Storm of Arranon Fire and Ice (29 page)

She wondered about Cera and her crew. With
their first day of braefin netting over, they would be settling
into a hearty meal about now. The cramped space of the ship’s
galley would soon ring with laughter and the telling of stories.
Cera loved stories. Erynn could see Cera’s grin widen with approval
as her teeth clamped tightly around the cidag. Brock was there, in
her mind. His dour expression and dirty apron tied around his
massive bulk. The rest of the crew’s faces cleared in her
thoughts.

Torey’s stood out. He was one among thousands
that had escaped from the oppression of the alien ship. Erynn
sensed his elation for the freedom he now experienced in life.
Faylen’s ultimate sacrifice after accomplishing so much caused
pride and sorrow to tug at her emotions, competing for control. She
squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and hitched in a sigh, letting
the breath out in a rush.

The first large flakes drifted down from a
sky that had promised snow all day. A gust rocked the transport and
sent silver-white flecks dancing in the forward beams.

She turned off the lights. Dark surrounded
her, closing in. The sensation of being all alone that she’d kept
at bay pushed in on her. “I’ll be back at the base soon. Home.”

Jaer
.

From a tiny gap around the top right corner
of the window panel, icy air whooshed inside and over Erynn. She
shivered and unbuckled from the pilot’s seat, leaving the transport
running. “Let’s see what Brock packed for food.”

She pushed out of the small control
compartment to the cargo hold. Boxes held by heavy straps lined the
interior. Each was marked as to the contents. She unstrapped the
one labeled “MEALS”. Erynn peeled off the top, amazed at what she
found. Fresh fruit filled one quarter. Phocia made with achcear and
vegetables wrapped in seasoned priute dough were already baked and
ready to eat. They only needed to be warmed. At the bottom, in a
round container, was a fruit tart.

Erynn grinned and shook her head. “Brock must
have been up all night. How can I ever repay all this kindness?”
She straightened and nodded once decisively. “Help save
Arranon—that’s how.”

Erynn only traveled a short distance after
eating. Thick snow fell, swirling in the transport’s lights. The
effect was mesmerizing. Her eyes burned. Vision blurred. “Best to
stop. Take a break. Then go on.” She shut down the lights and all
power but the heat. A narrow cot along the rear wall of the cargo
hold folded out and rested on crates below. She climbed into a
thick
caitni
down bag to sleep for a while.

Her thoughts circled, spiraling up and down.
She had closed the portal of fire. She had watched the floating
ring of ice-blue flames die and seal with a thin layer of dark,
crusted stone. Erynn chuffed and squeezed her eyes shut. “A portal
that was already of no use to Dhoran.” The accomplishment seemed a
hollow victory.

The spirits that guarded the access to the
portal had placed an enchantment on the doorway. The guardians kept
the entire fortress of Deanaim unavailable to Dhoran. Had he tried
to come up from below, he would have found himself as Erynn
did—stranded in a frozen wasteland and left to die. Once again, she
had escaped death with Arranon’s help.

She flopped on her side, lids drifting open.
“But now, no matter what, he can’t use the doorway of fire—ever.”
She had learned that Farglas Lake held the portal of air. When
winter closed her icy hand on the upper regions, they would find a
way to close that threshold, too. There was only one portal left
its whereabouts unknown. Taking in a deep breath and letting it out
slowly, she whispered, “Where are you?”

Keeping her mind focused on the portals was
difficult. Roni was hurt, maybe dying. Jaer struggled with all that
was happening. She wanted to be there for Roni. She needed to
comfort Jaer. Let him know she understood. Even if they could never
be together, she wanted him to know that she loved him. She needed
to tell him she was sorry. She had only considered her own anguish
when she should have recognized his suffering. His torment had been
there all along. She’d recognized his sorrow soon after they’d met.
When the reason for Jaer’s sadness was finally revealed to her, she
had turned away from him.

Dreams wove into her tortured thoughts,
becoming fractured shadows of emptiness. Dark chasms loomed to
swallow her, dropping her into a world where sunlight never
reached. Alone. The separation from everyone she loved was a deep
ache in her chest, tightening around her heart.

Following Erynn’s escape, Dhoran stayed on
for a couple of leantas. He enjoyed the return of warmth before
leaving through the transition station. The portal appeared before
him. A stone monolith rose and bridged his underworld with the
surface. He climbed the ancient wooden rungs entwined in the rock,
into icy, bright sunshine. Dhoran shivered and frowned. He longed
for the day he when would never have to come above again. This leg
of the journey from the portal to the base would take at least two
days.

