As Winter Spawns

by Jason Hamilton

  “We have to get back,” she said to Seph, who nodded. They would have to continue grieving for Gabriel later.

  Jak didn’t watch to see if Seph was following, but instead ran back to the camp as fast as she could. To her surprise, she heard the heavy thuds of footsteps, indicating Rael was following as well.

  The humans were carrying weapons, though some held farming equipment and other tools that were brought through the portal at the beginning. They were pushing into the bottleneck of the cave openings, shouting and waving their weapons above their heads.

  Silently, she cursed herself for having put on such a display of sorrow in front of everyone. Could her reaction have sparked this?

  She could not see what the Fae were doing about the mob, but she knew it couldn’t be good. Just as she thought about Vander’s reaction, her worst fears flew in her face.

  Screams from the front of the mob echoed across the landscape and she saw many of them jump back in fright. They were being pushed back. Though the Fae were small in number, they were a match for dozens of the ordinary humans. Only those with combat brands would even stand a chance.

  But there were people with combat brands. Jak caught sight of flames above the heads of the people, emanating no doubt from some former Watchers, or others of the Flamedancers that they had brought with them, or branded since arriving. Jak redoubled her pace.

  Within seconds, she reached the edge of the crowd. “Let me through!” she yelled.

  But this time, no one listened. They were all brandishing their makeshift weapons, and screaming at the Fae to let them in. Jak glanced around, trying to find Skellig. But could the major have any chance at talking these people down? More were joining them, inspired by what they saw their companions doing. They bumped into Jak, jostling her first one way, then another.

  “Please…” she called out as they rushed past her. “Stop this.”

  But they did not stop, or even listen. Shouts of “let us in,” or “drive them out,” surfaced from all around her.

  Finally, Jak caught sight of some Fae. The Sky Fae were emanating out of the caves, rising up into the air like a flock of birds. Then they changed direction and sped towards the rioting crowds. Spears and pitchforks rose to meet them, but the Sky Fae were expecting that. They dodged and grabbed hold of what weapons they could, wrenching them away with the surprising speed and strength of their small bodies and wings.

  But weapons weren’t the only things the Sky Fae took. A few flew down in pairs and picked up members of the mob and lifted them into the air, flying higher and higher until…

  Jak gasped, putting her hands to her mouth as she saw the first of the rioters dropped to his death. The Sky Fae were actually going to kill some of the mob.

  Jak pushed forward as fast as she could. She had to get to Vander. To tell him to stop this madness. This time she pushed forward with greater ease. The mob was beginning to scatter now that the Fae were applying real pressure.

  She managed to make her way to the front, and chaos surrounded her on all sides.

  15

  Shadow Elves were weaving in and out of the people, disappearing, and reappearing with their obsidian daggers embedded in the sides of unlucky men and women. All blood fled from Jak’s face as she watched the carnage unfold. How had it come to this? She stood in place, not a weapon in hand, just as a Shadow Elf materialized in front of her. It wasn’t Vander, but Viona. The elf raised one of her dark daggers, readying it to plunge down into Jak’s heart. But she stopped short, recognizing who she faced.

  Jak did nothing to defend herself. She had no weapon to use anyway. But the elf only paused for a moment before disappearing once again, leaving Jak unscathed.

  Well, at least some of the Shadow Elves still respected her to some degree.

  She tried to find Vander among the others, but could not make out faces for most of the Shadow Elves as they dodged attacks and landed their own.

  “Stop!” she yelled as loud as she could. A few Fae glanced at her, and just as many hesitated. But with that hesitation came death. To her horror, Jak watched as a handful of Flamedancers burned a Shadow Elf alive, and set fire to a Sky Fae’s wings. Others of the dead lay on the ground. Humans were not the only casualties.

  “Jak,” said a deep voice from behind her. She turned to see Bretton approaching her with long strides, his snow-white hair blowing in the wind, and a determined expression on his face. “I can help. Get as many as you can away from the entrance.”

