“Kiss it.”
“What?” he spluttered indignantly. “No.”
“Do as I say, Hounslow.”
Averting his gaze from Avery’s, Asa pressed his lips to the leather. He recoiled instantly, dragging his numb body into a standing position. He nodded, and Kaspar brushed past him as they carried on up the mountain. His feet dragged on the ground as he was pulled along, huffing with veiled anger with the ethereal. Asa could feel Avery’s eyes on the back of his neck, but he just glowered into the air in front of him.
As they rounded the side of the hill, a small hut came into view. This house was smaller than the one which Asa and Avery had stayed in within the walls. It was minute, a mere room with two windows, a front door, and a smoking chimney. A wicker fence enclosed a tiny garden, overflowing with blooming flowers even in this barren landscape of dirt and scree rock. Kaspar reached the gate before either of them. He pushed it open.
There was only room for one person on the thin cobblestone slab that acted as a path. Asa and Avery leaned gingerly on the fence as the tall man rapped twice on the door. It was a strange shape, like a gravestone, a rounded-off rectangle. A brass handle was in the middle of the wood. Asa considered it for a moment. It must be impossible to open that door, he decided. You would need to be rather strong. Nonetheless, the door pulled back away from Kaspar, and they saw a flash of a black eye.
“Who is it . . . Oh, it’s you. Why are you here?” a thin voice from inside demanded. “You never come to visit.”
“I came to see my favourite sister,” Kaspar said. “That is legal, right?”
“Favourite, hah!” the person behind the door snorted. “You’d be the one to know about legality.”
“I have some visitors to see you, sister dear.” The ethereal stuck his foot in the door, breaking the security chain with a snap like that of a strained rope rather than links of real metal.
“Visitors?” The person stepped back from the door. “What sort of visitors?”
“Mortals,” Kaspar stated. “From Jundres.”
“Ria’s?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s see them, then.”
The door opened and a tall woman emerged, her thick black hair cropped close to her head. Her skin was darker than Kaspar’s—a beautiful colour the exact shade of the dark leather straps that attached Asa’s sword to his leg. Avery was staring at her with undeniable interest, until Asa kicked him in the shin. The woman was wearing low-hanging loose trousers of some light cotton material and her torso was covered by a thin vest-like garment. Both of the items were dyed in vibrant blues and greens, swirls that looked like a lake in the height of summer.
“Good morning.” Asa held out a hand. She took it and shook, smiling a dazzling smile at him.
“Thank you, Asa,” she greeted him, before turning to his friend, eyes as white as her teeth. “And good morning to you too, Avery.”
“Magic?” Avery managed to squeak out.
“Oh, yes,” she said. “My magic is more holistic than my siblings’. A choice that I will never regret.”
Kaspar stuck his hand in front of her. She grimaced and clasped his fingers in hers, closing her eyes. She waited for a moment, and then opened them, surprised.
“You know what I want,” he growled.
“Indeed.” She looked perturbed. “I don’t understand, brother dearest. What if I don’t want to? It’s barely reversible, you know.”
“Does it matter?” he snapped. “You are in my debt.”
“I see,” she said sadly. “Well, I guess I have no choice.”
“To do what?” Asa demanded.
The female ethereal started. “Oh, how rude of me! I never told you who I am. My name is Gil.”
“What’s going on?” Avery asked. “Why’re you both being so cryptic?”
“My brother was reminding me of a debt I must pay,” Gil said. “I must be a good host to you all. How about a picnic? I know a good spot not too far from here.”
“Do as you will,” Kaspar sneered.
Gil’s eyes flashed alabaster, and after a few muffled crashes from within the cottage, a large open basket crashed into her hands. Asa peered into it. It was filled with all manner of pleasant foods—small pies, cuts of meat, and different fruits. She took the handle and shut her front door with a definite click.
“Follow me,” she chirped. “It is a lovely spot.”
