by Joel Ross
He woke before dawn, with Sally’s tail in his face. He wriggled free, crawled from beneath the bush, and peered down the mountain.
They’d come a long way.
He peered up the mountain.
They had a long way to go.
“The humans are awake,” Sally said, settling beside him. “They’re breaking camp.”
“How about the goblins?”
Her muzzle twitched. “Even my ears can’t hear underground.”
“They’re still digging,” Roz said, emerging from the hollow. “Straight toward us.”
The day grew brighter as they climbed, and the snow deeper. Nin was right: even in the warm sunlight, the snow didn’t melt. Sally prowled across the drifts, Chibo spread his wings and took some of Ji’s weight, but Roz had to plow through snowbanks until she almost exhausted her troll strength. Finally, they reached a path. Well, an ogre path, which was a line of flat-topped boulders rising over the snow.
“We’re at least a day’s travel from the top,” Roz said.
“I could fly there right now, no problem,” Chibo fluted.
“I hope she’s here,” Ji said.
An ant lion crawled onto his cheek. What if she is not?
“Then we’ll stay half beasts forever,” Chibo said.
“Yeah,” Ji said. But actually if the Ice Witch wasn’t there, they wouldn’t stay half beasts much longer—because the Summer Queen would catch them and sacrifice them on a water tree.
“The snow’s not melting,” Sally told Nin. “That means someone’s using magic.”
Chibo nodded. “It’s got to be the Ice Witch.”
A breeze brought the scent of evergreen, and Sally pricked up her ears. “We have to switch paths. The humans are on our trail, and they’re moving faster than we are.”
“What about the goblins?” Chibo asked.
“I can’t tell,” Roz said. “The mountain is crisscrossed with . . . burrows?” She frowned in concentration. “They’re not goblin tunnels. What are they, Nin?”
Dkeruckgctut.
“Oh!” she said. “The old mines.”
Stories say that mineshafts run from tailmountain to topmountain.
Roz brightened. “But that’s perfect! We just need a mine entrance; then we can climb the mountain from the inside!”
We can head into a mining town, Nin said.
“What mining town?” Chibo asked.
The one for miners, Nin explained.
“For ogres?” Roz asked.
Of verycourse! The ant lions on Roz’s shoulder pointed their antennae. That way is the mining town.
“You could’ve mentioned mine shafts earlier,” Ji groused.
Maybe we did! Nin said.
“Except you didn’t,” Chibo told them.
Except you didn’t, Nin said, and directed them onto a smaller path.
Having a plan lifted Ji’s spirits. Maybe they’d actually do this. Maybe they’d actually succeed. He gave Chibo’s skinny legs a squeeze as they followed a narrow, winding trail upward.
“So the ogres wanted to seize more foothills, right?” Sally asked Nin when she returned from scouting ahead. “I mean, in the first war.”
Greedy ogres!
“So if the crown weakens, will the ogres attack again?”
Of course not, Sallynx!
Roz smiled faintly. “I’m sure they’ve learned their lesson.”
At least not until there are plentymore ogres, Nin continued.
“What?” Roz rumbled in gravelly surprise.
If the towns are brimfilled with ogres, who knows? Maybe we’ll get greedy again.
“Even after all this?” Roz gestured with a two-fingered hand. “Even after the Gravewoods stopped the cubwalks and destroyed the ogre towns?”
“It’s not freedom,” Ji told her, “unless you’re free to do the wrong thing too.”
23
THE SUN WAS high and a warm breeze swirled with the distant bleating of goats. Sally and Nin followed a zigzag path toward the mining town, switching from one ogre path to another to confuse the pursuing goblins.
“I believe we’ve obscured our direction,” Roz finally said.
“Huh?” Chibo asked.
“She thinks we lost the goblins.” Ji looked at Sally. “What about the humans?”
“I can’t tell.” Her nostrils flared. “But I think I smell dead things.”
“Magic,” Chibo said.
Evilmagic, Nin said.
Sally grunted, then forged a winding course between frozen cliffs. Slogging through the snow exhausted Roz, and the chill finally penetrated Ji’s snaky skin. Still, they trudged onward until they reached a sharp bend in the mountainside path.
