“Are you all right, Jaeger?” Jadeth asked. Her gaze flicked between the pair standing together in the snow to the snowflakes.
He didn’t answer. The flurries of snow became sleet, sticky, damp, and cold.
Jaeger had no doubt that he was what had turned the weather, but he couldn’t find the energy to care. The world had become a blur of grief once more.
***
Emaranthe trailed her gloved fingers along the slick stone cliff to her right. To her left, a sheer drop-off bathed in roiling gray clouds. Behind, Ivo’s breathing had sharpened, as the path had cut steeper and steeper up the mountainside.
Gabaran walked ahead of them, not caring that he was inches from a deadly drop. His leanly muscled, broad shoulders worked with the effort of climbing and he had long fallen silent to his own thoughts.
“We must be miles up now.” She panted. The steep terrain made for difficult breathing for her. She was far smaller than either male and she felt the stinging burn in her thighs and arms as she worked to keep up. “This path is longer and steeper than the one up the plateau near Stone Hold.”
Ivo grunted, his own thoughts caught in the past instead of the present. Her words jerked him back as he recalled what she had meant by her comment. It was definitely a longer, steeper path. And far more treacherous. Pebbles, damp or slicked by unseen ice, rolled beneath his boots. More than a couple times he’d had to lunge to grab Emaranthe’s arm before she could slip and tumble off the cliff.
He frowned at the thought and the tight tug of alarm it sent racing through his chest. Truth be told, he knew she could take care of herself. He’d seen her do it even. But the thought of her in pain, injured, lost, or gods knew what nearly sent him into a panic. He forced aside the unwelcome images of her dashed upon the needle sharp spires of rock below and instead focused on making his boots move up the path. Carefully.
“Let’s stop here for a moment,” Gabaran called out from the lead a few yards ahead. Emaranthe leaned against the slick stone cliff face with a sigh and Ivo halted, startled. He’d been lost in thought again. “The cloud cover is thicker now.”
“This path feels endless,” Emaranthe said to neither of them in particular. “Are we even near where Jadeth had spied the Citadel from?”
Ivo squinted into the fog and cloud covered valleys far below. The cold air tossed his black hair across his eyes as he worked to find the suns and the Citadel.
The suns were now midway in the sky, mere hazy blobs of light that barely penetrated the cloud cover. The Citadel rose out of the clinging mists like a cold blue and gray castle built into the towering peaks of the mountain across the way. They were now well above the tallest tower.
“Does this match anything like Jadeth described, Gabaran?” he asked.
“I don’t think so, not here anyways. The path keeps moving up the mountain, but I feel like we are already too high up based on what she spoke of,” Gabaran said. His frown crinkled the lines at the corners of his mouth. Nearly white strands of hair threaded through the black teased into the air on the cold wind that raced along the narrow gorge.
“We need to keep going, I think,” Emaranthe added after a moment. She squinted up at the sheer cliff above them where the path carved narrow switchbacks all the way into the cloud cover. “I just wish we could see better.”
“Let me try to move it,” Ivo replied. The wind sharpened at his silent command, turning the soft sleet into shards. With a gasp Emaranthe huddled deeper within the hood of her cloak and watched from the shadows as the wind stirred the air.
The cloud cover swirled and eddied against the stone face before slithering and gliding aside at Ivo’s command. The sunshine brightened perceptibly and the shadows and gray fog retreated.
The mountain rose far above them still, its peak now pointed directly at the blue sky and smaller sun.
“Thank you, warrior, that’s more like it.” Gabaran chuckled. Ivo smiled, glad to be able to help in a cause that was worthy. “Look, there is another path!”
“Where?” Emaranthe asked. She scanned the twisting path until the small offshoot stood out against the rock face. “Oh, that’s even narrower!”
“Yes, but I bet it leads the direction we need. Come,” Gabaran said. He turned and continued to hike, this time a lighter spring in his step now that there was promise at the end of the path.
