Chapter 35
Lore
“Frostwilla only blooms when the sun cuts clean through the ice petals,” I said as we carefully walked down another winding path. “Too early, and it turns to frost. Too late, and it bites.”
“Bites?” Her fingers tightened on my arm.
“It traps you. I don't know how. I only know a bit from my reading in the library a long time ago.”
We rounded an edge of the crystal hedge and stopped.
Bodies lay strewn on the path. Across the hedges. A few laid face down in the raised flowerbeds.
The air itself felt thinner here, as if something vital had been sucked from it along with the lives.
Each death sent invisible threads of energy spiraling back toward the castle, feeding Naveer's hunger for immortality.
She was gorging herself today. I wanted to kill her, even if that meant we wouldn't win the second token.
Fuck the talisman that was too difficult to obtain, and fuck Irridain Court.
“Fates,” Reyla hissed. How many?
Fifteen, at least.
They lay scattered like broken dolls. Flash-frozen mid-scream, their reaching hands and open mouths filled with crystalline death.
The garden was already claiming them, silver-white crust weaving into their skin.
One man’s boot had already sunk halfway into the path as the world around us digested him.
Lord Tyrrius would no longer sneer in anyone’s direction.
Farris growled, staying close to Reyla’s side, avoiding the bodies we passed.
“They didn’t make it past the first trap,” I whispered.
Vines looped around the leg of a woman near the edge of the path. A blade was lodged in the frosty world behind her, just out of reach. Her face looked peaceful, and that disturbed me the most.
“They’ll be gone by morning,” I said. “I suspect this garden doesn’t keep things long.”
Let's move.
Yes.
We picked up our pace, leaving the bodies behind.
The crystal walkway narrowed between two iced-over hedges. When Farris stopped, his tail spiking out, we came to a halt as well.
Should we take another path? Reyla asked.
I scanned the area, but the frosty sludge on either side could trap us within a few steps. No other way but forward. Watch everything. Wait for the trap I assume will soon be sprung.
With a grunt, my wildfire tightened her grip on her dagger. There was no one else I'd rather face a threat with than this woman by my side. I prayed to the fates I'd live a long life so I could tell her that daily.
We walked forward, Farris taking tentative, plucking steps. I was glad he'd come with us. Our friend was as clever and conniving as his mistress.
Mist hung in the air, muting details and camouflaging movement, and I didn't like that one bit.
I'd seen no sign of a frostwilla plant so far.
Light pressed through the arched dome overhead, a magical one that kept the cold in to preserve this garden, and the heat out. Only muted sunlight made its way through, enough to keep the plants alive, but not enough to melt the wintery world.
A cold wind picked up, swirling around our legs, and Reyla shivered. I swept my hand out, creating a warm buffer around her.
Even in this frozen hell, I'd keep her warm. I'd keep her safe. Two days left, and I refused to waste a moment not protecting what was mine.
I felt it before I heard it, a subtle pressure in my eardrums, like the air was holding its breath.
When we were halfway through the hedge row, Farris growled. His ears flattened, and he backed up until he reached my legs.
Reyla came to a stop, studying the area. “Something’s…”
In a garden this deadly, quiet meant someone was hunting.
A siren's scream slammed into us like a dagger.
One of the twin high ladies from yesterday stepped out onto the end of the path, wearing a pale blue gown and a darker blue cloak. Her lips curled back as she pumped out one siren's scream after another. Like a blade, the sound tried to bore through my skull.
Farris yelped and dropped flat, pressing his paws over his ears.
My knees buckled, and my vision tilted. The scream gouged at my mind, demanding entry, and only strengthening my walls kept it from separating my consciousness from my brain.
Her hands pressed over her ears, Reyla wavered, staring around wildly.
The high lady lifted her hands and thrust obsidian blades at us. They spiraled through the air on a path aiming for our chests.
Farris yipped and dove between the hedges, where he cowered under the thick vegetation.
I hurtled myself into Reyla, bringing her down to the icy path, shielding her body with my own as we skidded across the glassy surface. When we hit the hedges, I rolled us beneath the thick branches.
The high lady’s screech pierced the air, making the frost-laden world around us fracture and splinter.
Shards shot out in all directions, all aimed at us.
I drew power and air and churned it together, forging a wall between us.
