“After you,” Kalan urges. The water isn’t just cold, it’s bitter, cutting through my clothes and attacking my skin the second I hit it. “Oh, stars!” I clench my jaw and race to the other side, the icy blades stabbing all over my body as I pull myself out of the water. As I climb out, there’s no respite. No relief. Just freezing air that stifles any hope of warmth, stinging my cheeks, and cutting through my layers.
It makes me think of the sun and wish for the heat to burn down on us.
As I picture it in my mind, something heats in my chest—a glow. An energy, and, as if answering a call, Novandia’s magic seems to stir. Even though I’m frozen, I lock down that part of me, smother it, and shut it out, like stamping on the embers of a fire. I still don’t fully understand what’s happened to me in Nehandun or since. A possibility. An experiment. But I can feel the urge—the call—to answer to my magic. But I can’t, not around friends.
We’re all quiet, our pace quickened to keep warm in the freezing air. When Kalan leads us out of the woods, we step out onto a blanket of snow, the ground white and beautiful. In the dull light, it makes the area look bright and pretty, but I fear it’s only an illusion. The Opal mountains, their peaks usually speckled with snow, are now covered. A white-out.
“Why?” I look around the clearing, noting that there are no other footprints except ours. I hug my arms to my body, trying to rub some heat into them.
“Maybe they are using Sur’gos. They live in the mountains, but only on the highest peaks. They’re cold creatures,” Calix says.
“Friendly creatures?” I check.
“No.” He shrugs his shoulders as if that’s enough of an explanation. Apart from Nettle, there haven’t been any nice creatures in Kirrasia.
“They’re coming from the north.” Ten steps forward, looks around, and despite not being connected to his power, I can see him building the scenarios in his head. “I came from the north. Through the mountains. But if they’ve covered these with snow, then the easiest path to The Court will be across the lake.”
“The lake?” I remember wanting to see it for its beauty—something so vast, like the mountains when I first arrived and crossed the border. My world was so small before, and I didn’t even realise it.
“If it’s frozen, they can walk right in and attack from the north, as that won’t be defended.”
“If they come in carefully, pick the route, they’d miss the Amenest outpost, if it’s still defended. The mountains, lake and forest act as natural defences for Kirrasia. It wouldn’t be easy, but they’ll have a clear shot,” Calix surmises for us.
“Great.”
“And we’ll be trapped. Kirrians and whoever they attack with, to the south.” Ten looks at me.“Your brother and the Usher to the north.”
His words are faint in my mind, like when he was over the border, but I’m grateful that strand of magic is still intact.
“Err, Calix. Why did you have to mention the Sur’gos?” Kyra’s voice is shaky as she looks up at the mountains dwarfing us. They seem so much bigger, more imposing now that they blend in with the snow and ice around us.
“It was just a theory.” He shrugs.
“So much for theory. Look.” Kyra points to the mountain, where we can see the outline of a grey creature. They’re too far up to make out any features, but it sends a paralysing fear through me.
The more we watch, the more movement we pick up. Creatures, dozens of them, scaling the snowy slopes as if venturing out.
“There’s not enough of us,” I mumble. Kyra was right. “There’s nobody else. The Warriors won’t get here. We don’t know who to trust, and the Usher is here.”
“We stand.” Raiden looks up at the mountain, but her voice rings clearly around us all.
“We stand,” I repeat. “But we need more weapons.” I turn to Kalan. “Can we call the Jarkoreth?”
“We, or you?” He stares at me and nods at the brooch I hid under my shirt.
“It found us in the forest. They are there, Kalan. Alive.” He stares for a moment, no words. In another time, in a different future, perhaps things would be different, and I could have known him as I grew up. A lifetime of questions and missed possibilities passes between us, but above it all, he hears my plea.
With a simple nod, he turns to the darkening woods and slips back under their cover.
The air chills further, and my feet feel frozen in place as I watch the edge of the forest line.
“Ever.” Raiden breaks my line of sight. “Ever, listen. You are a Fifth. You can do more than you’ve ever thought of. Don’t hide from your power now.” Her voice sounds like steel: unwavering and deadly. All I see is the confident girl who was kind to me. Wise.
Capella takes her hand and joins Raiden before me. “You can use another way to get to them.”
“No. Not again. Not like that.” I turn away from them. “I only have Novandia’s magic. My power is different now. I won’t risk what we did again.” I’ve only just rid myself of the veil of death over me. I won’t ask for it again, freely. “They are Aslendrix’s creatures. I can’t call them with magic that isn’t hers.” It’s too big a risk, too unpredictable, and I won’t gamble on my friends’ lives.
“It’s a risk.”
