Faces of Deception (19 page)

Seema’s gaze grew stony.

“I do not know this Sune of yours, but I do know the Yehimals. There is no Langdarma. I will take you to the Sisters of Serenity, and you will see for yourself that there is no valley there.”

A two-day crust of ice clung to Atreus’s bushy eyebrows, numbing cold and so heavy it pushed his lids-down over his eyes. He was half blind with snow glare anyway, so it hardly mattered. Even with wide open eyes, the Sisters of Serenity would have looked much the same. They were three craggy white bells silhouetted against an azure sky, so high they loomed over Atreus and his companions, even miles away, standing at the precipitous brink of the vast plain of ice they had just crossed.

A hundred feet below, a snow-blanketed glacier swept away almost vertically, spilling into the broad valley that separated them from their destination. There it joined a jumbled blue cascade of ice blocks curving down from a second glacier beneath the Sisters of Serenity. The two flows became one and continued down the valley, creating yet another glacier, this one more than a mile wide and as long as a river.

Seema pointed at the huge glacier and said, There is your Langdarma.”

Atreus stared down at the ice without responding. Unlike the smaller glaciers feeding it, this one looked almost smooth, with a long stripe of rock and gravel running down its center. The tine marked the seam between the smaller glaciers where the two edges came together full of rock and gravel torn from mountainsides. The dark stripe looked almost painted on, as if some god had thought a dirty streak just the thing to bring out the pearly crispness of the ice and snow.

After a time, Yago said, “It’s not what I expected.” The ogre rubbed his stubbled chin and added, “But there’s beauty in it I can see that”

“Maybe, but not the kind of beauty we’re looking for,” said Atreus. “Sune is no fan of starkness.”

He opened his map and studied the area around the Sisters of Serenity. According to the chart Langdarma lay in the broad valley directly below, but a ladder symbol beneath the three Sisters suggested the entrance might lie at the base of the middle one.

“You see?” said Seema. There is nothing but ice here.”

“I am so sorry for the good sir. To come all this way, and for nothing,” said Rishi. He packed a snowball and hurled it off the icy cliff. The orb fell far short of the valley and disappeared onto the glacier below. “Langdarma is only a fable after all.”

“Fables are as real as mountains,” Seema said, “but you must look for them in your heart”

That is certainly a small consolation to a man who has journeyed so far in such desperate hope,” Rishi replied, squinting back across the ice field, scanning the white glare for the dark, distant figure that had been hounding their trail across the ice field. “At least we are fortunate in our timing. Tarch is nowhere in sight If we hurry, we can certainly circle around him and be on our way before that tailed devil realizes we have turned around.”

“Yamdruk is only a day’s walk from here,” said Seema. “I will take you there before continuing home.”

When Atreus said nothing, Rishi laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I will help you sneak back down the river and perhaps recover the gold, so that this journey will not ruin your fortune as well.”

Atreus shook the Mar’s hand off. “And perhaps Yago and I will meet an unfortunate accident” he said harshly, “leaving you with enough gold to drown a yak?”

Rishi put on a hurt face and stepped back. “I am only thinking of the good sir,” he said. “I would certainly be content with any reward he might generously grant for my humble services.”

“Your reward will have to wait.” Atreus raised his map, shook it gently in the air, and said, “This came from Sune herself. She would not have given it to me if there is nothing here.”

“This Sune is your goddess?” asked Seema.

“The goddess of love and beauty,” Atreus said, nodding.

Seema’s eyes lit with sudden comprehension. “Then you are a blessed man who has already found Langdarma,” She told him, stepping back to look Atreus up and down, seeming to regard him in a new light. “Is it not said that the gods appear only to those who already see them? Surely, she gave you the map to show you that you have been looking in the wrong place.”

“Sune?” Yago scoffed. “That fickle bitch?”

“Yago!”

“I say what I see,” the ogre grumbled. “That’s my duty. Likely as not she gave you the map just to get you out of the temple. You know how them celebrants were always complaining about that ugly face of yours.”

“Yes.” Atreus could not keep the pain out of his voice. “I do.”