They made their way to the fork in the path in silence, their gazes locked on the loose rock at their feet. No one wanted to topple off the mountain at this elevation.
“I can see the path better now,” Gabaran called back to Ivo and Emaranthe. “It’s narrower, but much flatter.”
“It looks like it heads around that rock face over there,” Ivo said as he drew up beside the elf when he halted at the fork. He pointed at a prominent rock face that seemed to jut out over the gorge. The path wove around it and disappeared around the bend to somewhere unseen. “We need to get past that point to see where it goes.”
The fog closed in abruptly, turning their world white. If she hadn’t been clinging to the rock face beside her, Emaranthe would have believed she was adrift in a cloud. Uneasy tension radiated from both males and a shiver worked up her spine. The feeling of being hemmed in, or watched, grew.
“Let’s just keep moving. Head for the outcropping,” Ivo urged. He drew his sword from the shadows. “I will be behind you, Emaranthe, Gabaran will lead us to safety out of this fog.”
He nodded at the elf. Gabaran drew his bow and knocked an arrow in one swift and practiced motion before turning and hurrying ahead into the whiteness. Despite the rocky terrain and swift pace the bow and arrow never lost their unyielding steadiness.
Emaranthe followed, her fingers grazing the arcane staff still hidden at her back. It would be dangerously unwieldy in such a place, but she did not need it to use her powers. With a flick of a gloved finger a halo of flames encircled her head. The small ghostly flames formed a wreath of faint light that highlighted her stunningly beautiful freckles and lit up the narrow path despite the fog. They could now see their feet.
Ivo followed close behind, his sword ready. His left arm ached with the emptiness of not having his shield. He summoned the wind with a silent call. It wheeled and tugged on his dark hair before forming a shield of dust and pebbles that hovered over his outstretched forearm. The weight of the air shield was different, but no less effective for both defense and offense. He didn’t try to use it to turn aside the fog. It would have been a waste of energy.
Emaranthe called over the howl of the wind and the crackle of fire.
“We need to find the others. I am not convinced we are on the correct path now.”
Gabaran glanced at her over his shoulder, the bow not moving an inch. “We have to find them first.”
They reached the knobby point and inched around it, very aware of the yawning drop-off invisible to them.
“They could be anywhere,” Ivo replied with a grimace. “We may be miles from them now.”
The bend in the path unwound and leveled out. The wall of fog receded just as abruptly as it came, now roiling and swirling over the mountain above them, briefly giving the cloud the resemblance of fingers curling into the stone. It was eerie and Ivo pushed the shield of wind out further to give them more room to work with.
The fog continued to seethe and curl about them as they moved as fast as possible.
“Your fire circlet is genius, little sister,” Gabaran commented. “It’s giving us light while keeping your hands free. Many thanks.”
She remained silent and watchful, her gaze only lingering on Gabaran for a moment. She shrugged and Ivo imagined the eye roll cast on the elf’s back, unseen.
He bit back a chuckle and concentrated on keeping the wind around them steady and his shield ready.
Chapter Seventeen
A piercing wail rose from the misty clouds clinging to the mountain top above, just loud enough to be heard
“What in the name of The Four is that?” Jae
ger asked.
His skin crawled when the disembodied cry rose and fell in a keening lament.
“I don’t know. Where is it coming from?” Jadeth spun in a circle in search of the source of the sound.
“I can’t tell. Up there, somewhere,” he said. They turned to Ishelene and Sesti, but they stared back in wide eyed shock.
“I’ve never heard this before, mother.” Sesti tugged the furred hood free of her long ears. They flicked as she concentrated on locating the eerie sound. “Is it a beast, perhaps?”
“Beast? No,” Ishelene whispered. “That is no beast’s howl.”
Her ears flicked wildly as she turned to study the landscape with narrowed eyes. The fog had thickened. Trees bent from the constant winds poked through the fog like the fingers of giants might.
“We need to move, now,” she commanded. She shoved Sesti ahead of her and together they broke into a run. Jaeger and Jadeth bolted after them as the sharp, insistent sound echoed off the cliffs around them.
