Eve of Snows: Sundering the Gods Book One

by L. James Rice

  The girls remained somber, but at least he’d given them something to think on.

  “Your memories came back?” Alu asked.

  He smiled and met Alu’s gaze. “No, sorry to say.”

  “How you know the Choerkin then?”

  “I only met the one, Ivin, up in Istinjoln. We had quite the journey, into the Treaty Lands, yonder yet to the Steaming Lakes.”

  Kinesee raised her head. “I heard the Steaming Lakes are filled with boiling waters and Wakened.”

  “You heard right. Quite a tale if you want to hear it. I’m betting you’ve a blanket in those sacks, so curl up with that stinky goat’n I’ll tell you about it.”

  It took a candle for the girls to relax into slumber, but at last only the goat stared at him. The waters of the bay were peaceful, but the location of Herald’s Watch, well, he didn’t know where it was, so he kept within sight of land while rowing up the coast. After a brief nap at anchor he rowed for another candle until they chanced on a fishing boat.

  He woke the girls and they shouted to the crew. The sisters pinned their hopes on the boat being family who survived, but turned out they were from a village several miles north of Iku’s home, distant cousins at best. But they too sailed for Herald’s Watch and didn’t hesitate in making space on their boat for three plus a goat.

  Kinesee and Alu sat with the Gerin family’s surviving children, and Solineus relaxed his soul and shoulders, knowing at least he’d get the girls so far as an island refuge the dead and Shadows could never reach.

  46

  TOWER IN A TOWER

  Every loss is a sadness but weighed against its End.

  A Lover of me, of mine,

  Lost in sleep by morn to mourn

  A sadness certain with dead smile at dawn

  But in balance a youthful demise happy

  compared to the ancient living to die Forever.

  —Tomes of the Touched

  The harbor and surrounding waters of Herald’s Watch were a forest of masts by the time Solineus arrived on the Gerins’ boat. Vessels both great and tiny amassed around the mountainous island rising from the waters. Walls, streets, and buildings climbed the steep slopes with a fortress crowning its peak with a single great tower. A man standing at those heights might see twenty horizons or more out to sea, but for all its tactical uses, it was relegated to a refugee camp.

  The talk among sailors Solineus hailed was that the island took few new arrivals ashore. Solineus might have sailors for kin, but the warrior in him wanted the hells off the creaking boat and his feet planted on steady rock. Solineus offered the Gerins every coin he had, and the matriarch agreed they’d sail in, to at least try the docks.

  Their prow bumped a dozen other boats as they wiggled closer to the pier. A logjam of hewn planks bent and wrestled into fishing rigs would become a serviceable bridge if he got permission to disembark.

  Solineus stood with the girls under either arm, scanning the docks for Ivin. “Choerkin! I’m looking for Ivin Choerkin!”

  No one paid him any mind in the bustle, as men and women handed supplies to and from the docks, supplies traveling hand-by-hand to boats farther out in the bay.

  “Ivin Choerkin! I need to speak to him!”

  Alu glanced at him then shrieked loud enough a hundred eyes turned on her.

  He grinned at her, a smart child with impressive lungs. “I’m looking for Ivin Choerkin!”

  A burly bearded man in his fifties, armed with a sword and axe, passed him a scrutinizing gaze from the pier. “Who the hells are you?”

  “Solineus Mikjehemlut of Emudar.”

  The man’s face spread into a smile with a couple gaps. “With two girls, I see. Come ashore, we’ve been expecting you.”

  “Women and children?”

  “Aye, sure. Alls you want. Drop anchor where yer at.”

  Solineus made certain the Gerins made it to the docks before he and the girls followed, swaying and tripping from boat to boat with a goat in his arms, with helping hands for balance from other families. When they reached the dock he set Tengkur on the planks and Kinesee took the rope around the animal’s neck.

  “Artus Choerkin, Ivin’s cousin.” The man clasped his forearm and thumped his back with a hug. “Heard good things about you. I hope half of them are true.”

  Solineus laughed, by the gods it felt good to be off a boat. “Artus, these are Alu and Kinesee, my good friends.”

