“How do you know I’ve seen the portal of air? Where did I see it? When?”
“As the portal of water is vivid in your mind, so also is the location of the portal of air. From a great height in the sky, the colors layer, building when the winter comes, rising as an ice bridge into the clouds.”
She stared at the blankets balled beneath her. “Ice bridge? Layered colors? I was flying?” Her gaze shot up. “The lake near the base. Air. Cace said the symbol meant air.”
Silver pinpoints of light whirled. “Go back to the room where you found the Olas Imian, the inscribed tablets. There is a false floor. A chamber below will lead you to the portal of fire. Go there alone. You’ll jeopardize others if you don’t. Do you understand? Only you can enter and then close the portal of fire we guard.” The shining blue ghost glanced at Aven with opaque, luminescent eyes. His gaze returned to Erynn. “You must go alone. This is crucial. Stay within our line of protection. The Socar Batahs watch the forest and their side of the portal. You must hurry. The Brusart will gather their courage and return before the sun is midway in the sky. You and your companion must be gone before they come for you.”
With a quiet pop, the dark returned. The silence thickened around Erynn.
Pale gray light seeped under the horizon of menacing black clouds that threatened rain. The time was now. She would enter the chamber and close the portal of fire, forever.
After all, how difficult could finding the door of fire and closing it be?
Erynn unlocked the cargo door and jumped out. She glanced at Aven. He slept, snoring softly. She closed the door, latching it with a quiet click, and ran across the yard toward the building where she’d found the wooden plates engraved with the Comhra symbols.
The Olas Imian. I was right. They were left here for a reason. Symbols marking the location of the fire portal. Just like the symbols on the statue above the chamber to the water doorway.
Thick iron-gray clouds masked the faint morning light. The grass appeared black under her pale boots. Shadows crouched against the dark silhouette of buildings. The fortress remained colorless, cloaked in mist, and ominous in a way it had never felt before last night. She could smell the coming rain.
Erynn slid around the ruined door of the two-story structure and into darkness. She pulled out a small lamp. A meager beam chopped through the inky air, only to be swallowed in blackness that seemed to be a solid entity. From a distance, she heard the rumble of Interceptors overhead. She looked up, expecting to see…
What?
The drone of powerful engines neared.
Is it Cale?
The words of the guardian echoed through her mind. She must go alone or endanger others. Time was running out.
She sprinted through narrow halls and around corners. Her breath fogged before her. Erynn pushed into the small room. The door moved easily this time. Through long, thin window slats, the glow of a fighter’s twin exhaust stood out against the cloud-darkened sky. They raced above, over the fortress, over her. Their roar trembled in the air. The ground vibrated beneath her boots.
“Erynn.” Aven’s voice sounded muffled from her location deep inside the stone rooms. “Erynn, where are you?” His tone held panic.
She began scuffing and kicking her boots along the dirt floor. In the corner where the plates had been, a dull thud answered her kick. Erynn dropped to her knees and scraped the dirt away, exposing a large metal ring. Clearing more dirt, she found the edges of a wooden door. She tugged at the ring. The hatch didn’t budge. She stood, her legs straddling the door, and pulled. Her arms ached and her legs quivered under the strain.
A pop echoed in small space, and the door gave with a sudden release. She landed against the wall, sliding to hit the hard ground. She scrambled up and hurried to the opening, shining the light into the dark maw. The vague shape of an ancient wooden ladder disappeared into inky blackness. She remembered the chamber below the ground that led to the portal of water. An ancient wooden ladder had disappeared into the darkness there as well. “A ladder. Well, that’s familiar.”
“Erynn.” Aven’s voice was closer. “Erynn, come out now!”
The Interceptors returned, making another pass, engines slowing, starting their descent. The ground trembled.
Erynn sat down, her legs dangling into the hole. She found the ladder with her foot and swung around, her hands grasping the top rung. She hesitated.
Aven entered the building, his boot steps pounding on the packed dirt floor.
Voices swirled in the dark. “Go. Now. Hurry!”