“Here, up here!” Sesti screamed and shot sideways, up a steep, snowy embankment. The mountain rose above them, a steep slope peppered with large trees. The ever present fog seemed to not be able to penetrate the forest.
Jaeger swore softly as they ducked into the darkness. The loss of sunlight and the deep snow slowed them to a stumbling walk.
“Why this way?” he called out to the elf in the lead. Sesti’s ears flicked, but she didn’t answer right away. He grimaced up at the heavy tree canopy above. Snow a foot thick clung to the tops of every branch and leaf. He sent a feeler out, a whisper of cold to test the branches. The snow on the thick branch above him shivered and the tinkling of ice echoed like the sound of cracking pottery.
Ahead of him, Sesti halted, her face turned up and ears flicking to locate the sounds.
“Keep moving, I’m freezing the snow to the branches to keep it from falling on us,” he pushed past Ishelene to grip Sesti’s elbow. He urged her to move and realized that the sound had vanished.
“It’s gone.” Jadeth moved to pace beside Jaeger in the snow. Luckily it was deep enough to keep them from sliding backwards down the steep slope. Unluckily, the forest and incline stretched on without an end, or the sky, in sight. “What could it be?”
Jaeger grunted and pushed ahead. He did not know and found that not knowing was something he was beginning to hate.
***
Emaranthe’s toe snagged a stone and she fell hard. The rocky, icy ground bit into her gloves like tiny stabbing needles. She scrambled to her feet before Ivo could comment and continued to follow Gabaran along the path that seemed to go absolutely nowhere.
“Are we lost?” Ivo asked, as if reading her mind.
She felt him narrow the distance between them, felt the anxiety radiating off him, but he refrained from treating her like a fragile flower. She smiled, grateful that the hood pulled close to replace the guttered fire halo hid the winces as she walked. Her knees had not fared any better than her hands.
“I don’t know. This place is annoyingly maze-like,” Gabaran answered from some distance ahead. If he’d noticed that she’d tripped like a child, he didn’t say anything.
“We have to be close to the mountain top now, right?” Emaranthe asked over the rhythmic crunch of boots. “The sun is fading fast.”
“We’ve been climbing steadily, but I cannot see through the cloud cover,” Ivo mumbled. “We should have pushed through it by now, yet it seems to keep ahead of us.”
“Yes, that is odd.” Emaranthe frowned at her boots as they moved in and out of view. Head down and shrouded within the hood and tangled strands of hair, the muffled sounds seemed oddly loud. “Wait, everyone stop!”
Gabaran halted instantly and swung to face her, alarm brightening his odd eyes.
Ivo nearly collided with her, but instead pulled her close to his broad chest. The warmth of the muscles against her nearly made her moan out loud, but she bit back the sound to explain as they waited patiently for her to speak.
“Do you hear that sound?” she asked.
“Just barely, why? What is it?”
“I hear it,” Gabaran said from his position ten yards up the path. Ivo and Emaranthe nodded and he grimaced. “It’s faint. Distant.”
They turned in slow circles, eyes and ears peeled as they scanned the jagged terrain for any clues. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary other than the cloud cover that somehow kept at a distance.
“Now what?” she asked. “I think something is wrong, but I can’t place just what yet.”
“What do we do?” Ivo asked. His arms tightened around her thin frame and she turned until her cheek rested over his heart. It beat overly loud despite the armor between their skin.
The faint cry turned into a sharp wail. The cloud cover above them suddenly roiled and swirled as if being stirred by a giant hand.
“We need to find the others,” Gabaran muttered. “We are losing light and no closer than before we started.”
“We’ve climbed so high already.” She gestured below where the path was now swallowed in shadow and the citadel was but a speck on the far side of the ridge. “That we should have reached it.
The wail faded with a strong gust of wind, drawing Gabaran and Emaranthe’s gaze back to Ivo in silent inquiry.
