Winter Spell

by Claire M Banschbach

“I know you’re not opposed to meat, so you can get off your high horse.” He looked pointedly at the dried jerky in August’s hand.

  “And I’m not hungry anymore,” Diane muttered.

  Tonya stared down at her bread, picking off another flake and bringing it up to her mouth. How to get them off this subject? What would Sophie do? She’d just start talking. But about what?

  Tonya cleared her throat. In the two and a half days they’d been together, she still knew next to nothing about her two faery companions. Diane had been the only one willing to speak more than a few short sentences. She decided to start with Dorian, because she didn’t like the hardness that tensed around his eyes whenever August spoke.

  “Dorian, what’s your home like? When it’s not covered in ice?” She managed a lighter tone. They’d be at the border by nightfall and she’d no idea what they’d find.

  Dorian glanced up, the lines around his eyes relaxing.

  “There aren’t as many forests as here.” He cast a quick look at August that surprisingly wasn’t angry. “More hills and rivers. Lakes. This time of year, the hills are emerald green and covered in every kind of flower you can imagine.”

  Tonya half-smiled. She’d like to see land flowers. The blooms under the sea were colorful and entrancing, but she’d always loved the few bright red blossoms on her island and wanted to see more.

  “What are hippogryphs like?” Diane leaned forward, an eager light in her eyes. A welcome change from the caution that lingered around the faeries.

  “What?” Tonya straightened in interest. This was a new word.

  “One of our magical creatures in Durne. Half horse, half griffin,” Dorian explained.

  “Griffin?” Tonya tried out the word. “Those are those big bird creatures, right?”

  August snorted in mild offense. “They’re a little more than just big birds.”

  “They’re terrifying.” Diane shivered.

  “I’ve only seen small glimpses of them flying above cliffs,” Tonya said.

  “Be glad that you haven’t seen them up close,” Diane said.

  But Tonya wanted to know everything. August’s face softened into a smile. He dug in the snow, scraping through the thin sheet of ice until he reached a patch of grass. He pulled a handful of blades free and took some pine needles to add to the pile in his palm.

  He spoke a few merry words that Tonya didn’t quite understand, but the grass and needles swirled in the air, taking the form of a creature suspended in flight. Wings spread from a body like the cats she’d seen in the town, but the face sharpened into a beak like the parrotfish.

  “That’s a griffin?”

  “Aye,” August said. “They’re almost as tall as that tree you’re sitting under, and longer than you and Diane put together.”

  Tonya now understood Diane’s fear. “How does that turn into a hippogryph?”

  “It doesn’t.” August smiled patiently. He flicked a glance at Dorian, then spoke another few words. “This is a hippogryph.”

  The griffin kept its head and wings, but the hindquarters shifted to the animal Tonya now knew as a horse.

  “They’re about the size of a griffin,” Dorian spoke up again. “Just as mean.”

  “How does an animal like that come to be?”

  “Legend says that a sorcerer tried to cross a pegasus and a griffin.” Dorian shrugged, his tone indicating he didn’t put much stock in the tale. “They live in caves by the lakes, so you have to be cautious when around water. They’re more likely to capture and keep human prey than a wyvern.”

  Tonya shook her head. “Too many creatures to keep track of.”

  Diane laughed. “Every country has a few different ones that rarely cross over the borders. We have griffins and pegasi here. The griffins live along the cliffs and sometimes in the forests. The pegasi live up in the mountains. They’re generally harmless.”

  “Unless you come too close to their eyries,” August put in with a chuckle.

  “Thankfully the Rusalka, the vicious water spirits, have all been exterminated.” Diane shivered again.

  “There are still a few living in our rivers,” Dorian said, his mouth twisting into a grim frown.

  “What do you have besides hippogryphs, and these water spirits?” Tonya asked, ready for his frown to leave again.

  “They’re rare, but there’s still a few phoenixes around. The war was hard on them too.” Dorian didn’t look at August for once. “If you can find one, and catch it in the right mood, it might grant you a small wish or two.”

