A little while later, Haida and the other two warriors appeared in full traveling gear. They had packs, climbing gear, tents, and other supplies strapped to their backs.
Rowan gave me a sisterly kiss on the cheek before she departed with the others. They left through the tunnel, and I went to bed.
I slept for a few hours until Ana appeared in my room. Her lips were dark again, which made the scar beneath her eye stick out.
"Do you really intend for us to travel during the day?" she asked, worried shadows cast across her face.
"We must know our enemy," I said, hopping up and quickly gathering my gear.
We ate a breakfast of cabbage soup and a boiled egg before heading out. Koryak was waiting at the gate, his lips stained black.
"Thought to leave without me?" he asked.
"I knew you'd be here waiting," I said, brushing past him.
The tunnel was much longer than I'd remembered. We went about a kilometer through the earth before it curved upward, depositing us in a rocky grotto. The walls of the tunnel had deep gouges, where I assumed the earth dragon had scoured away the rock.
Frigid air burned against the interior of my nose as I inhaled. Water formed at the corners of my eyes. I raised my arm to block the sun as I gazed across the white expanse. In the distance, hills rose to craggy mountains with sheer faces devoid of snow. The storm wall to the south was hidden by the curve of the hills, but I sensed it like feeling the sun on my skin.
A number of guards were hidden around the grotto. I didn't notice them, until one of them made a motion to Koryak, who responded with a hand gesture of his own.
"No sightings this morning," he said as he grabbed a couple of sacks and threw them at our feet.
Ana opened hers, revealing a white-and-green garment. She placed it over her head. It was like a cloak that covered the front and back. It'd been painted white with green strokes suggesting pines: camouflage for day travel.
After we were all wearing the coverings, we moved out of the grotto through a narrow canyon. The snow was knee deep. A fresh layer had been deposited in the week that I'd been underground. Out of the canyon, we headed in an easterly direction, staying beneath the trees when we could.
Moving east was hard, but enjoyable. We tromped through the snow, always scanning the skies for signs of the dragon's cloud. I caught my daughter studying me when we would stop to sip water and eat pine nuts for energy.
"I can't get over that you look younger than I," she said when I inquired upon her thoughts.
"I've surprised myself in the mirror more than once," I said.
We were crouched on a rise beside a row of pine trees. The southern side of the trees had turned brown, and needles covered the snow.
"Is it something you can teach me?" she asked hesitantly.
"My youth comes from someone else. It's not a power I possess," I said, keeping it vague.
Though she was my daughter, I'd not seen her in over twenty years. I couldn't know her mind. But that didn't stop me from wishing we could be as we were when she was a girl.
Disappointment was plain in her downcast gaze.
"How did you find that you had magic?" I asked.
She touched her lips. "When I studied to become a shaman. You?"
Koryak was standing away from us, studying the mountains to the east or the caribou herds on the plains between. His head turned slightly, indicating he was listening.
"I took a bath in the cooling water of a magical artifact," I said.
Ana's mouth opened and closed as if she wanted to ask a follow-up question, but then she tilted her head as if remembering something and asked what I assumed was a different question.
"Are there really other worlds than this one?" she asked.
"Realms, worlds, universes," I said. "We are not alone."
"I want to come with you," she said. "When this is done. I want to go home."
When Ana realized that Koryak had heard, she made an angry face in his direction. His back was to us, so he didn't see it.
"I don't know if there is a home to go back to. The one you want. I don't know how much Moscow had changed since Veles invaded. But for me, that place is no longer my home," I said.
Ana's neck bent forward. She blinked hard. "How can you say that? You're royalty."
I glanced towards Koryak.
Ana followed my gaze. "Don't worry about him. He already knows who we really are. I think the rest of them know deep down."
"I care nothing for the origin of my family. What our ancestors did is meaningless compared to our achievements. I am a member of the Russian court no longer. I've cast my lot with America," I said.
