by Cara Violet
“Yes,” he breathed out, wrapping his fingers around his mother’s stone locket and as quickly releasing it.
“We are headed for the ice mountains west.”
“Thank you,” Darayan said sincerely, staring into Owen’s eyes, “for helping us.”
“Well I wasn’t here for that, I wanted to spy on the traitor, but there was already too much going on here. Perhaps I was destined to end up here to help you out.”
“That’s a nice thought.”
“Let’s be honest: I came to spy; but anytime, my new friend.”
Darayan laughed, feeling the shiver of his cold tunic against his spine. “Spy on what anyway?”
“Adrian is headed for Hilan.”
“Why?”
“For the desolation of the Harpies,” Taelen said.
“What?” Archibel said. Darayan walked closer to her; he noted she was just as passionate as always—despite her new Aquamorph robe doing little to warm her from the freezing water they landed in. “That damn—”
“He is trying to find favour in the upcoming Universal Election,” Owen cut her off.
“Over my dead body—”
Darayan grabbed Archibel’s upper arm and frowned at her. The touch was more than he was prepared for: not only were they both freezing to death, she looked slightly defeated by his nearness. Where were those steel eyes of determination?
“We should press on,” he said to her intently, trying to revive her.
She nodded sharply, life coming slightly back into her cheeks as he let her go.
Owen jogged past them all, “I think Everett isn’t far.”
“I would hope so,” Bodel said frost coating her words, “it’s freezing.”
“We’ll get you hot-blooded Sarinese safe soon,” Nash said beaming.
Bodel forced her lips up and gave him a rigid smile.
“You’re not the heir of Sari then?” Owen said to Archibel, turning back on the group.
Everyone faced her and Darayan sensed Archibel fall back into the silent girl he met back on Rivalex. “No,” she said more than convincingly, and Darayan knew then she was hiding something.
“I did see your Cousin King on Felrin at the last Quarter Summit.”
“He is not my cousin.”
Owen frowned, “I meant it in a very platonic way, like the other Sarinese here would condone him as their cousin.”
“Well then, of course,” she said curtly.
“Where is our means of escape?” Darayan intervened, his fingers and toes shooting numbing pains up his limbs.
“Where is this Lafael?” Bodel chimed in.
Owen answered her as the reached another heavy flowing stream, which they passed by helping one another leap over it.
“Behind the ice mountains,” Owen said.
“I’ve heard nothing but scary stories round there,” Nash said.
“Shut up Nash,” Taelen said.
Behind him, Darayan noticed Archibel fall away from them. He flanked her, neither glancing her way nor asking her questions about who she actually was for the duration of their walk to the ice mountains.
At the base of the mountains, he cleared his throat; sidelong her eyes slid to his.
“Yes, Darayan,” Archibel said softly.
“I just wanted to say …” what? That he was happy she was alive? That somehow his life pieced together the moment he saw her, that regardless of her uncertain past, he would support her no matter the ramifications of her actions, that he could and would never turn his back on her again. Instead he huffed: “I’m glad you’re okay.” It came out unemotional and flat. Like the fight between them back on Sari was still heavily wedged between them.
She nodded and walked on, brushing shoulders with the Kinsmen as they began their assent. And that was it between them.
“Polie lost for words?”
Bodel’s voice sounded from behind him. Darayan blew his cheeks up and faced Materid, who was already heading up the mountain track alongside Owen.
“You know anything more about this planet, Materid?” Darayan called out.
“Hmm,” Materid began, the others temporarily stopping and stepping closer to him. “a lot of myths predict waterfalls. A rush of rivulets and gullies. But I’ve never believed any of it.”
Darayan’s eyes went skyward. “Let’s just pick up the pace. The sooner we get off this planet the better.”
Archibel had to relax her mind. It was running as fast as the streams below them and far colder—colder than she could have imagined. She strode alongside Everett and Nash, the Sarinese finally catching up to them.
“I’ve never walked through an ice mountain with ice forests before,” the girl Bodel said looking about.
“Different these trees are,” Everett said whimsically. “And the mountainside not that stable.”
Bodel rolled her eyes. “Because they’re water that’s been frozen solid perhaps? Meaning any form of heat or humidity would drop us right back into the flowing water streams of this planet that we just had to escape out of?”
“I like this girl,” Nash slid closer to Bodel.
“I’d be sure to put my boot up—”
“The season remains winter,” Owen said. “Darayan’s right though, we should move faster.”
It was a gruelling haul over the top of the mountain and back down the other side and Archibel could have sworn her organs were stone cold—or perhaps that was just being in Darayan’s presence again. The time apart gave her a different view of him, he’d grown, in more ways than one. But deep down, in the bottom of her heart, she knew she would always be just a friend to him.
“Look,” he said to her when they’d reached the mountain peak.
The perpetual flowing water and ice rock ran in every which direction. Just like the mountain they stood on, there was no land, no soil, no crust to this place.
“I know,” she replied. The Ice City was changing, Archibel could see the whole Ice City rotating. “What’s going on?”
They both stood watching intently as the spinning city was encapsulated in smoke, and then, after a few short minutes, the city began literally melting in front of them.