The shards hit the barrier and while some drove partway through, most shattered, fragments tinkling as the fell to the ground.
I condensed the air into a mass and sent it churning toward the siren.
Her shriek cut off, and I breathed in blessed silence.
That same ethereal pull tugged at the air. Another thread of energy bleeding back to its collector.
Are you alright? Reyla asked.
Yes. You?
No injuries. Her hands cupped my shoulders. We should roll around on the ground more often.
My pulse quickened despite the danger. “Careful, Wildfire. Talk like that and I'll find us a warmer place to relax.”
“Promises, promises.” Her grin was wicked even in the dim light.
She reached out and rubbed Farris’s head.
Lifting myself off her, I eased to the side, squinting down the trail between the rows of hedges. The second twin stood beside her sister’s body with her hands fisted, her face red, scanning the area for us. Spotting me, her snarl ripped out, followed by another siren’s shriek.
I gathered what was left of her twin’s frost-laden weapons and compressed them, shooting them at her in daggers. She cried out, but at least that cut off her mind-numbing call.
Wildfire dove across the path and twisted her way through the hedge trunks. Rising to a crouch on the opposite side, with her daggers in her hands, she crept forward, aiming for the high lady with Farris trotting behind her.
I dove out into the path, tucked and rolled, coming to a stop on the other side, creating a distraction. As I wrenched myself through a gap in the hedge, crystalline blades hit the ground where I'd been, driving deeply.
I gathered downed tree limbs and whatever vegetation I could find and honed it into a spear I sent hurtling in her direction. Her yelp rang out, but I didn't hurt her enough to keep her from wrenching another siren’s call up her throat.
A hiss was followed by a thud, then blessed silence. I raced along the hedges, emerging at the end of the walkway to find the second woman dead on the ground, one of Reyla's blades buried in the second high lady's throat.
Reyla tugged her blade out of the body and swiped it through a puddle of slush before drying and sheathing it. Farris stood beside her, his fur still bristled.
“You’re unharmed?” I growled.
She rubbed her ears, wincing. “Not a scratch.”
We continued along the trail that slowly wove toward the center of the garden, pausing only to peer at one plant after another, seeking the frostwilla.
Naveer hadn't designed this garden for casual strolls. She'd crafted a maze where only the desperate would venture to its heart. I suspected the frostwilla would be waiting where the bitterest cold could nurture something truly deadly.
We came to an open area peppered with a few distorted, sleet-covered trees. Vines dangled from the canopy above. Caught by the wind, they whipped around, smacking against the tree trunks.
The air carried the subtle vibrations of old magic. I could feel it deep in my bones.
We stepped into a forest, following a narrow, frosty path etched through the twisted trees. Someone moved through the woods deep on our right, but I couldn't see well enough to tell if this was another competitor or something from the garden itself.
The trees thinned and we came to a frosty meadow with a hill in the center. Stopping within the denser vegetation on the edge, we crouched and peered around.
A crystalline pedestal stood in the center of the open area, holding a block of ice the size of a borgon. Something writhed inside, though its features remained unclear.
Chanting erupted around us, and a burst of power plunged across the meadow. Farris growled, his attention on the forest where I’d seen someone moving.
The chanting broke off.
Another attack coming, Reyla hissed, lightning crackling at the tip of her finger. I was eternally grateful to call this woman my wife.
A roar echoed through the forest, and a serpent-beast made of jagged frost, its eyes empty white and with a reptilian face, uncoiled from the top of the pedestal. Its scales gleam like glaciers and its spiked tail whipped out behind it.
Its eyes locked on us, and it slithered off the pedestal, surging our way.
“Out in the open,” I barked. We'd stand a better chance battling it there.
We split, each diving in a different direction, though keeping the other in sight. While I churned vegetation into a huge hammer and brought it down hard on the creature's head, Reyla's lightning scored across its chest.
My magnificent, deadly wife. If I died tomorrow, at least I'd have spent today watching her be glorious.
She rushed around its left side, while I took the right. The beast tipped its head back and roared, shooting ice into the air. It rained down on us in thin, deadly blades, and only my quickly crafted barriers kept us from being hit.
While Reyla shot more lightning at it from one side, I sent a firebrand against it, melting half of its spine away. Farris raced in front of it, barking shrilly, trying to gain its attention.