She just had to make it to Foruk’s Falls.
Chapter 12: Snow Bear
The city of Foruk’s Falls lay nestled at the base of an enormous granite mountain far below her. It was at least a day’s journey.
Blaze had traveled as far as she could for the day. Now she sat, huddled as close to the firepit as she could, shivering even as warmth filled her body. Lighting a fire always gave her more heat than if she summoned all that flame herself. That way she could absorb heat instead of use it up. Better to burn wood than burn up her inner flame.
The dense pine trees kept the howl of the mountain air down to a stiff breeze. The clouds had broken up above, and the moon was visible through the treetops, though wind gusts still guided snow flurries through the sky.
She had to stay on her guard. She imagined orcs creeping through the woods just out of sight, having followed her out of Hetsa. Throwing her hood over her head, she peered out into the darkness.
“I am back,” Dreck said behind her.
With a scream, Blaze summoned fireballs to her hands. The fire in the pit exploded upward, a pillar shooting into the sky. Gasping for breath, the Ember Mage whirled around and glared at the orc. “Don’t do that!”
“Do what?” Dreck asked.
“Sneak up behind me like that! I didn’t even hear you!”
Dreck shrugged. “Son of Crook-Eye Tracker. Make no sound.” He stepped around Blaze and set down a large stack of branches by the fire. He added a few branches and sat across the crackling flames from Blaze.
He was quiet. For some reason, that infuriated Blaze.
What does he want—an apology?
A hug?
He was not getting a hug. After minutes of painful silence, Blaze spoke. She wanted to find out more about the Iron Collar, but what good would it do? He wasn’t going to tell her. And if she pressed the issue, Dreck might even go so far as to kill her. She didn’t know what the orc would do.
“How did you find me?” she asked. She stared at the orc.
Dreck stoked the fire with a stick, frowning in apparent thought.
It was as if he didn’t trust her.
It only made her want him to speak more.
He held out his oak-branch arm and gave a low whistle.
A large, black shape swooped down toward Dreck, claws outstretched. Blaze flinched and lit her palms on fire, ready to blast the creature. Dreck looked up and smiled. The black shape landed on the orc’s shoulder in a flurry of feathers. Cawing softly, it nuzzled its head against Dreck’s ear.
“The raven,” Blaze said, extinguishing her flames. “It’s yours?”
The orc looked over at the bird. “Raven is friend of Crook-Eye Orcs—raven see far.”
“I saw it earlier in the day,” Blaze said. She didn’t mention she had yelled at it, and thankfully, neither did the bird.
He indicated a band on the bird’s leg. “This bird called Rav.”
“Rav the Raven. Whose brilliant idea was that?”
“My father.”
Blaze clamped her mouth shut. Then she remembered. The Freyr of Hetsa had said an orc with a raven had scouted out the village just before the rest of the orcs invaded. He’d come looking for a gem—a black zirconia. It had to be Dreck.
“What were you doing in Hetsa before the attack?” she asked. She pointed a flaming finger at him. “I know you were there. Dreck, did you lead the orcs into Hetsa?”
Dreck didn’t even look up at her. “Rav bring news.” Dreck unrolled a small piece of paper with markings Blaze could not recognize. The scrap was small enough to be wrapped on the crow’s leg.
“Dreck, listen to me. Why did you want that zirconia from Hetsa? What was it?”
Dreck smashed his foot into the ground. It felt like the ground shook. “No!” he said. His nostrils flared, and his hot breath turned into vapor in the cold.
Blaze took a step back. She didn’t know he could get so furious. For a moment, she wondered if he would attack.
“No, Ember Mage!” growled Dreck. He balled up his fists. “No secrets for Blaze.”
She’d pressed him too hard. But why? What was he hiding? So it had been him at Hetsa. And there was something important about that gem. She needed to find out. But not now. Fine. If he wouldn’t trust her, she couldn’t trust him.
Dreck slowly unclenched his fists. His shoulders slumped. He looked away. He looked ashamed.
