Stay with me, mate. This is no place to get lost.
A scream ripped through the air, making my pulse come to a shuddering halt. I stared around but didn't see anyone nearby.
Lore gazed toward our left.Naveer has claimed another competitor, I'd say.
Somewhere in the castle, Naveer would be growing more radiant with each death that fed her immortality scheme.
I shuddered and not from the cold.
We hurried forward, rounding a bend in the path. Lore paused. Since he did, I did as well. As did Farris. He stood with his tail out straight, his ears pricked forward, and one front paw lifted. Only his nose moved, wiggling as he sniffed the air.
“It looks the same as the rest of the path.” I started to step forward again.
Lore held me back.It’s not.
A low vibration hummed beneath my boots. Nothing good ever came from the world around us humming. Farris growled, his ears swiveling back and forth before flattening against his skull. His fur rippled beneath his thick sweater, and he released a low whine.
The humming grew louder.
The glass-like surface of the walkway shattered. A hiss, and icy spikes launched up through like spears. They twisted as they rose, forming whip-like vines that spiraled and lashed through the air.
“Vines,” I snarled. “Why the fuck is it always vines?”
One gouged toward me. I flipped backward to evade a strike that nearly lanced across my chest. Farris darted after me, his small form weaving as he snapped at vine fragments trying to reform at ground level.
At least there was power here. I called in threads and bound them together, feeding them along my arm to my fingertip. I shot lightning out, hitting the thickest part of the vine's stem. It shattered, debris shooting out, one piece hitting my cheek with a sting that made me gasp, the rest falling to the ground where they were absorbed by the world around us.
Spinning, I sent a bolt into a vine rushing toward Lore’s back, severing it mid-air. It fell in splinters that hissed and melted into the path.
Farris anticipated the falling debris, positioning himself tocatch small pieces in his jaws before they could scatter and regrow.
The air thickened around Lore. His face taut, he formed a fog that coiled across his boots, the vapor rising. He hurtled it outward, and it slammed into the storm of tendrils, melting at least half the spears before they could hit.
More spikes jutted up from the path in front and behind us. Farris pressed against my ankle, his body trembling with contained energy. His ears swiveled constantly, tracking threats I couldn't yet see.
There was nowhere to run or hide. The vines grew larger, thicker, striking out faster. I blasted all that I could, decimating them with my lightning, and even tried to command shadows to cloak us. The few in the area only shuddered and slunk away. Not even love or intense pain could lure them into helping. Nullification didn’t work either.
Higher-pitched screams echoed around us. Lords and ladies finding this wasn't a simple wintery stroll but a trap?
Each cry that cut short sent a ripple through the air. Energy bleeding away, drawn back toward the castle like invisible threads. Naveer's garden wasn't only a test. It was a harvesting ground.
Lore and I pivoted, putting our backs to each other. Farris completed our triangle, his compact body coiled and ready. For such a small creature, he moved with incredible grace, his teeth finding weak points in the stems and snapping through them with his powerful jaws.
Blade in hand, I slashed at the vines, slicing across the ones I couldn't touch with my lightning. Farris worked just as hard, severing the root systems of fallen vines before they could burrow back into the frozen earth.
Lore slashed out with daggers infused with fire, andthe tendrils withered, hissing and wavering in the air like whips, trying to strike him before pulling away. He was relentless, severing one after another with guttural growls. Calling wind and steam, he turned them into a spiraling vortex around us. With a single thrust of his palm, he sent concentrated heat slamming into a knot of vines charging from our right. His power exploded out in a wall of churning energy.
As more of them thrust up out of the ground, I spun, kicking and slashing out with my blades. The severed tips writhed across the ground, seeking my boots.
Farris anticipated each emergence, his nose leading him to weak points in the path's surface. His sharp bark warned us of incoming attacks from our blind spots.
Twirling, I sent lightning flashing out from my finger, curving it in a trail that melted whatever it touched.
Lore formed ice, reshaping it into jagged javelins he hurled with precision. When too many vines charged at once, he summoned a blaze that roared through them, turning them to steam.
We moved around as if choreographed, never pausing long enough to watch the other too closely, trusting we were safer fighting together.
Months of marriage and we move like extensions of each other,I thought, spinning past him to strike a vine at his blind spot.