Ana recoiled as if bees were flying out of my mouth.
"You are a spy and traitor," she said.
"Don't mistake me, Ana. I still love the Russian people. It is our ways that must be reformed, once we drive these Otherlanders back into their realms," I said.
Further discussion was cut short when Koryak made a low whistle, drawing our attention to what he was staring at. Above the distant mountains, a billowing cloud was headed in a westerly direction.
We all crouched low to reduce our profile, not that the dragon should be able to see at this great distance. We were at least a few kilometers away, maybe five.
The dragon's cloud wound across the sky like a snake through the grass. It appeared to be searching for something on the plains between the two mountainous ridges.
I was mesmerized by the lazy movement and wondered at the brilliance of its scales. Did it hide beneath the cloud to keep the sunlight from betraying its position?
The dragon's cloud changed direction, heading towards the massive caribou herd. From this distance, the herd looked like a scattering of dots meandering in a southerly direction across the blinding snow.
They did not scatter as the cloud approached. I hoped we'd get another glimpse of the dragon when it attacked the caribou.
The cloud grew in girth as it neared the herd. Some of the caribou moved away, but they did not recognize the danger.
As the cloud enveloped the herd, I saw caribou fall to the snow. Had they seen the majestic creature and fallen in fright? Did its breath kill from a distance? Or was the cloud noxious by nature?
Before long the area around the herd was blocked by the cloud. Caribou ran out of the mist, scattering in all directions, finally recognizing the danger. As we watched, the wind shifted, blowing into our faces. For a brief moment, I thought I heard the distinct pop! pop! pop! of gunfire across the snowy plains.
Chapter Sixteen
Ana's jaw betrayed her surprise.
"Was that...?" she asked.
"I heard it too. It was gunfire," I said.
Koryak hissed at us. "Quiet."
I ignored him and his black lips. "It can't hear us from this range. But I heard that gunfire. Does the dragon take riders with it to hunt?"
Ana wavered, accessing her memory. "I don't recall ever hearing gunfire before."
"It wasn't gunfire," said Koryak emphatically.
"Then what was it?" I asked.
He scrunched up his face. "I don't know. The breaking of caribou bones, or ice. Maybe there's a lake beneath that snow."
I stood up in view of the plains. The cloud covered a central section a few kilometers away. Caribou raced out of it in all directions. Ana grabbed my hand to pull me back down.
"Have you ever seen this before? The dragon coming to the plains and attacking the caribou?" I asked.
Koryak nodded. "Yes, once, earlier in the summer when the herds were moving north."
"I've seen it before," said Ana.
"How long does the dragon stay?" I asked. "I assume it's feasting."
Koryak and Ana shared a look. I hated that her lips were black like his.
"A few hours," said Ana, "but I'm not positive."
Koryak half-shrugged. "I did not stay to find out. We've lost too many of our people to that creature."
"Then we have
enough time to find out why we heard gunfire," I said, shaking Ana's hand off my leg and marching towards the slope that led to the plains.
"Mother, what are you doing?" asked Ana in a hushed voice.
Koryak was reaching into his coat, frowning.
"I intend to find out what's going on in that cloud," I said over my shoulder.
"But the dragon?" Ana called after me.
"If we can't see it in the cloud, then it can't see us," I said.
"Are you certain?" she called after me, but I'd found a rocky ravine and was moving through it at a good pace. The slope pulled me down the hillside, and before long I was bounding off rocks like a mountain goat.
It was refreshing to move. Even when I'd been with Rowan, the journey had been a slog, fighting through the snow. I felt reborn after the earth dragon had healed me. The crisp air burned my nose and lungs, but I found it refreshing.
Upon the plain, the snow was mid-thigh deep, forcing me to lift my legs higher. The cloud remained ahead, a white mound of mist. The caribou had stopped fleeing the dragon and milled about as if there was no danger. I ran past a big-chested male that snorted in my direction, mist forming in the cold air.