  “Really?” Diane perked up. “I thought that was only a myth.”

  Dorian shrugged, but a small smile peeked out at the corner of his mouth. “I’m assuming it’s true, since I’ve had one or two wishes granted.”

  “How? What?” Diane leaned further, almost falling off the log.

  Dorian shrugged again, clearly not about to tell.

  Diane pursed her lips into a pout. “Fine.”

  “What about these wires—wyv…” Tonya stumbled over the word.

  “Wyverns?” August supplied with a grin.

  “That.”

  “They live in Calvyrn. They have some nasty creatures there. Baedons, trolls, wyverns.” Diane shook her head. “I’ll take griffins over those any day.”

  August and Dorian both nodded in rare agreement.

  “I fought a Baedon once. Don’t want to ever again.” Dorian shook his head.

  August looked up in quick interest, before he remembered he was supposed to hate Dorian. Tonya barely resisted rolling her eyes.

  Boys.

  “What about the ocean?” Dorian shifted more comfortably against the tree.

  “Sea dragons live in the darkest part of the waters. They come to eat young faeries who try to sneak out of the reef at night.” Tonya smiled at the bedtime story. “Gilled deer live on islands, but come into the water to hunt. They look like smaller versions of the deer you have here.” She pointed around to the forest. “But with gills along their nose. And their teeth are savagely sharp.”

  She thought a moment more. “Echo seals can mimic any sound and try to lure you to your death.” She paused, confused. Where have I heard that one before?

  “What?” Diane asked.

  “Nothing.” Tonya hesitated. “Well, it’s just that I don’t think that the seals are something I learned about growing up in the reef.”

  Diane’s brows furrowed and she tilted her head.

  “You think they’re from the north?” Dorian tipped his chin up, revealing more of the curiosity in his green eyes.

  Tonya rubbed her fingers together, and slowly nodded. Now they’ll all think I’m crazy. Just like everyone did when I accidentally said something like that in the reef.

  “Does that happen often? Knowing things from the north like that?” There was no judgement in Dorian’s voice. He simply wanted to know.

  Tonya looked away from him, unsure of how to react to his different response. But Diane and August also looked at her with the same genuine curiosity.

  “Sometimes things just pop into my head. Like how I know about eagles and polar bears. And narwhals with their horns that will grant your heart’s desire with one touch. And sometimes I think about glaciers and—” She clamped her mouth shut. They wouldn’t want to hear all of that.

  But a glance up showed all three of her companions focused on her every word.

  “What else?” Diane’s eyes sparkled with delight. “I don’t know anything about the north!”

  Heat crept up Tonya’s neck and cheeks.

  “I don’t know if any of that’s really there. I don’t even know how it pops into my head if I’ve never seen it. Kostis said I was no more than a baby when my mother left me with him. And…”

  Her throat locked up for a moment. “I’ve never had anyone to teach me about it.”

  Diane pressed her hand around Tonya’s arm, a smile of sad understanding crossing her face.

  “Maybe you’ll find som
eone to when we get there.”

  The annoying pressure built up behind Tonya’s eyes once again. She couldn’t quite understand Diane’s eternal optimism that almost rivaled Sophie’s.

  She sniffed and put away the last of the bread that she still couldn’t quite stomach. “Should we keep going?”

  Dorian tipped a small nod and rose to his feet in a smooth motion. Tonya pulled her pack back on, trying not to wince as the straps settled into the permanent grooves she was sure were etched into her shoulders.

  “And how many hundreds of miles do we still have to go today?” Diane asked, a playful smirk on her lips. She stretched her arms overhead before picking up her pack and staff.

  “Only two hundred,” Dorian replied in his usual serious voice, but a hint of laughter lay underneath.

  Diane laughed and Tonya let the smile creep across her face. August rolled his eyes, but didn’t make any comment. Dorian led them back to the road, which wound between towering pines and oak trees. A few squirrels scampered down the trunks, clutching the bark with their paws as they craned their necks, chattering at August.