“Oh, by the Blood Queen! You don’t have to be so touchy.” Despite his words, Yago’s orange face darkened to crimson. “It’s not like how you look is your fault… and I’d fight with you on my left any day.”

This was the highest compliment a Shield-breaker could pay. Atreus grasped his friend’s huge arm.

“I know you would, Yago, and I’d be honored.” Atreus glanced across the valley toward the jumbled glacier beneath the Sisters of Serenity and said, “That’s why I must ask you to cross one last valley with me.”

The ogre nodded. “I’d smash your head if we didn’t. We’ve come this far, so we’d better see it through to the end.”

“What?”

Seema’s objection came too quickly “I mean to say, what about Tarch? He will follow us__”

Atreus turned to her with a raised brow. “Why should that matter? There’s nothing but ice and snow down there.” He paused a moment, then added, “Or is… ?”

“No, no … only ice and snow.” Again, Seema’s response came too quickly. “What else could there be? We are in the Wild Lands now. I am only afraid that the devil will force us to flee down the valley. We will be lost.”

“Really?” Atreus smirked, more convinced than ever that the key to finding Langdarma lay in the glaciers below. “You are trying to protect something, but I don’t think it is us.”

“Perhaps the good sir should consider the evidence before his eyes!” Rishi sounded almost panicked. “Even Yago thinks your friends were only playing a trick, and it will be much safer for everyone to turn back now.”

“You and Seema are free to go. You can take the gold with my blessings, if you can find it, but Yago and I will see our journey through to the end.”

Atreus and Yago began to work their way along the brink of the ice field, searching for a route down onto the glacier. Rishi looked hopefully in Seema’s direction, but she only shook her head and started after the two westerners. The group moved quickly. Over the past few days, Seema had used her healing magic on her companions many times, and their wounds seldom troubled them now. They soon came to a blocky ravine where a wedge of ice had been squeezed out of the rim, creating a narrow corridor that wind and day-melt had eroded into a steep but passable gully.

Seema circled around to the sunny side and led the way down a drift of wind-packed snow. The bottom of the shadowed gully was as icy as it was steep, and they had to descend half walking and half sliding. By the time they emerged from the mouth of the ravine, they were all nervous, shivering, and glad for the relative safety of the glacier’s sun-softened surface.

Seema descended a few yards, kicking her heels into the wind-crusted snow to make flat, safe steps. Abruptly she stopped and warily glanced across the glacier. Motioning for the others to stay where they were, she drew her knife and dropped to her knees, then began hacking blocks out of the snow pack. A foot down, the snow suddenly grew soft and sugary. She put her knife away and continued to dig, eventually climbing into the hole and disappearing to her waist

This is very bad.” Seema peered out of the hole. “It is not safe.”

Atreus rolled his eyes and started down the slope. “You’re only convincing me that you’re trying to hide some-tiling.”

“No, come and look.” Seema waved him over and pointed at the icy layer in the bottom of the hole. “Do you see how it is slick below and hard on top, with a layer of soft sugar in between?”

“Yes.”

“It is very dangerous on a steep slope like this,” Seema said. “It is like a carpet over marbles. The whole mountainside can break loose and slide down in a big avalanche.”

The thought occurred to Atreus that Seema was just finding another excuse to keep him away from the Sisters of Serenity, but he could see for himself that what she said was true. He pulled a handful of the sugary snow from the hole and let it run between his fingers, glancing over at Yago.

The ogre merely shrugged. “I told you it was dangerous when we started.”

Atreus stood, facing Seema. “What can we do to protect ourselves?” he asked her.

“We can turn around.”

“Aside from that,” Atreus replied.

Seema sighed, then led them back into the mouth of the gully. She instructed Yago to start yelling across the valley, hoping to set off any impending avalanches with his booming voice. While the ogre bellowed, she took the supply bundle and began to unravel the long threads of a yak-hair blanket, knotting them together to create four dark strands, each twenty or thirty paces long. By the time she finished, Yago had managed to start a small slide on the opposite wall of the valley, but the snow on the glacier below remained ominously inert

Seema tied one of the long strands around her own waist and had each of her companions do the same, leaving the ends to drag in the snow. If an avalanche buried someone, the dark cord would float to the top so the others could find the victim—or so she said. They began to zigzag down the glacier, keeping themselves well spaced and crossing dangerous areas one person at a time, so there would always be three people to dig out a victim. Atreus found himself worrying less about avalanches than hidden crevasses, but Seema seemed to have an uncanny sense for avoiding such pitfalls.