“Read message,” he said, looking down at the scrap of paper. He was trying to change the subject.
Fine. She’d play along. For now. “What does it say?” she asked.
“Foruk’s Falls captured,” he said.
Blaze’s heart sank. “Oh no.”
“Crook-Eye Orcs now come to Frostbyte. Come to help Princess.”
“What?” That made no sense. So he did know Princess Sapphire was here. But why would Crook-Eye Orcs—the very tribe Princess Sapphire had defeated so long ago in Midway—come to help her? They were mortal enemies.
“Princess ask chief for help. Chief bring warriors to the Reach,” he said.
“So that’s where she was all this time—asking for help from a troop of raiders?” Blaze let off a quick burst of heat from her fists. Now she really couldn’t hold back her temper. None of this sounded right. It just didn’t sound like Princess Sapphire. “I can’t believe a word of this.”
“Truth,” said Dreck.
“Do you even—do you know why I don’t believe any of this?” Blaze boiled. The heat was rising in her again. She stood up, barely taller than Dreck seated. “Because I was there.”
She wanted to scream but didn’t dare draw attention. If Foruk’s Falls was near, so was the enemy. “I was there, Dreck. I was in Midway.”
The young orc’s expression didn’t change.
“And I was the only survivor.”
Dreck tucked his lip under his teeth and looked at the ground.
“The only reason I survived was because Princess Sapphire fought off a whole pack of Crook-Eye Orcs to save me. So, don’t try to tell me that Princess Sapphire is friends with a bunch of—” Blaze was so angry, she couldn’t even speak, so angry she didn’t dare light the spark for fear of burning herself up.
By the end of her tale, tears had formed into ice crystals on the corners of Dreck’s eyes.
Blaze felt empty.
And why was he crying? It was her story, her pain, not his.
The great orc shook with low sobs.
Oh great. Why was he doing this? Why did he think he got to be the victim?
Blaze turned up her hands. He just made her so . . . angry. She hadn’t felt so angry in years. “Dreck, what do you want—what am I—” She found words coming out of her mouth without her permission. “What, you want a hug?” she roared.
He nodded. He looked so pitiful, his lower lip trembling.
“Hhhh.” Blaze let out a breath. He’d stopped her in her tracks. She groaned in frustration. She took three quick steps toward him, then turned back. Maybe she should light him on fire instead.
“This is not a good idea.”
“I share story,” Dreck said.
“No. We need rest. I’m tired. Tomorrow we have to find Princess Sapphire,” said Blaze.
“Meet Princess Sapphire at Black Blood Peak,” said Dreck.
“What?” Blaze spun back.
Dreck lifted the paper with illegible markings. “Find Princess at overlook near Cernonos war camp.”
Yeah right. That didn’t sound like a trap.
But what if Princess Sapphire really was that close? Even if he was lying, even if this was all a trap, if there was even a chance of finding Princess Sapphire, Blaze would go.
Silence settled between Dreck and Blaze as the winter winds swept between them. Rav nestled deeper into the orc’s shoulder, tucking its beak into its wing.
Several things needled Blaze, things that didn’t match up. First of all, the conven
ience of a young monk running into his tribesmen at one particular point deep in the massive Frostbyte Reach. The black zirconia. The Iron Collar. And even more unlikely was Dreck’s claim that Princess Sapphire was in league with orcs—especially Crook-Eye ones.
Dreck had walked past the spawning point when she’d first arrived in the Reach, yet it hadn’t triggered.
And why had he arrived at Hetsa so soon after her? And before her. Had he led the orc invaders there?
She had to find answers. Both her life and the princess’ were at stake—which meant all of Crystalia.
“You were supposed to be warning the jotnar,” Blaze said. “That was your job. I needed you to do that.”
“You need sleep,” Dreck said. “Wake early tomorrow.”
“Don’t avoid the question.”
“Caw!” said the raven.
“You stay out of this, Rav. I’m still not sure whose side you’re on, Dreck. I don’t know what to think.”
The campfire fizzled out. Blaze’s burst of emotion had drained all of its flame.
