by Tom Hansen
Ynya had already poured more energy into it than she had to spare, and a half-second after her magic snuffed out, the heated hair sliced through Kalda’s left shoulder and lodged in her neck.
Kalda let out a momentary scream before it cut off and ended in a whimper.
All signs of life exited Kalda’s eyes as her head came to rest inches away from Ynya’s face.
Ynya stared horrified at the lifeless woman for a moment. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t yell. She couldn’t do anything. She had no magic.
Cold seeped in from the tundra below as Ynya’s injuries overwhelmed her delicate frame. Her enemy’s residual body heat was the only thing keeping her warm.
As she faded into black, Ynya hoped that her sister hadn’t gotten in too much trouble.
The last thing in Ynya’s vision was the woman in white’s dead eyes.
Ynya drifted off into the dark cold abyss of unconsciousness.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Ynya dreamed of frost bears, par cooked beets, and battling on the frost plains.
She dreamed of Synol, and her husband, and regrets for things left unsaid.
She dreamed of her mother, trying to get her to wake up as she lay frozen in the snow in front of her house. Above her, a young woman with golden hair struggled to reach her, but lay frozen with an axe in her back. Her eyes pleaded for mercy, for answers. Behind her, a beautiful woman adorned in black feathers watched with rapt pleasure.
She woke up cold.
Ynya had never been so cold in her life. Even at her most magic-deprived as a young girl, she’d always managed to keep a bit back to ensure she produced enough body heat.
Even lying in the cell deprived of magic, she’d never been this cold.
One side of her body felt frozen to the hard ground, while the other side was warm and comfortable.
She shivered, trying to remember what had happened.
She had fought for her life.
Ynya was going to die. She was stabbed, but she managed to slice the woman in white open with her last hair, draining the last bits of her power.
Ynya relaxed. Now it all made sense. She lay on the ground, her final bits of residual unconscious heat had melted the snow to the bare earth. Atop her lay the woman in white fur.
Only…it wasn’t. The furs the woman wore were different than what she looked at now. The woman had been lithe and muscular, but the form next to hers was large and soft.
A low rumbling sound reverberated through her chest, causing the hairs on her arms to raise in alarm.
It was terrifyingly dark.
There should be stars. Where are the stars or the moon? Where is the caravan, or the soldiers looking for me?
Ynya tensed, realizing her hand shook from the cold. Or was it fear?
She needed to see. She needed information to escape this situation. Slowly, Ynya raised her fingers to a strand of hair and poured a minuscule sliver of heat into it.
A tiny pinprick of white light, smaller than a candle, lit up the immediate area.
Ynya lay on a bare patch of ground covered with a thick coating of rough white particles that jabbed into her side and face.
The large form with the white fur moved, the rumbling low noise coinciding with the sudden shuddering movement.
Ynya tensed even more. She knew where she was. She had been here before and had barely escaped with her life.
She increased the light a tiny bit more. Beyond her immediate area, the rough white powder turned into thicker hunks of white and grey. Beyond them, the chunks became bone.
She was in a frost bear den.
She was in his den.
Yolphinir, the massive frost bear that terrorized this area of the Razorclaws breathed in again. His thick fur moved, partially covering Ynya once again and keeping her warm.
She was in an ice cave, carved out under a massive glacier, lying next to the largest frost bear known to man, and she had no energy to move.
Ynya was just about to let go of the light when something caught her eye. A glint of red and a tuft of fur mixed in with the endless sea of white bones.
She scanned the coagulated blood of Yolphinir’s latest kill. Curiosity gave way to horror as she craned her neck to see over the pile of bones. It wasn’t just any kill.
It was the woman in white.
Kalda.
Or what was left after Yolphinir had torn her bottom half from her top half to feast on for dinner.
Ynya swallowed, her mouth as dry as spring flurries. Her hands shook with fear and cold. She needed to find a way out of this place or she would be next when Yolphinir decided to wake and feast.
She let go of her hair and tried to think.
Ynya needed food to get energy. She hadn’t burned much magic with her hair. Being warmed by the bear’s massive form helped her body retain much of the heat that she would normally have to generate herself.
But the only food she had near her was…
No. She wouldn’t even think of that. Yolphinir caught and ate fish when he didn’t have other, bigger game. There had to be fish heads or tails around for her to find.
Slowly, she wiggled her toes, then her fingers, then the toes on her injured leg. Over the course of a couple minutes, she systematically went over every part of her body, checking to see what worked and what didn’t.
Nothing was broken, thank the Gods Above, but every part of Ynya’s body ached. Her leg had feeling once again, but it pained her with every flex.
The sleep had done her some good it seemed, but would it be enough to get away from the most dreaded northern predator?
At the bear’s next breath, Ynya rolled from her back to her front.
She waited. Each movement mirrored a breath from the massive bear. She couldn’t afford to wake him.
He breathed, she rolled.
Crunch.
Ynya rolled over some unbroken bones. She stopped all breathing in case the bear heard it, but he didn’t rouse.
