Chapter 21
By the time I’ve pulled the bodies into the cart, I’m covered in blood, but once again, I’m numb.
And shivering despite the exertion.
The bare warmth of the midday sun has passed and now we’re headed toward the cold afternoon. Temperatures may be milder farther down the mountain, but up here at its near-peak is the coldest.
My glances at Asha tell me she’s warm, her cheeks now full of color. But my brother has slumped where he sits, rising unsteadily to his feet when Malak finally gives him permission.
The metal through his chest, like mine, seems to have plugged the wound and stopped most of the blood loss, but the crimson stain across his torso where his coat is pulled apart concerns me.
I heave the wolf cages onto the cart, managing to fit them side by side because they’re so narrow.
Then Malak tells me to pull the sled with Asha while Thoren walks beside me and Kalith controls the cart’s descent.
I watch him carefully when he links a chain of metal to the side of the cart, maintaining contact with it once more.
The cart begins to move and it isn’t clear to me how it’s happening until I look down at the wheels. Prongs form at the back, pushing against the snow as they grow and propel the cart forward.
In the next moment, prongs form at the front, also extending into the earth, the action of extending and retracting in sequence appearing to create the force needed to move the cart along.
It looks like simple mechanics and it would be fascinating to me if it wasn’t a skill being wielded by my enemy.
I look back as we leave the clearing, an awkward action as I try not to upset the sled behind me, but I can’t leave my home without one more look.
Father’s monolith remains in a mighty warrior’s pose, but it hasn’t escaped me that his deep light was consumed within it.
I wait a beat, hoping to sense the energy within the air, the spark of my own deep light that will tell me that the Valkyrie are coming for him.
Their presence can’t be detected. They have no aura and can conceal themselves so fully that even the strongest magic wielder wouldn’t know they were there.
But Father always told us that if a Valkyrie were near, our deep light would spark, even if for the briefest moment.
He said it’s a feeling of true peace unlike any other.
I hold my breath, but all I feel is rage.
A deep, clawing darkness that builds in strength while I try to keep it down and cage it.
I tell myself I will let it grow and conserve it, as effectively as I have built and conserved my deep light. With every battle I’ve fought today, every brutal conflict spent defending my family, I’ve also increased my deep light.
I will use it when the time is right.
I’m acutely aware of Thoren where he trudges beside me, his own focus passing backward, as if he, too, is searching for the Valkyrie’s presence in the same way he might search for hope.
I turn back to find Malak watching us, his expression inscrutable.
“Your father fought well,” he says, and I wonder if he’s deliberately trying to provoke us.
Thoren tenses but presses his lips firmly closed, visibly holding his anger.
When neither of us responds, Malak turns back to the snowy path ahead, his black robe swishing across the ground while his hands trail from one tree to the next, turning the bark black wherever he touches it.
It takes over two hours to descend down the mountain and by then, I’m dehydrated and my muscles are cramping up. I push myself onward, determined not to stumble, even though Asha’s sled seems to grow heavier and heavier. It’s only because my muscles are growing wearier.
I’m certain it’s what Malak wants. To push us to our limits and ensure we’re as physically drained as possible before we reach the city.
When its enormous stone wall comes into view between the trees in the far distance, Kalith draws the cart to a halt and Malak tells me to set down Asha’s sled.