“Blast it—I didn’t mean to do that,” she muttered.
“Blaze only open ears. Can’t hear. Can’t see.” Dreck gestured with his oversized fingers, touching the pointed stubs of his own ears and his heavy-lidded brows.
“What don’t I see?” Blaze said. “Tell me.”
Dreck reached into his robes. Blaze flinched. The orc drew out two thin objects and lay them on the ground, and for a brief, fleeting moment, Blaze thought they were snakes.
“Oh—it’s just my socks.” She gave a sigh. “Thanks.” It was like dealing with a toddler. She wanted to have a serious discussion about his loyalties, and he was—“What are you doing?”
Dreck stamped on the ashes, spreading the dimly flaring coals. He kicked a shallow layer of dirt over the coals. “Sleep here—stay warm.”
Blaze reached down and touched the earth. It wasn’t hot, but she could feel warmth trickling up. “Good idea.” She rolled out her bedroll on the coals and lay down, but sleep wouldn’t come with her conscience pricking at her.
“Dreck,” she said. “Where are you sleeping?”
He gestured haplessly around the camp, then lay down on the bare dirt with only his monk’s robe underneath and pulled a large fur blanket over him—it only reached halfway down his legs, leaving his toes bare.
“What about your toes?” she asked.
Dreck sat up and looked at them. “What wrong with toes?”
“Can’t you sleep with your boots on?”
“Feet grow at night. Big pain.”
Blaze retrieved her socks, then tossed them at Dreck. “Here, put these on.”
He pulled one and then the other onto his feet. They only stretched halfway up his foot. The socks strained to the point of ripping—they would never be the same after this.
“Oh!” he said, wiggling his toes. He pointed at his feet. “That nice.”
Nice.
The strange word hit Blaze like a punch to the stomach.
I hope I know what I’m doing.
Like magic, sleep took her.
***
She woke to the smell of roasting fish. “Elegant elbows of the Goddess! That smells great.”
Blaze sat up, pushing off not only her blanket but also an extra fur blanket, the same one Dreck had used the night before.
No wonder I slept so well.
“Eat on trail.” Dreck handed her a stick with a fish stuck on the end.
Blaze bit into the crispy trout and pulled the soft meat away from the tiny bones. It was plain food, but warm. She needed that.
Dreck bit the head off a large catfish and then downed the rest of it in two bites.
A goliath catfish like that would have fed an entire gnome family for dinner.
Dreck must have fished downstream from the hot springs, she realized . . . After finding my socks.
No wonder he was slow catching up.
Blaze stuck her fish-on-a-stick in the snow while she folded her bedroll and loaded her pack.
Dreck tucked her toe-warmer socks in the top.
“You keep those,” Blaze said. The idea of sweaty orc-feet socks in her pack was all too disturbing.
Dreck nodded and tucked them into a hip pack that he tied around his waist before donning his monk’s cloak, retrieving his staff, and stomping out his cooking fire.
Blaze lifted her pack and finished her breakfast on the trail, jogging to keep pace with Dreck.
Today she was going to find Princess Sapphire. She was almost going to complete her quest and return the princess to King Jasper safe and sound.
If the orc’s crow-born intelligence was correct. And if this wasn’t a trap.
Orc intelligence. She was relying on orc intelligence.
Still, she kept up hope that as ridiculous as the idea seemed, perhaps Princess Sapphire really was travelling with Crook-Eye Orc raiders from the foothills of the Frostbyte Reach.
“What about the jotnar?” Blaze asked. It was worth trying to pry information from him again.
“Jotnar ignore Dreck—like insect,” said Dreck.
So, he had tried to warn the jotnar after all?
“What? You’re huge. That thing just—”
“Jotnar not bothered by small problems. So, Dreck track Blaze to Hetsa.”
“Track me—in the middle of the night. How?”
He pointed to his face. “Orc nose.”
“You smelled me?”
“Perfume on locket. Soot on hands. Leather on boots. Moose jerky in pack. Figs. Stinky socks. Not brush teeth in many days. Mouth stink like orc.”
