Here Shines the Sun (25 page)

Brandrir looked around. Eight fallen soldiers of the Grimwatch in black armor bloodied the snow, and two of his own in winterland armor. Strewn about were ten horses torn to shreds. Braken was injured, to what extent Brandrir did not yet know. And Aries…

Brandrir watched as Solastron bounded up to her as she lay in Syrus’s arms. The man gently slapped at her rosy cheeks with his black, metal hand. “Aries! Aries!” screamed Syrus. Brandrir ran up and knelt beside them. She had a small tear in the left side of her black, leather armor and one of the silver buckles there was bent and split. The wound was black and purple with frostbite and slushy blood oozed from it. The right side of her head also had icy blood. It clumped in her straw-blonde hair, making it difficult to gauge how bad the gash was. Solastron whined as he sniffed at her wounds.

“Aries!” screamed Syrus, gently shaking her small, limp body in his arms. “Aries! Aries!” He hugged her to his body. “This bud of love, ripened by Summer’s breath, let not Winter’s cruel hand cast all petals from it! Do not let the sun set on this day! Do not let the moon rise upon an eternal night!”

Solastron began licking at Aries’s head, lapping the blood from her hair. There was a small gash in her scalp, but as Solastron licked it the bleeding seemed to slow. She stirred in Syrus’s arms.

“Aries!” said Syrus, almost laughing. He gripped her head in both hands. Her eyes rolled and she let out a low moan. “Oh Aries, the sun yet holds high for you!”

Solastron began licking at her side. Aries’s eyes cracked open, revealing their glassy, gray color. Her black pupils bobbled and floated into a delicate focus on Syrus. The gears in her broken arm made a terrible grinding sound and then began clicking, but nothing moved. She raised her left arm, her giant hand opening, and stroked at Syrus’s long, metal muzzle with a big, steel finger. “S-Syrus…”

He scooped her little body up and hugged her close. “Aries!”

Solastron lapped at her cheek until she began to spit and swat at him. “Uhg! Ack!”

Solastron barked a happy-sounding bark.

“This bud of love, ripened by Summer’s breath?” jabbed Brandrir, smirking at Syrus. Syrus’s romantic rendezvous with Aries were the worst-kept secret at the Grimwatch. “Is there something between you two that I should know?”

Syrus started and cleared his throat as he stood up, helping Aries to sit upright. Brandrir was certain the man would have blushed if steel cheeks could.

Brandrir chuckled. “The sun yet holds high for you?”

Etheil rushed to Aries’s side and began unwrapping a medical kit from a leather pack.

“What?” said Syrus, hiking his shoulders and holding out his clawed hands. “Nights are long here in the north. Sometimes I read Chaldain. I figure his words are uplifting. They were the first thing that came to me, I swear it!”

Brandrir raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“His poems are beautiful! Beautiful I tell you!”

Brandrir laughed and watched as Etheil began dabbing at the wound on Aries’s head with some gauze. “Here, hold this here,” he told her. Then he began inspecting the gash at her side. He frowned and began taking out a needle and some thread.

Aries held the bandage to her head with her left hand. She watched Etheil thread the needle and she groaned. “Stitches again?” she whined.

Braken strode up, clutching at his gut. He looked at Syrus as Solastron began lapping at his wound. “At least Winter’s cruel hand has not cast all petals from this flower.”

“Dah!” spat Syrus, waving a dismissive hand.

Brandrir looked at Braken, his eyes lowering to the wound that Solastron was licking. “How bad is it?”

“I’ll live.” said Braken. He shooed the wolf away. Solastron made a slight whine and then padded off toward a snowbank. “For me, the moon has not risen upon an eternal—”

“Dah!” Syrus threw his arms up and strode over to Solastron who had his leg hiked at a snow drift, peeing. “I told you I would kill four with one stroke!” he boasted as he sidled up next to the wolf. “Ah, my friend,” said Syrus, relieving himself next to the wolf. “It’s good to mark our territory after a battle, is it not? When the scent of victory yet courses through our…”

Solastron hiked his leg higher and the soft patter of his urine changed to a metallic chime as the warm liquid began dripping down Syrus’s leg.

“Oh, come on!” cried Syrus. “We are brothers! Brothers!”

Solastron walked off toward Etheil who was now attending Braken, taking a moment to roll himself into some clean snow, covering his bright fur in powdery white.

“How many escaped?” asked Brandrir.