They were about a quarter of the way down when Yago, bringing up the rear of the line, plunged through the wind-crusted snow and sank to his chest Unable to feel anything beneath his feet, he could not tell whether he was buried in a particularly deep snow-bank or hanging over a hidden crevasse, and he did not want to call out for fear of touching off an avalanche. He simply stretched his long arms across the snow to spread his weight and waited. Eventually, the others noticed that he was missing and returned to pull him free. After that, Atreus brought up the end of the line.

As they descended, the snow grew more-unstable. Small slabs began to break off beneath their feet and slide down the wind crust The farther they descended, the larger the slabs grew, and Atreus began to feel an avalanche was imminent He suggested having Yago yell again. Seema rejected the idea, saying the danger was no greater than before, as long as the slabs did not start coming from above. Atreus was not sure he believed her, especially when she grew even more cautious and insisted that they start crossing the entire glacier one person at a time.

They were about halfway down when Atreus heard a brief hissing noise above, then saw a raft-sized slab of snow shoot past and drop into the dark mouth of a crevasse. In the next instant, he was sprinting across the snow toward his friends, who stood waiting beneath the shelter of a rocky outcropping. There was no decision or thinking, he simply found himself running, hoping to reach safety before the avalanche swept him away.

But the roaring never came. No billowing clouds of snow swept down to swallow him up, nor did his world suddenly turn white and cold. He simply found himself standing at the outcropping with his companions, trembling and breathing hard.

“What’s your hurry?” asked Yago. “He ain’t that close.”

“Close?” Atreus panted, hands braced on his knees. “Who?”

Yago looked up toward the narrow gap through which they had descended onto the glacier. A single dark figure was coming straight down the slope, taking long plunging steps that kicked loose huge slabs of wind-crusted snow.

Tarch!”

“He is a fool to come down like that,” said Seema. “He will bring the whole slope down.”

“Then perhaps we should run,” Rishi offered, prodding Seema toward the glacier.” The time for caution is past”

Seema did not move. “No,” she said. “Now we must be more cautious than before.” She turned to look at them. “Do not make the mistake of thinking Tarch is the danger. The Yehimals have claimed a hundred times more lives than he has.”

“Yes, but the Yehimals are not hunting us,” said Atreus. “Maybe we should hurry things along.”

“You cannot hurry in these mountains. That is the fool’s way.” Seema pointed at the dark line of a crevasse lying perpendicular across Tarch’s path and said, The tailed devil is being careless, and a thousand hazards lie before him. We will do far better to look to ourselves and let the mountain take care of our pursuer.”

“I suppose you’re right,” said Atreus. “We’ll have plenty of time to worry if he catches up.”

Seema nodded. “Good,” she said. “We will continue as before.”

She started across the glacier, choosing an angle much steeper than before. Atreus took the frozen chain from around his neck and tapped it against the rock wall, knocking the ice out of the links. Rishi quietly beseeched the gods to blind the “tailed devil” and send him plunging into a bottomless abyss and close it as promptly as possible. The Mar’s supplications went unheeded. Tarch descended the glacier at a near run, twisting and turning his way through the labyrinth of crevasses, sometimes leaping narrow ones and other times trotting across snow bridges as thin as sails. His plunging steps sent a steady stream of snow slabs hissing down the slope. Several times those speeding cakes seemed destined to sweep Seema off the mountain. Atreus and his companions could only watch, afraid that a warning shout would bring the whole slope crashing down on her.

The nearer Tarch drew, the more nervous Rishi became. He began to complain bitterly about his forced promise not to kill the tailed devil, and he chastised Atreus several times for breaking his sword back in the couloir. Yago grew tired of Rishi’s griping and quietly noted that no one had promised Seema anything about his safety. This was enough to quiet the Mar.