As he poured every bit of energy he had into his bubble of rohw, he was vaguely aware of Rindu turning his head sharply in Sam’s direction. He wasn’t sure, because his vision was starting to blur, but he thought he saw the Zouy smile slightly and nod his head. He immediately felt an infusion of more energy. It was Rindu feeding his own rohw into Sam, bolstering him and strengthening him. A few seconds later, he felt another burst of energy from Nalia, not so strong as from her father, but still significant.
With their energy combined, Sam pushed harder, forcing his body to not only act as a conduit for the rohw from the other two, but burrowing into his own body and extracting every bit of energy he could steal from himself.
It reminded him of the pulmonary function testing he used to have to take for work. The purpose was to find out how much air could be pushed from the lungs to determine if he could safely wear a respirator while working. He had to blow into a tube, a big burst at first, but then a sustained exhalation for ten seconds. After two or three seconds, it required him to tighten up his stomach muscles and push air from his lungs that didn’t seem to be there, forcing the last tiny bit of it from his body. It was uncomfortable, even painful. This was worse. It literally felt as if he was pouring his own life into the shield he was creating.
After an eternity, the rumbling died and the world became silent. Not the silence he experienced shortly before. Not the silence of the land holding its breath. It was the silence of the tomb, of death, the complete lack of sound that he imagined only occurred when one was buried alive.
The party waited, silent as their surroundings, for five seconds. Five of the longest seconds of Sam’s life. Throughout those five seconds that lasted a hundred years each, he continued to force himself to push outward with his rohw. Spots danced in front of his eyes, and darkness started to close in from the edges of his vision. He knew if he continued to exert himself for much longer, he would pass out.
After the five seconds, he tried to gradually release the pressure he was exerting, but instead, his concentration shattered and his aura-shield simply disintegrated. Staggering, he thought he would be crushed instantly. He had given it his best try, but it just hadn’t been enough. He waited for his death.
Another five seconds passed, and then ten. He was dizzy, had somehow fallen to the ground, but he was alive. He hadn’t been crushed. Why?
Nalia was next to him, her arms around him. Had she caught him when he fell? He couldn’t remember. Things were hazy, dream-like. He couldn’t seem to think clearly.
“Wha…?” he forced out through a throat that seemed ill-suited for speech. He cleared it weakly, causing the spots and stars in front of him to dance madly about and his head to spin. “What happened? Are we still alive?”
Nalia hugged him to her chest. “Yes, Sam, we are still alive. Thanks to you.”
“Sam,” another voice said, a man’s voice. “Sam,” it said again and someone came into his view. Rindu, that was his name. Master Rindu. “Sam, are you well? Are you injured in some way?” As the monk asked him, he was running his hands over Sam, especially his head. He must have been trying to detect any rohw blockages or damage within Sam’s body. “Fascinating,” Rindu said, and then everything went black.
Chapter 25
It started with a pinprick of light and a blurry world, gradually widening into a fuzzy field of vision that came into focus with agonizing slowness. Sam shook his head slowly, trying to cast off the shroud of confusion that covered him.
“Did I pass out?” he asked hoarsely. Nalia passed him a waterskin and he drank.
“You did,” she said to him. “How do you feel?”
He handed the waterskin back to her and rubbed his temples. “Like a giant leech sucked all the energy from me…and then I was hit by a truck.”
Rindu stepped into view. “Are you well, Sam?” He held up two fingers. “How many fingers do I have?”
Sam smirked. “You have ten, or eight along with two thumbs, if you want to mince words.”
The Zouy nodded and his mouth twitched into one of his not-smiles. “Good.”
Rindu grew more serious. “Sam, what made you think to do what you did? I have never heard of such a thing.”
It suddenly all came back to him. The avalanche, the snow piling up, his use of the rohw. He jerked and looked up toward the sky.
There was no sky. Instead, there was solid white several feet above his head. Snow. It was packed tightly, by the looks of it, but it was snow. In fact, as he looked around, he saw that they were in a bubble of air no more than fifteen feet in diameter and only eight or nine feet high. There was no break in the barrier around them, no door, window, or hole.
“Oh, that,” Sam said, looking at the monk. “I heard of some devices on my world, these airbag things, that not only can help keep someone so they ‘float’ near the surface of an avalanche, but they can also create a space to breathe if snow settles around you. I figured that making at bubble around us would do the same thing. I wasn’t sure if it would work, though. I didn’t know if I had enough power.”
“That was very cleverly done,” Rindu said. “You saved all our lives with your quick-thinking and your rohw abilities. Even if I had thought to do the same, I would not have had the power to do so. It is very difficult to project that much rohw outward and to keep it in place while thousands of pounds of ice and snow are heaped upon it. I do not believe I have ever seen such a show of sheer rohw power as what you have done.”
Sam felt his face heat, which was good, because it felt like a layer of ice was forming on him as he breathed. “I felt you and Nalia add your energy to mine when I was about to fail. We all cooperated to do it.” He looked toward the hard-packed snow he was sitting on. “Still, it felt like something happened when I pushed harder at the end. When I saw that even with all three of us, it wouldn’t be enough, I pulled every bit of rohw from my body, and it almost felt like something in me broke.”
