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We headed out. The guards followed Grieve and Chatter, on foot at their top speed. Peyton, Luna, Rhiannon, Ysandra, and I took Ysandra’s car. I wondered how long we could go on like this. It had to end soon. There was no more wiggle room.
The afternoon was dark, and so we drove with our lights on, just to be cautious. The road to Sugarbee’s led east, into the Cascade foothills. During summer, it was a beautiful drive, but now, with Myst’s unending winter still claiming a full grip on the land, it was treacherous. We wound through the narrow two-lane highway, through snow-covered fields interspersed with ravines tangled thick with bramble and briar. The trees, tall firs and spruce, were blanketed with a heavy layer of snow, weighing down their limbs till they were touching the ground. And every sweep of the headlights caught the swirl of fresh flakes, muffling the road with an icy silence.
Grieve and the rest would meet us at Sugarbee’s. They could move so fast that—given the traffic and roundabout way—it wouldn’t take them much longer than our car.
Ysandra was driving, and a moody silence filled the car. The miles passed by until, twenty-five minutes later, we pulled off onto a side road. This would take us out toward the Snoqualmie National Forest. The snow was deeper here and coming down faster.
“You have snow tires on this thing, don’t you?” I glanced uneasily out the window. The SUV was small—a CRV. We were making decent headway, given the afternoon traffic and how icy the road was. But SUVs tipped at the most inopportune times, and I was nervous as we went by some of the ravines. Tumbling down one did not appeal to me.
She gave me a humorless snort. “Yes, I do. Trust me, I don’t want to go skidding off the road any more than you do.” With a glance at her GPS, she pressed a button and the device started, giving her step-by-step instructions to reach Sugarbee’s. The going was slower than normal, and traffic was starting to build. A number of techies lived out in the rural areas and commuted into the Bellevue-Redmond area for work.
Another thirty minutes and we reached the turnoff for the honey company. It was closed for the year, although a small store was open, selling holiday gifts. Ysandra pulled into the parking lot and turned to Luna, who was sitting in the backseat.
“Change places with Cicely. I’ll need your guidance from here on out. GPS can’t give us those cave locations.”
Luna shivered in the icy air, but I barely noticed it. Being the Queen of Snow and Ice had its perks. I hurried into the back as soon as she scrambled into the front, and I saw that she’d locked the door. We waited there for another fifteen minutes until Grieve popped out from behind a tree and waved at us.
We gave him a thumbs-up and headed out, this time at a slower pace with Luna directing. Easing out of the parking lot, we followed the road for another half mile, then turned to the left, which led into a park opposite the wildflower fields belonging to Sugarbee’s. The gates were still open; it wasn’t dusk yet, so we eased in and Ysandra managed to find a parking space where she could plow through the snow. It was obvious that no other vehicles had come through here recently.
When she shut off the motor, Luna said, “Along that trail there, then through the woods a little, and the caverns aren’t far off. If Geoffrey and Leo are in there, however, we’ll play havoc finding them. The cave system is like a maze and, at least when I was a kid, they had warning signs up all over the front. They were afraid that somebody would go exploring and get lost. The entrance isn’t on one of the main trails, but it was near a big sign that gave information on the area and the wildlife around here. I hope it’s still up, though I’m pretty sure I remember the way.”
“Well, there’s Grieve and the others,” I said, pointing to the trailhead. “Let’s get this show on the road. It’s already two ten. That gives us a little over two hours to find them and stake them. And as we saw yesterday, that isn’t always enough time.”
We hopped out of the car and met up with Grieve and the guards. Silent, we followed Luna as she took the lead between two of the burliest men. She needed to be up front, but we wanted her to be protected at all costs.
Luna, Peyton, and Ysandra couldn’t walk atop the snow like the rest of us, so we had to go at their pace. One of the guards walked in front of Luna, breaking the trail for her, which did help speed us up a little, but it was still slow going, and I knew the three women and Rhiannon had to be cold.
The snow was coming down in thick flakes, sticking to our lashes, dusting our hair and clothes, but we moved through it unspeaking. While Geoffrey and Leo would still be asleep, they might have brought day-runners with them. Even though we hadn’t seen any other vehicles out there, we didn’t dare take a chance on alerting anybody. So we went on silently.
Finally, Luna stopped, looking frustrated. “I know it was off this trail somewhere, but I don’t see that sign. Everything looks different in the winter.”
I moved up beside her. “I have an idea. Everyone, wait here.” And then, stepping back, I began to transform into my owl self. Thank heavens I didn’t have to strip anymore. As my body began to shift, a freedom raced through me, although the gashes on my legs seemed to hurt worse during the transformation, and I wasn’t sure why.
Arms became wings, fingers became feathers, and as I took flight, soaring over the others, I breathed easy for the first time in a while. But the freedom turned to high alert as I swooped, dipping a wing, and then headed off, following the trail, scanning the ground from above. I needed to find the sign Luna had been talking about.
The snow was trickier in owl form, and I picked up the pace, slowly beating my wings as I did my best to keep a straight path through the storm. From above, the world was a frozen wonderland, brilliant and white and covered in chill mist that swirled up from the falling snow.
I began to make sweeps, to the right, then the left, and then—I saw what looked to be a pile of wood under a mound of white. I slowly circled in, trying to discern what it was. As I approached closer, I saw that it was a sign, broken and falling apart. I remembered what Luna had said and flew off the main path, searching among the trees until I came to a clearing near the frozen stream. And there, beyond the stream, against the rock face of the fern and moss covered cliff, was the cave opening.
Bingo. Found it. Now to bring the others.
I will get them. I can speak to Grieve. Ulean took me by surprise, but in a good way.
Ulean! I didn’t know you were here.
You truly thought I’d let you go off on your own without watching over you? I am bound to you, Cicely. And then she was gone and I settled in a tree near the cave.
While I was waiting for them, I glanced around, looking for any sign of day-runners, but there were no footprints in the snow, no sign that any mortal had walked these woods for as long as it had taken the snow to pile up. I did, however, see a deer meander by, stopping to eat a few leaves off one of the fern fronds peeking out from the white that blanketed the area. And a fox raced past, chasing a mouse. My instinct to hunt stirred in my belly—the mouse looked like good pickings, but I repressed the urge, letting the fox have his dinner.
Finally, after I was certain there were no dangers that I could sense, I flew to the ground and returned to my normal state. As I stood, shaking my hair back, a noise made me whirl. How the hell had anybody managed to sneak up on me? I had been keeping a close watch.
No person stood there, but an Ice Elemental. It bowed to me, stiffly, and tilted its head, as if it were waiting. And then I saw yet another join it, and I realized they were drawn to me because I was their Queen. I ruled their world. Wiping my eyes, I wondered how I might communicate with them. How could I talk to them? And could they help us?
As I was hesitating, unsure what to say, a rush of wind encircled me. Ulean had returned.
The others are on the way. What have we here?
How can I speak to them? Do they know I’m their Queen?