  The man knelt, shaking both their hands although they tried to curtsy. “Pleased to make the acquaintances of two ladies so lovely.” His eyes turned to Solineus. “Last I heard Ivin was checking stores in the granary district, I’ll show you there personal-like.” The older man groaned as his knees straightened but he walked fast.

  A path cleared, then filled in the man’s wake, everyone on the streets knew to be out of his way. “It true you killed Dunkol Broldun or horseshit?”

  “I slew what was left of him, whatever that’s worth.”

  “Worth a bunch around these parts. Worth a drink, at least.” Artus slipped a flagon from his waist and guzzled before handing it over.

  A cedar-flavored burn slipped down Solineus’ throat, making his eyes water, and he handed it back, hoping it never returned. “Word in the bay is several Choerkin were killed.”

  Artus’ mustache drooped and he took a long pull of his drink. “Aye, all but Eredin in the Fost. Lord Kotin and his eldest were poisoned by a monk, and as I hear tell, he traveled with you.”

  “Tokodin? Godsdamn…” Solineus’ stomach sunk to his toes. Hard to believe a man would do such a thing after helping them. “You’re sure?”

  “Ah, hells. Who’s sure of anything anymore? But they found him, stabbed himself on the shitter before they could take him, and he carried a flask done smelled same as the poison.”

  Solineus didn’t love the monk and his piss poor attitude, but he’d never considered him an assassin. He lifted Kinesee to his shoulder and took Alu under his other arm as they walked, the goat trailing behind with leaping bounces. “Done is done, but wish I’d seen it coming. Would’ve killed the bastard myself.”

  Poison, it made a pathetic sort of sense. A coward’s kill.

  IVIN STOOD on a ladder built into the grain bin, staring into its gaping maw, distressed that it stood half empty. Even with fishermen plying the waters day and night, and several ships sailing east, there were so many mouths to feed that desperation would arrive at their door within a month. As more folks fled to the continent they’d be able to stretch food stores, but at the same time they’d lose fishers. The angst, stress, worry, combined with checking marks on scrolls would’ve been a horror weeks ago, now it focused his thoughts on something other than sorrow.

  Ivin returned to the ground to find Artus grinning beside Solineus, two pretty young girls, and a small but irritable goat.

  He trotted to the man and clasped forearms, all smiles. “By the gods, good to see you whole. Who do you have with you?”

  Both girls ran their fingers through their knotted hair and curtsied as Solineus introduced them. “Alu here is the eldest, and her sister, Kinesee. My good friends. And Tengkur, she’s the short black one with horns.”

  “Fine young ladies, horns not withstanding.” The younger girl giggled. “Shall we walk? I bet we can find you food and drink.” They strolled outside with Artus on their heels, heading for the Salty Frog, a tavern that had run out of beer days before.

  “Any word from Lelishen? And the monk, it’s true?”

  “Seems so, Tokodin poured the ale and served… but didn’t poison mine.” He wanted to move on from this conversation, unwilling to face that he had brought his father’s assassin to the island after saving his life more than once. “The Fost’s under attack. Shadows climbed the walls, and Taken came through sewers from what I heard. They weren’t in great numbers the last I knew, so priests are holding them back as ships travel back and forth, evacuating, but it’s a matter of time.”

  “I hear
d the Fost’s horns as I rode from the gates, sorry I couldn’t turn back. My sympathies for your loss, these girls… So many have lost so much. Eliles?”

  “She’s safe in the Second Tower, she won’t let the Sliver out of her sight, and she studies the Touched’s book. She barely eats.” They reached the tavern and unleashed the girls on the staff, but Solineus kept hold of the goat, who butted Ivin in the knee. “The girls’ family?”

  Solineus’ eyes turned to the goat, and he leaned to rub the animal between its horns, all the answer Ivin needed. “I swore to their father I would see them safe.”

  The Watch’s horn bellowed and Ivin cocked his head to listen: Twice low, twice high. “A foreign ship, might be the Luxuns.” There would be no good news, the best he hoped for was word that things weren’t as bad as they could be.

  “You go, I’ll keep an eye on the girls.”

  The Entiyu Emoño approached the docks, close enough for Ivin to see Eredin standing on deck beside Lelishen, the Crystal Sword rising above his shoulder.