“C’mere,” Sally said, peering around the turn.
When Ji crept up beside her, he almost fainted in relief. He’d been expecting some new horror in the gathering dusk, but there was just a massive quarry. Loads of stone had been removed from the side of Mount Atra, leaving a series of holes bigger than a manor house and deeper than a canyon. Ledges and bridges spanned sheer cliffs. Caves lined one wall of the quarry, and dozens of reindeer grazed in a snowy meadow that stretched between two ginormous pits.
“This is a mining town?” Roz rumbled.
“I can’t see!” Chibo said.
“It’s a huge quarry,” Ji told him. “Except . . . bigger.”
Extremely unsmall, Nin agreed. And yes, Missroz, this sniffsmells like the place.
Sally swiveled her ears. “There’s nobody here but reindeer.”
“Where are the miners?” Roz asked.
Long gone, Nin said, as Sally stalked farther along the path. The mines have been mothquiet for generations.
When the reindeer noticed them, the entire herd fell perfectly still for two heartbeats—then they loped away through the snow, as smooth and silent as daydreams.
The mine mouth is that way, Nin said, as two ant lions pointed deeper into the quarry. Inside we’ll find ladderpaths to the Ice Witch.
Sally led the way down a series of snowy ramps and beneath a series of bridges. The sunset painted the clouds orange as she prowled into a field of crooked columns. Beyond that, the quarry widened into a valley. The clouds darkened and a tip of crescent moon glimmered behind a low ridge. Two round moons illuminated a wide road leading toward the mine entrance, which opened in the base of a sheer cliff a few hundred yards ahead.
“What I don’t understand,” Roz said, scratching her horn, “is how all these wars start in the first place. Nobody likes fighting.”
Ji snorted. “Everyone likes fighting!”
“They do not, Jiyong. People do not enjoy fighting.”
“Have you met people? Ask Sally! She likes fighting.”
Sally curled her muzzle to show her fangs. “It’s the only good thing about being a hobgoblin.”
“Other than your fur,” Chibo said.
“We fight when we must,” Roz said. “Not because we enjoy it!”
“You punched an ogre off a cliff,” Ji said.
Roz flushed. “I am not proud of that.”
“I am! You were awesome.”
Many aws, Nin agreed.
“It tossed me into a stone rosebush,” Ji said. “My butt still aches.”
“A pity you didn’t land the other way,” Roz said loftily. “Your head is hard enough to break stone.”
Chibo giggled and Sally flashed a toothy grin before suddenly stopping in the center of the road. Her ears swiveled toward a massive arch that was carved into the cliffside fifty yards away. The mine entrance. Warm air swelled from the depths, making snow flurries swirl and whirl.
Ji peered into the darkness. “At least it will be warmer inside.”
“Um, does anyone else think it looks like a dungeon?” Chibo mused.
Roz smiled at him. “It looks to me like the best way to reach the Ice Witch—”
“Another moon!” Sally barked, eyes narrowing. “Another moon is rising. That’s four.
”
Ji scanned the quiet landscape. The snow suddenly looked like kumiho fur and the silence touched him with dread. “Do you hear anything?”
“Just some night birds. Frogs and crickets—”
An eerie shrieking tore through the night—the blood-chilling yowling of the kumiho. Roz clutched her backpack straps, and Ji’s blood turned as cold as a petrified forest.
“I’m pretty sure I hear something,” Chibo piped.
“Run for the mine!” Ji shouted, his voice thick with fear. “If they’re far enough away, we can—”
All three kumiho prowled into sight on a high quarry ledge, bulky rodent-like faces glowing white in the moons-light.
“They’re not far enough away,” Sally said.
The kumiho leaped from the ledge. They landed on a sheer rock wall but didn’t fall. Instead, they scrambled across the frozen cliff like spiders and vaulted down to the mine entrance. Guarding the arch. Pacing back and forth, but not attacking. Not yet, at least.
“Get back!” Ji shouted, pulling Chibo away. “Back, back!”
A feathery voice spoke from behind them: “Thou mayest not enter the mines, Winter Snake.”
