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At that point, we rounded a bend and Smoky stopped. He set Iris down, bidding her to stand next to Delilah. We were near a huge fir, one so tall I could barely see the top of it. The undergrowth around it was thick, covered with snow, and I nervously looked around. This would be the perfect place for the snow monkey to show up.
“Should we stop here? There’s too much cover and we could be in danger.” Delilah must have been reading my mind. Even Shade looked nervous.
“We’ve been in danger since we started out this morning.” Smoky let out a long breath. “We’re meeting help here. When I left last night, it was to ask someone to accompany us. She agreed to meet us this morning.”
She? Wondering whether he’d made a trip to Talamh Lonrach Oll to ask a favor from Aeval or Titania—I knew he’d never ask Morgaine—I glanced around, looking for any sign of the Fae Queens.
But then, out from behind the fir, stepped a woman as tall as Hyto, but far more stately. She was pale, with eyes the color of gunmetal, and her hair flowed down to her butt, a sparkling array of silver strands with a pale ice blue cast to them. The tendrils moved and twisted and I caught my breath.
Dressed in a filmy robe the color of early dawn, she glided forward, graceful as a dancer. Her aura sparkled with magic and I let out a little gasp. Smoky was powerful. Hyto was strong. But here—here was the true nobility of Dragonkin. It permeated her every movement, her eyes, her stance. And I suddenly understood why the silver dragons were the Emperors of their kind.
The woman’s gaze met mine and she held me fast. At first, the energy rolling off her was aloof, but after a few moments, a sparkle filled her eyes, and for some reason I had the feeling that I’d passed a test.
“Iampaatar, I taught you better manners than this. You will introduce us.” Her voice was the sound of wind chimes tinkling in a thin breeze.
Smoky bowed low, pressing her hand to his lips. Then, standing, he motioned for me to come forward. “May I have permission to use your public name, my Lady?”>“You made Trillian and Roz stay home because they are more vulnerable to Hyto, didn’t you? Vanzir, too?” Delilah caught up to me, blowing on her hands. The early-morning air was damp and moist, filled with the taste of snow.
I nodded. “Yes, but that’s not the only reason. We really do need someone to watch over Maggie and the others. What if Hyto breaks through us? Smoky’s got it set up that if he falls, a warning will go off in the barrow. That will give them enough time to run.”
“I didn’t know that,” Delilah said, suddenly grim. “This is really it, isn’t it? We’re fighting a dragon?”
None of us had ever been on the receiving end of a dragon’s fury except Roz—once when he pinched my butt in front of Smoky—and me, at the mercy of Hyto. I hated to think about what waited in store for us when the battle was to the death.
“I didn’t know it, either, but he told me shortly before we left the barrow. He also told Trillian, so they know what’s going down. Menolly—she’s safe enough, we figure, tucked away in the lower levels. I doubt Hyto would go to much bother trying to find her. But the others . . .”
As we crossed a clearing, a deer came out of the undergrowth, standing near entwined buses of huckleberry and bracken. She stared at us, not moving but poised to run, and I gazed into her eyes as we passed by. She couldn’t control what we were doing, but her reaction was one of caution, wariness. I raised a hand, slowly, greeting her as we passed by.
The snow grew thicker, heavy and wet, as the grade of the path increased. I tried to tune in to the land here—if I was going to use the Earth Elemental to counter Hyto, it might help if I could make a connection with the land. I’d have to start paying more attention to my surroundings once I was part of Aeval’s Court, so I might as well do it now.
Suddenly, I realized I was thinking of the future as if there really was one. The thought We might actually have a chance . . . ran through my head, and I wondered where it had come from.
As we continued, I began to have an odd feeling we were being followed. I glanced behind us but could see nothing. When I mentioned it to Smoky, he listened, then shook his head. The hush of snow falling on snow muted sounds, and the world took on the same surreal white glow that the Northlands had held.
“I can hardly wait for spring,” I muttered under my breath. “I’ve had enough snow to last me a lifetime.”
“You and me both,” Iris said, now riding along on Smoky’s shoulders. “I am dreaming of planting flowers and vegetables. Last night, a pansy chased me down the path in my dreams, threatening me if I didn’t make it stop snowing.”
The sudden break in mood made me laugh. Even though I was trying to keep quiet, my voice rang out down the slope behind us, and I bent over, stifling myself. I managed to quickly sober up, but it took everything I had not to giggle.
Smoky and Shade said nothing, but Delilah gave me a sideways look that told me she was either very annoyed or very much in agreement with me.
We came to a level area on the slope, before the grade of the hill started up in earnest. Another half-hour’s hike, it looked like, before we reached the rendezvous point. The treeline was still dense. We weren’t even into the real foothills of the Cascades yet, though it wasn’t that hard to get an up-close-and-personal view of Mount Rainier from the road. But here the vegetation was thick, the snow deep, and the going problematic.
“At least he doesn’t want to meet us up on the top of the glaciers. I don’t fancy a climb up Mount Rainier to fight a dragon.” Even as the words left my lips, there was a noise to the right and a bolt of lightning came shooting out at us. It missed Delilah and me but caught Shade on the arm. He shouted and dodged to the right as the glaring fork disappeared.
“Crap! Is that Hyto?” I turned, quickly seeking out any form that might tell us he was in the area. But the area from where the attack had come was thick with fern and bracken, covered in large drifts of snow. A hole had melted through it—the spell had to have come from there, but it was low to the ground and somehow I didn’t think that Hyto could keep himself hidden that well. He was too arrogant; he’d want us to know it was him.
Shade motioned for us to stay on the path and hurried over to the area, kicking the plants askew. “Nobody here. But there was, and they wore . . . some form of sandal, would be my guess.”
“Sandals? Hyto doesn’t wear sandals.” I frowned. “He wears boots and they’re damned hard and heavy. I know, my ribs show the damage.” Smoky let out a low bark and I turned to him. “Keep hold of yourself, my love. Not once while I was there did he wear anything but those damned boots.”
“Should we follow the tracks?” Delilah asked.
Shade gazed at the direction in which they’d gone. “I don’t know if that will do us any good. That was powerful magic. Anyone who can command a strong lightning bolt . . .”
“My father cannot.” Smoky set Iris on the ground and she shook her self out. “He can control mist and fog and snow, better than I can, but he can’t control the lightning. Unless he was using a scroll, there’s no way he could have cast a spell like that.”
“Then who . . .” I paused. “I know who.” And I did—as sure as I knew my name. “Asheré. The snow monkey—he’s a rogue monk from the Northlands. Trust me, it’s got to be him.”