“It’s, it’s—”
Archibel’s eyes scanned the exposed black webbing, like solid frames embedded in the ice that had been uncovered by a huge boiling pool to expose—
“An Iron City?”
Darayan’s words didn’t shock her. What this meant for them did. Were they safe here out in the open?
“We should hurry on.” It was Owen’s voice of reason.
“I agree,” Archibel said.
Within another few seconds, they had begun their descent down the mountain, Owen’s team further ahead, beating them to the foot of the mountain. Although this time, less icicle-like trees obscured their journey and more steep icy slopes had them dragging their bottoms down the hill.
“You okay?” Darayan asked hoisting Archibel up at the base.
“Yes,” she said clasping her arms around him and smiling. Within those eyes of his, the way he looked at her, she felt warm, and so elated to be in his presence—despite her freezing body and his, Archibel finally felt complete.
Waiting for the Sarinese to catch up to them, Darayan assessed Archibel, her wide eyes pleading with him, staring into his soul as if uncovering every truth he’d ever hid from her. He swept her wet loose strands back over her ear, knowing he had so much to communicate to her, but not knowing how to do it, or if they’d even make it out of this alive and with all their limbs. It was something glistening from aside her ear that caught his eye, something glowing. Seizing her body and moving her aside, Darayan titled his head in consternation.
“What’s that?” It was the most unusual thing he’d ever seen: the charcoal sky was beginning to fill with the brightest two-toned white and orange light.
“I’ve been here weeks and I’ve never seen daybreak,” Archibel said indirectly.
“What do you mean?”
&n
bsp; “Well, it’s always just been cold and dark here.”
Darayan felt movement behind him.
“Materid,” he said pacing toward his pilot, “how long does it take for the planet to spin—”
The ice rock underneath them suddenly waned.
Materid frowned. “The only thing I remember in history about a water planet was that due to the sun’s distance, no rays could keep the planet warm. But that was in winter. In summer, which they alternate every other month, things change. It’s a myth, to be sure.”
“Every other month? A myth this planet will turn into a big pool?”
“I think so.”
Archibel sniffed in thought and Darayan could feel her mind working for the solutions. “Darayan?” she said uneasily, obviously calculating how the Ice City turned into an Iron City and how they had no iron at all to support them.
“Owen,” he called out to the Kinsmen who were loose on their legs, running back to them at the foot of the mountain. “How far is the cruiser?”
“Everett went west, we are not far,” the Kinsmen Ranger said “I’ve no idea what this is,” his line of sight on the two-toned rays getting brighter in the distance, “but we need to keep moving, now.”
“This place—”
It was too late. The cascading light peered up over the horizon and with it came a heat that hit them all at once. It was so strong Darayan felt the heat through his soaking clothes scorching him.
“It’s like Sari,” Materid said humidity sticking to him and sweat now running down his forehead. “It’s so potent, the heat.”
“What’s going on?” Bodel spread wide, her feet shifting as she reached the bottom of the mountain.
Darayan assessed the motion under him. The ice cracking in the distance. One ripple snapped so close they all dived out the way.
Coughing from the snowy soot that landed on him, Darayan stood in the momentary quiet. “This was no myth. We’ve got to move.” He scanned for Owen and the Kinsmen, who had been forcefully separated from them.
“Owen!” he called out, noticing another Kinsmen Ranger, sprinting for them in the distance, had finally joined them.
“Lafael has returned,” Owen replied, as he found his feet and regrouped with Darayan, “but without the cruiser; it’s failed—”
An overbearing wail came from below Owen’s leg.
“Be quiet, Cuki!”
Bodel glowered. “What the Holom is that?”
“Me Cuki!”
“How the Holom are we going to get off this planet?”
The critter wailed again, this time Darayan scolded.
“What’s happening?!”
It was like several quakes had hit the surface all at once. The ice cracked over and over. Darayan heard Archibel fire up in aura, and the Kinsmen and Sarinese followed.
“Just run for higher ground!” Owen screamed.
There really was nothing else to do. Not that higher ground was more or less vulnerable to melting. The Sarinese and the Cuki creature shadowed the Kinsmen Rangers.
Then—bang! A huge section of ice rock dropped behind them. The mountain was falling away, beginning at the top. The white and orange sunrays burned on. After a few attempts at getting back up the mountain only for it to descend to sea level, Darayan knew their efforts at gaining higher ground were futile. The larger, bulkier icebergs began to split below them. First in small dividing cracks and then larger ones.
“Watch out!” Materid said losing his footing as the ice under him began dipping like a sliding board.
“Meltwater,” Darayan said watching the colour under the ice alter to a milky turquoise, “it’s melting underneath the surface.”
“How?” Archibel said.
“Heat and friction,” Materid said to her far right, “its setting off seismic activity, warming up the ice, and we are standing on the ice bed above it with no stability.”
“Is there any normal land?” Bodel’s eyes sought refuge in the distance, as she grappled with trying to stand. “Anywhere at all on this planet?”