Erynn descended. Five rungs passed…six, eight, ten. She held the small, narrow end of the lamp clamped tight between her aching teeth. The beam bounced across the uneven rock as she hurried down. A red line cut across the stone before her.
A marker. For what? The point of no return? But where’s the portal?
She glanced below. Only a vast, impenetrable darkness lay beneath her. No flaming portal. Taking one rung at a time, Erynn sucked in a breath around the cold metal against her lips. The red line slipped past her vision, above her now.
Too late to worry about the marker’s purpose now.
Overhead, a flurry of movement preceded a bang and a hiss. A fine smattering of dirt fell on her. The hatch above closed and sealed with a sucking vacuum draw of air. Erynn slowed, then stopped. Her heart hammered against her ribs.
A trap?
She took a step up the ladder, reaching above for a higher rung.
A hand clamped around her ankle as another grabbed her waist, and they jerked.
Her foothold on the rungs loosened, and her boots lost their grip on the treads below her. She scrambled with her one free foot to find the ladder and failed. Her pulse pounded in her ears. Pulled by unseen hands, her other ankle was dragged back and down. She gasped, her clenched teeth losing their grasp on the light. The small lamp dropped. The meager glow extinguished as it spun downward. She listened for a shattering, a chink of breaking glass against stone.
Nothing.
Fingers wrapped around her wrists. They tugged and jerked at her precarious hold.
Unable to maintain her grip, Erynn fell backward into the dark. The hands grasping at her were gone.
Chapter 18
JAER’S BOOTS SLIPPED ON WET grass and squished through watery mud. His long dark hair hung dripping around his face and over his shoulders. Moisture collected in his neat beard and mustache. He hurried between the shadow-cloaked stone buildings, darted into each entry, and inspected every empty room. They had already been searched, thoroughly. Jaer knew this. Aven, Sean, Tam, and Tiar had made sure no space was left unexplored.
Erynn was gone.
He had to see the truth of this for himself, though. With each vacant structure, his anger grew. He welcomed the fury burning in his gut. This fire would sustain him through the night.
Never show fear. Ghosts feed off fear. Ghosts grow powerful from the terror they create, gaining in strength.
With the COM repaired, and communication to Glaskra and Leathan established, Jaer would soon have contact with Cale. After listening to Aven’s account of the night before, Leathan sent Anbas and Glaskra City Guards to help. Jaer hoped the sheer number of live inhabitants in the fortress would keep the dead ones away. His heart skipped. Before the night was over, the ghosts would come. He recognized this in the same way he understood sunrise followed the dark of night.
Ghosts take heat from their surroundings. They take the breath from your lungs, stealing energy and increasing their power. Do not allow this.
Jaer ducked under a collapsed beam and out an empty doorframe. He stepped over what remained of the door decaying into splinters just outside.
Shadows darkened and then faded. The storm was reluctant to relinquish its grasp on the night. Blades of moonlight from two moons slashed and hacked at black clouds. Tattered rags of thinning mist churned and swirled, authority spent and weakened by the push of wind. The last of the rain shimmered, silver beads i
n the pale white glow of light from twin full moons.
Aven yelled over a gust of wind as he ran across the yard, his boots splashing in muddy puddles. “Jaer, the relay is set up to the base. Cale wants to talk to you.” He slowed, stopped before his brother, and lowered his gaze. “I’m sorry, Jaer. I’m so sorry.”
Jaer pulled Aven into him, clasping his back. “I do not blame you, brother. Erynn’s disappearance is not your fault,” he whispered and pushed away. His hands still gripped Aven’s shoulders. Jaer glared around him at the barren, dilapidated buildings. “I blame this place and the unnatural spirits that reside within these walls.” He turned, pulling Aven with him. They headed toward a portable hut constructed in the middle of the yard. The slow heat of rage seethed in Jaer’s chest, gave him courage, and fed his strength. “The guardians wanted Erynn and they took her. I will take her back.”