Ana and Koryak caught up to me halfway to the cloud. I'd been running for almost an hour. My thighs burned and my underclothes were soaked, but I didn't feel tired enough to stop.
"You didn't have to come," I said.
The run through the snow seemed to affect Ana and Koryak more—they were red faced and panting, confirming what I thought about the earth dragon, that it had changed me somehow.
"I couldn't let you do this alone," said my daughter between breaths.
Koryak said nothing. He seemed worse.
We ran for another half an hour before reaching the edges of the cloud. As we neared, I slowed.
The mist was warm against my face and swirled around my hand when I waved the others forward. Inside the cloud, the crunch of snow beneath our boots was muted.
We moved through the whiteness, time seemingly suspended by the featureless surroundings. I found myself crouching lower as we went, as if I expected the dragon to loom out of the mist and attack us. Ana and Koryak seemed awed by the cloud.
We came upon the first dead caribou after about five minutes. Its intestines had been tossed into the snow, forming a mounded pink pile. They were steaming.
The meat had been torn away, leaving bones, legs, and a head. Ana and Koryak saw what I saw: the meat had been cut with a knife, not ripped with teeth or claws.
Though the mist made it hard to distinguish shapes in the snow, I pointed to boot prints that had circled the caribou and led deeper into the mist. There might still be a dragon, but there were definitely men.
Ana and Koryak's expressions changed from fear and wonder to determination.
We crept like hunters through the mist. Koryak had a pistol. Ana held a bone dagger.
Men's voices echoed through the cloud. I heard laughing and the low rumble of a steam engine. A figure stood at the edge of my vision. I crept on my stomach, keeping the snow-colored cloak spread around me.
The cloud thinned out as I got closer, revealing the scene. Men and women in bright linen coats moved around the area, processing fallen caribou and hauling the meat to an airship hovering above the snow, held in place by long ropes.
The airship gondola had few adornments. It was made of darkwood and brass. The bladder was leather held with iron rings.
The Nenets had folded eyes like Koryak, but were dressed in modern clothing as if they were working on the streets of London. Their language was close enough to Yaran that I could understand it.
A hearty, pink-cheeked woman called to her workers to return to the airship. She had black hair pulled back into a fierce ponytail and wore a tailored coat.
I was so engrossed by the scene that I almost didn't see the man with the caribou meat on his shoulder walking up to me from behind and to the left. He hadn't seen me, but was about to step on me. I didn't move for fear of discovery.
He was whistling a happy tune that stopped short as if he'd seen something. I couldn't turn to find out. I felt his boot poke my pale cloak. If I strained my gaze to the left, I could see him standing nearly upon me.
"Daggle," cried the woman from the airship. "Hurry up, you lazybones."
Daggle, the man nearly standing upon me, hesitated before answering, "Just a moment, Captain. There's something strange here."
If I sprung up and ran away, would I be able to make it back to the hills before the airship took flight and hunted me down? I held my breath, fear coursing through me like hot lead.
"I don't care about strange," called the captain. "I just want to get back to the Aerie before it's dark."
"But Captain, it's just—"
"Don't 'But Captain' me. Get your boots onto the airship or I'm leaving you," she said.
A pair of boots went past my head. I kept my face down and watched for Daggle to change his mind. He made it to the ship, climbing up a ramp and into the gondola. Once he was in the gondola, I saw him looking through the window in my direction, trying to determine if he'd seen what he thought he saw.
Then the steam engines roared and the airship lifted into the air. The cloud grew thicker, and I saw the reason why. Long tubes stuck out the sides, blowing mist from their ends. In moments, the airship was swallowed by the cloud, but before it lifted into the sky, I saw mechanical dragon's feet hanging from the bottom.
I stayed on the snow until the fog disappeared, leaving us surrounded by dozens of dead caribou, harvested for their furs and meat. The moving cloud headed to the eastern mountains as the sun set.