Ynya realized at his next breath that she couldn’t keep rolling like this or it would land her on top of the dismembered body.
She would have to sit up and move.
Chapter Thirty-Four
At the next breath, she braced herself with her elbow.
Ynya and the bear continued like this for a dozen more breaths. Each breath allowed her to shift her body slightly in the direction she needed to go.
She sat still and quiet.
She lit her hair once again, taking in her surroundings.
The cave looked a lot smaller than Ynya had remembered from when she was a child. The vast emptiness of the mysterious cave was now nothing more than a hollowed-out glacier. The bones scattered on the ground were a terrifying reminder of the bear’s very real destructive force rather than an adventure of an eight-year-old.
The half-dozen cave entrances were still here, but the one that had caved in had been cleared of its rubble over the years, allowing Yolphinir to come and go.
Toward Marsfjord.
If she could make it down that tunnel, frozen fish awaited her at the end. There might be soldiers waiting for Ynya to come back, but at least she knew the area better than anyone else. She just needed strength and she could fight once more.
Ynya tried to swallow once again, but her mouth and throat were so dry she couldn’t finish the action.
Water.
She was surrounded by frozen water.
All the walls were covered in matted bear fur from where Yolphinir scratched his shedding coat.
No wonder the cave stayed this warm, most of it was covered in a thick layer of white bear fur. If she could stand, up near the top was clear, unspoiled ice, just waiting to be melted down for water.
Ynya watched the massive sleeping bear for a while. His breaths came haggard and rough. He wheezed too, something she hadn’t noticed until now.
Yolphinir must be getting old. He’s starting to sound like Hvarf pulling his mule through the village.
; She sighed, knowing she’d never hear the kind old man’s voice again. But now was not the time to dwell on what was lost.
Ynya stood, each movement timed once again with the bear’s labored breaths. Putting any weight on her bad leg shot sharp pains up her thigh and into her back.
She might have a broken foot or worse.
Ynya shuddered. She wanted her Mama, she needed to heal.
Finally standing, she dared a small light to look around.
No fish.
But she might be able to get water if she could melt a little bit at the top.
Ynya plucked a shorter hair from her head and held it a couple inches just past her fingertips. Reaching up, she poured a small amount of heat into the strand.
As expected, the ice melted, but elation turned to disappointment as the water ran down the inside curve of the cave walls and behind the thick layer of fur.
This isn’t going to work.
Ynya paused, realizing something in the room had changed.
The slow labored breathing had been replaced with an even, careful cadence.
Her hand shook, releasing the strand from her hand, plunging the space back into darkness. In the instant before the lights blinked out, she saw him.
The form of the massive frost bear Yolphinir sat a few feet away from her. His scarred face trained on her lithe form with the intensity of a predator.
His one good eye was the last thing she saw, and the impression the last bit of light left on her eyes was nothing short of terrifying.
What should I do? Should I run, or crumple to the ground?
The bear sniffed the air around her, searching.
Ynya took a hesitant step back, pain lancing though her left leg once again.
This time, the pain surprised her so much she whimpered.
Ynya felt the bear’s hot breath directly in front of her.
She shut her mouth, lifting her chin up.
Two more hot, smelly breaths streamed through the darkness, brushing the matted hair off her trembling face.
Yolphinir stepped toward her. His massive paws crushed the bones on the ground with a terrifying crack.
All he had to do was reach out and crush her. One swipe would be all it took.
Something damp and hot bumped into Ynya.
His snout.
Chills ran up and down her spine and she took another hesitant step backward.
The wall of the cave stopped her, trapped Ynya between an ice wall and a frost bear.
Yolphinir snorted again, and fear took over.
Ynya didn’t think or reason, she just reacted.
Every ounce of magic remaining flooded her mind. Anger at everything that had ever happened to her flashed to the surface. Terror and frustration wound together, pushing Ynya to the brink.
She screamed at the bear. “Go away and leave me alone! You will not eat me today!”
All Ynya’s anger and frustration poured into her hair. The whole room was bathed in an intense white light as her hair glowed.
She met the bear’s gaze.
Half of his face was burned, with hundreds of scarred lines running from the top of his head and down the left side of his face. His empty eye-socket was a black abyss compared to his one good eye.
Yolphinir trembled with terror at the bright light.
The same bright light that caused those scars, all those years ago.
He knew the glow. The bear knew the only creature in these wastelands who had bested him in combat.
Yolphinir took a step back, growling. He took another, and another. Soon he was backed up against the opposite wall like Ynya was backed against hers.
They stood for a long minute, staring at one another in the intense white light.
Three times, Yolphinir snarled and roared at her, but Ynya stood her ground.
Three times he swiped out at her into the void between them.
Three times, Ynya didn’t move, didn’t flinch.
The bear whined twice. Then Yolphinir turned and ran down one of the tunnels.
