“Exactly,” Thal said, moving over to the arch and reading what was now written there:
“Right in the first word,” Thal said, pointing, “which means, empty of heat, or cold.”
“Why not just say, ‘cold,’” Tevvy asked.
“Because even the coldest northern regions, the polar cap,” Thal replied, “have some heat. Granted, there is very little, but here the writer wanted to convey the idea that there is no heat whatsoever. So, empty of heat, reflecting all light, stiffening moving water into clear stone breaking into a thousand pieces of silver light.”
“Another test of endurance,” Blakstar noted, “which will be more difficult than the fire realm.”
“The protective orthek is easier,” Klaybear noted, “and it lasts longer.”
“We will have to keep moving,” Blakstar went on, “and we should eat nothing but meat.”
“Why meat?” Tevvy asked.
“Haven’t you noticed how after you have a feast mainly of meat,” Blakstar replied, “how warm you are afterward? Or why people from the desert eat almost no meat?”
“We never eat much meat,” Tevvy replied.
“And how many of the awemem live in the far north?” Blakstar went on.
“Okay, I get it,” Tevvy said, “you don’t need to say it again.” He looked around the room, eyes traveling to the crates by the wall. “Maybe there are some heavy wool cloaks in there,” he said, pointing at the crates.
Blakstar went over to the crates, and opened the one they had not looked in. “Not wool,” he said after a moment, “but the furry hides of some animal I do not recognize.” He lifted up one of the heavy fur coats, white streaked with gray, holding it up for the others to see. “This one looks tall and thin, so it must by for Thal.” He tossed it to the maghi, and pulled out a smaller coat, tossing it to Tevvy. He tossed the next one to Klaybear, then laid the last one aside. “There are also tall boots, heavy hoods, and mittens made from the same animal.”
“I don’t wear boots,” Tevvy objected, holding up the boots the kortexi handed him. The boots had thick black soles, made from the skin of another animal, with what looked like shards of bone embedded into the sole.
Blakstar rolled his eyes. “You will if you don’t want to lose any toes to the cold.” He removed the bundle of mittens, with rough black skin, like the soles of the boots, on the palm side, with thick fur on the back, and he passed the smallest pair to Tevvy. The hoods went down to their shoulders and had a flap that tied across most of the face, leaving only a narrow slit for the eyes. The hoods also had another narrow flap above the eyes, looking like a thin, dark bill. Blakstar also found pants made from the same, furry hides; he passed them around to the others. “These go on first, followed by the boots, coat, hood, and mittens.”
“What about our armor?” Klaybear asked.
“And our packs?” Tevvy added.
Blakstar looked first at Klaybear. “I think we should wear our chain suits, but not the plate mail, that way, we will have some protection; I don’t think the plate armor will fit over the fur clothing.” He turned to Tevvy. “Anything liquid in our packs will freeze if we carry them on the outside of the coats, and if we carry them beneath the coats, we will not be able to access the packs without removing the coats. Check the inside of your coats, there should be a large pocket for your water skin, to keep it from freezing, and there should be pockets on the outside where we can carry meat rations, or you can use the pouches on your belts,” he pointed to the belts worn by the others, “as long as you remove anything liquid.”
“I don’t like this,” Tevvy noted, shaking his head, “all of my best supplies are liquid. How could I have put the madman to sleep, if I didn’t have my belt pouch?”
“We’ll have to depend on Thal and Klaybear,” Blakstar replied, “and their ortheks.”
“Which will be hard to perform,” Thal said, “wearing all of this.”
Klaybear shrugged. “Well, if it is like the fire realm, we will only need to survive.”
“We should still carry our weapons,” Blakstar said. “They can serve as useful tools, say, to build a shelter from packed snow if we get caught in a blizzard.”
Tevvy snorted. “A snow house? How will that keep us warm?”
“You’d be surprised how warm it is inside a snow cave,” Blakstar replied.
“It would keep us out of the wind,” Klaybear added, “which can be worse than all the ice.”
As they dressed in the furs, Tevvy noticed first that the air in the room was getting colder. “How is this possible?” he asked.
Thal looked around and pulled on his hood. “Must be the teka of the place.”