Jaer and Aven pushed through the opening of the hut, into bright lights and warmth swirling around them from heaters inside the shelter. Men and women in heavy jumpsuits, some in the black tunics and quilted pants of the Anbas, and some in the red and black of Glaskra city guards stood along interior walls. They held sturdy mugs and sipped steaming drinks. The tempting aroma of phocia, chunks of meat and vegetables wrapped and baked in seasoned dough, drifted in the air. No one ate. They awaited orders.
They awaited the ghosts.
Tiar sat at the COM, a clip secured around his ear and partially hidden under dark hair. Tam and Sean stood behind him, their expressions grave. Tiar spoke softly. “There’s nothing, Cale. Yes, I tried that. Sean and I went into every building and over the entire grounds.” Tiar turned at Jaer’s advance. Worry lines around Tiar’s green eyes made him appear older than he was. “Here’s Jaer.” Tiar slid the clip off and handed it to Jaer.
“Cale, I am here. What do we do?”
Cale’s voice crackled and broke. “I…try something.”
Jaer reached down and adjusted the COM. “Try again, Cale. I did not copy. What do you want?”
A high-pitched squeal pierced through the hut. Jaer grimaced and ripped off the clip. The lights blinked and went out. Beyond the fortress walls, in the forest, maejen howled their poignant song.
A bright white mist formed in the center of the space. The fog glowed, radiating with an eerie light.
Cale and Leathan had agreed on a strategy for dealing with the ghosts. They passed the plan on to those at the fortress.
Stand up to the Brusart. Do not give them any power.
Jaer grinned and called out. “Bring it on. I prefer it this way.”
Aven bounded next to Jaer, Sean on their left, and Tiar on the right. Everyone knew what to do, the plan thoroughly discussed and ready to execute.
A slight tingle raced around Jaer’s body. A mild electric charge prickled his skin. Like Erynn, Tiar and Sean manipulated the electromagnetic field around them. Jaer remembered how Erynn created a pleasant tickle when she was happy.
The fog thickened and encircled the four, but didn’t touch them. The condensed white curtain blocked the view of people inside the hut’s interior. A deep silence dropped.
A low vibration thrummed in Jaer’s ears. “Is this all you can do?” He shouted, not hearing his voice. His heartbeat was a steady thump under his ribs. “Silly parlor games.” He raised his fisted hands, provoking the Brusart. “Go away. You do not frighten me. Show yourselves, if you have the courage. I will stare you in the eyes.” Jaer laughed. “Mist and fog. Is this all there is to you?” Everyone around him reacted in the same manner. They laughed, challenged, and provoked the spirits.
The radiance flickered and faded. The fog thinned into a fine mist and swirled away. Lights flashed in the hut, returning to full power. The heaters resumed their low hum.
A collective sigh filled the space.
Erynn lay on her back, afraid to move. She tried her eyes, opening them. Darkness settled in and wrapped over her like a suffocating blanket. She felt a hard surface, uneven beneath her, but no pain. That sense of lost time, of having been unconscious swarmed over her growing awareness.
How far did I fall?
She wiggled her fingers and then her toes. She tested her arms and legs. Everything seemed to be working.
To her left, a soft scraping on rock brought her scrambling upright and to her feet.
“Who’s there?” She reached out. Nothing met her probing fingertips. Water trickled over stone and dripped down from above, tapping on her head and hitting her shoulders with a soft plunk. She wiped moisture from her face. Her eyes adjusted to the gloom. Several fires glowed a faint orange in the distance. Pale smoke drifted up and away. Dark figures moved around the dancing flames. Erynn gasped and took several small steps backward.
Shifters.
A voice echoed out of the shadows. “You will not be harmed.” The tone was low and non-threatening, its direction unclear.
“Who are you?” Erynn spun. “Where are you?”
“I will show myself in time. First, there are things you must know.”
“Like what?” Erynn reached for her staser. The weapon was gone.
“I have your weapons. I will return them once I know you understand your…situation.”
She grasped under her coat to the pocket where she kept her father’s dagger. Her hand came back empty. “I’m listening.”
“Good. We’ll start with introductions. I’m Tine. And you are?”
“Erynn. Erynn Yager.”
“Well, Erynn Erynn Yager, you’re not from Arranon, are you?”