“Hard to say,” said Braken. He hissed as Etheil poked a threaded needle through his flesh. “At least two fliers.”

Brandrir puffed out a smoking breath and looked out upon the abyssal horizon where the Shardgrims loomed like the teeth of an ancient dragon. He appraised what was left of his men: eighteen soldiers, all a little worse for wear but in good shape nonetheless; himself, Etheil, Solastron and Syrus all in fighting condition. But Braken and Aries… He looked Braken in his red lenses. “How bad is it? For real.”

Braken’s reply of, “Not bad.” was overlaid with Etheil’s own reply of “Bad.”

Brandrir turned his eyes to Aries. She was in worse shape. “What happened to your right arm?”

She looked down at the limp thing a little forlornly. Then she turned her eyes to Brandrir. “It’s a long story.”

Brandrir sighed, his breath smoking and being carried off by the arctic winds. “I want you and Braken to return by way of—” He was about to say ‘Grimwalk’ when he remembered having caught the smell of the being there. If that thing were there, there was no way he could send Aries and Braken back home that way. Whatever it was, it was powerful. There was no way Aries and Braken would be able to face it alone in their condition. Brandrir changed his course of thought. “Are you two able to come with us?”

Etheil started at that and was about to protest when Aries said, “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” She tried to punch her giant fists together but grinding gears reminded her that her right arm was useless.

“Where you go, I go, my King.” said Braken.

Etheil finished up his stitches and looked at Brandrir, shaking his head. “I think we should all go back.” said Etheil. “Aries and Braken are in no condition to fight and we’re down two men of our own. And if fliers got away, they know we’re out here.”

Brandrir thought for a moment, staring out at the Shardgrims. There was nothing here. Nothing he might use to seek aid from his brother. There was no army of Kald; no gathering battalions or machines of war. Still, the Kald had to be up to something. He looked out at those jagged teeth that tore at the sky. There had to be
something
there. “If we could just see beyond the Shardgrims.” he said aloud, but mostly to himself.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea right now.” said Etheil.

Brandrir puffed out a smoking breath. He couldn’t appeal to his brother and the Council if he didn’t have
something.
“We have a chance to see beyond the Shardgrims. The next time we’re out here there might very well be a full army waiting. We press on. I have to know what they’re up to.”

“Brandrir,” Etheil whispered into his ear with a warning tone. They walked alone back toward the opening to the Grimwalk. “Braken and Aries are in no shape. At least send them back through the Grimwalk.”

Brandrir looked at Etheil. “I can’t. That thing that attacked me the other night is in there.”

Etheil seemed to grow paler as he looked toward the corridor’s dark opening. “Are you certain?”

Brandrir nodded. “Before we left the corridor I caught its scent.”

Etheil looked back at Brandrir. “Fire the flare. Seal it off. Braken said fliers escaped, we can’t risk keeping it now anyway. We all return home down the valley.”

At Brandrir’s side hung a steel pistol, like a miniature bolt-thrower. It was the flare gun to signal the permanent sealing of the Grimwalk, should the need arise. Brandrir thought for a moment. Then he reached over to the jagged, rocky wall and found the hidden stone and depressed it. With a rumble, the massive boulder began to rise up, closing off the Grimwalk. “That thing can open portals. It’ll get out even if we seal the Grimwalk. The escapees were gone before we exited. The Grimwalk is too valuable to seal unless we absolutely have to.”

“Then we all return home down the valley.” said Etheil.

Brandrir looked at Etheil. “We need supplies. We need Jinn at the Grimwatch. I have to seek aid from my brother, but I can’t do that unless I have good reason. I need to see what the Kald are up to.”

Etheil was stunned. “You mean, you’re actually going to go speak with your brother?”

Brandrir pursed his lips and nodded. “But I won’t unless we have a good reason.”

“Your brother loves you, Brandrir.” said Etheil. “Ask him for aid, and he will give it to you. He won’t abandon you.”

Brandrir shook his head. “I won’t go to him. Not unless there is a reason.”

“Then send me.” urged Etheil. “I will go to him.”

“Not without reason.” said Brandrir, starting to become annoyed.

Etheil pursed his lips. Brandrir could see the battle raging in his Captain’s mind. Etheil had been on his case for months about seeking aid from King Dagrir and was now torn between wanting what was best for Aries and Braken, and what was best for the Grimwatch. But Brandrir knew that Etheil wouldn’t want to pass up a chance for him to finally speak with his brother. Brandrir slapped Etheil on the shoulder a couple times. “We can’t send Aries and Braken back alone, not even through the valley if that thing knows we’re out here. If we run into trouble at the Shardgrims, I’ll order them to hold back.”

