Storm of Arranon Fire and Ice (26 page)

Where
?

When the last oily puddle was behind her, she
stopped. Erynn squinted into the hazy darkness, gaze darting right
and left. Hot, stagnant air raked down her throat and into her
lungs. The scent was smoky, greasy, and heavy. She brushed hair
from her stinging eyes. Her hand came away with a slippery film.
Nose wrinkled, she wiped her palm on her pants, leaving a dark
smear.

Erynn dared a peek back the way she’d come.
Nothing. Her breath stuttered out. She licked her lips. A slick
substance coated them with a rancid, bitter flavor. She grimaced
and spat. She didn’t remember the oily fires being this foul last
time she was here. The cavern was different, now that it was empty
of the Socar Batahs and Shifters.

Erynn spun in a tight circle.

Which way do I go
?
What if I’m
wrong
?

From behind her and to the right, a fire
sputtered. Flames rose high in the smoky air and turned an intense
ice-blue. She hurried over, stood on the outer edge of the uneven
ring of blazing pools, and stared away from the bright center into
the blackness. A wide dark tunnel led to another, smaller cavern. A
flaming circular line burned in the distance suspended high in the
air. Erynn didn’t glance behind. She ran toward this doorway to the
surface and escape.

A ladder met the ground, appearing from the
core of a mass of roiling flames four meters above her.

Erynn stared up, mouth open. “I came through
that?”

The fire responded. Flames quelled. A space
inside the fiery circle around the ladder opened, creating a ring
clear of the consuming inferno. The orange-red roar of the blaze
diminished, leaving the long snarl of a low but steady hot ice-blue
burn.

Unable to resist glancing back, Erynn
searched the dark beyond the flaming pools. “How long do I have?”
She returned her attention to the portal, tipped her head, and
frowned. “The flames responded to my voice. Will closing the
doorway be that simple?”

Erynn scanned the area and found the backpack
containing her clothes and the other supplies. “Dress later, when
I’m safe.” She secured the pack over her shoulders and hurried to
the ladder. She ascended at a quick pace. Treads creaked under her
weight. Sweat trickled beneath her light clothing. Her palms were
slick against the smooth, dry rungs. When she was eye level with
the fire, she stopped. The fire had no depth. The blazing ring was
thin and flat from this angle, floating in mid air, suspended
by…nothing. The ladder rose, attached to…nothing.

Magic
.

Erynn forced herself to continue until she
was well above the fiery circle of the portal. She wrapped her arm
around a rung, grabbed the side rail, and called in a firm tone,
“Close.”

Nothing happened.

“Well, that didn’t work.” In the distance,
the glow from the oily pits brightened. She sucked in a breath.
“Hurry. Must hurry.” Her heart jumped and fluttered like an aleun
caught in the jaws of a predator.

“Stop. Seal. Die. Go out.” Her voice climbed
in pitch with each new command.

The fire of the portal didn’t change. The
distant blazing pools flared, their brilliant orange flames dancing
in the dark across the span.

An impulse flashed in Erynn’s mind, to return
and close the portal another time. Dhoran was unable to use this
portal. If he was coming, she had to go. She closed her eyes,
pulled in a deep, hot breath, and let it out in a rush. Cool air
passed her lips. “No.” Running felt too much like failure,
cowardice, even if her intent was to return. “Think. Do this.” She
gritted her teeth. “There is a way.”

She opened her eyes. The flames directly
opposite where she hung on the ladder were gone. “How did I…?” On
the curved edge where the fire had burned, she watched a thin wedge
of fractured black rock grow, reaching a jagged point toward the
middle of the circle, touching a rung of the ladder.

The cavern beyond the wide tunnel radiated a
bright orange-red light from a fierce burn.

“What…?” Her body tensed with the certainty
of sudden awareness. “Wind. A surface wind!”

Erynn took a deep breath, held the dry warmth
for a moment, and then blew moist icy air out of her lungs at the
ring of blue flames.

They died without a sputter. Dark fissured
rock grew from the outer edge to the center, enclosing the ladder.
A crack and snap like breaking ice accompanied the furious
expansion. With the fire ring extinguished, a solid black barrier
sealed the portal below. No matter what happened to the guardians,
Dhoran would never use this doorway again. To anyone venturing
near, this thin ring of suspended rock floating above the cavern
floor would appear to be a mystical anomaly.

