Veins of Ice

by Melissa Kellogg

  “The smell in here is different than last time,” Blade said, taser in hand, and standing at an angle from Asher, so that they made a half-circle.

  There was the smell of urine and animal feces, but not of rotting flesh. The light whizzed around, and eyes glimmered from the far side of the attic space, near the plumbing pipes that made tangled knots before they disappeared back into the stories below. The light died, and Jinx cursed. Carrion monkeys were territorial, and they had been submerged into darkness with possibly dangerous creatures in there.

  Karena reached towards the door and felt around. She found the nub of a switch and flipped it. Several lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling glowed to life.

  “What are they?” Asher asked.

  They stepped closer. The animals, whatever they were, whimpered and softly hooted from their hiding spot at the back of the attic. Karena could see their triangular ears, small snouts, and fur covered, monkey-like faces, but she couldn’t see enough of them to come to a conclusion as to what they were.

  “Lemurs?” Jinx offered. She was from the Air district, so she would be more knowledgeable about what kinds of cryptids frequented it.

  The creatures scattered, and hid behind the mannequins, trunks, and covered paintings in there.

  Jinx clucked her tongue, and called to them as though they were a cat or dog that might come near to be petted. One hopped out before her. They jumped back. Asher stepped on Karena’s feet.

  “Sorry,” he said, and moved to the side.

  The cryptid that had appeared before Jinx was a Silver Maned lemur. It looked like a miniature lion due to all of its poofy fur that stuck out around its neck. Its grey coat was luxurious, well groomed, and healthy. Its long tail was held in a curved S-shape in the air. It looked at them like a stray cat, hesitant to come any closer.

  “They’re friendly,” Jinx said. “Sometimes, they’ll jump onto the backs of hikers and take a short ride with them through the forest. They’ve been known to throw fruit down for people, or help a lost hiker.”

  “Are you sure these are the ones?” Blade asked.

  “Yes. You can put the tasers away,” Jinx said, kneeling down.

  The lemur looked at them, then at Jinx, crawled to her, and climbed into her outstretched arms. Jinx stood up with it in her arms.

  “It wants to find a better home,” Jinx said. “It knows we will help it.”

  The lemur hooted to the others, who slowly emerged from their hiding spots. Jinx instructed them to crouch down and offer their arms to them. The other four lemurs in the attic space imitated the behavior of their leader.

  Karena gathered one up. It was like a furry bundle in her arms. The lemur’s arms went around her neck, and clung there. Her hands sunk into its soft fur. It was these moments that Karena cherished. Too often, they dealt with unloving, aggressive, and gross pests and cryptids, but these were the rare exception. She stood up, and the lemur nuzzled her ear and sniffed at her face. It was a far cry from whatever had been in the sewers earlier that day.

  “Do you think they’ll like Dragonhouse Point? There’s lots of bugs and other things to eat up there,” Jinx said with a thoughtful frown.

  Preoccupied with two lemurs, a mother and her baby, Asher managed to say, “I think so.”

  “The only natural predators they would have to deal with on occasion are giant birds,” Blade said. He held his lemur with one arm, and the other petted its tail, which curled and uncurled upon each stroke.

  “I’ve heard about Dragonhouse Point. Wasn’t there a lookout house on it some time ago, to spot what could be flying towards Archelm?” Karena asked. She hadn’t ever been there.

  “The original house burned down, and they rebuilt another one on the exact location. It’s still used as a lookout point. They’ve built another structure on the other end of it to keep watch from that side. There’s a café and gardens up there too. Maybe we can relax and spend the rest of our work shift there since this is the last assignment for the day,” Jinx said, and headed for the attic door.

  “I like that idea. I haven’t been up there in a while,” Blade said.

  With the lemurs clinging to them, they exited the attic and the tower. The homeowner was where they had left her in the hallway. She had taken out a basket of yarn and was frantically knitting a sweater. She looked up, and her face shifted from distressed to happy.