  Artus smiled and clapped Ivin on the back. “Our cousin lives.”

  “And the Fost is no longer in Choerkin hands.” His family had held the Fost since the beginning of remembered time, over five hundred years. Demons and Taken owned those streets now, another agony heaped on recent pains. Inevitability didn’t make it easier to accept.

  Luxuns leaped from the decks to the docks, their feathery hair flashing in the sun as they moored the ship. Eredin disembarked the moment the plank lowered, with Lelishen and Captain Intœño by his side.

  Ivin bowed to the Luxun. “My gratitude for all you’ve done.”

  “A pleasure to help your people. I will continue to do what I may.”

  Eredin clasped arms with Ivin. “I managed to get the sword back in one piece, although I tried to break it more than once.”

  Artus asked, “That hunk of glass?”

  Eredin hugged the older man. “Turns out this glass is harder than you head.”

  Artus guffawed. “That’s sayin’ something, for sure.”

  Ivin said, “You’re alive and safe. Best we could hope.”

  Eredin sighed, his bleak expression darkening behind his week-old beard. “Sorry to hear about the old man and Rikis, but we come with more ill-tidings.”

  Ivin locked his cousin’s eyes and sighed. “How bad?”

  “Ice grows across the bay, a bridge a hundred paces wide stretching toward the Watch. It’s already farther than I’d have imagined. A hundred, maybe two hundred Taken sitting and waiting. We held the docks with the holy, if you can get a Taken into the water, it’s their end. Rain helped our cause, driving the bastards back for the better part of a day. A host gathered on the ice bridge, they want your hide more’n mine.”

  Ivin’s legs weakened and he wanted to sit, but instead leaned against a pier post. “Not me they’re after. The gods have damned us all. How long we got?”

  Eredin shrugged, but Captain Intœño spoke. “My spotters in the crow’s nest have keen eyes; I’d count on four to five days, no more.”

  Lelishen said, “Your people need to leave this island.”

  “My people. How far can we run? Tek Brotna? Tek Hidreng? We’d be invaders with women and children, slaughtered.”

  Lelishen said, “There’s no choice, everyone needs to sail to the continent, as far east as they’re able. The Edan won’t welcome you, but neither will they feed you to the dirt and worms. And the Hidreng can be more forgiving than you might imagine, with the proper diplomacy.”

  Ivin nodded, thankful his next words were true. “Roplin commands the Watch and the Choerkin; it isn’t my decision to make.” This crack passes the Sails of Zinmil, you will be at sea. Meris’ words of prophecy came back to him, and right now his only joy came from knowing the oracle’s ashes followed his father’s.

  ELILES STUDIED the book Lelishen had claimed as a gift from the Touched, parsing every word for meaning and clues. Dame of Fire was not a name earned, not yet, despite his calling her such, and his reference to a tower caught her eye the instant she set foot on Herald’s Watch, with its high tower rising from the peak of the island. They tied together somehow, the Watch was where she should earn her name, but she didn’t know how. Bad news seemed to trickle in daily, sometimes hitting like a boulder.

  Roplin had called for evacuation of the Watch within several candles of Eredin’s arrival, but they didn’t give up hope. Cogs fitted with rams attempted to break the ice bridge, but they were set upon by Taken. Catapulting flaming pitch damaged the bridge, but didn’t stop it. Eliles made the journey once, when the ice bridge was a couple days from the Watch, and her Fire proved useless. Against the power of Ulrikt she needed the Sliver of Star, and she didn’t trust herself to contain its energy a second time.

  Longboats traveled the shores of Kaludor, alerting all peoples to flee as near to Eleris Edan as they could sail. They either manned the abandoned boats they found or burned them. No one knew if the Shadows and Taken would take to the waters, but it was a risk no one was willing to take.

  Eliles wandered to the docks at least once every day, hoping to find Ilpen and his family, donkeys included, but no luck. Many ships bypassed the island on their journey east, so not seeing him didn’t mean the worst, but she would’ve loved to have seen the dear man. Most faces she saw she didn’t recognize, but one boat of refugees carried adherents she’d known from Istinjoln. She thought she caught a glimpse of Meliu in the crowd, but the girl disappeared before she could say hello.