  He replied in words Tonya couldn’t understand. But, like with the wolf that morning, they rang with magic.

  “What are you doing?” She turned to face him, walking backwards.

  “Telling them we’re trying to fix the strange weather.” He whistled at a magpie that fluttered along beside them, cawing madly at him.

  “How?”

  He quickened his pace to walk beside her, allowing her to face forward again.

  “My magic is strongest with animals. I inherited that from my father. I can speak their language.”

  A pair of gleaming eyes in the undergrowth startled Tonya and she grabbed at her knife, but August waved her hand down.

  “Just a fox,” he said calmly. A smaller, reddish-brown version of a dog slunk out of the bushes, running a few steps beside August before vanishing again.

  “Are—are they going hungry because of the ice?” Tonya swallowed hard, remembering Diane’s words that morning.

  August’s sideways glance held quick pity. “They’re managing. When my people begin to journey out to help our countries, they’ll make sure the animals are taken care of as well. It’s our job to take care of all living creatures.”

  “Even those terrifying creatures you told me about?”

  “Sometimes. My father once befriended a griffin to help it. But that’s more the exception than the rule. I’m sure it’s the same with your people.”

  Tonya nodded. A specific contingent of the Reef Guard trained to fight the sea dragons and keep the human ships safe in the waters. But they’d also helped a herd of gilled deer find a new island when a storm destroyed their previous home.

  “How do you like the land so far?” August tucked his hands under his pack straps.

  Tonya took a breath, letting the forest fill her senses—the gentle rays of the sun that brought faint bursts of warmth despite the icy breeze, and the ongoing crunch of footsteps of the companions she’d never really expected to start to feel comfortable around.

  “Besides my feet hurting all the time?” She raised an eyebrow.

  August laughed. “Besides that.”

  “I’d have to come up for a few minutes every change of the tide to be able to breathe. There was a small island where I’d sit and stare at the distant coastline of Myrnius. It’s so much bigger than I imagined. So different. There’s so much to learn.” An embarrassed laugh escaped.

  “You seem to be doing well so far.” He nudged her arm with his elbow.

  The friendly gesture took her by surprise, but she smiled. “I’d like to see it without all the ice and snow.”

  “I’m sure you will. Soon, right?” He winked, as if willing her to believe it too.

  She offered another smile and watched her feet take step after step. She didn’t know how to respond to the optimism that they would find something to untangle the magic inside her. The hope she could figure out a way to undo the magic when she didn’t even know how to do a simple spell.

  August nudged her arm again. He tilted his head, concern in his hazel eyes.

  “I think I’m just tired.” She lifted one aching shoulder in a shrug.

  He nodded, a divot appearing under his lip where he bit the inside. He didn’t appear convinced. She quickened her pace to get away from the look and ran into Dorian’s back.

  He’d stopped Diane, pushing one arm in front of her. He stood tense and alert, glancing around them. August immediately mirrored the stance.

  “You hear anything?” Dorian murmured.

  Tonya clutched at the straps of her pack in the sudden eerie silence. August moved his hand to his sword, the steel gently grating as he began to ease it out of its sheath.

  “Animals are gone,” he whispered.

  “I can’t feel anything from the ground.” Dorian edged his feet apart to widen his stance.

  A word that was definitely a curse edged from August as he slowly turned his gaze up to the sky. “Let’s get under cover.”

  Prickles ran along Tonya’s skin as the strip of sky above the road suddenly seemed a mile wide. For the first time, she felt cold.

  “Easy now.” Dorian tugged Diane’s sleeve and began to move towards the trees to their left. Diane followed, her pale face set in grim determination as she gripped her staff and mimicked the way his feet slid across the ground.

  Tonya tried to do the same, but her boots suddenly felt even heavier and more unwieldy.

  “Keep moving.” August’s hand kept a gentle pressure on her elbow. A swallow caught in her dry throat.

