I nodded.
“I mean it. If I tell you to run, you run.”
“I promise.”
He grunted. “Mount up.”
44
THE FROZEN VILLAGE
Fog clung to the mountains like smoke after a battle. I held tight to Kairos’s armor, my arms wrapped around his waist as the mairen climbed higher. Every hoofbeat carried us closer to Wraithspine Ridge’s frosted peaks.
Elwen had forced me into light armor before we left—reptilian scales that flexed when I moved, and the dragon gloves that protected my hands. Even so, the wind bit at my exposed face.
“Tell me about Vaelrith.”
Kairos gripped the reins. “It’s a farming village up north, where Uther grew up. Maybe two hundred people. They grow flax and barley, raise sheep in the pastures. Hardy folk.”
“What else?”
“The soil’s rich from the mountain runoff, and the river never freezes completely. They supply most of the grain for the northern garrisons. Without them, my warriors would starve come winter.”
So that’s why Vaeris hit them.
“Uther’s family lives there?”
“His father runs the mill. Has for three centuries. Raised Uther on his own after his first wife died. When Uther came of age, he chose to join a clan rather than take over the mill.”
I tried to picture Uther as a farm boy and failed.
“The village holds a yearly harvest festival,” Kairos continued. “They brew this gods-awful wine and dance until dawn. Uther used to drag me there every few decades.”
My chest tightened. They were real people, and now they were trapped, possibly dying, because of Vaeris.
We glided like ghosts through the fog-choked valley, passing beautiful sparkling streams and gorgeous wildflowers until Kairos and the others stopped. The sun had climbed high by the time we reached the village. He dismounted and held out his hand and I took it, swinging my leg over the mairen.
He steadied me as I hopped down, and then Kairos faced the fog. He waved his hand, and mist parted like a curtain. It rolled up over soft grass and thatched roofs, revealing a sleepy town with a river, but the wrongness crawled over my skin.
It was too quiet. No wind or rustling leaves, only… stillness. The air smelled like winter stripped of its bite, and the water wasn’t moving. Frost rimmed the banks despite the mild temperature, and nets hung abandoned between poles, stiff with ice.
The fields on either side of the river were halted in the same unnatural pause, and chimney smoke hovered, motionless, caught in perfect gray ribbons. A woman was bent over herbs, her hands suspended.
Kairos unsheathed his broadsword, and the warriorswithdrew their weapons. A ripple of curses passed through them as they examined the frozen people.
“Why would Vaeris do this?”
“To keep us busy,” he said coldly. “While we’re trying to save whoever’s left, he’s searching for the seal.”
Nausea pitted my stomach.
“He’ll pay for this,” he hissed. “When I find him, he’ll beg for death long before I’m done.”
Pounding hooves shook the ground as Uther’s mairen burst through at a gallop, its nostrils flaring steam. He reined in hard, nearly sliding out of the saddle. Uther dismounted, his boots churning up mud as he bolted toward the village.
Kairos took off after him, and I rushed after them both.
Uther had stopped at the edge of a yard. Chickens lay in the grass like toppled figurines. A bucket of water beside the gate was solid, the surface catching the light like a mirror.
