“Okay. This is where you usually cross, right? How thick could the ward be here?”
“A hundred feet, at most.” He tipped his head, measuring the distance between the twin stone columns again. “These pillars mark the entrance to a narrow corridor cut through the rock, about thirty feet down. After a hundred feet, this trail empties into a stand of pines, and from there, it’s a day’s hike to the main city.”
I didn’t bother mentioning we weren’t heading for the main city, because once we were past this first—and seemingly insurmountable—obstacle, we had to locate a fortress in the middle of a frozen lake.Or a moat.
Or something wet and frozen.
Gods, why hadn’t I asked Torin more questions?
“We either take our chances getting through that, or we admit defeat and hike north to Mysthaven, which is over two days away.” I hunched my shoulders, the straps digging in painfully. “In this weather, we’ll be lucky if we don’t freeze to death. I say we try.”
No need to tell them about the little glass globe nestled between my breasts.
Besides, calling Zephryn for backup rankled.
I’d rather fucking freeze to death than admit failure this soon.
“I second that,” Varian said quietly, his eyes flicking to mine before returning to that thin spot in the wall. “I’ll go first, stay in long enough to get my bearings, then come back.” Ryland started shaking his head, but Varian just smiled sadly, that cleft in his chin deepening.
“Someone has to go in there and I’m the most expendable of us three. I don’t come out, don’t wait until dark. Head to Mysthaven.” He squinted up at the sky, the watery sunturning his eyes to dark pools of amber. “You two can make it, if you keep moving.”
If I don’t come out again, don’t wait.The words were so eerily similar to that day when he warned me to run. To leave him and Ry behind and save myself.
My hand went to my chest, to where the little glass globe hung from its chain.
“One minute, then we come in after you.” I smirked at his wide-eyed gaze. “Don’t think I actuallycare, Kronos. You never know when I might need to sacrifice you for the cause, so no need to martyr yourself just yet.”
This time I laughed out loud at his horrified expression. “Oh, don’t look at me like that, I was only kidding. I’m not letting anyone die this early in the mission. I’m in charge, remember?” I winked.
“What would that say about my amazing leadership abilities?”
10
LYRAE
Iwasn’t sure I would call Varian’s one minute experiment a success, given we were choking to death inside a deadly dust-filled vortex, where the only things that felt real were the rough walls of the narrow corridor, Ryland’s cloak whipping against my face, and Varian’s fingers digging into my shoulder.
One hundred steps, I’d told myself. I could endure anything for a hundred steps.
I couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, could barely breathe.
And Ryland…
Head bent, blinded, he slogged on, protecting Varian and I from the brunt of onslaught, wide shoulders braced against the roaring gale. Overhead, the whipping air currents were full of rock and sand, sharp enough to shred flesh from bone. But down here, sheltered between the high walls, we escaped the worst.
Which meant instead of having our flesh stripped down to bone, every inch of exposed skin was being sandblasted. And try as I might, there was no keeping every part of me covered, not with this godsdamned wind ripping at my clothes.
Not when I couldn’t hardlythinkpast the roaring.
Yet I slogged along. Having my face scraped raw was nopicnic, and fresh air to breathe would be nice, but up there…I risked an upwards glance at the absolute shitstorm raging over our heads.
Even ten feet higher, without protection, we’d be dead.
Finally, the darkness thinned, the air cleared and we stepped out of the screaming maelstrom into a quiet pine forest, where a steady breeze shivered through the branches, setting the needles whispering.
I yanked my face covering down, sucking in lungfuls of clean air.
“Drink something,” Varian shoved a full waterskin into my hands. “Your lips are bleeding.”