Fire erupted with a violent roar from the
oily pits. Flames rose high, spreading across the floor between the
pools. Tall shadows danced along the walls, appearing to march
forward, closing in on Erynn.

Is there a form, someone approaching the
portal, concealed in those shadows
?

“Time to go.” Erynn unlocked her hold on the
rungs and scrambled up the ladder. After only a couple of meters,
she was at the wooden access. She pushed at the heavy hatch,
throwing it open. A smile she hadn’t summoned turned her mouth. “I
made it. Jaer! I made it.” An odd pulling, speeding sensation
gripped her middle, making her head spin and her stomach jump and
flutter. She took the peculiar feeling of movement as elation and
clambered over the lip of the opening. Her vision swirled with her
still-spinning head. Erynn pushed up and away from the opening and
stumbled to a shaky but upright position. The hatch slammed behind
her. She didn’t jump at the banging crash as the wooden door sealed
and disappeared.

Her breath caught in her throat. What awaited
her above the hatch demanded her full attention. Her head stopped
its spinning, speeding sensation. Her stomach fluttered to keep up
with the tempo of her heart. With trembling hands, she tugged the
pack from her shoulders and rummaged for her warm clothes. Stone
walls did not enclose her in a room with high slatted windows. No
sturdy roof sheltered overhead. No curving battlement lay against
the press of deep-green forest, a backdrop to the abandoned
buildings. A layer of solid snow replaced the hard set of a dirt
floor.

Massive boulders spotted the area, cutting
some of the blowing snow. Above, churning gray clouds sprinted
across the dreary sky, dumping large flakes that slanted across her
vision in the gusting wind.

I am not in Deanaim
.

Rocked by another gust, Erynn pulled her hood
tighter. She stepped away from the boulders, surveying the storm
and the bleak landscape. Except for an outcropping of rocks behind
her, the land was flat, a vast expanse of firm packed snow in all
directions. The ground was white. The sky was a dark gray. Time
didn’t exist. She had no way to communicate with…anyone, and little
food and water. She didn’t know where she was, which way to go, or
how to find help. Of all the dangerous events in her recent
history, this might be the one that finally killed her.

Erynn jerked the pack over one shoulder,
tipped her face to the sky, and screamed, “I’m doing what you want!
I’ve followed your instructions!” She spun toward the boulders. Her
hands fisted. “So what now? A test? A trial of wills? I am not a
plaything in your game.” Her tone dropped. She stared at the smooth
white ground. The pack slipped off her arm and landed with a heavy
thud on the hard snow. “I’ve lost everything. My mother. My father.
My dad, Damon. Jaer is married, committed to another who does not
intend to let him go. My life has been turned upside down. For
what? To die here in the middle of nowhere—a failure.” She bit her
lip, squeezed her eyes shut.

Visions played across the screen of her
mind…
Damon. Her childhood. Her time at the academy
. The
images flowed forward…
The Anim Blath. The forest and the pond
that hid the portal. Meeting the ghost of her biological father.
The maejen. Jaer and their first kiss
.

One image caught, stopping the progression of
this short replay of her life. The possible future Zander had let
her glimpse.
Jaer smiled, hugging the giggling blue-eyed baby
boy with tousled, curly black hair
.

Erynn groaned.

Snow tapped with annoyance at the back of her
head. Wind whistled across the bare land, prying at her hood and
trying to expose her face, insistent in its effort.

The heat of anger balled and rolled in her
gut. Heat spread a burning tingle to her fingertips. Erynn’s eyes
snapped open, and she stared into the dark, swirling clouds. “No.
You don’t win that easy. But understand me—I’m not doing this for
you anymore. I’m doing this for me. Do you get it? Not for you. For
me!” Her angry shout was picked up by the wind and slammed against
the boulders, bouncing back with force.

Electricity flared and snapped in crackling
arcs that reached high into the air. Not the familiar blue or even
the angry purple. These were a bright, blazing yellow-white. The
air buzzed and hummed with a wild energy. Her eardrums vibrated.
The scent of ozone filled her nostrils. Zigzagging currents shot
out and whipped back, absorbed only to blast forth again. An
explosive light show displayed against a backdrop of roiling black
sky.