  Jak didn’t hesitate. She began screaming at everyone who would listen to move away from the caves. Most that heard her listened, and once they began to retreat, others followed suit. They didn’t want to remain exposed to the Fae.

  Bretton strode forward, with a handful of other Ice Fae following behind him. Most let them pass. They knew that the Ice Fae were not with the Shadow Elves, but that didn’t stop some of them from fingering their weapons. In the chaos of battle, would the Ice Fae be protected from a mob such as this?

  The Ice Fae raised their hands high above their heads, and a dreadful cold settled around them. Moisture in the air collected and fell as small ice crystals. Many of those crystals flew together and formed larger crystals. Snow, kicked up by the commotion, began moving under a mysterious wind that swept from the Ice Fae.

  Jak watched, her mouth hanging open slightly as moisture joined with snow, and began to form a wall. It spread across the mouth of the caves, forming surprisingly quickly given the fact that the Ice Fae appeared to be drawing from natural elements. Yet even so, the wall of ice seemed to form as if out of thin air, quickly covering the entrance to the cave and then reinforcing itself with layer upon layer of ice.

  All of the human population remained on the outside of the wall, as well as a few solitary Fae who had led the counter-assault on the mob. Yet all were watching the Ice Fae at work.

  “No one will go in or out,” said Bretton in a strong voice for all to hear. “Until we can resolve this peacefully.”

  The few Shadow Elves who remained, disappeared in a puff of shadow. They knew they could not win alone. Likely they were escaping for the time being. Sky Fae were doing the same, flying away and up along the mountains.

  For the first time since it had all began, silence filled the area.

  Then a sharp thud sounded from the other side of the ice barrier. Someone was banging their fists and shouting through the ice. Jak cautiously moved closer to hear who was speaking. “You can’t hold us back forever!” Shouted Vander from the inside. Jak sniffed. He hadn’t even exited the caves to help his comrades. “We will get through.”

  Jak turned to look at Bretton who, with his comrades, were still reinforcing the wall with more ice. “He’s got the help of the gnomes. They’ll be able to melt through an ice wall like this in no time.”

  “Perhaps, but we have some advantages over the gnomes,” said Bretton. “Or at least, I think we have. Gnomes have to touch their subjects, we do not. Probably nature’s balance for heat being ultimately stronger than frost. If we continue reinforcing this wall, I don’t expect the gnomes to melt through it any time soon.”

  Jak nodded and took a deep breath. “I hope you’re right.”

  “Do you hear me!” said Vander again from within.

  “Ignore him,” said Jak. “He doesn’t need anyone fueling his hatred any more than we already have. Keep up the barrier.”

  She retreated, clutching at her arms and doing her best to think straight. The sight of bodies on the ground, both human and Fae, did not do much to ease her troubles.

  She spied Seph a small distance away. And with him sat Skellig on a supply wagon. The major did not look happy. But neither did she look like the leader Jak was used to seeing. Her back was hunched over, her hands on her knees. A look of defeat on her face.

  “I’m sorry, Jak,” she said as Jak drew closer. “There wasn’t much I could do. Gabriel’s death, on top of everything else. It was the last straw.”

  “You�
��ve managed to hold it off for this long,” said Jak. “I don’t blame you.” And honestly she didn’t. It was something of a miracle that they had avoided a mob forming for so long. Now if they could just find a more permanent solution than what the Ice Fae were doing.

  “We need to do something,” said Jak. “There are Shadow Elves out there somewhere, and the people will live in fear until they are captured, killed, or we make peace. I’d prefer the latter.”

  “I don’t know what to do, Jak,” said Skellig. “Our supplies will not last another week as it is. Shelter is not even the greatest of our concerns. Even if we were protected from the elements, we can’t last without enough food for thousands of people.”

  “Perhaps the mushrooms the gnomes have managed to grow?”