A woman’s head—a hundred times life-size—appeared in the snow flurries that swirled in the mountain breeze. Ji recognized her wide mouth, square chin, short hair, and golden crown.
“The Summer Queen,” he whispered, his heart pounding.
“Thou mayest not meet the Ice Witch,” the queen thundered. “And my kumiho will prevent thee from leaving this place.”
“Until Brace arrives?” Sally snarled.
“The prince will not arrive alone. I am here in the flesh.”
“You’re here?” Sally growled.
“Indeed. Your betrayal forced me to leave Summer City. I arrived hours ago, to aid in the pursuit—the capture.”
Ji felt his fists clench. “Well, that’s frothing fantastic.”
“Remember your manners!” Roz hissed to Ji before curtsying to the queen. “Your Majesty, p-perhaps we can discuss this and c-come to a mutually satisfactory arrangement?”
“Thou art a young lady of superior understanding, Miss Songarza,” the queen’s huge, snowy head said. “So thou must see that this arrangement satisfies me perfectly. You cannot flee. And with the assistance of mine arcane arts, the Summer Army hath made rapid progress.”
“They’re right behind us,” Sally gasped. “She must’ve cast a silence spell. I didn’t hear them until just now.”
“Thy bestial abilities are nothing beside the power of the Summer Crown,” the queen said, her voice colder than the snow. “You are traitors to your people.”
“You tried to kill us!”
“Filthy animals!” The snow swirled angrily. “You are a danger to the realm. You shall not escape—and your allies are too distant to help.”
“Our allies?” Ji asked. “What are you talking about?”
“The nonhumans who seek to assist you.”
“The goblins?” Sally interrupted. “They’re our allies?”
The queen’s mocking laugh sounded silvery in the mountain silence. “Wast thou attempting to evade them? Indeed, they sought to come to thine aid.”
“I beg your pardon!” Roz rumbled. “The goblins are working for you. The White Worm brutalized his own people for you.”
“The wisest of the goblins work for my realm. For my crown. For my peace. However, the rebels, the savage, uncivilized goblins, strive to end all that is good and proper.”
“Oh, c’mon!” Sally grumbled. “We’ve been running away from the rebels? Can we catch a single break here?”
“Expect no rescue at nonhuman hands,” the queen said. “Soon you shall contribute your souls to the Summer Realm instead of wasting your foolish, worthless lives on this childish resistance.”
Ji took a breath. “Let us go.”
“And leave my people unprotected whilst beasts ravage my lands? Why ever would I do such a thing?”
“Because you need Brace alive.”
“And so he shall remain,” the queen said.
“No, he won’t. Not unless you leave us alone.” Ji turned to Roz. “Do you know what they used to mine here? Gold. This whole mountain is veined with gold—”
Gold and silver! Nin said. Mostly gold.
“If I see a single knight,” Ji told the queen, keeping his voice steady, “I’ll set the world on fire. I’ll burn your prince to ash.”
“The friend of thine youth?” the queen asked. “Thou wouldst consign him to a fiery fate?”
“In a heartbeat.”
“Thou art truly a dark-hearted creature, born of foul magic and evil urges.”
“That’s right,” Ji said. “So you’d better let us talk to the witch. Then we’ll turn back into humans and get out of your summery hair.”
The queen’s mocking laugh filled the quarry once more. “Thou art an expert deceiver, young boot boy! However, thou canst not lie to me. For five hundred years, the ogres mined every fleck of gold from this mountain—and sold it to the Summer Realm. My predecessors did not leave the Ice Witch a trace of treasure to aid her dragon-struck plan.”
“Well, you missed some,” Ji told her—lying desperately, because despite the hollow sense of power he’d felt since setting foot on Mount Atra, he couldn’t raise a single spark.
“Mayhap thou canst sense an echo of long-departed treasure.” The queen’s snowy head started breaking apart. “Or mayhap thou merely liest. However, thou shalt serve my realm, thou wretched and ungrateful beast.”
“Please, your majesty,” Roz said. “Just listen to—”
“I shall impale you upon the water tree! I shall make something glorious from your worthless souls. Your lives will drain from the mongrel husks of your bodies and pour into the pure vessel of my prince, who shall rule for centuries after you are forgotten!”