  “Awww, they were lemurs,” Mrs. Whitefield said. She seemed familiar with their gentle nature because she came over to pet them. The lemurs looked at her and the house, wide-eyed.

  Jinx said, “Once I get my arms free, I’ll send a message to headquarters to have a restoration come over to clean up your attic.”

  Mrs. Whitefield thanked Jinx and escorted them out.

  At the truck, Jinx, Blade, and Karena piled into the back of the truck. They would have to come back for the motorcycles.

  Before he closed the tailgate, Asher paused. “Karena, have you seen Dragonhouse Point?”

  “No.”

  “Jinx, Blade, will you be okay back here with these lemurs?”

  “Of course. I brought some fruit too,” Jinx said, pulling out her pack. “They shouldn’t have an issue with the ride, and if they do, we have crates back here that we can put them in.”

  Smelling fruit, and wanting Jinx’s comfort since she had been the first to make contact with them, the lemurs huddled next to her.

  Karena climbed out. Asher shut the tailgate, and closed the top, see-through panel above it. Though the lemurs were fun to be around, she would rather be with Asher. She took the passenger seat again.

  When Asher got in and started up the truck, Karena asked, “What’s so cool about the ride to Dragonhouse Point?”

  “You’ll see.”

  He put the truck into gear, and soon found a winding highway to take them away from the city. Very quickly, the rolling hills and trough-like valleys became rearing, craggy cliff sides and plunging ravines. Jagged pillars of rock rose straight out of the ground on one side of the road, and fell straight down on the other. The road itself was a feat of engineering as it twisted through the harsh and steep land.

  Once they cleared the mountainous terrain, she could see the cliffs ahead of them. In the Water and Earth district, they had always been distant specks that met the sky, vague and mythical. The cliffs were like a wall that attempted to bridge the gap between earth and heaven. They were an unusual geological feature, which had endured through time when all else had been ground down to stumps. The hundreds of feet of perpendicular rock couldn’t possibly house a road, even if a ledge large enough for a car was blasted into its face.

  “How are we going to get up there? The cliffs are vertical,” Karena said again.

  “You’ll see,” he said again.

  As they came closer and closer to the base of the sheer cliffs, Karena still couldn’t spot a strip of road that wound to its top. When they arrived at the foot of them, Karena saw the fortified hut off to the side. It sat under a steel net, and a steel, cage-like apparatus had been erected over its roof. Having fallen from above, boulders the size of cars speckled the area. The net and cage were there to protect the hut from being squished.

  Her eyes traveled from the hut to the strange platform next to it, and the cables attached to it. Her eyes followed the cables upwards as they ran flush to the cliffside. They reached far beyond what she could see.

  “No, no, and no,” she said in a panic. “This is insanity. This is gearcrafting gone too far.”

  Asher chuckled, and drove up to the station.

  “Just a little,” he said.

  “How is this possible?”

  “Because they imagined it could be,” he replied, amused by her reaction from the way he smiled.

  Having heard them approach, an attendant came out of the hut. He waved, and Asher rolled down his window and chatted with the attendant, who then directed Asher to drive onto the metal platform.

  Once on the platform, the attendant dr
ew the gate, enclosing them inside. Huge gears bigger than their truck’s tires were held in a slatted box on each side of the platform. A small booth lodged the operator attendant’s controls. He stepped in there, and began pressing buttons and pulling forward levers. Compressed tank boilers rumbled as their liquids flash-heated. They whistled when excess steam built up and was released.

  Karena couldn’t comprehend what was about to happen. It was absolute madness to think that the platform could be lifted all the way to the top. It just couldn’t be done.

  The platform began to vibrate, then it rattled once it started to ascend. Gears clanked and whined.

  “This isn’t happening,” Karena said, shaking her head. “I don’t think I’ll ever understand gearcrafters, and the bizarre ideas that come to them to create such lunacy.”

  “In the old days, they used to have halcyons and other winged shapeshifters man Dragonhouse Point, but now anyone can. Gearcrafting is like spellcasting; it’s used to try to make life easier and safer, at least in theory,” Asher said, completely at ease, with his head leaned back against the headrest.