  “Yes, that could work if we had the soil and climate to grow thousands of them. We simply do not have that, Jak. We can’t grow an army’s worth of food in just a few short days.” She looked off into the distance. “We’re all going to die out here.”

  Unbidden, Gabriel’s final words came to Jak’s mind. There were more people for her to save. She met Seph’s eyes as he stood quietly behind the major. Something passed between them.

  Surprising even herself, Jak opened her mouth and laughed. It was the first time she had done so in weeks. Skellig stared at her, as did everyone close enough to watch. They probably thought she had gone crazy. But she didn’t care. She laughed and laughed until her sides were sore.

  She had finally figured it out. Even if she did have her brands again, she couldn’t solve all their problems. She couldn’t create food out of thin air. The most she could have done was give everyone a Hungerless brand, but she couldn’t have done that seven thousand times, and it would have only delayed the inevitable.

  Right now they needed solutions that did not involve her brands at all. They involved leadership, survival skills, and a small measure of luck. And Jak had enough run ins with bad luck recently. Which meant it was time for their fortunes to swing back the other way.

  “I need to speak to the Triad and Yewin if he’s still here. And any other Fae that might still be alive on this side. We’re the only members of the council who are left, at least on this side of the caves.”

  Skellig narrowed her eyes at Jak’s sudden change in tone. But she stood and faced Jak head on. “I’ll see who all remains. Yewin was in my command tent the last I saw him.”

  With an encouraging nod from Jak, Skellig turned and marched away to find Yewin. Seph and Jak began walking back to the cave entrance to find Bretton.

  “You’re doing it,” said Seph as they walked. “I told you there was still more for you to do.”

  “You’re right,” she said. “Mourning over Gabriel’s death won’t bring him back, and it won’t save anyone else either.”

  “So you’re pushing ahead,” he said. “You’re forgetting about the negative and pushing forward with the proactive approach.”

  Jak shook her head. “Not forgetting. If we don’t remember people like Gabriel, and Karlona, and Rael, and Elva, we will never create a world that is better. They serve as examples of what to strive for, a place where people only die after living long and happy lives, surrounded by loved ones.”

  “I think you could argue that’s exactly what happened to Gabriel,” said Seph.

  Jak allowed a soft smile to touch her lips. “Perhaps. I hope he thought so. But we can still do better. People will always get sick. But we have to do what we can to minimize those problems.

  They arrived back at the cave entrance. Bretton and the other Ice Fae, all of them now, were still busy throwing up layer after layer of ice on the barrier. It had to be several feet thick by now.

  “Bretton,” said Jak as they approached. “We need to talk.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” he said, his face contorted in concentration. “The gnomes have already begun heating the inside of the wall. We’re trying to cool the ice as fast as they can melt it.”

  “And can you?”

  Bretton tilted his head from side to side as if weighing the options. “We’re holding for now. But I can’t guarantee that we can keep it up for forever. We’ll run out of strength eventually.”

  Jak nodded, “Well let’s just hope that the same happens to them. What you’re doing is key to keeping everyone from killing each other until we can find more solutions.”

  Footsteps approached, and Jak turned to see Yewin arriving, with Skellig following close behind. In the distance she could also see Li and Mosaial on their way. With Seph by her side, that made up all the remaining members of the council that were still on this side of the ice barrier.

  Jak spared a moment to look at them all. They were hardly a council anymore. Gabriel was dead, and representatives from the Shadow Elves, Water Fae, Sky Fae, gnomes, and dwarves were all beyond their reach at the moment. This would have to do.

  “Skellig has just informed me,” Jak started out. “That we only have a week’s worth of food left.” It was a little awkward addressing everyone like this. Physically and in terms of magical abilities, she was the weakest of the lot. But somehow they were all still here, listening.

  No one batted an eye at the pronouncement that they were nearly out of provisions. They were expecting it to happen eventually.

