not be able to pick it up.”

  “But you know where the portal to Eget Row is, right?” Abagail asked.

  Celeste nodded.

  “Don’t worry, Daphne is sensitive to wyrd,” Skye said. “She will find something.

  As if saying her name had summoned her, the pixie whizzed out of the darkness ahead. The purple effervescence of her glowing body shown in the darkness like a beacon. She alighted on Celeste’s shoulder and bent close to her ear. They all drew to a stop while the pixie imparted her words to the light elf.

  “She’
s found their tracks nearby. Follow me.”

  Daphne trailed ahead of them, her purple glow bright in the darkness of the day. The group pressed on in pursuit.

  “She told me that Marggie wasn’t traveling alone,” Celeste said, breaking the silence.

  “Who is she traveling with?” Abagail asked.

  “Not who, what. There were footprints, and trails following her. Great burrows in the snow that would surface to cut trails through the top of the snow.”

  “The snow snakes,” Skye said. “It would have to be.”

  Celeste nodded. “Unless Anthros is free. At that point, all of the darkling gods could come and go as they please without taking a human host.”

  “How’s that possible? I mean, I know if they’ve killed Heimdall they could come and go at will, but I thought the gods had to enter human bodies to be part of the physical world.” Abagail didn’t like thinking of Heimdall as being dead. Not only did she not like the thought of what that would mean for the security of the nine worlds, the thought of that opalescent god lying dead on the glowing rainbow cobbles of Eget Row filled her with sadness.

  Celeste frowned and watched the purple light of Daphne ahead of them. “Because the darkling gods aren’t exactly gods. They are a class between darklings and gods. Just as darklings can enter the nine worlds, so could their gods. They are made of shadows, or plague and nightmares. It’s all very confusing, but Anthros is to the darklings gods what the All Father is to Vilda and Hafaress. He is the power behind them. If he’s free, then his power is free and it bolsters them, makes them stronger; allows them to do things they didn’t have the power to do when Anthros was bound to the Tree at Eget Row.”

  “But we would have warning,” Skye said. “If Hilda made it to Eget Row and intended to kill Heimdall, he would have sounded the Horn of Winter before he died.”

  “He would have sounded it the moment darklings stepped onto Eget Row,” Celeste corrected.

  “So we will assume they’re snow snakes,” Abagail said.

  “Right,” Skye said. “We will hope they’re snow snakes.”