They went down the mountain for a while, curving around on a winding sand path that was cut into the side of the hill. The woman moved with a slight but evident limp, a dragging of her left heel across the ground. Her feet were bare, and when the hem of her trousers hitched as she trod on a stone, Asa could see a livid scar against her calf. He opened his mouth to ask her about it, but found his mouth closing again as she spun around to face them, moving backwards for two steps as they realised the beauty of their surroundings.
They were atop a high precipice, a rocky cliff. The sides were so steep that Asa could not see the bottom. It was covered in rocks, not jagged ones, but smooth—like moonstones. It was obvious that it had been cultivated by someone, evidently Gil by her proud smile at their awestruck faces.
“Lovely, is it not?”
They assured her that it was, indeed, lovely. She walked across the stones and set her basket down, sitting cross-legged with her back to the cliff. She indicated that they were to sit down and they did so, both Asa and Avery eyeing the basket of food.
“May we?” Avery asked, stomach growling.
“As you wish.”
Kaspar took his meal first, filling his hands with meat as though he had never eaten it before. Gil looked smug at this and teased him about his diet, surprising Asa. He never thought of Kaspar as being anywhere near human, yet he had a sister who chatted with him as if they were not the most powerful beings in existence. Avery filled his lap whilst they were not looking, choking down food like a starved gull. Asa picked up a pie but found that he had little appetite for it, ending up just playing with the pastry.
Once they had sated their stomachs, Avery and Kaspar were quiet. Gil met Asa’s eyes with her black ones.
“Yes?” Asa stared unblinkingly at her, on his guard.
“Come for a walk with me.” It was not a question.
Asa followed her mutely away from the two people who he knew, and they turned around the mountain until they were out of sight and earshot.
“What do you want with me?” he asked.
“Your time is running short, little one,” Gil said.
Asa swallowed. “I know.”
The ethereal smiled wryly at him. “I, too, know the feeling. But you are not accepting it?”
“No,” he replied. “Never. Whilst I still have breath in my lungs to say I am not dead, I will not accept it.”
“You are brave.” They stood under a sheer cliff of rock. She leant on it reflectively. “But bravery is not always enough.”
“It will be.” Asa stuck his chin up and looked her in the eyes. “I can feel it.”
Gil glanced down, inhaling a breath that rang in Asa’s ears. “I have seen the runes, Asa. I know how much time you have left. Nothing you can do will change your destiny. Only others can do that, and they won’t even know it.”
“No. I will not discuss this.” Asa shrugged. “I am sorry, but I do not wish to know my future. It is the one thing that I will eventually discover for myself.”
“If you are determined then so be it.” Gil did not sound in the least phased by this. She cracked her shoulders in a relaxed way and started to follow the path that they had just taken. “If you will not listen then I cannot say.”
In a matter of what seemed like moments, they were back in the grove of stones that they had eaten in. Kaspar was standing close to the edge, looking in all of his mannerisms and stature irritated.
“Finally. I was beginning to wonder if you were returning, sister.”
“I would never go back on a promise.”
“
No, I believe that of you at least,” Kaspar sneered. “Always so good.”
“Thank you.” Gil nodded to Kaspar, then smiled at Asa and Avery. “Good luck, young ones. I can assure you, to whatever end, I will be watching.”
She shuffled closer to the edge of the cliff, curling her bare toes over the rocky edge. Her eyes were lighting up with a sort of manic fire, and she shifted from foot to foot whilst staring up at the sky above.
“Wait,” Asa said. “What are you doing?”
“What I’ve always wanted to try.” She breathed, a breeze picking up her hair and tousling it. “Little brother just had to give me a push. Here I go!”
Avery leapt to his feet. “No!”
But he was too late. The black-eyed woman had taken a hop backwards, and then flung herself off the cliff. Asa froze, staring at the spot, while Kaspar snorted with laughter at their shocked expressions. Avery ran to the spot where she had jumped, peering down into the crevasse below.
“I can’t believe it,” Avery croaked, voice dry. “I simply can’t. She was your sister.”