  “And it’s only the latest in a line of problems,” she continued, raising her fingers to begin ticking them off. “We still have to find shelter. There’s Vander and his aggressions, which I think we can all agree is the more immediate threat.”

  “Immediate, yes,” said Yewin. “But solving that problem will do little to help us in the long run.”

  “I agree,” Jak said. “Plus there’s also those strange portals that keep opening up here and there, potentially dropping demons into the mix.”

  Skellig nodded, “And there’s the inevitability that the people will rise up again like they did moments ago.”

  Jak gazed back at the camp. Most of the mob had dispersed once the ice wall had gone up. But there were still many who lagged behind, throwing venomous looks in their direction. She could only hope that those looks were for Vander and the attackers on the inside, and not for Ice Fae or the members of the council.

  “I think we could solve that problem by solving one or more of the others,” said Yewin. “I’m simply unsure how we could do that.”

  “Well, Bretton and the Ice Fae have given me one idea,” said Jak. Bretton looked away from his ministrations at the ice barrier to look at her.

  “And what might that be?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.

  “Well, I think it’s kind of obvious actually. If your people are capable of creating a barrier like this one,” she waved at the wall that still held at the mouth of the cave, “then perhaps you could create a shelter for the rest of us.”

  Yewin raised his head in understanding, and Skellig began nodding slightly to herself.

  “There are not enough of us to do that, and maintain this barrier,” replied Bretton. “You’d be trading one problem for another.”

  Jak tightened her jaw. “Yes, I figured that would be the case. But you already said you couldn’t hold back the gnomes forever. I think your powers would be put to better use by creating shelter for the others.”

  Skellig spoke up. “So what do we do, then, if Vander comes out ready to slaughter us all? We can’t exactly fix things by saying we have shelter now and therefore don’t need to bother him anymore. There’s still the issue of food. I wouldn’t put it past him to try and take what we have left for himself.”

  Jak took a deep breath. “Yes, I know. As much as it pains me to say it, I think Vander is beyond the point of saving. He was my friend once, but scarcity has brought out the worst in him.”

  “Yes,” said Yewin. “I doubt we’ll have any luck bringing him over to our way of thinking.”

  “And if we kill him,” said Jak. “it will mean war with the Shadow Elves. We might win, but it will come at a huge cost. And we would be, essen
tially, wiping out one of the races. We’d have little luck convincing the others to be on our side if we stoop to that level. We need to think differently. Set an example.”

  “So what do you propose we do?” Skellig asked.

  Jak said her next words slowly, for emphasis. “I’m going to challenge him to single combat.”

  16

  Seph whipped his head around to gaze at her, sharply. For a moment, no one said anything. Even Bretton stopped what he was doing to turn his attention to her.

  “You know you’ll never beat him,” said Skellig in a low voice.

  “I know, I’m not what I once was,” she said. “But I’m also not defenseless. I have Watcher training.”

  “And the Shadow Elves are the best assassins among the Fae. You’ll never even see the blade that stabs you.” Skellig had her arms folded, skeptical but not throwing out the idea entirely. That was a start.

  “He may not have realized yet that we can create our own shelter,” Jak said. “If I lose, we can set the condition that all of us will leave and agree never to attack the caves again. If I win, we get control of the caves and take him prisoner.”

  “And you’re sure he’ll agree to this? What would stop him from breaking his oath?” Yewin remarked, a thoughtful expression on his face.

  “He’s driven by self-interest, but he’s not stupid. He knows that all out war with us will mean certain death for most of his people, even if they manage to kill hundreds of us in the process. He’ll agree to fight me because he’ll see it as a sure win.”

  “Which it will be,” said Skellig. “No offense, Jak. But your strengths are no longer in the area of combat. Let me be the one to challenge him.”

  Jak shook her head. “Vander doesn’t respect you. And you actually have a chance at beating him. He won’t take that risk. But he still respects me at some level, or at least he respected my mother. As do the rest of the Shadow Elves. I’m confident that if I win, the others would follow me.”