“Very useful,” Blakstar said, pulling his furry mittens up to his elbows over the sleeves of his coat, “since it will help prepare us for the cold beyond the arch.” He adjusted his belt, making sure that his sword was easily accessible, then pulled the hood over his head. “Don’t breathe too deeply: intense cold can freeze your lungs, suffocating you as quickly as if you were drowning.” He tied the flap over his face, then pulled it down so that Klaybear could touch his skin.
“Nemfaghweri,” sang the green kailu as he touched each of them, including himself, and each felt his body warm. Klaybear then went to the arch, touching the symbol for ice with one glowing finger; the others waited for him to put on his mitten and hood, then stepped through the gray shimmering.
As in the previous realms, they stood on a circle of dark stone, and this circle was surrounded by mountains of dirty ice, a dull gray light emanating from the ice itself. The air was cold, so cold, that even though they were breathing air from under the hoods they each wore, so that it was warmed by the heat of their bodies, it still cut their throats like knives. They immediately saw the wisdom of the kortexi’s words about shallow breathing. They learned immediately that standing still was not possible, as the soles of their thick boots would freeze and stick in place after only seconds. The direction of travel was their next problem, as they could see, at first, no path out of this circle, until they had walked around it twice. Tevvy noticed the archway, nearly covered with ice; they heard cracking and rumbling sounds all around them, although if any ice cracked and slid onto the stone circle, it was absorbed by the mountains of ice surrounding them. Talking was difficult and painful; the sound of their voices echoed and multiplied around them, causing the ice mountains to crack and chunks of ice to tumble down, nearly crushing them twice as they searched for the path. So when Tevvy found the path, Blakstar nodded to Klaybear and whispered, “mace,” and the kailu broke open the archway with a few carefully placed blows of his mace. They passed through quickly, for as soon as Klaybear broke open the archway, the ice from above started to flow over it, covering it again only moments after they had passed through.
Seeing this, Tevvy whispered, “I don’t like this,” and the echoes from his whisper caused icicles clinging to the ceiling of the path to crash onto the floor. The others nodded and frowned, telling the awemi without words to keep his mouth closed. The surface of the path changed from being rough and uneven to smooth and slippery, and back again. They discovered how treacherous this could be when Tevvy stepped from the first rough section onto the first smooth section, his boot sliding, carrying him forward as he waved his arms like windmills to keep his balance, catching himself on the smooth wall. He looked a warning back at his companions, and his face changed suddenly to a look of surprise. He looked down at the hand and mitten touching the wall and saw, to his horror, that in the few seconds his hand had been on the wall, the ice had begun to flow over his hand. He struggled to pull his hand free, being careful not to touch the wall with his free hand. Blakstar was close behind him; the kortexi pulled out his sword and struck the ice with the edge of pommel stone just above the trapped hand, pulling Tevvy’s hand free when it cracked. The others covered their heads, Blakstar leaning over Tevvy, and half the icicles fell. When Blakstar stood up, Tevvy looked at the spot where his hand
had been stuck and staggered back into the kortexi, seeing a hand beneath the surface of the ice. He pointed, face looking fearful, and the others saw what he had seen.
“We must be careful,” Thal whispered slowly, barely making a sound.
Tevvy shook his head. “Nightmare,” he whispered softly, eyes still wide with fright.