He held his hands up in wide eyed innocence.
Gabaran scowled. “We need to get to the top of this mountain and find that clearing. Now.”
“How?” Ivo asked, frustration twisting his mouth. He eyed the cliff walls rising above them.
“I can teleport us,” Emaranthe whispered. She kept her gaze on the mountain looming above where the clouds roiled. She felt Ivo stiffen beside her. “I can get us all up there before we get caught on this narrow path in the dark.”
She deliberately lifted her chin and met Ivo’s gaze. In the cloudy gloom his dark green eyes reflected the chaos above them. His jaw worked to keep from voicing the words she knew he wanted to say.
He swallowed and nodded even as his arms wound around her again and towed her to him. Sheltered in his arms and against his racing heart, he buried his face in her hair and held tight.
His soft words both sucked the strength from her knees and sent her heart soaring.
“I believe in you. I love you too much not to.”
The sting of hot tears pushed her to act. She pressed warm lips to his chest where his heart beat like a hummingbird.
“I love you more, Ivo, I always have. Thank you,” she whispered. Slender arms wound around his waist as Gabaran’s hand gripped her shoulder. The acceptance of both her brother and her lover was all the trust she had ever wanted.
She lifted her gaze to the study the roiling clouds and watched for the right time. It was so far that she had to squint.
There. At the very top, a tree jutted out at an angle beside a giant, flattened boulder. Clouds seethed around it like water, leaving the very top of the stone exposed. She pushed aside the uneasy feeling at pulling such a stunt with Ivo and Gabaran in tow, and with no sun to replenish her energy. She concentrated and reached for the invisible strands of energy binding her to this world.
“Hold on,” she whispered to them both. Their grips tightened. She inhaled and let the ember burning deep within her heart ignite.
Ghostly flames seethed and licked along her arms. Strands of pale hair tangled on a heat fueled wind. The invisible tug of energy sharpened, skewing the world around them into a blur of embers and shadow.
She followed the curl of flames upward as she spun, pulling Ivo and Gabaran with her.
Time slowed. Everything blurred and all sense of up or down gave way. Seething flames danced with embers on jagged shadows in a miasma of motion behind her closed eyes. Time resumed. Flames snapped and popped, licked and slithered, but did not burn flesh. Her feet touched the uneven top of the boulder and pulled them to a halt.
Everything snapped back into place all at once and darkness caught Emaranthe in its sudden, weightless gri
p.
***
“I see something,” Sesti’s words echoed off the cliff rising above them. The trees had ended abruptly at a wall of uneven stone. “It may be a path.”
“That’s what you call a path?” Jadeth’s eyebrows climbed her forehead. “That’s just a crevasse.”
“But if we can squeeze through it looks like it works its way to the top.” Sesti turned to find Jaeger staring up at the jagged fissure that cut through the cliff face all the way to the top. It would be passable, if steep. A doubtful expression crossed his face.
“It may work, but there is a lot of snow above on either side. If it or any boulders fall, we would be crushed or buried,” he said.
“But it would work.” Sesti’s grin turned triumphant. “Come on!”
She led the way through the narrow crack that zig zagged drunkenly in a rude diagonal across the gray stone. Snow collected on any flat surface, making the narrow space available for their feet slippery.
Ishelene, silent and pensive ever since the screeching cry had disappeared, followed without a word.
Jaeger trailed behind the women, his watchful gaze on the towering cliffs on either side of the crevasse. He barely fit his legs in the gap and fitted his hands along the uneven sides of the fissure as he moved. The going was painfully slow and tedious, but for once he didn’t decry the caution.
“This goes all the way to the top of this ridge,” Jadeth called down to him after an hour of scrambling for footholds and handholds. “But the ridge continues further up the mountain.”
Jaeger saw and he didn’t like the deep banks of snow lining the ridge. There was so much snow that one misstep could send everyone and all the snow off the edge. He followed Sesti as she carefully picked her way up the fissure.
Exiles & Empire Page 17