Her breath hitched out, not quite a nervous chuckle. “Just Erynn Yager. How about just Erynn? And no, I’m new to Arranon.”
Tell the truth, but don’t offer information.
“What ever you wish, Erynn.” Amusement colored the voice.
“I wish to leave. How do I get back up to the fortress?”
“Ah. This is where your situation needs explaining. There is no way to the surface…well, not to the fortress, anyway. Once you passed the mark, your condition became…irreversible.”
“My condition?” Her voice rose. “Is irreversible?” She nodded, stared into the darkness, and sucked in dank, cool air. “I’m dead. From the fall.”
Tine laughed quietly. “You didn’t fall, and you’re not dead. The ladder ends and the floor begins, just below the mark. Your perception of distance is altered here. This is a necessary deception for living underground in tight quarters. We like the feeling of openness, like the outer-world dwellers.”
“Then why don’t you live on the surface?” Erynn stepped back, then right and left. Her hands reached out, searching for the ladder.
“I told you. You can’t get back up to the fortress. But to answer your question, we wouldn’t survive. Only Dhoran can live in the two realms. He is from both worlds.”
“Yeah, that’s a concept I understand. What about the Shifters? They seem to stay alive outside this place.”
“Short visits only. They must return frequently or suffer the consequences.” Faint scraping on rock sounded again, closer. “You have questions. I will answer them. It’s what I do. But first, answer one for me.”
A hot breath brushed Erynn’s cheek and carried the scent of rotted flesh.
“Who are you, Erynn Yager? How did you find the portal?” A low, throaty growl followed.
Her heart jumped and then settled into a quickened pace. She refused to show fear. She stood her ground, every muscle tense. “That’s two questions. And I already told you I am Erynn Yager.”
Tine chuckled and moved away. “That’s only one answer. You have courage. That’s good. You’ll need it.”
A torch ignited with a sputtering hiss in the dark. Erynn squinted and shaded her eyes at the sudden brightness.
Before her stood a creature slightly taller than she was. Tine had a round face and a flattened muzzle, like a katjaramuud but without the whiskers. He was covered in a dense red-gold fur, except for his long hair, the same burnished bronze, casca
ding from the top of his head, over his shoulders, and down his back. Short, pointed ears protruded from the side of his head. Tine stared at her with large, green, almond-shaped eyes. Muscles bunched under loose gray clothing. Slim, tapered fingers ended in sharp claws. He wore no boots on his broad, small feet with clawed toes. His body communicated deadly strength and speed.
He smiled, showing teeth, the two on the sides long and sharp. He bowed. His shadow capered in the flickering light of his fiery wand. “Welcome to my world, Erynn Yager.” The smile fell from his thin lips. His eyes narrowed. His flat nose twitched. “Now, how did you get here? The truth,” he warned in a low growl.
“I found a hatch in the floor.” Erynn bit her lip and glanced up. “In the building above. I opened it and climbed down the ladder.”
Tine shook his head. Long red-gold hair shimmered and waved in the torchlight. “No. Not just anyone could find, let alone open, the access to the portal. The doorway was sealed by surface magic hundreds of years ago. The entrance is guarded by the spirits of those who placed the old enchantments there.” He pulled out the ancient dagger her father left her. “How did you come by this?” He handed it to her. In a breathy voice, he asked, “Who are you?”
She slipped the dagger inside her coat, back in the pocket. “I’ve already answered that question. Who are you, Tine?”
“I am from the Socar Batah race.” He beckoned her forward, toward the fires and the figures in the distance. “Shifters are Dhoran’s henchmen. They’re not very intelligent.” He chuffed. “Dhoran draws from the Socar Batahs to create his elite squad. Like the Anbas to your people.” He stopped, glancing back. “Please, follow me. You won’t be harmed. I need to return to the heat. The air is cold for me here, this close to the surface.”
Erynn followed several paces behind. “My staser?”
Tine tossed the weapon to her. “Don’t use it on me yet. I still have much to tell you.”
She clipped the staser into the holster. “Don’t give me a reason, and I won’t.”
Storm of Arranon Fire and Ice Page 14