“Yes,” Rindu said. “I noticed that. We must discuss it later and perhaps we will come to understand it. I have sensed no injury in you…” His gaze shifted to the ice walls for a moment, and he looked as if he would say something else, but he changed the subject. “We must decide what to do now. We will run out of air to breathe eventually. We should leave this sanctuary now that the movement outside has stopped.”
Emerius spoke for the first time since the avalanche. “Easy. Sam can just teleport us to Whitehall. Or Ix can.” Sam saw Ix nodding her head behind the hunter.
“No,” Sam said.
Emerius frowned. “What do you mean no? Do you plan on setting up a summer home here in this bubble?”
Sam was still rubbing his temples to soothe his muzzy head. “If we teleport out of here, then when we continue tomorrow, we’ll have to start over again at yesterday’s stopping point. We’ll have wasted a day of travel. It won’t do much good to memorize this place. I’m not going to teleport us back to this cave tomorrow. No, we have to get out first, then find a suitable location, and then we can go back home.”
The light of understanding entered Emerius’s eyes, and Ix nodded that she realized what he was saying was true also. “Oh,” the big man said. “I guess you’re right about that. So what are we going to do? There could be ten feet of snow on top of us. Twenty. Maybe more.”
“Maybe Ix could go to Whitehall and get some shovels so we can dig our way out?” Sam suggested. “If there was one of those traps around, it was probably destroyed in the avalanche.”
“I could do that,” the assassin said.
“I could help, also,” Rindu added. “I can use the rohw to generate heat to bore a hole in the snow. It would be too exhausting to melt a great quantity of snow, but a little help as we dig is possible.”
“Yes,” Sam said. “That’s a great idea. Both of them. Ix, can you go get shovels? Rindu, Nalia, and I will work on softening the snow while you do that.”
“I’m on it,” Ix said, and without further conversation disa
ppeared.
“I’ll never get used to how quickly she can do that,” Emerius said.
Sam looked at where the assassin had been scant seconds before. “Yeah, me either.”
He got to his feet and went to the edge of the open area. Remembering the lay of the land before the avalanche occurred, he picked out a spot just to the side of the boulders that made up part of the wall of their ice cave.
“I think this will be our best bet,” he said to Rindu. “I’m not sure how much strength I have left for this, though.”
“Do not worry, Sam,” the monk said, putting his hand on the younger man’s shoulder, “I will do this. You should rest.”
Sam didn’t like sitting around idly, but he acquiesced and sat down to watch Rindu work.
The monk prepared himself by taking a low stance, much like the one he used when preparing to break bricks or stone. He breathed in deeply through his nose, causing a slight whistling noise because of its shape. As he exhaled slowly, Sam could see rohw swirl around him, being pulled from the surroundings, cascading across his body and concentrating on his hands. To Sam’s rohw-sensitive sight, his hands glowed red like metal in a forge fire.
Instead of projecting it forcefully or striking something as he did when breaking objects, Rindu merely moved his hands toward the wall of the snow cave they were in. There were currents, like waves of heat, flowing out of his hands into the ice. It began to melt, slowly at first and then faster as the heat built up. By the time Ix returned with some shovels and a couple of pick axes, Rindu had made a dent in the wall more than a foot deep.
Seeing the assassin, he relaxed, allowing his shoulders to slump. Sam could only imagine how tired the Zouy must be from drawing in and using that much energy.
Ix handed a pick to Emerius and held out a pick and a shovel for Nalia, who took the other pick. The assassin gripped the shovel that was in her other hand and Togo Cairn grabbed the last shovel. “Well, let’s get started,” she said. “This pile of snow is not going to drill a hole in itself.”
Sam was able to help a little after a time. When the four found a particularly dense or icy part of the wall, they would allow Sam or Rindu to melt it partially so they could get through it. Both Sam and the Zouy were tired from their exertions, but Sam thought that maybe he had it a little easier because his staff so effectively channeled his rohw. Using it as a conduit, making the tip glow with heat was not a problem.
With all of them combining their effort, it still took over an hour to finally bore through the wall of the snow shelter and emerge into the daylight.
The entire area was changed. Not only was snow piled high—their shelter walls were at least ten feet thick from the accumulation of snow—but the force of the avalanche had uprooted trees and toppled fair-sized rocks, and there were even a few glimpses of fur here and there, animals that had not escaped nature’s wrath. It was a sobering reminder of how close they had come to death themselves.
Using their snowshoes to climb to a relatively clear area, they sat down in the snow and ice and waited as Sam learned the location and then immediately transported them all back to Whitehall. As he did, he saw Ix smack her forehead with her palm.
“I could have teleported outside the snow with Sam so he could learn the area,” she said to Emerius.
The next day they were back on their skis, heading north. Sam felt no lingering effects of his unprecedented use of the rohw once he was able to eat and get some sleep.
Lahim Chode had given them several drawings, landmarks that they would use to navigate the treacherous mountains in what was the Canadian Rockies in Telani. The first of these drawings was of two sharp peaks, thrust upward as if to punch holes in the sky. They were similar, but not identical, and they guarded the way to a high crossing through the mountain range, or so Lahim Chode said.