Koryak and Ana appeared a little later, snow encrusted onto their furs and hair, looking bewildered. I could see the frustration in how they'd been duped on their grim faces. Without another word, we turned west and headed back to Ice Lake.
Chapter Seventeen
Two days later, when we returned to Ice Lake, Anton did not take the news well. He took his sword out and hacked a table into pieces, each blow severing a hunk, forcing us to duck to avoid the flying wood. He hit the table with the force of three men. I was glad it was only the four of us in the hall.
"What about when it chased you through the trees? It was taking the tops off the pines and tossing them down the mountain. How does an airship do that?" asked Anton, still breathing heavy from his outburst.
Koryak shook his head. He'd moved a good distance from the table once Anton started hacking, and he made no move to get any closer. "I only know what I saw. That was an airship with men and women piloting it."
"Maybe the airship carries a steam cannon and it was knocking the trees down with it," I offered.
Anton glared at me. "Do you believe that?"
"More than I do a dragon," I said.
"What about what you met below?" he asked. "Are you saying that's a lie too?"
There was no doubt in my mind that what I'd spoken to in the caves had been a supernatural creature. I didn't know if it was a dragon since I hadn't seen wings, but it had cured me.
"No. But maybe the dragon is dead and they've been using the airship to fool you," I said.
I knew it was wishful thinking, considering I was pledged to kill the dragon. Considering I had no idea how to accomplish such a thing, it would be a lucky break to find out it was already dead. But somehow I doubted I was that lucky.
"Then where in all the hells did they get an airship? The Nenets and Yarans were once the same tribe," he said, pacing. "Guns, I understand. But an airship?"
Ana spoke in a tentative voice at first, but it grew stronger as she went on. "What if they acquired it from the Otherlanders in exchange for something important like their dragon?"
"Do you really think a dragon would allow itself to be given away?" I asked.
"It doesn't change anything," said Koryak. "Dragon or airship. It's killed too many of our tribe."
I'd almost forgotten the black-lipped shaman was here. He w
as the only true member of the Yaran in the room.
"How long ago did the two tribes split?" I asked.
Koryak hiked himself onto a table backwards and let his feet hang off the edge. His Yaran accent deepened as he spoke, as if remembering the past reminded him of his heritage.
"My grandfather served the people as the yanyani tadibya"—he glanced meaningfully at Ana—"when the people were one. We had two camps, one in the mountains for shelter and one on the plains for hunting. Those that felt a strong connection with the sky lived in the Aerie, and those that had it with the earth lived at Root. But people moved between them, especially children, who decided which they preferred as they grew up, or they'd met someone from the other camp and choose to mate with them. It was a good arrangement that made our people strong, my grandfather said."
"Were there dragons?" I asked.
"He told me there were dragons, but the tribe did not have a strong link to them. They were creatures meant to be honored and respected, feared especially, but not worshiped. They did not bother themselves with the realms of men, just as we do not bother with the realms of ants," said Koryak.
"Why have you not told me this?" asked Anton.
Koryak looked at his feet. "You never asked."
"What changed?" I asked, resisting the urge to scowl at Anton for his interruption.
"He did not say. Either he did not know or he did not want to speak of it," said Koryak. "But in his time, the tribe split into two. The Yaran and the Nenet. The earth and the sky. And now there are dragons."
"One dragon at least," said Ana.
Anton frowned in my direction.
"What?" I asked.
"Say it," he said.
"Say what?" I asked.
"It has been a long time since I was at court, but I know that look on your face. It's the same one you would get before you whispered into Catherine's ear. The nobles of court trembled at those whispers, wondering who would feel your wrath. So tell us what you're plotting?" he asked.
The truth was that I was usually flirting with Catherine and saying nothing of the court, but I knew how beliefs were. There would be no changing his mind.
"I have no plot, yet, but we should wait for Rowan and Ben to return. They have keen minds to help us devise a solution to our problems," I said.
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