Etheil sighed, his frosty breath carried away with the winds. He looked at Brandrir and nodded.

Brandrir looked over to his waiting men. “Let’s go!” he shouted. “Move out!”

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

“Braken said he didn’t see anything.” Etheil whispered into Brandrir’s ear as they ducked behind an icy snowdrift that curled over their heads like a tidalwave ready to devour them. Beyond, across a short distance of deep snow, the Shardgrims loomed like menacing giants in the deepening, gray skies. All around them large flakes of snow floated down in straight curtains, like strings of pearls. There was little wind, and their breaths lingered by their faces in ghostly clouds. At their left, behind a drift of snow with a sharp, curled overhang sculpted by winds, huddled Syrus, Aries, Braken and the other men. “His eyes see better than any of ours, and he saw no movement. Should we move out?”

“Not yet,” said Brandrir, peeking his head up over the drift. He couldn’t immediately see Solastron anywhere. He hoped the wolf would return soon. “Where’s Solastron?”

“He might have found something.” said Etheil. “He’ll be back.” Then he said more quietly, “We should leave Aries and Braken here.”

Brandrir ducked behind the snowdrift and puffed out a breath. He looked to the side where his other men were all ducked behind their own snow drifts. “We might still need Braken’s eyes. And I can’t leave Aries alone.”

Etheil sighed, blowing a plume of frosty breath from his mouth. Snowflakes settled on his black shroud and frozen beads of ice clung to his and Brandrir’s winterland armor. “I think they should stay back.”

Brandrir didn’t say anything. He knew Etheil was right, but he also knew that there was no way Aries or Braken would agree to stay here and he didn’t feel like getting into arguments with them about it. He and Etheil sat together silently for many long minutes until a giant, blue and purple streak bounded over their heads and landed behind the snowdrift with them. Solastron nuzzled up to Etheil and made a couple small barks. Etheil rubbed the great wolf’s ears and sides, knocking clumps of snow from his fur. “What did you see, boy?” he asked.

Solastron whirled around and rolled on the ground, re-covering himself with snow, and then bounded up onto the snowbank. Etheil climbed up and lay down beside the wolf. Solastron pointed his black nose toward the west and made a couple of low, menacing rumbles as he scratched at the snow.

“That way,” said Etheil to Brandrir, pointing. “There’s something that way.”

Solastron bounded forward, toward the foot of one of the sheer, icy faces of the Shardgrims, about two-hundred yards ahead. Brandrir stood up and looked at his men. “Move out!” he ordered, and then leapt up and hurried toward the wolf.

The Shardgrims were a tight collection of mountainous spires that broke straight up from the icefields, as if they had chewed themselves free during some ancient age. Each was at least a thousand feet high, tapering to a wicked looking point that scraped at the eternal layer of gray clouds that swirled above them. Their walls were sheer and steep, caked with snow and rime. No one knew if they were stone or solid ice beneath that shell. They stood like soldiers in a semi-circular line, blocking the arctics beyond. Nobody had ever traveled past the Shardgrims, and nobody knew what the yonder arctics held, for that was the domain of the Kald. Occasionally Brandrir would send patrols out into these icefields to scout for any activity, and some never returned. Brandrir himself had only been this close to the Shardgrims once before and at that time they had been swarming with demons. He felt there was something off about not having seen a single one out here.

They all threw their backs against the massive face of the Shardgrims. High above their heads the winds whistled through their sharp, jagged tops. They made eerie popping and cracking noises, as if they were alive and sought to free themselves from the snow and ice that encased them. Occasionally a large chunk of ice would tumble down and thud into the snow nearby, and Brandrir could see it had all the men on edge. Solastron had his black nose to the ground as he slunk along the perimeter, his hot breaths churning up snow as he went. Brandrir led his men in single-file, keeping close to the sheer face, and the men all ducked or put their arms up at each sound of falling ice.

Solastron kept them at a light jog for a full league. The sky had darkened to deep, menacing grays and the Shardgrims were casting everything in haunting shadows when at last the wolf stopped and put his nose to the falling snow. His nostrils flared as he sucked in the frostbitten air and then his eyes fixed on something in the distance. He let out a low growl.