Her swirling, snowy face collapsed, and nothing remained but the echo of her mocking laughter. Sally growled, Roz murmured a word that Ji had never heard her use before, and Chibo’s wings drooped. Ji clenched his jaw. His bluff had failed and he didn’t have any other ideas. Well, except one.
He swallowed and asked Sally, “How close is her army?”
“See for yourself,” she told him, nodding across the enormous quarry.
A half dozen warhorses galloped down a ramp. Hooves kicked snow into the air and horse breath plumed in the moons-light. Two knights rode in the lead, just ahead of Posey and Nichol. Brace and Mr. Ioso followed closely behind, surrounded by sparks of white magic, and an entire battalion of knights gathered on the far rim of a deep excavation.
“Okay,” Ji said, taking a shaky breath.
“Not really,” Sally growled.
Ji turned toward the kumiho stalking in front of the mine entrance. Crooked teeth snapped. Black saliva splattered. A venomous aura of mindless violence oozed from the fox-demons, and fear clamped Ji’s throat. Still, he knew what he had to do.
“Follow me into the mine,” he said in a frayed voice. “The demons won’t try to kill us with the queen so close.”
“What are you talking about?” Sally asked. “They almost killed you once already.”
“Yeah, but the queen wasn’t there. Do they look well trained to you?”
“You’re betting that they’ll obey her if she’s nearby,” Roz rumbled. “But what if they don’t?”
“If we stay here, we’re dead,” he told her, and started toward the mine.
Snake heads hissed and spat. Ropy kumiho muscles bunched beneath mottled-white pelts. Nightmarish fox muzzles raised into snarls, and Ji’s heart curdled into yogurt.
Still, he took another step.
“You’re not allowed to bite us,” Ji said, his voice trembling. “The queen needs us alive, so you—”
A kumiho pounced at him, slashing with its razor claws.
24
“BAD DEMON!” CHIBO shouted, and his brilliant green glow lit up the archway.
; The kumiho roared in fury, Ji cowered in fear—and Chibo flashed past, faster than a diving hawk, his sprite wings whirling like a dozen scythes.
“Chibo, no!” Sally barked, lunging forward.
Roz grabbed her tail in a fierce two-fingered grip. “Let him go!”
Emerald wings slashed and chopped while the kumiho dodged and pounced. A blur of mottled whiteness surged closer to Chibo. Teeth snapped, snakes hissed—and a wing tip sliced through the kumiho’s shoulder. The demon shrieked and exploded into a cloud of what looked like white dust.
Ji’s ears rang with the echo of the shriek. He blinked a few times, but nothing remained of the fox-demon except for a cloud of white dust swirling in the archway.
“Holy guacamole,” Sally gasped. “You just destroyed a kumiho!”
“Sprites do that,” Chibo said, a fierce note in his piping voice.
Roz released Sally’s tail. “Sprites are the natural enemy of the kumiho! The demons cringed every time they saw Chibo’s wings since the first—”
“Roz, look!” Ji said. “What’s happening?”
The cloud of white dust was dividing into two streams, which swirled through the air toward the two surviving kumiho.
“Um,” Sally said, “are the demons doing that?”
“I don’t think so,” Roz said. “I think—”
Her breath caught as the moon-glimmering dust flowed into the fox-demons . . . and made them stronger. Deadlier. Bigger. Mottled shoulders broadened, demonic legs stretched, and rattlesnake tails thickened.
“They were created by a single spell,” Roz rumbled, lowering her horn warily. “When Chibo vanquished one of them, the magic sought Balance by pouring into the others.”
“Brighter, Chibo, brighter!” Ji shouted, shaking off his fear. “Keep them away!”
Chibo’s wings spread into a brilliant semicircle. His green eyes shone like lanterns and the two still-expanding kumiho paced and growled and snapped—but kept away from the emerald glow.
“Brace is almost here,” Sally growled, loping closer to Chibo.
“Get to the mine!” Ji tromped across the snow. “Through the arch! Stay close to Chibo!”
Sally loped ahead, the snow gleaming emerald around her. Ji and Roz followed as the two kumiho grew to the size of horses and prowled just beyond the reach of Chibo’s wings.