Several hours seemed to pass as they picked their way carefully through this first tunnel of ice, with each of them getting caught several times by the ice after slipping. The path ended as it started, blocked by ice, and Klaybear bashed their way through into another stone circle under mountains of dirty, gray ice. As they approached the center of this circle, hearing the sounds of cracking and falling ice, they heard a new sound, a squelchy sound, like that of a foot being pulled from the mud, but there was also a ringing sound, as if the foot was made of brass or glass. Looking around, they saw figures emerging from the walls of ice surrounding the circle, figures that were reminiscent of the stone creatures of the earth realm, but where the stone creatures were rounded, these figures were jagged and sharp, as if pieces of ice had broken from the cliffs and piled together to become upright creatures, walking forward on jagged legs of ice, cracking and grinding as they walked. One came from each of the four cardinal directions, waving arms that ended in chunks of ice like huge cudgels. Blakstar strode toward the nearest ice creature, taking out and swinging his sword; Klaybear took out his mace, moving toward the creature nearest to him. Daggers appeared in both of Tevvy’s hands, one dagger flying from his hand in a smooth, overhand motion. The dagger struck the creature nearest him right in the single, glowing blue eye, causing the creature to stagger back, its head shattering in a brilliant flash of blue light; the remaining pieces that formed the creature fell apart, slid toward the wall, and were immediately absorbed back into the cliff walls. Thal, seeing Tevvy’s success, raised his rod and sang, “pleugipur,” and an arrow of fire shot from the end of his rod, striking the creature nearest him, instantly turning its head into steam that turned into ice crystals a second later, falling harmlessly to the stone. The remaining pieces fell apart, slid toward the wall, and were quickly absorbed by the walls. They turned to watch their companions dueling with their icy opponents. For Klaybear, every time his opponent swung one of his cudgel-like arms at the kailu, Klaybear responded by smashing the cudgel-end of the arm with his green-glowing mace, until the creature had no arms left, and the kailu’s mace swung down, crushing its icy head. Blakstar, to their other side, sliced off pieces of the creature he faced, his golden flaming sword passing through the ice as if it were water with a crackling hiss. Like Klaybear, when the creature had no arms left and lay prostrate before him, the kortexi swung his sword in an overhand arc, slicing into the jagged, icy head, which burst when the golden flames surrounding the blade touched the glowing blue eye, just after Klaybear smashed his. The parts of both creatures fell to the ground, slid toward the walls, and were quickly absorbed by the dirty gray cliffs surrounding them. Tevvy moved to where his creature had been, looking for his dagger; he could see a glint of metal in the ice wall, but no other evidence of his dagger. Blakstar walked over to Thal, slipping his sword back into its scabbard, and whispered something to him, and the white maghi slapped his head with one furry mitten. He beckoned Tevvy and Klaybear closer, and when the four of them stood together, although each continued to move his feet to keep from sticking, he raised his rod and whispered, “kwyeskoit.”
“I forgot I could do this,” Thal apologized, “and Blakstar just reminded me what I had done before.”
“No echoes,” Tevvy said, “that bring down the ceiling or walls.”
Thal nodded.
Blakstar drew a packet of dried meat out of one of his pockets. “We should all have some of this,” he noted, rocking from side to side and passing the packet around; each of them took a piece of the dried meat. “And take a drink from your water skin,” he suggested, taking a piece and replacing the packet in one of his pockets, “and we should keep moving.”
Tevvy nodded. “I notice the cold more when we are not moving,” he noted, slipping his mittened hand under the flap and biting off a piece of dried meat.
The others nodded, also biting off pieces of dried meat under their hoods, moving off in different directions to find the path forward.
They passed through a second tunnel of ice, in the same way as the first, and into a second stone circle, the walls of which expelled eight of the jagged, icy creatures. Tevvy, losing three daggers, and Thal, using a variation of the fire arrow, together managed to destroy six of the icy creatures in the time that Blakstar and Klaybear destroyed two. They ate more dried meat before entering the third icy tunnel. Thal stopped them at the end, creating a dome of silence again, so they could speak.
“If they double in numbers,” he said, rocking from foot to foot, “I do not think we can handle sixteen.”
“I’m running out of daggers,” Tevvy put in, “I have only three left.”
Blakstar nodded, giving himself a moment to think. “Will they follow us into this tunnel?” he asked.
Thal shrugged. “I cannot tell from what we have seen.”
“They are not difficult to defeat,” Klaybear noted, “but you are right, if they double, I doubt that we can destroy them all before one of them gets one of us, which would be fatal to all.”
Tevvy was looking at the partially blocked opening into the next circle. “I think I can slip through the ice there,” he said, pointing, “then I can sneak around to find the way out, then you can crash out of here, heading to wherever I am. Thal can blast the creatures who are nearest the opening, Klaybear can open it, and we can all slip through: they have looked too big to move through these tunnels.”
All three looked at the awemi for a long moment before anyone replied. “And if they can follow us?” Blakstar asked.
“The tunnels are quite narrow,” Tevvy shrugged, “so only one or two of them could attack us at once.”
“Maybe,” Klaybear said, “but I think these tunnels are difficult enough without having to fight off the ice creatures, and if someone sticks to the wall, how can we get him free while fighting one of these moving ice blocks?”
“I could,” Thal said, hand where his chin would be, “set off a fireball after we enter the tunnel. That would discourage pursuit, maybe even bring down the cliff walls on top of them. I think the space is large enough.”
