Chapter 14
LYRAE
In the end, I did the one thing I’d sworn never to do again.
I obeyed Ryland Storme.
I plucked my knives out of the reeking Grimbeast carcasses and waited in uneasy silence while Varian flashed away to retrieve our things from the top of the hill. When he returned, he shouldered both his and my packs, then the three of us set off again, like nothing ever happened.
Except that one of us had a worse attitude than ever, and it wasn’t me.
Ryland set a brutal pace, even with his torn-up leg, while I spent most of the time smothering my impulse to make him stop to let Varian inspect the wound, which never stopped bleeding, leaving a distinct trail for the rest of the Grimbeasts to follow.
Not that Ryland would listen to me.
Or reason, apparently.
No, the stubborn bastard pushed through the soft, sandy terrain until my legs burned as badly as my lungs, until my blood-soaked clothing turned crunchy and stiff, my hair glued to my face in disgusting strands.
I had sand absolutely everywhere, and places I didn’t usually think about were rubbed raw.
By the end of the fourth hour, darkness crept up the eastern horizon to our left, the sun sinking behind the mountains to our west. And still, fresh blood glistened on Ryland’s calf, soaking the top of his boot. Something funny twisted in my gut every time I glanced at that blood.
Like I was the one who was hurting.
“Stop,” I finally ordered, and the stubborn bastard still had the nerve to ignore me.
“Ryland Storme, you’d better stop walking right this minute. Varian, look at that wound—he’s still bleeding and it’s been hours.”
“We’re almost there,” Ryland grunted. “Var can fuss over me all he wants as long as we’re off this plain before night falls.” He waved his hand over the sprawl of open desert behind us. “Unless you want to personally save my ass from the twenty Grimbeasts tracking us right now, commander.”
His eyes narrowed with pure meanness. “Do you, Lyrae? Want to fight more of them, because they’re getting closer? You want to play the hero and make reckless choices? Be my fucking guest.”
Our staring contest went from one tense second to a minute, then my shoulders sagged.
“No, you’re right. Let’s…get off this tundra. I should…” I picked at my filthy, crusted clothes. “Get this blood washed off. They can probably smell me from a mile away.” And you, I wanted to add, though I knew how that conversation would turn out.
“First intelligent thing you’ve said all day.”
“Gods, you’re an asshole,” I whisper-shouted. “Bleed to death, see if I care. Maybe it’s you they’re tracking—ever think of that?”
“Let’s keep moving,” Varian muttered, “or we’re all ending up as Grimbeast chow. You can wash off in the lake, Lyrae. We’re nearly there. Once we get onto the island, we won’t have to worry about the Grimbeasts—or anything else—for tonight.”
“Let me guess, because we’ll be worrying about worse things?”
“Worse things…yes, you could say that.” Varian’s gaze remained fixed on something up ahead as we slogged through sand, every step dragging me down, siphoning off more and more precious energy.
This reminded me too much of my days in the trenches, the mind-numbing exhaustion.
If we were forced to run from the beasts, there was no doubt in my mind what the outcome would be.
“Gods, just look at that.” Varian’s hushed whisper had the hair on my arms prickling, and I lifted my head enough to take in the shadow rising in front of us, little more than a whisper of pale stone against a darkening vista, half consumed by layers of shifting fog.
Frostveil Keep.
The castle looked like something out of an ancient fairytale, slender, almost delicate ramparts reaching for the night sky like fingers grasping for the stars.
A floating fortress that seemed suspended in a silvery, shifting nothingness; the sandy, barren desert sloped down to the banks of a mist-covered lake, where clouds of white rolled over a smooth, frozen surface like frothy icing.
I dragged in a breath, cold brushing my face, like the first kiss of winter.
After two days of sand and arid dryness, the dampness felt like a godsdamned gift.
Varian nodded at the castle, the flat stretch of island revealed by the curling mists. “That shoreline is where we need to be. Before darkness falls.”
As if on cue, a chorus of howls rose behind us, lifting the hair on the back of my neck.
“How are we supposed to do that?”
“Walk. Carefully.” Ryland’s voice echoed over the misted ice, and the dread curling in my belly turned to all out fear.
“Walk across the ice? Is it even thick enough to hold our weight?” I glanced over my shoulder to where the howling grew louder. Closer. “Won’t the hounds keep tracking us?”
I’d barely held my own fighting three of the beasts on flat, even ground. Ice would make my footing impossible. We’d been walking for hours with no break, and we were all exhausted. And from the howls, there were at least ten Grimbeasts tracking us.