  Dorian kept them moving into the treeline and over ten feet from the road, under the thickest branches he could find. He had yet to draw a weapon, but his stance stayed ready. August’s sword rested free, angled towards his body to prevent it from glinting in the light that crept through the heavy foliage.

  “Anything?” Diane’s whisper ended in a slight squeak.

  Dorian shook his head, but August slowly pointed up.

  The heavy rush of wings broke the stillness, and the trees surrounding them swayed in the gust as a large something passed overhead.

  Diane shrank back against the trunk. August’s throat bobbed. Dorian wore an even grimmer expression.

  What is out there? Panic welled in Tonya. A hand on her arm startled her, and she relaxed a fraction at Dorian’s touch. He brought his gaze from the sky a moment to give her a slight nod of reassurance.

  “You see it?” he asked August, barely moving his lips.

  “Coming back for another pass,” August returned.

  A guttural shriek tore through the canopy, sending Tonya’s fear spiking like a lightning surge on the water. She stumbled back a step into Dorian. Diane clapped her gloved hands over her mouth, squeezing her eyes shut as her chest heaved in a suppressed breath.

  August clenched his free hand into a fist, but his eyes stayed trained on the sky.

  They remained frozen as gradually the wingbeats faded, and one last cry sounded in the distance.

  Tonya jumped as a blue bird shook itself in a nearby tree and gave a low trill. With that, life returned to the forest. August relaxed and sheathed his sword. Diane slid down into a crouch, keeping her head bowed for a moment.

  Dorian released Tonya’s arm. Heat flashed across her face as she realized she’d been pressed up against him without even realizing it. She stumbled a step away with a fumbling apology.

  His features softened into what she decided was his smile. His mouth barely moved, but the skin around his eyes crinkled, coaxing a brightness to the light green.

  “What was that?” She jerked her attention from the sight.

  “Remmiken,” Dorian said.

  Even the name sent a shiver down Tonya’s spine.

  “They’re even more terrifying out here.” Diane shivered again before taking Dorian’s proffered hand and rising back to her feet.

  “That explains why neith
er of us could sense it.” August addressed Dorian, his eyes holding no malice.

  “We should probably stay off the road for a while in case it comes back around,” Dorian replied.

  Tonya rubbed her arms, pushing away the goosebumps the cry had raised. “What happens if it comes back?”

  “Just pray it doesn’t.” Dorian took a few steps away, staring in the direction of the road for a moment before checking the position of the sun. “Let’s go.”

  Tonya fell in beside Diane. She hated to bring it back up, but the name remmiken didn’t mean anything to her.

  “What was that?” She tried to keep her voice low.

  Diane shivered again. “A creature that some of the worst sorcerers made during the war. It’s some of the nastiest parts of those creatures we told you about smashed into a flying monstrosity.”

  She didn’t say anything more, leaving Tonya to her own imagination as the others walked in silence.

  After nearly an hour of picking their way through the forest itself, Dorian finally led them back to the road. There’d been no sign of anything but the usual forest life. The rest of the day passed much the same way.

  It was only when they came to the edge of the forest, as the sun sank low in the western sky, that Dorian announced they’d reached the border. August stiffened back up and their glares returned.

  Tonya bit back a sigh. Back to normal, then.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The endless hills of Durne spread out before Tonya, their rugged bulk gentled by the sparkle of the morning sun against the ice. They’d camped the night in the shelter of the forest before beginning the next stage of their journey. At least another five days’ walk across Durne lay ahead of them before they reached the Strait, and then the north beyond. And then finding the ice faeries and praying they can do something.

  “Trying to see it from here?” Dorian’s voice carried a bit of a tease as he came to stand beside her.

  She turned a quick smile up at him before glancing back at the horizon. “Maybe. Glad to be back home?”

  He paused for a long moment, a muscle along his jaw tensing. “A little.”

  I said something wrong! How do I change the subject?