Chapter XXIII. Domenic
XXIII
DOMENIC
WINTER
Their Order vehicle jostled over the pocked, neglected pavement of Alderland’s northbound highways. Each time, Domenic relished it—his knee knocking into Ellery’s, her shoulder bumping his arm. Every touch they let linger a moment too long. Every look bore the exhilarating weight of a secret.
“How much farther?” Ellery asked the driver anxiously.
“As soon as we clear the trees, you’ll see it.”
That left only a few precious minutes more of distraction.
Since obtaining the next prophecy piece last night, they’d stolen such minutes whenever they could: in the elevator after their strategy meeting with the Council, in a phone booth near the Citadel’s gate, in an empty compartment on the train here.
Every instance had been so surreptitiously hurried, so deliriously giddy that Domenic couldn’t be sure he hadn’t fantasized them.
Subtly, he hooked his pointer around hers. The electric chill of her magic shuddered through him. He locked his shoulders to withhold a shiver.
Ellery hitched her breath, then bit down a grin.
Fuck, he was happy.
As their car emerged from the forest, a darkness loomed in the distance, vast as a city skyline. Domenic smeared away the fog on his window and tensed.
Ahead, a great wall swallowed the evening horizon from east to west, from land to sky.
It resembled a storm in slow motion, snow eddying in lazy, ominous currents.
And though Domenic could vaguely distinguish shapes beyond it—the jagged silhouettes of barren trees, the ghostly outlines of abandoned buildings—none of it had any color, not even when he grasped Valmordion.
The wall divided two seemingly opposite worlds of Winter: one of life, even if that life meant a fight for survival, and one submerged entirely in silence, in shadow.
Domenic had seen pictures of the border before, in newspaper photographs and mission dockets. Yet those images had failed to capture how truly menacing the fallen territory was.
“It’s worse than I remembered,” Ellery murmured. He couldn’t imagine how it felt to have once called that land home.
He squeezed his finger around hers. She squeezed back, almost painfully tight.
Ten minutes later, they pulled into a large Nature Defense Corps compound, all steel warehouses fortified with glimmering warming spells and guarded by barbed wire.
Peak awaited them in its central courtyard, flanked by a retinue of officers.
A lush golden alban tree swayed behind them in the frigid wind.
It all would’ve made a more impressive sight if Peak hadn’t been wearing shorts and a plain white T-shirt.
“Well, look who’s hiked up North to pay us a visit!” Peak clapped Domenic’s shoulder as he slid out from the backseat. “Looking good, Dom.”
“Feeling good,” he answered, resisting the urge to wink at Ellery.
“Good to see you, too, El,” Peak told her.
Her mouth slanted into a bemused smile. Apparently she and Peak had also achieved nickname status. “Thanks.”
While several officers unloaded their bags, Peak led them into the compound’s largest facility.
“I’m sorry it’s not much to look at,” Peak said. “These bases are only active during Winter, so we don’t go out of our way to make them cozy. But take it from someone who’s been stationed here every Winter for forty-four years—you get used to it.”
“I’m sure we’ll find it more than satisfactory,” Ellery quipped.
Domenic cocked a brow.
They entered a command center of the sort Domenic had only seen in movies: maps splayed across corkboards and thirty different telephones and a table of stern-faced magicians with medals spangling their jackets, one for each Winter they’d served.
Beyond the reinforced glass, the border’s roiling haze gleamed crimson from the setting sun.
Peak gestured at the empty seats. “Please, make yourselves comfortable. Can we getcha anything? We know you had a long trip up here, but we’ve got a lotta ground to cover over the next few days.”
“I’ll take a coffee,” said Domenic. “Just black, please.”
“Same, but with sugar,” Ellery said.
“You got it,” Peak told them.
A corporal scurried away to fetch their orders, and Domenic and Ellery sank into their adjacent chairs while Peak claimed the head of the table.
“So, it’s finally starting. The prophecy has asked us to invade Winter’s territory.
After all these years, we’re going to get the rest of our homeland back,” Peak said keenly, to nods of agreement all around.
“Now, we’ve known this was coming, so we’ve been preparing for it for a long time—before Valmordion thawed, even.
So brace yourselves. We’ve got a whole lotta ideas and plans to throw at you over the next few days. This meeting is just the beginning.”
Domenic nodded, even as his boot found Ellery’s beneath the table.
