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Serves me right for losing my temper, she told herself. Carefully she began to cut back the areas her warmth-spell covered until it was in force only around her feet, hands, and face. Trying to ignore the increased bite of cold on the rest of her, she plowed back into the wind.
It took five minutes of uphill walking before she realized that the wind had dropped. Halting, she looked up. Drifting snowflakes were all that remained of the blizzard. She slipped up her goggles and turned to look for her tracks. They lay behind her, following an eerily straight line as far as she could see. A cold that wasn’t winter-brought raced up her spine. Her trail should have swung back and forth in the snow. Instead it looked as if she could have drawn it with a straight-edge.
“I don’t know if this is good,” she murmured. “With the wind in my face, at least I knew where I was headed.” Looking again at her tracks, Alanna shrugged and set off again. As her Gift burned lower and lower, staying in motion became a vital concern. Every few feet she’d look back to make sure she kept to her earlier course. Before her opened the pass, white and smooth along the road. Overhead the clouds broke up, revealing a sliver of new moon. The night was very quiet, the only sounds those of shifting snow and cracking rock.
Suddenly she heard in her mind a voice as terrible in its way as the Goddess’s, filled with tumbling boulders and rushing streams. She dropped to her knees with her hands over her ears—it did no good.
So you have come this far. You took your time about it.
Alanna couldn’t reply.
Look to your left.
She obeyed. A line of light stretched up the wall of the pass, over broken rock and pools of snow and ice. The thing you came to take is at the end of this road—as am I.
The voice—it had to be the voice of the being that Mi-chi had called “old Chitral”—was gone. Alanna listened apprehensively for a moment, then remembered the cold’s danger and scrambled to her feet again. Drawing a breath, she turned away from the smooth path, which lay so invitingly before her. She strengthened the spell on her hands and feet, drawing it away from her face and wondering how long her Gift could hold out even now. She was sleepy. A nap would be—
She shook off the cold’s growing spell and made for the slope, stopping only to remove the snowshoes and strap them to her back. Her temper came back with a rush—not at Liam, this time, but at Chitral. “Am I supposed to entertain you?” she yelled, climbing into the rocks. “Where I come from it’s considered honorable to kill a victim outright—not play with her first!”
There was no reply, but she didn’t want one. All she really needed was the heat of her anger. She unhooked the axe from her belt once again, using it to pull herself up.
Her foot broke through a crust in the snow, and she went down, crying out as her leg got stuck between two rocks. Carefully she pulled herself out onto more trustworthy ground, using the ice blade on the axe. When she tried the leg, it throbbed but held.
“Are you enjoying this, Chitral?” No answer. On she climbed.
Within a few feet her staff slid on a hidden bit of ice. She struck the ground with her knees, biting into her lower lip. Alanna grabbed a handful of snow and pressed it against the mask, over her bleeding mouth. Adding another hurt to Chitral’s account, she rose and went on. She knew she got hurt so much now because weariness and agitated nerves interfered with her judgment. The best solution was to stop and rest for half an hour, but she didn’t dare try that. Instead she started to sing “The Tireless Beggar.” She’d finished it and had sung halfway through “The King’s New Lady” when she stumbled into the cave.
Her Gift flickered and died, leaving her with only a trace of its fire. She’d used it up.
Going home will be very interesting, she told herself as she looked around. There was a larger cave behind what seemed to be a small antechamber, and she went into it Chitral’s line of light ended here, in a large chamber with walls that glowed a dim, eerie yellow. At the opposite end was a tunnel.
“All right, Chitral!” she yelled when she’d pulled down her mask. “I’m here!”
Then prepare yourself for combat, came the nerve-shaking reply. You asked for something you can fight. I will oblige you.
The air in the cave was cool, but not cold. She began to strip, preparing herself mentally. She peeled everything down to her woolen layer, leaving the clothing in a pile on the cave floor. Her mind took careful inventory of her physical condition, and she was unhappy with what she found. She’d never taken on a fight in worse shape.
Nothing to it, she thought as she unsheathed Lightning and loosened her arms. Next time I go after something, I hope it’s in a dusty corner where no one sees or cares if I take it. I did ask for this.
Something padded toward her in the tunnel. Moving into the center of the cave, Alanna set herself.
When it came into the light, she understood instantly that Chitral had assumed this form—she couldn’t say how she knew it, but she did. He’d come as one of the great rock-apes that inhabited the Roof of the World. Incredibly shy of people, they were seldom seen, and they never carried short swords as this one did. The blade was black iron and very primitive, but Alanna had no doubt it would do the job intended for it. Oh, gods, she thought as the ape squared off against her, its deepset eyes bright with intelligence. I’m in for it now.