Kaspar chuckled. “She has not died. Or have you forgotten what I told you of my brethren? We do not die. Our kind is just like wisps of cotton—so fragile, but unbreakable. You cannot break cotton by dropping it,” Kaspar explained, a glint around his black eyes. “She has, for want of a better word, flown away.”
“What are you made of?” Asa shook his head. “I don’t understand.”
“We are made of everything, Asa,” Kaspar crooned. “We are the air, we are the ground. We take our forms as such for communicatory purposes, but if we willed it we could be anything. The rocks on a mountain, the grass on a field. Energy never fades, remember that. It remains when all else is gone. We are the land. We are the energy.”
He seemed to fade in and out of sight before their eyes, a wavering around the edges of his surreal form that rippled through the centre of his torso. He lifted a hand to his vanishing chest with a sigh of relief. Asa narrowed his eyes.
“I will see you two again.” The ethereal’s black eyes were all they could see. They gleamed with the same infinite power as a roaring waterfall—natural, unquenchable energy.
And he was gone.
“I can’t believe this. The utter—” Asa cursed, pacing before his friend, and tugging at his hair.
“Hush,” Avery said.
“Don’t you even care?” Asa exclaimed. “You stand there like an impassive tree! What in Eodem is the matter with you?”
Avery glanced up at the grey sky overhead. His eyelids were twitching as his gaze moved beneath them, and he shuffled around, pointing in one direction then the other. After thinking hard for some time, Avery opened his eyes and sighed.
“That way.” He shrugged.
“You tracked our journey from the last camp, I assume?”
“Yes.”
“In your head? That’s a long way.” He was impressed.
“Sure,” the blond acknowledged. “It’s not like it’s hard.”
Avery was smirking, the natural light casting shadows on the chiselled features that Asa might once have considered handsome. That was past, though. He had a greater responsibility now. He had to finish his quest, then he could worry about the strange thoughts he’d been having about his best friend.
Avery flashed a white smile, and Asa’s his heart melted. He stepped towards his friend, eyes wide and desperate.
“Kiss me,” he blurted, voice too loud for the far-reaching emptiness around them.
“What?” Avery laughed, squinting at Asa. “What did you say?”
“Kiss me,” he repeated more quietly, voice steady. “Life is too short for us to mess around with this. I don’t want you kissing some pretty migrants, I want you to kiss me.”
Avery blushed, the roots of his hair practically strawberry blond. He ran one of his hands through it, causing it to stand on end. His face bore no disgust or repulsion, as Asa had feared, but seemed conflicted. He smiled shakily again, surveying what the effect was on Asa, who stared at him intently. They looked at each other for a long time, brown boring into hazel.
“Are you sure?” The blond was now scarlet. “I just don’t want to make you do something that you don’t want to.”
Asa almost laughed out loud at the uncertainty in Avery’s voice. He closed the distance between them in three easy strides and squared up to his friend, looking carefully at his confused face.
“Did I stutter?”
All of a sudden, Avery’s strong arms pulled him closer than he had ever thought possible. He had never kissed anyone before. That thought flashed across his mind, locking his limbs stiffly as he was enveloped in Avery’s arms. He was so close that he could see every single one of his friend’s light eyelashes, so close that he could see the freckles across his nose. He leant forwards nervously, and their lips finally met.
It was a strangely familiar feeling, that of being so close to someone. However, he had never experienced this buzz. An undercurrent of emotion sang through Asa’s body as they stood in that intimate embrace on the cliff side. It was everything that he had ever dreamed. It was terrifying, but at the same time so safe and loving that Asa forgot to be scared. For a moment in time he had stopped falling. Now he thought he could fly.
“Oh, Erebus,” Avery murmured as they broke apart. “I had not expected that.”
Asa kissed him briefly on the cheek, his heart racing too fast for him to even speak to his friend. Somehow, the world now seemed brighter than before. His body was relaxed, despite his nerves, and he slipped his hand into Avery’s, pointing down to a thin footpath. Neither of them spoke of what had passed as they descended.