  Karena watched the forested hills begin to dwindle in size. The green canopies tumbled down into the Air district, and then smoothed out as they sailed into the other districts. Her heart pounded. She clutched at the door frame because it felt like the only thing that wouldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. Icy sweat sequined her body.

  “Are you okay?” Asher asked.

  Karena nodded, but she wasn’t. She heard him unlatch his seatbelt, and slide over. He pried her from the door. He put her head against his shoulder, and put his arms around her. Now that she couldn’t see their climbing elevation, she calmed, but the truck still shook as the platform rose higher and higher.

  Asher warmed next to her as his body adjusted to the subzero temperatures in the cab. She couldn’t control her emotions. Terror gripped her. What if the gears failed or the cables snapped? They would plummet to their death. The cliffs were hundreds of feet tall. It wasn’t possible to build something up that height that could be considered safe. She inhaled Asher’s scent, trying to focus only on it and the feel of his arms around her.

  “We’re almost at the top,” he said. She closed her eyes, trying to tune out the sound of the gears, and numb herself from the shaking of the truck.

  After a few minutes, there was a thud, and several bangs. The shaking stopped. Karena opened one of her eyes, and then the other. The operator came over and knocked on the driver’s door.

  “We’ve arrived,” he said, deadpan, as though all he was doing was manning an elevator.

  Karena pulled away from Asher, and they eased out of the cab on the left hand side where the attendant stood. He kept them in eyesight for their own safety. Karena put her back against the truck, refusing to move. Her knees trembled.

  Asher helped Blade and Jinx out of the back of the truck. The lemurs followed Jinx, who clucked and encouraged them to keep moving. Jinx and Blade didn’t seem to have an issue with the elevation gain. They stepped off of the platform and onto solid ground, laughing as they talked about something.

  Asher returned to her. She did her best to smile and hide her extreme anxiety, but she knew it probably looked more like a pained grimace. He put an arm around her, and guided off of the platform and onto the cap of the cliff, which was surprisingly level and tree covered. She stumbled, feeling nauseous, and sat down on the grass.

  Jinx led the lemurs to a nearby fruit tree, and hoisted one of them up to a branch. It grabbed onto the branch. Its tail felt around, and snaked around its diameter to help it balance. The rest of them bounded up the tree.

  Like a friend, Jinx came over and sat down next to her. Asher and Blade stood nearby as they took in the view.

  “Will they have enough food here?” Karena asked.

  “Oh yes,” Jinx said. “They have insect problems all the time here, and not enough birds to take care of the frequent infestations. And there’s fruit trees and the like.”

  “What if the weather gets bad or if they want to get down to the ground?”

  “The other side of the cliff isn’t as steep, and they can climb down if they want. There are shelter areas the staff built for animals that might migrate or find their way up to the cliffs from that eastern side. This cliff is large, as big as twenty fields put together, so there’s more than enough room for them and no predators unless they travel on the wind like the wyvern did.”

  “Wouldn’t the people manning Dragonhouse Point have spotted the wyvern from here?” Karena asked.

  “If it came from the west, then no. It’s too far of a distance to accurately monitor from where Dragonhouse Point is situated. This side takes care of the most dangerous direction, which is the north, where the Wildlands are. We all know what roams those lands. Of course, there’s the east, which is dangerous as well, but most everything crawls in from the swamps, rather than flies in.”

  The Wildlands was a dangerous place. It was a vast wilderness, where volcanoes spewed magma, dark forests harbored ancient and deadly creatures, trolls wandered the ice caps of mountains and the depths of caves, and where dragons circled in the skies. It was a primordial realm.

  When the Vampire Regime ended, vampire supporters had fled north and had been driven into the Wildlands. Most of them had been hags and warlocks. There was always speculation that they had carried with them dormant vampire corpses, or that vampires had fled with them to escape persecution.