Pale color erupted above her. Wispy vapors of
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple ascended and joined.
The colors twisted in a tangled dance. The pastel mist separated,
once again distinct. They lined up, curving like a rainbow,
spreading toward the horizon under the ceiling of iron-gray
clouds.

Erynn watched the colorful beam arc over her
head. Her breath fogged in quick puffs snatched by the wind. One
tip of the column began above her. The other stretched out,
touching the snow-covered land in the distance. The narrow base
connected with the horizon. She reached down, grabbed the pack,
threw it over one shoulder, and headed out at a trot under the
course of the rainbow glowing softly above her.

Erynn trudged onward. She stared down at the
tedious pass of white under her. Her boots landed with a repetitive
crunch in the thin crust covering the snow pack. Her lungs worked
in a cadence with the soft crackling shatter of icy crystals.

The ground vibrated beneath her.

Her tempo faltered. She frowned, pausing. A
low rumble throbbed through the air. She raised her head, pulled
the hood from her eyes, and surveyed the barren white
landscape.

A line of transports, lights blazing through
the gloom, tracks kicking up chunks of snow and ice, sped toward
her. They slowed, lurched, and stopped in a chorused squeal of
grinding metal. The hatch on the first hissed, popped, and flew
open, slamming to the ground with a resounding crash.

A woman poked her head from the opening and
frowned. She spoke in a low, gravely voice around a thick brown
cidag
held between her teeth. “What in the daheln are you
doing out here?” She stared at Erynn and shook her head. Snow
swirled around long light-brown hair. She pulled the unlit stub of
the cidag from her lips and held it by her thumb and first two
fingers. “Beirig din. How in the two worlds did you get here?”

Erynn stepped forward. “It’s a long story.
Would you give me a lift to…somewhere? I need to get home.”

The woman nodded. “It’s a long way to
somewhere
. There’ll be plenty of time for a long story.” She
grinned and motioned for Erynn to come inside the idling
transport.

Erynn stripped off her pack and climbed the
steep ramp. Wind pushed at her back.

The woman returned to the driver’s seat,
glanced at Erynn, and gestured to the vacant passenger compartment
next to her. “I’m Cera.”

Erynn wove between stacks of crates held by
cargo straps. “Thanks, Cera. I’m Erynn.” Erynn plopped into the
empty seat. Heat from the vents washed over her. Snow melted and
dripped down her face. The faint scent of heated components filled
the cab.

The hatch hummed closed and sealed with a
whoosh. Cera put the soggy chewed end of the cidag back between her
teeth. She tapped a spot above her ear. “Re-enter coordinates.” She
brushed her fingers over a screen. The tattered, sodden end of the
rolled
tobac
traveled from one corner of Cera’s mouth to the
other.

Gridlines appeared in yellow on a glowing
monitor. A wide, straight green line shot to the left of the
transport, transecting the grid.

Cera turned the vehicle until the green line
was positioned directly in front of her, parallel to the thicker
yellow lines. With more grinding and screeching of metal, the
transport bucked and jumped, smoothing into a quick, steady
pace.

“Now let’s hear this story.”

Erynn glanced at Cera. “Wait. First, do you
have a radio? I need to contact my…unit.

Cera barked out a laugh, the cidag clamped
tight between her teeth. “I have a radio, but it won’t do you any
good. We’re too far out to reach even the nearest outpost.” She
glanced sideways at Erynn. “Just relax. We’ll get word to
your…
unit
at some point.” Cera briefly raised her hands from
the controls. “I’ve been in this transport since morning by myself.
I’m looking forward to this story of yours.”

Erynn bit at her lower lip. “I’m not sure
you’ll believe me.”

Cera chuckled around the cidag. “I already
don’t believe you.” Her green-gray eyes narrowed and she glanced at
Erynn. “You shouldn’t be here.”

Erynn sighed and nodded. “I know. I assumed I
would come up in Deanaim.”

Cera frowned. “Deanaim? What’s in Deanaim?”
Her gaze darted to Erynn. “Come up from where?”

Watery sunlight slipped across the horizon.
The pale yellow glow crept under the uneven line of deep-gray
clouds, where they faltered against snow-bound land.