  Jinbin remained her only connection to her life in Istinjoln. It was bittersweet. As much as she hated her life there, it was disconcerting not having a home.

  The dawn of the fifth day after Eredin’s arrival revealed encroaching ice on the horizon. A lone ship remained in harbor. The Watch had swelled into a city of refugees before bleeding the population back to the sea until Eliles stood with her friends on the deck of the Entiyu Emoño as the last remaining people.

  Ice crept across the bay with Taken swarming the tip of the unnatural peninsula. At the fore stood a great Shadow.

  She leaned on Ivin, absorbing his warmth beside the heat of the Sliver of Star tucked in her robes. They all expected something from her, or so she felt. The bearer of the Sliver of Star should save Kaludor and the Silone people. In the memory of its power she found fear and exultation. If she dared bring its energies to bear she knew she could destroy the ice bridge, but she also knew she could lose herself and her soul, all while handing the Sliver to the enemy.

  She gazed at Ivin’s determined face as he stared into the distance with his arm around her. She could lose the man she’d come to love. Love, she hated to admit it despite having fantasized of these feelings since outcast as a child. Her dream of love came to her begowned in the trappings of nightmare. She didn’t want to lose him, more so than even her soul. She snuggled close.

  The Sliver and fire could defeat the ice, but it wouldn’t destroy the enemy. It would slow them, but it wouldn’t stop them. Ulrikt, or whatever the lord priest had become, wouldn’t relent. If his powers stretched ice to the Watch, there was no reason to believe he would stop before reaching the continent. History spoke of years where the Parapet Strait froze over, forming a natural bridge to the mainland. Nothing would keep the Shadows from someday following.

  Eliles recalled the raging power pulsing through her veins, the feeling of eternity, the rapture feeding her soul as fire circled them inside Istinjoln. Eternal Fire, the Dame of Fire, a tower. She stared at the Watch rising from the middle of the island.

  The solution horrified her, but less so than letting the demons reach the continent. She wormed from Ivin’s grip and hugged him. “You all need to leave, but I have to stay.”

  Everyone in ear shot stared at her, but the look in his eyes alone made her knees quake. “What?”

  “The Sliver of Star, I can stop the ice.”

  “You said you couldn’t.”

  “I was wrong.” Eliles’ hear
t pounded, desperate to explain, but it was impossible to define such a vague sensation. “The ice won’t stop unless I stop it, forever.”

  “I can’t lose you.”

  They’d both lost so many. “You can stay with me if you want. But if you stay, I don’t think you or I will ever be able to leave this island.” She stepped to the gangplank, determined but still not letting go of his hand. “But your people, they need you.”

  Solineus stepped beside them, shaking his head. “Whoa, girl. Whatever this idea, if you fail, Ulrikt gets the Sliver.”

  “If I sail from here, it’s a matter of time. Either the ice bridge reaches the continent, or nature will do it for them, sooner or later. The only victory is to make sure these waters can never freeze.”

  Ivin said, “Too godsdamned risky.”

  Lelishen said, “We can’t let you risk everything, not without some idea of your plan.”

  Eliles wanted them to understand, but all she had was instinct, of fire and power, of potential and terror. “When at Istinjoln I felt the bridled power of the Sliver, steered into flame by my… by my friends. Its power, me, drew the fire. If I hone those powers into the bay...”

  Ivin pleaded, “No, no, no.”

  She grabbed his face. “The Touched told us I could find the answer to how the Sliver could defeat the Shadows… not destroy them, defeat. You, all of you, must trust me. The answer is there and I will find it. I am the Dame of Fire, and the Watch is my tower.”

  Sorrow and fury stretched his face, and tears came to her eyes as he pulled away and paced the deck. “Godsdamn it! I can’t stay with you.”

  “I know, I don’t blame you, but I’d love it if you did.”

  He wanted to cry, she saw it in his quivering cheeks, but he defeated his eyes. “If you do this thing, how do I know you’re safe?”

  “When this works, no force in the world will be able to harm me.”

  “Only the dead can make that promise.”

  “I will live, I swear.”