  The wall separating the Wildlands and the Sundarin Nation was heavily fortified, with only a couple of gates for wanderers to pass through. At the end of the Vampire Regime, the gates had been closed and sealed shut, and all of the vampire supporters who hadn’t made it in time to the Wildlands before the gates had been closed had been slaughtered, and for good reason. The vampire supporters had condoned and committed untold horrors during the Vampire Regime. They had feasted on the misfortunes of others. They had upheld the vampires’ tyrannical acts, enforcing them, and siding with them. They had been almost as bad as the vampires themselves. It was in their nature to be devious, and so it was ill-advised to open up the gates again, despite the five centuries that had gone by.

  Asher walked over to Karena and offered her his hand. “I apologize for not asking if you had an aversion to heights. We could’ve gone elsewhere,” he said.

  She took his hand, and stood up, discovering that she had little strength in her legs. Asher’s right hand rubbed her back in small circles, alleviating some of her lightheadedness.

  With her shoulder leaning against his blocky chest, Karena said, “I’ve been in tall buildings before, but nothing like this. I think the ride up here made my vertigo worse.”

  “We were hoping to stay for a bit,” Blade said, and kicked at a dandelion.

  Before Asher could say something, Karena said, “That’s fine. I’ll be okay in a little while.”

  Karena turned away from the panoramic view and let Asher lead her towards a building set a ways back from the brim of the cliff. It was the Dragon house. The two-story building crouched on the ground as though it was bracing against a heavy wind. It made her wonder how strong the winds became when storms charged into the area.

  Inside, she sat down at one of the tables in the café, which comprised only part of the building. The restaurant was empty, except for them. Karena looked out the window. From such a comforting setting, where the breathtaking view wasn’t as nauseating, she could admire the fluffy clouds on the faraway horizon.

  Blade glanced at the clock. He said, “I take it you’re not going to be hungry just yet.” They were overdue for lunch.

  “I just need a few minutes, that’s all,” Karena said, though seriously doubting it would be safe to eat anything until they made it back down to the ground. She didn’t want to throw up.

  “I’m going to look through the telescopes in the meanwhile,” Jinx said, and dashed away.

  “Good idea,” Blade said. He ran after her to the stairs.
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  A minute after they had left, a man walked in through the back door. He was odd in appearance, with moth-like wings tucked behind him. His eyes were bigger than they should’ve been. His nose was stubby, and his lips were too wide and thin to be considered human.

  “I saw the lemurs. They’re an excellent addition to our little ecosystem up here in the clouds,” he said, grinning, and shook Asher’s hand and gave her a pat on the shoulder. His lips disappeared inside of his grin. “You don’t look so swell. The altitude I presume, you’re not used to it,” he said.

  Karena’s face flushed.

  “I’ve got just the thing for you, a potion we make here for people with your condition,” he said and he shouted to the hostess for a Dragonhouse special. He continued, “By the way, I’m Sargore, one of the residents of Dragonhouse Point. I keep watch over the southern and western side. I take it you’re cryptid hunters.”

  “We are. My other teammates went upstairs to look through the telescopes,” Asher said.

  “Excellent. Enjoy the grounds. I’m off to mingle with the folks down below for a week. I can’t wait to see my family and friends.”

  “Are you taking the platform, or are you going to fly down?” Asher asked, which was the same question Karena had been about to ask.

  “The winds are calm, so I’ll just glide down. I have everything I need where I’m going to be staying, so I can travel light,” Sargore said and fluttered his wings. A light dusting came off of them. “I’ve smacked against that cliff side a few too many times to be reckless anymore. There’s nothing like having an injured wing when you still have a good distance to fall.”

  They wished him well and for good times. Seconds later, the potion came in a tall glass. It was blue and fizzed like a soda drink. Assuming it would taste nasty, Karena guzzled it down, but she was wrong. Because it tasted like sweetened blueberries, she slowed her sips to enjoy it.

  “Better?” Asher asked.

  “I think so. You don’t have to stay.”