“Our scouts we’ve sent into the fallen territory have confirmed several things: that about five percent of the population stuck around, roughly forty to fifty thousand, so we estimate—and that they haven’t been dealing with any ghasts or scurges.
But it’s like the Thirty Years’ Chill up there: year-round Winter, regardless of what season it is below the border.
Not my idea of a good time.” Even the sternest magicians chuckled.
“Obviously, you two will be at the head of the invasion. But you won’t be alone.
This morning, the Council authorized moving over half the NDC troops to this compound.
We’ve also rush-ordered more training wands for our hedge magician units.
Our goal is to back you up in every way that you need while minimizing casualties. ”
Domenic drew his foot away with unease. “Should we already be sending in an army without knowing how many prophecy pieces we have left?”
“Well, given that past Chosen Ones all got six to eight pieces, and you’ve now got five, that means going forward, we make our moves like every next piece could be the final one. Boys—and El—we’re officially in the homestretch.”
It was one thing to know they were nearing the prophecy’s end; it was another thing to sit here surrounded by men at least three times Domenic’s age, speaking of troops and casualties, while the border writhed at the edge of his vision.
“And how long until we finish all the preparations?” Ellery asked stiffly.
“Ideally, four days.”
Four days. That was so thrillingly, alarmingly soon.
With so few pieces remaining, how soon, then, until they finished all of it? Until they were free?
This time, it was Ellery’s foot that found his. It was such a simple touch, but Domenic felt everything in it.
“We’ll review our more detailed plans of the invasion once the rest of our generals arrive,” Peak said. “Today we’ll focus on the Dire Three. Asker, you wanna show them the files?”
One of the generals withdrew their wand: Rhiannyd, Domenic thought it was called. Or perhaps Orth. Only so many wands were crafted from willow wood, its handle coated in the characteristic copper and gray bark.
With a wave of Rhiannyd-Orth, a binder slid from the bookshelves and fell open on the table.
Photographs rose off the paper as if by projector: a town reduced to skeletal frames and rubble; a ravine gouged open as if by giant claws; a paved road flayed off the ground, pulverized cars littered around it.
“The Dire Three did this?” Ellery gasped.
“We believe so, yeah,” Peak said. “Ever since you took out that first one in the Barren, we’ve been doing some research.
Our magicians studying the enchanted stone Decibel left behind can’t make heads or tails of it.
But our interviews across the NDC have been real promising.
It took a while to sift out fact from bullshit, mind you, but at this point, we’ve got a pretty good idea of what we’re dealing with. ”
The projection shifted to a new image, and it wasn’t until the enchantment zoomed in that Domenic even noticed the blur in the corner—Decibel. Its ephemeral form looked all the more haunting on camera, the glow of its eyes harsh as lens flares, its body a distorted jumble of static.
“Of the three, Decibel was the least likely to engage with our troops. But it also had the widest range of sightings, across nearly the whole country. We get the sense it’s been acting as a scout and was probably the least dangerous of the three.”
Panic sparked in Domenic’s chest, and he forced in a deep breath before it could catch.
Again, the image changed: lightning crackling across a darkened sky, coalescing at a central point—a face, its mouth impossibly huge.
“Then there’s Thundersnow,” Peak said. “Like normal winterghasts, this one clearly wields nature magic. But it’s no normal ghast. This photograph had to be taken at a distance, obviously, but according to our reports, this thing is massive.
Take a look at those shapes at the bottom of the photograph, for scale. ”
Domenic leaned in, squinting at what seemed like pinpricks.
“Are those … trees?” he croaked.
“They sure are,” answered Peak grimly.
The corporal returned with their coffees. Neither Domenic nor Ellery touched them.
The projection vanished.
“Last, there’s Cadaver,” Peak continued.
“This one, we’ve got no idea what it looks like.
There’s never been a confirmed sighting, let alone a chance to catch it on camera.
All the info we’ve pulled together is based solely on the victims. Corporeal magic.
You can take a look at this binder to see their photographs if you’d like, but take my word for it—they’re not pretty.
If not for their wands, I’m not even sure we would’ve been able to identify who these magicians were. ”
Ellery reached for the binder and silently flipped through the pages, the cover blocking Domenic’s view. But as he leaned over to peek as well, subtly, she shook her head. Domenic swallowed and righted himself gratefully. He’d seen enough victims of corporeal magic.