Page 17 of Soul of Fire

Does it look longer to you?I asked Kindra as she stomped the length of the Scar toward the Rift.I feel like we are farther from the edge than the last time we were here.

Kindra snorted.I am attempting to figure that out. Now hush while I count.

I waited quietly inside Kindra’s head, counting along with her while she prowled the length of the Scar, her claws dug deep grooves into the ice on either side of the jagged gash.

My gut was already sinking as she finished.

Forty-two dragon lengths.Her voice was subdued.It was forty last week.

I’m aware.I cursed internally, wondering what it meant that the Scar was growing.

Should I tell Idunn or Baldur?

We should, but I knew there was nothing Eisa or Arik coulddoabout the Scar, and telling them would just make them worry.Not yet.

Are you sure we shouldn’t—

A deep rumbling interrupted Kindra’s argument as the ground beneath her claws shuddered violently.

Call the reirholds!My shout of warning was quickly made obsolete as the earth beneath us cracked open and darkness spilled into the world.

Kindra released a desperate screech, leaping into the sky as she summoned the reirleders to us. Garmr snarled forth from the crack in the world, their claws and maws dripping black ichor. The otherworldly shadows of the huleskygge followed close behind, each flitting across the ice to find the nearest shadow that might conceal them.

Kindra laid down a blast of golden flame to hold back the surge as the telltale sound of wings rent the air behind us.

A bronze was the first to arrive, bellowing its weaker flame to bolster Kindra’s as she aimed for the mass of huleskygge attempting to escape from the crack.

One of the garmr leaped and caught the edge of the bronze’s wing before falling back to the earth, its claws leaving splintering black gashes behind in the ice.

The bronze dragon howled as another gold came to its rescue, and then the reirleders were there. White and gold flames eruptedfrom the dragons and incinerated the odemarksdyr before they gained purchase on our side of the Rift.

Push them back!Kindra roared the command as we swooped low over the Scar, our fire so hot it left a searing red gash atop the black as we burned the monsters back into the darkness from whence they had come.

Another white drew up beside us and shot a jet of flame at a garmr as it leaped for us. Kindra dodged the claws gracefully, raking her own through the matted black fur of the monster as she clamped her jaws around its throat.

Garmr are vile. She spat the words out along with a mouthful of black blood. More dragons swooped around us, all of us working as one to beat back the odemarksdyr.

My eyes caught the blackened edge of the Scar, and I could swear I saw the ice shift subtly back into place as if some great beast below were deciding to bide its time.

Something about the Rift was changing, and not for the better.

A gold dragon, followed by a smaller bronze, bellowed something to Kindra.

She snorted irritably.Asger’s human wishes to know if you are alright.

Tell Viggo we’re fine,I replied, still studying the Scar distractedly through one of Kindra’s eyes.Did you see it move?

Yes.She screeched, and the surrounding dragons began to thin as they flapped back toward Ironholm.Do you wish me to tell them?

No.It could have been a trick of the light. In the panic of the attack, my vision had been obscured by Kindra’s flame, and it was entirely possible that we were both mistaken about the Scar.

But if we weren’t…

No, I repeated.We don’t want to start a panic. Not with Arik away at least.I wasn’t sure I could handle the entire mountain demanding answers I didn’t have.

All of the dragons that had come to our aid had returned to the sky, and I had the sinking feeling there would be a line of worried drage darkening the dragehersker’s door before the day was through.We have enough trouble as it is.

“Iseemtorecallthat there are rules about drage going out into the Odemark alone.” Ingmar’s voice was part teasing, part chastising as I entered Arik’s office.