“No, the beasts never cross the water’s edge, for whatever reason, now hang on.” Varian’s calloused hand curled around mine.
Before I even knew we were flying, the world stretched out into that long, sickening smear, and when everything finally stopped moving, we stood alone in the center of the ice sheet, freezing water seeping up through the bottoms of my boots.
I went still, afraid to move, afraid to so much as breathe.
“Varian, what the hell are you doing?” I hissed. “This isn’t safe.”
This couldn’t be safe—didn’t feel safe—standing on…what? A few inches of frozen water, with gods-know-what lurking beneath me?
I shuddered, terror clawing at my insides, a terror I didn’t fully understand but couldn’t stop.
“Trust me, this is better than staying on land. Stay here.” Varian shoved his pack into my arms. “Don’t move. I’ll be back with Ryland.”
“Do you have to?” I hissed, swallowing down my horror when the ice creaked beneath our feet. “He’s bad-tempered and stubborn and such an asshole. Maybe we could just leave him there?”
“You don’t really mean that.” Varian shook his head, but not before I caught a glimpse of a sheepish grin. “Besides, I know you, Lyrae. You’d just feel guilty for the rest of your life if he got eaten by Grimbeasts.”
“Doubtful,” I huffed, but he was probably right. “Well, hurry, I…I don’t like this. At all. I mean, I feel like I’m going to throw up.”
Which was an understatement.
Growing up in the slums of a walled city meant water was something contained in cups and water troughs, not vast, endless lakes. I’d never learned how to swim, never been in anything bigger than a bathtub.
Drowning…drowning was not on my top ten list of ways to die.
I preferred dying on solid ground, with a sword in my hand.
“Back in a flash. Don’t go anywhere.” Var winked, then was gone, leaving me standing there with frozen feet and a terrible suspicion growing stronger by the minute.
They’d been to this island before.
They knew too much about this place not to have been here, and I’d been a fool not to consider that possibility before right now, given the lack of surprise when I’d revealed this place’s existence to Varian after the tavern.
But I had worse things to worry about.
I squinted across the sheet of frozen ice, watching a horde of dark, fast-moving forms pour down the incline toward the edge of the lake—ten, twenty…thirty hungry Grimbeasts. I shivered at the numbers, at how quickly they moved, praying Varian was right and they stayed on solid ground.
Varian and Ryland popped back into sight, and a host of barbed accusations were dancing at the tip of my tongue when the ice beneath us gave a horrendous crack.
Don’t look down, don’t look down…
I looked down at the spiderweb of deep cracks running outwards from beneath our feet, trying to untangle myself from the horror that was holding my body captive.
“Don’t move,” Ryland warned, his hand darting out to grasp my own. Unlike this morning, I let his fingers curl tightly around mine, was grateful for the warmth of his palm grounding me. “With all three packs, there’s too much weight.” His questioning glance flicked to me.
“I suppose you can’t just ditch yours, can you?”
“Given I have all my extra weapons in here, no. Not unless you can guarantee we won’t run into any more trouble.
” I held myself perfectly still, heart hammering out of my chest as the ice crackled and split beneath us, a thousand tiny, heart-rending creaks, any of which could be the last thing I ever heard.
Gods, please don’t let me die here, not like this.
“Slide your feet across the surface. Slow and steady. Keep a hold of my hand. Don’t let go.
” Ryland’s deep voice had never sounded so serious, and I swallowed down my fear, inching my dusty boot across the slick surface, wincing as the thick ice splintered like a mirror, spiderwebbing in all directions.
For the next few minutes that’s all we did.
Slide, breathe, stop.
See if the ice would hold. Thank all the gods for their mercy.
Repeat.
But every stolen glance over my shoulder told me—we were screwed.
Because of the bright red trail of blood Ryland left behind, and because the horde of starving Grimbeasts prowling along the shore, their eyes glowing with hunger, were starting to venture out onto the edge of the ice.
“Don’t look back,” Varian warned, so close his heated breath skated across the back of my neck. “The hounds are thinking about joining us. If they do, we’re fucked.”
“I could have done without that piece of information,” Ryland groaned, his hand tightening around mine, eyes glimmering softly beneath the rising moon.
“Me, too.” Gods, why wasn’t that far-off shore getting any closer?
“Just trying to keep everyone up to date,” Varian said tartly. “We might have to run, and it’s always better to be prepared.”