“Could be particles of solid rock,” Materid said also trying to keep his feet, “but I don’t think it’s what we can stand on, and it’s probably sediment enough to mix with the water—”
Another jerking crack below Materid and the ice bed shattered into the flowing streams of meltwater sucking him under.
“Tread water,” Darayan advised when he resurfaced. Rushes of flowing streams intermingled with the solid rock, dividing the comrades. “It’s getting too thin.”
Archibel slid on her feet down the angled rock face.
“Darayan,” she sounded.
“I’m coming,” he jumped over another breaking fragment of ice. Water dashed against his face as waves broke against the mountainside they were aiming for; the sun destroying every solid mass, forbidding them an escape route.
Clutching onto Archibel and grasping a jutting piece of ice, he stopped her descent.
“The evaporation is abnormal,” she panted, “look at the clouds forming.”
It couldn’t have been more obvious, but Darayan had been distracted by the torrents below him. Now he could see the evolving grey clouds building themselves just above them.
“What are we going to do, Darayan?”
“I don’t know.”
“I don’t want to die like this.”
“It’s fine, we can swim.”
“But for how long? Don’t the Harpies need us? Doesn’t the universe need to be saved? I must save my people before I die. I must return to Sari.”
“Who are you?” he said still holding onto her and not knowing the truth.
“I’m no-one, I promise you, they’ve got it wrong.”
Even with the crashing of heavy water weaving its way through them all, Darayan didn’t believe the lie, but now was not the time to confront her on it.
“Cuki found water hole!”
At the exact moment the others searched for the Daem-Raal a snap of thunder roared above.
“Oh Holom no.” came Owen’s reply. “Was he in that lightning strike? Cuki?”
No answer. Darayan wasn’t sure when the rain began, maybe when the thunder began, maybe when the clouds started spinning like aggressive animals, or maybe when the deltas started flowing so fast that they had no way of swimming against the current. All he knew was that this terrain was most likely going to kill them.
“What’s that?” Bodel spluttered, clutching to a unit of ice rock.
Darayan scanned the distance, the sun scorching and the water still violently in his vision, a huge swirling vortex of water was sucking in the ice and disintegrating it. It was drawing nearer.
“We go!” Cuki said popping his head up out of the water and swimming for it.
“Wait!” Owen shouted, a huge cloud flashing light above. “There’s damn lightning in the centre of it!”
“We’ve got him!” Nash said letting go of his holding place, slurped up by the approaching vortex.
“Looks like a black hole,” Archibel said in Darayan’s ear. His hold on her tightened. “Or maybe the creature is right, it’s a water hole.”
“To where?”
“Everett!” Lafael called. Another body splashed after Nash. Then Lafael trailed them.
“Where are they going?” Bodel said. “And where’s Materid?”
“I’m hereeeeeee …”
Materid floated past them, on his way to the growing vortex of water.
Another fragment of rock gave way under Darayan, and this time his hold on Archibel faltered as they both went soaring downstream.
“Darayan!” Owen waved, the only one still on a solid section of the planet.
Swimming hard toward him, Darayan felt Archibel slip completely from his grasp.
“Archibel!”
Under the water she tumbled, the exploding light of her aura the only indication of her whereabouts.
The thunder and lightning spat at them again. The centre of the spinning vorte
x somehow rising to meet it.
“It’s moving both ways!”
Darayan could hear Owen but could no longer see him, sucked into the gravitation of spinning water. He was squarely inside the vortex.
It was as if the lightning drove the water one way, and the sun’s rays, still cutting through the clouds, drove it the other.
He was dragged into the sun-heated water while Lafael, Cuki, Materid and Bodel were spun away from him—dragged through a watery tunnel past him.
Darayan couldn’t take hold of anyone; he let his body, pulsing with aura, follow the most powerful substance he’d ever met, almost blacking out from the lack of air as the current picked up speed and dragged his helpless body.
Maybe now was the end; perhaps Archibel was right. Drowning was not a way he wanted to go, but with his last bit of strength, when he felt her close, he reached out to her. Their hands locked, and in the same moment, everything went black.
Chapter Twenty-Six: Rock Bottom
“What the Holom?”
“Something is sticking to me!”
“Push across!”
“Where’s my chain sticks?”
“Whose leg is that? Is that even a leg?”
Archibel heard the voices echo through her waterlogged ears. She spat water and almost choked when she began to speak.
“Archibel,” Darayan’s voice reached her. “Are you okay?”
Sandwiched in thick shrubbery, Archibel lifted her bruised torso from the leafy floor and turned in the direction of his voice. Darayan was not far, also crammed in dense undergrowth.
“I am,” she smiled, reaching her hand for his. “Are you?”
He stared at her with open outreach, his look the same look he’d get after he’d had nightmares, one of his visions that exposed him to the tragedy of his family’s death. But for once, she didn’t need to comfort him, didn’t need to ask him any questions. She’d learnt from her prying. Darayan was a man, evolving as she was, solution-seeking as she was, and Archibel knew he would work it out for himself. He finally leant his hand to hers and said: “Fine.”
“Stop moving, Nash!” Everett called out. “Hey, where’s Lafael?”
A bush moved and Nash stuck his head out. “What about Taelen?”