The path down the other side of the mountain was steeper than the one that they had taken before. The air was dustily dry and growing thicker the closer they drew towards the ground. It was warm and fresh, a combination of traits that Asa never thought he would consider air to be. The wind was more condensed than it had been. It ruffled their hair and tugged on their garments, as if it wanted to pull them away when it was strong enough.
The ground was soft underfoot, covered in a blanket of grass. A loch lay to their left, curling around the side of one mountain and being fed from a stream that tumbled into its depths. Trees were scattered everywhere—thin with sparse leaves that allowed dappled light to shine through. The valley was quiet, and for the first time since Kaspar had left them, Asa could hear the muffled sounds of a world beyond their own. Birds sang to each other as they darted through the branches, insects hummed beneath their feet. It was as if a muffler had been lifted from their ears and now they could hear the world living.
It wasn’t long before the shadows were growing longer, though there was no sun to be seen wherever they looked. Asa knelt by the shimmering surface of the loch, drinking the water from cupped hands. It was cool and refreshing to his parched tongue. Avery was lighting a fire behind him, he could hear the strikes of flint on steel, and after a few clinks the hiss of flames catching to the kindling. The leather satchel that Avery had been carrying, Kaspar having departed with the other, was showing signs of the long journey it had taken. Its leather was cracked and peeling, worn through to cloth-like thinness in some areas. Asa saw Avery remove some of the disgusting nutritional biscuits from a cloth bag. He smiled apologetically.
“There’s nothing else left.”
Asa nodded, taking the biscuit and collapsing on the grass next to his friend. The stars were out again that night. They sparkled tantalisingly above them, just out of reach. Avery mouthed some words under his breath, laughing at Asa’s confused glance towards him.
“What was that?” Asa inquired, chuckling unsurely. Avery indicated a star that shone only just over their heads. It was the brightest in the whole sky.
“The clouds have cleared. I just remembered that from here one can see Boreas. The star of the north.” He pointed at a particularly bright star that shone in the direction that they were travelling and sighed. “Eurus. My
mother loves that star. Had I been born when Eurus was in our charts, that would have been my name.”
Asa squinted up at the blanket of glittering black. He could not fathom how anyone could see the difference between the tiny beads of light.
“How?” he asked. “How do you know them?”
“You don’t just start off knowing them,” Avery explained. “It’s like reading. Where you read your letters on a page, I read the sky. If you know one constellation then you are able to map out any other that you may come across. You’re a mapper, aren’t you? Then this should be easy enough.”
“It’s called being a cartographer,” Asa said. “But I don’t map the skies. I draw streets, fields. It’s linear work, simple enough for someone like me.”
“Believe in this for one night, Asa.” Avery pointed to a line of stars close together above their heads. “That’s the waist of Harloziel, the warrior. See how you can trace the shape of her body? Her arm is drawing a bow. From the bow you may trace the top of her head, and then you can see her fully. And it all came from learning that her waist is made of the five king stars that I pointed out now. Learning these patterns is like learning the alphabet. It’s essential if you want to see the bigger picture.”
A streak of light shot across the sky in front of them. Asa twitched for his sword, safe against his leg, but Avery grabbed his arm.
“Avery!”
“It’s a firefly, you paranoid idiot. Just look.”
As the final vestiges of day left the sky, the air around them seemed to come to life. Tiny insects flickered in front of them, their brightness illuminating their faces in the darkness.
Asa smiled as he looked at his best friend. They were still here, despite all of the odds. He had never been so happy to be with a person, not in his whole life.
“Do you wish on fireflies?” he asked casually.
“What? No, that’s shooting stars,” Avery scoffed.
“What would you wish, just suppose that you could?”
“I don’t know.” Avery was quiet for a moment. “To go home, see my mother again? Maybe I would start a garden and grow my own vegetables; that has always seemed like a good dream. Not for necessity or anything, just because I could. What would you wish for?”
His Frozen Fingertips Page 19