“Got it. You can smell. But the jotnar—it’s still in danger. How close are the orcs to it?”
The memory of Dreck handing over the Iron Collar stabbed at her.
“We must hurry,” he said.
“Is there any way to get a message to the princess about the jotnar?”
“You bring pencil?”
“Uh . . . no.”
Dreck shrugged.
“I get it, the raven can’t talk. But there has to be a way—”
“Not now. Must be careful. Cernonos watching,” he said.
“Everyone keeps talking about Cernonos. But who is he?” asked Blaze.
“Big demon. Come from dark magic. Servant of Dark Consul,” said Dreck. “He rally Rimefrost Orcs. He the one try to enslave jotnar.”
“Then how do we—”
Dreck raised his arm and stopped mid-stride, like a stork on one leg.
Blaze froze. She knew better than to ask. His posture and raised arm told her now was not the time.
Dreck moved his body almost imperceptibly until the toe of his boot touched the ground. Seconds later, his heel came to rest silently in the snow.
Then the sounds of tramping feet, huffing, and low grunts moved through the trees.
My bright blue cloak—they’ll see me.
But Dreck did not so much as move his head or whisper a word of warning.
Blaze was desperate to hide. Was this part of the trap? Had he forgotten she was wearing a blue cloak? She felt like a sitting duck.
True, he wasn’t the brightest.
Heart pounding within her, Blaze listened as the sounds of orc warriors drew closer.
Dreck drew in a long slow breath and held it.
He did that on purpose—hold my breath. Got it.
Blaze took in a breath and held it as the line of orc soldiers marched across the trail, heading uphill.
Toward Black Blood Peak.
Each beat of her heart thundered in her chest, the desire to gasp for air was like a hammer beating on her lungs.
But the orcs kept coming, dozens upon dozens.
From Foruk’s Falls, Blaze realized. Dreck had said the city was captured, so why were so many of this demon Cernonos’s forces retreating?
At last, the final orc soldiers passed. Two s
couts brought up the rear, their eyes scanning as they sighted down their half-drawn bows.
They’ll see me.
The orcs turned slowly. One tilted its head as it looked right at her.
A chill ran down into Blaze’s heart.
The orc sniffed, then moved past and into the cover of trees uphill.
Desperate for air, Blaze let out her breath and took in a gasp of chill Frostbyte air.
How is that possible? Why didn’t they see me?
After several minutes Dreck turned to look at Blaze. He smiled.
“My blue cloak?” Blaze said. “How did they not see me?”
“Orc not see blue—black as coal.”
“Orc eyes not so good,” Blaze said, using Dreck’s broken language. “See with nose.”
He nodded.
Apparently, they didn’t have birds to scout for them either. “So the Rimefrost Orcs don’t have ravens?”
He nodded again.
“Rimefrost Orcs ride snow bears.”
“Snow bears? They see better?”
He laughed. “Bear smash better. Kill better.”
“Oh great.” She shuddered at the thought of a bear large enough for a hulking orc to ride.
They resumed their cross-country trek toward the valley overlook on the backside of Black Blood Peak. “The orcs were coming from Foruk’s Falls,” she whispered. “Why were they going back to the war camp?”
“Dreck think big thing happen.”
“Wonderful.”
“Not wonderful. Big thing bad.”
Blaze rolled her eyes. “That’s not what I meant.” Her sarcasm was entirely lost on Dreck.
Dreck lifted Rav from under his cloak and let the raven take to wing.
“Where is Rav going?”
“Find father. Find Princess.”
The pair resumed their trek, jogging now. Past noon, as hunger returned to taunt her, Dreck suddenly said, “You want bread?”
“What bread?”
“Here,” said Dreck, handing her several flat loaves of hard bread from his pack.
Without time for a fire to boil the barely edible, rock-like loaf, Blaze took a handful of snow in her hands. “Put the bread on top,” she said.
Dreck place the bread onto the snow in her hands.
Come on, fire. I need you.
The King's Summons Page 9