Unable to control herself anymore, Ynya let go of the heat from her hair and slumped to the ground, exhausted and completely drained of every drop of power.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Ynya slept once again, and dreamt about Synol. She dreamt about a gnarled and twisted monstrosity with horns and a mouth that opened wider than any bear’s. It walked on all fours and teleported around the room like it rode the wind.
Ynya woke covered in sweat, breathing heavy and rough. She coughed for a solid minute, listened to the rattling in her lungs with each breath.
She sounded like the Yolphinir the frost bear.
Ynya tried to move but her body wouldn’t work. None of her limbs responded. She was so drained of energy that everything refused to work.
She was so exhausted that her body had no energy to even warm her. She was going to die here now.
“Ynya?”
Echoes through her mind told her she was going crazy.
“Ynya?”
The echoes wouldn’t leave her alone. She just wanted sleep, but her coughing refused to allow her to sleep.
“Ynya!”
Her eyes shot open. It was a real voice.
She tried to reply, tried to talk, but her mouth refused to move. Her lips trembled as she tried to huff out a response. Her breathing turned to spasms in her lungs once again.
“Ynya!”
She had to be hallucinating because she thought she saw her sister.
“Ynya, can you hear me?”
Behind Synol stood Stefan holding a torch, a morose expression on his face as he took in the bones and gore on the ground.
“Ynya, are you alright? I’m here, it’s Synol, little sister. I’m here.”
“Sssss.” It was all Ynya was able to vocalize. It wasn’t even a word, it was a sound.
“Trrr. Trrr.” She tried to say.
“I have water.”
Synol produced a water skin, and held it up to Ynya’s mouth. A few drops hit her parched tongue and soaked in.
Then everything went black.
Ynya woke again. Her mouth wasn’t quite so parched.
“Synol?”
“Stefan, the torch. I need to see her.”
The light in the room moved up, illuminating the scene once again.
Synol’s backlit form filled Ynya’s vision. “I’m here Ynya. I’m here. I came for you.”
Despite struggling and straining, Ynya could still only move her eyes.
“You’ve lost so much energy. I’ve been feeding you half-mouthfuls of water, but you need food.”
From her coat pocket, Synol produced a hard bread and broke off small hunks. “It’s old, and dry, but should help. With a little water it should just disintegrate in your mouth and you can swallow.”
“What is this place?” Stefan grimaced at the half-eaten body of the woman in white. He looked like he was going to throw up.
Ynya tried to talk but a stern look from Synol stopped her.
Synol fed her a small scrap then gave her a tiny sip of water. “Let it soak in. Don’t try to chew.”
She turned toward her husband. “A bear named Yolphinir lives here. Ynya and I came out here once as a child. I figured if she escaped she would come here.”
“Bear?” Stefan looked around with the torch at all the entrances. “Where is the bear?”
“Ran away.” Ynya managed to get out.
Stefan looked at her with a mixture of suspicion and disgust.
“It’s all right, Stefan. I don’t think the bear will come back with us all here. We’re making too much noise, plus the torch. He is afraid of fire.” She turned and winked at Ynya.
Ynya tried to laugh but that turned into another spasming coughing fit.
“I need to get you some medicine. Mama’s supplies should be back at the village. I will get those once I get this food into you.”
Ynya ate a dozen more bites of stale bread.
Stefan paced, looking down the various tunnels with his torch.
“Why did you come for me? How did you get away?” Ynya was feeling slightly better, able to speak in full sentences, but still unable to move her arms or legs.
“After you escaped, Stefan and I confronted my father-in-law about what he had done. He admitted to everything, Ynya. The marriage, the contract, he even had it on him, showed us everything. He said he was going to make sure I was left alone. Now that I’m married, he would make sure that no one touched me. He didn’t want to risk me or his grandbaby.
“After we got back from confronting him, Stefan told me we should run, too. He didn’t trust his father anymore after all the lies. He wanted to go find you to make sure you were all right. We can run away together and start a new life, a safe life away from everyone.
“So, we left as soon as it turned night. The black witch came after us, nearly got me, but stabbed Stefan a few times. Still, we got away. After running and hiding for a couple hours, and not finding any evidence of you being in Marsfjord, I figured you might have come here, so I led Stefan into the cave and here we are.”
Synol held up another hunk of bread. “Keep eating, Ynya. We need to get you better.”
“Yes, eat,” Stefan said. “We’ll take care of you.” He smiled, then looked down one of the tunnels once again. “You sure that bear won’t come back?”
Ynya swallowed and huffed, this time with no cough. “Don’t worry about the bear. He won’t come back.”
“Well, we should still hurry. I can’t believe this place exists. It’s a good thing Synol knew where to find you. We never would have known about this place without her.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Ynya finished the dried bread and water. After being famished for so long, it tasted better than anything she’d eaten in her entire life.
She napped for a short time again. When she woke, her mind raced while she relived her most recent events.
She couldn’t stop thinking about Synol’s and Stefan’s escape.
Ynya had nearly died from the fight with the woman in white, and the only reason she’d lived was because Kalda had tripped and fallen on her superheated hair, killing herself in the process.