Two days after the avalanche, they saw the mountains.
“Did Lahim Chode name these peaks?” Nalia asked.
“No,” Sam said. “He just drew the picture and told us to go between them. There’s no doubt, though, that these are the mountains he was talking about.” Sam held the picture up and compared it to what he was seeing. “He is very good at drawing. It looks exactly the same. He obviously viewed this.” The picture could have been a photograph.
They spent the better part of the day getting through the mountains to a flat area, almost a plateau. “This is the crossing he told you about,” Togo Cairn said matter-of-factly. “Has to be. It seems to stretch off to the northwest. Looks like fairly easy traveling, especially with the skis. The snow is dryer here than farther south.”
It was true, and they made good time. In fact, they reached the next landmark before they ran out of daylight. It, too, was easily identifiable. The river, which had been their constant companion and primary means of navigation, split, one part going due north and the other wandering off to the northeast. They followed the northeastern branch.
After returning to Whitehall to rest, they were out the next morning, skis shushing through the pristine wilderness. The crossing afforded them beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and the valleys beneath them. With fresh snow that had fallen the previous night, they followed the obvious path that snaked its way through the high, rocky peaks until Sam spotted the next landmark, two massive mountains they were to travel between. The river they had been following turned south, and Sam bade it goodbye. He almost felt as if it was a friend after so long together.
Knowing they were in the correct location, they followed another gentle valley to the northeast until the flatlands spread out before them. They were nearing the end of their journey to the last artifact, and Sam was getting more and more anxious. They traveled until it was too dark to see, too dark to travel safely in unknown territory, and they went back to their base of operations once again.
Once they found the last of the landmarks, another river traveling to the southeast, they followed the obvious curve of the land between the forbidding mountain peaks on either side, keeping near the river. Finally, they went east until another mountain rose up directly in front of them. They traversed the lowland around it until they found the lake.
The party looked at the body of water they had come to find. They knew it was the right one. It matched Lahim Chode’s drawing as well as the other landmarks had.
“It doesn’t look like much of a lake,” Emerius said.
“We’re only looking at the end of it,” Sam said. “Supposedly, it stretches on for more than ten miles.” He looked at the water. “What I want to know is why it is not frozen like every other lake we’ve seen for the last week. We’re a lot farther north than we were before, and every body of water we’ve come across is still frozen. There’s barely even any snowmelt yet.”
“You are observant, Sam,” Rindu said. “I was wondering the same thing. In fact, I can feel the remnants of some power, though not the rohw. It is difficult to describe.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Ix said. “I’m sure if some power regularly kept the lake from freezing, it would have been investigated. It’s not the normal condition, obviously. Something must have happened.”
Sam looked out over the part of the lake they could see. There was a fair-sized area directly north of where they stood. It could have been a medium-sized lake on its own, hemmed in by hills and sharp-peaked mountains.
“Lahim drew a map,” he said, showing it to the others. “It curves around to the east. It’s much bigger than it looks from here.” He could see now that it actually wandered off to his right as he looked across the section he thought was the entire lake.
“Where is the artifact?” Emerius asked.
“It’s five or six miles around that bend there,” Sam said. “Rindu, can you sense it from here?”
“I cannot,” the Zouy said. “I do sense something, but perhaps it is the power that melted the ice on the lake.”
The party stood looking out at the lake, probably in disbelief that they were final
ly here, as Sam was. He shook his head to break the spell.
“Okay, I guess I should go to Whitehall and get the canoes. We should get started as soon as possible.”
He sat on the ground and learned the area. It was quick work to go back to the fortress, retrieve the canoes, and return. Within minutes, they launched onto the water, paddling toward the stone monoliths directly across from where they started.
They passed a family of mountain goats as they went. The big ram stood proudly on a rock outcropping near the water, looking at the party as if challenging them. The others were making their way around the lake, a few bending to drink. Sam smiled at the two kids as they capered and chased each other around their mother.
He saw Nalia watching them, too, a smile on her face. Sam figured that everyone loved to see baby animals playing, but then he looked at Emerius. The big hunter was staring at the animals, face stern and eyes hard. He wondered what the man was thinking. His own smile slipped a little as he thought of their task. They continued to paddle across the lake, Sam taking the lead.
It took over two hours to get to where Lahim Chode told them the artifact would be found. He had even drawn the entrance. Sam held the paper up and compared it to the landscape.
On the north side of the lake, a mountain made of bare stone rose up into the sky. There was snow covering parts of it, though it was obvious that some had fallen off in avalanches, baring the gray rock beneath. Over the years, parts of the stone had broken off, falling down toward the water. It was all piled up in front of the mountain, almost reaching the edge of the lake, except for one area where it appeared that it had been forcefully cleared by some power.
Sam looked at the others. “I guess that’s the place. Lahim’s drawing shows the entrance there, but it doesn’t show it like that. I’m afraid Chetra Dal may have already been here.”
“Maybe he didn’t find the artifact,” Ix said hopefully.
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