He—it?—swung and chopped, forcing her back. She moved warily, her tired muscles sluggish at first. He jabbed; Alanna countered and thrust, making the ape skip away. Now wasn’t the time for fanciness or art, now was the time to just stay alive. At least the knowledge of a fight sent adrenaline coursing through her body, putting a stop to the tremors of exhaustion. The ape pursued her, hewing with the short sword as if it were an axe.
The long hours with Liam began to show as Alanna automatically dipped, swerved, and twisted. Keeping out of the ape’s reach—he could do as much harm with a hand as he could with his blade—she made him wary of Lightning. Her sword nipped and bit at him, leaving his fur dotted with blood.
Her injured knee buckled, and the ape’s sword scored her from collar to navel, cutting through wool and silk to leave a shallow, bleeding gash. She faltered and lunged in, chopping at the ape’s neck. He roared and smashed back with his unarmed fist, catching her on the elbow. Alanna fell forward and rolled out of the way. Her arm went numb; Lightning dropped from her fingers. Getting up, she staggered back as the ape picked up her sword. He peered at the grey lights shifting under the steel skin.
You did a work of art when you made this. As much as she might want to, she couldn’t react to the pain of his voice in her head, not unless she wanted him to kill her as she covered her ears. She wondered how he even knew Lightning had once been two swords, and that she’d combined them to make one unbroken blade. The ape tossed the sword behind him, where it lay near the far wall of the cave. I suppose you did it only because you wanted a whole sword you could command. Not because the magic was beautiful for its own sake.
It wasn’t true, entirely. He gave her no chance to answer as he attacked.
Alanna couldn’t think, couldn’t worry if her body might give out. She ducked and dodged. When he gave her an opening, she executed one of the jump kicks Liam had taught her, slamming into the ape’s shoulder and making him roar. When he swung to chop her down, she was away and circling. She sought her chance and flew in again, hitting the same shoulder. It was his blade arm that she focused on, kicking every chance she had while keeping out of his range and grip. The fourth time she hit that arm, she kicked lower, into the same muscle he’d hit to make her drop Lightning. The iron sword fell to the cave floor, and Alanna went for it. Her hands closed on the hilt.
Pain seared her hands and arms, locking her muscles together. She screamed, her throat tearing with the cry. It hurt worse than anything she could remember. She held on—she couldn’t let go—and rolled to her back, pointing it at the advancing ape. Crying with the pain, she yelled, “Don’t! I don’t want to kill you! Keep the
Jewel!”
The ape stopped a foot beyond the sword’s point, looking her over curiously. If Alanna didn’t know better, she’d have sworn he smiled. Reaching forward, he plucked the sword from her freely bleeding hands.
You are a funny little thing. His voice hurt much less this time, which puzzled her. He seemed to have changed his mind about killing her.
He didn’t choose to explain. Instead his thought-voice went on. J suppose you have no idea why you are compelled to seek this Jewel.
Alanna cradled her palms against her chest, too tired to rise. “It’s for the glory of Tortall.” Her throat hurt from screaming. “There isn’t a nation existing that can’t profit from the Dominion Jewel. And bringing it home would be to the glory of the knight who brought it. If it’s yours, though, it’s yours. Now that I think of it, I don’t know how the famous heroes of the past were able to take things from the entities that guarded them—not if they were as noble as the stories claim. When you look at it right, it is stealing.”
The ape shook his head, plainly amused. In a hand that was empty a moment ago, he offered a many-faceted purple gem. When she stared at him without moving, he placed it on her chest.
What use have I for a jewel? His outline turned blurry.
“Are you one of the gods?” she asked as he began to fade. Suddenly she had a hundred things she wanted to know from him.
No. I come from before. Your gods are children to my brethren and me.
Alanna could barely see the ape, and the air was getting perceptibly cooler. She scrambled to her feet. “Then who are you?”
I am this place, and these mountains. I suppose you might call me an elemental. Now his voice began to fade.
“How did you come by the Jewel?” She struggled to put on her clothing, trying to ignore the pain in her hands. The Jewel she stuffed into a pocket.
It finds its way to me from time to time. Not often, but now and then. I made it, and I keep it because I like to have company. I shall be entertained by your visit for centuries of human time. You mortals are quite interesting!