Tevvy raised one eyebrow warily. “You think it’s big enough? What if you are wrong? What happens then?”
Thal shrugged. “The space is large enough that, at worst, some small amount of flame could enter the tunnels, but I suppose if I set the center closer to this side of the circle, most of the flames would shoot down this tunnel, and not the one we will be in.”
Tevvy shook his head. “I have a bad feeling about this,” he mumbled to himself, then looked up at the others. “Forget I said anything.”
Blakstar looked from Thal to Klaybear, then back to Thal. “I think it is a workable plan.” He turned to Tevvy. “All right, thief,” he said, “let’s get you quietly through the ice so you can locate the way out.”
With the kortexi pushing, Tevvy managed to slip through the ice blocking the end of the tunnel, grumbling to himself about how he should learn to keep his mouth shut.
“Wave your arms when you find it,” Blakstar whispered past the ice, his voice light.
Tevvy strode off to his right, cursing the kortexi silently under his breath. He moved cautiously and silently around the edge of the stone circle, hoping that he would not trigger whatever caused the ice creatures to appear. The sounds of cracking and grinding ice surrounded him, causing him to pause frequently and look up, making sure the cliff above him was not about to fall on him. He found the opening about halfway around the circle; stooping, he looked through one of the wider cracks near the base and could tell, from what little he could see, that this pathway was different from the others: instead of going along level, this path
climbed steeply just inside the opening. Curiosity flared inside Tevvy, so he waved to the others, pointed at the opening, then dove through one of the wider cracks.
The others watched Tevvy disappear to their right, then waited for him to reappear further around the circle. When the awemi stepped back into their field of vision, they saw him moving slowly and cautiously, pausing and looking up frequently.
“Hopefully,” Thal said, “he won’t get buried by the cliff.”
“If he does,” Blakstar noted, “he will be lost, and we will be trapped here forever.”
“He’s quite agile,” Klaybear added, “so I think he’ll be all right. Besides, we thought you were lost in the last realm, but a way was provided for us to continue; we are, after all, meant to pass through this test and reach the staff.”
“I hope you are right,” Blakstar said. “He’s found the opening,” he added after a moment. They saw Tevvy stooping, saw him wave and point, then dive into the opening. “What’s he doing now?” Blakstar asked, sounding irritated. He pulled out his sword and smashed through the ice, leaping forward into the stone circle. Thal and Klaybear followed before the ice covered the opening. As soon as Blakstar took three long strides across the circle, they heard the squelching, ringing sound all around them and saw ice creatures forming from and stepping out of the dirty gray cliffs surrounding them, more than double the number they faced in the last circle.
“That’s more than double,” Blakstar noted, and was surprised not to hear the echoes, as Thal had forgotten to cancel his orthek.
“Two dozen,” Thal said, “to be exact.”
“We have to get to the opening,” Blakstar said, “it is our only chance.” Swinging his sword, the kortexi leapt forward to attack the creatures between them and the opening. Klaybear brandished his mace and followed, while Thal shot bolts of fire to the right, then left, then behind them, trying to keep the creatures off their backs. This slowed the closing of the circle of icy creatures, giving the kortexi and the kailu time to hack off limbs and smash several heads, clearing the way to the opening. Again, Thal shot bolts of fire to the left and right, giving them time to get to the archway and smash the ice blocking it. Blakstar and then Klaybear jumped through the opening; Thal paused long enough to gesture with his rod back over his shoulder before leaping through the now closing arch, tossing a tiny point of red light back toward the opposite side of the circle. He turned and sang, “kweklopur-patno.” The point of red light flashed brightly and began to grow, brightening and filling the circle, a roaring sound echoed around the circle. When the expanding flames reached the icy gray cliffs, the flames expanded upward covering the opening, consuming the ice creatures, and melting the ice covering the opening. As the flames started to enter the ice tunnel, Klaybear raised his staff and sang, “plotuskoit,” creating a shield of water that immediately froze, covering the tunnel behind them and blocking the flames; the wall of ice glowed with an angry red light. They moved up the tunnel, stopping when they saw the light wink out, but the ground under them shook violently for several seconds, then they heard a rumbling sound, heard the ice shield shatter, and were covered with a spray of ice crystals.
The Redemption, Volume 1 Page 54