Dhoran’s lips turned in a mocking sneer. The
trip back to the base would take Erynn much longer. He understood
that he should be there when she did return. Jaer would be there.
He needed to break up the happy reunion before anything more
permanent took place between Erynn and Jaer.

This wasn’t over, not even close.

His transport was where he’d left it, tucked
between towering stone columns. He hadn’t doubted it would be. From
all around him, a barren stretch of arid red-gold sand was dotted
with sparse outcroppings of ruddy-tan boulders. They stood sentry
against a clear blue sky.

Dhoran grinned. No one would ever find this
portal. Arranon held many remote areas. As far as he knew, this
section of Arranon had never been explored. Immense windstorms
scrubbed any life that foolishly attempted to inhabit this desolate
land. A dangerous desert waited to prevent passage to anyone who
dared enter. There was nothing here but death, slow and
certain.

He brushed a layer of sand and dirt from the
front panel of the transport with his hand. After wiping his palms
together, he opened the door and slid into the seat. Dhoran’s
deliberate grin widened into that practiced, charming half smile.
He had a plan to steer Erynn into his arms, driving Jaer from her
heart. Shan had agreed to help him. He liked Shan. She appealed to
him on a darker level. Once he had Erynn by his side, and the war
for Arranon was won, he would take Shan as a consort. He chuckled.
The sound grew into a harsh roaring laugh. He could have any female
he wanted. And he would, after Erynn was his alone.

His chortling quieted. “Variety is good. I
will have many sons and daughters to aid in my bidding.” He nodded.
“But Erynn’s children will rule beside me.”

An evil guffaw jerked Erynn awake. She
tumbled from the narrow cot, landing in a heap on the metal floor.
She scrambled out of the caitni bag on hands and knees. She
searched the dark and peered into shadow-cloaked corners, seeking
the source of the wild laugh. Wind slammed against the transport,
screeching and rocking the vehicle.

“The wind. Not a laugh. Only the wind,” she
panted, pulling up on the bunk. Erynn picked up the bag and tossed
the bulky heap on the cot. “No use trying to sleep now.” Her heart
pounded and rushed adrenaline through her body. “Might as well keep
moving.” The nagging impression that the high cackle had not been
the wind troubled her. Instead of pushing the idea away, she sought
confirmation and found nothing. The presence, if there had been
one, was gone.

Erynn realized when she climbed back in the
driver’s seat that she’d slept longer than she thought. A gray
radiance tinged the edge of the vast white expanse before her. Snow
still fell, but not as hard. The flakes were more like icy pellets,
silver orbs in the beams of the transport’s lights.

Dawn came and chased the storm away. Instead
of white-gray clouds filling the horizon, bright blue sky and
brilliant sunshine met the edge of snow and ice. Erynn squinted
against the glare. Ahead in the distance, to her right and left,
the blue-green of water lay to either side of the snowbound
land.

Anaekta Strait.

A strip of ice and frozen ground joined the
two landmasses and narrowed to one hundred meters across at the
center. Erynn stopped the transport. She got out and studied the
land bridge before moving the heavy vehicle over the possibly
fragile link.

Wind sighed across the barren plain, picking
up powdery crystals and swirling them away. The blue-green sea
lapped at the shore of ice and snow. The gentle susurration of
water added a soft, steady beat to the unhurried song of the
breeze. She had assumed that traveling straight down the middle
would be the wisest course. Upon inspection, she found if she
stayed to the right, the ice appeared more solid than in the center
or the left.

Sunlight glittered like diamont jewels on the
waves. A mound bulged up, breaking the surface about ten meters off
to her right. A pod of
milamora
rose. Black heads and backs
over white bellies and throats glistened. They twisted their huge
bodies in a graceful arc, crashing down and sliding effortlessly
beneath the waves. They surfaced again coming closer, watching her
from dark round eyes.

Erynn laughed, clapping her gloved hands.

Several milamora floated, buoyant on top of
the water. Their mouths parted, showing a row of sharp white
teeth.

She stepped back, concerned at first, until
she realized they were smiling at her show of amusement. She
continued to watch the rise and fall of their water dance for
several long, carefree moments. “I gotta go,” she finally
called.

As if the milamora understood, they rose one
last time and dove, disappearing beneath the sparkling water.

Erynn returned to the transport, energized by
her encounter with the milamora. They had imparted some of their
joyous existence to her. Life on Arranon was good. Not always easy
or kind, but good.

She made the trek across the Anaekta Strait
and followed the NAV line that Cera had charted for her to the
Maithlams. This second day of her journey remained unchanged. The
scenery was the same unrelenting flat expanse of ice and snow.
Shortly after crossing the Anaekta, even the view of the sea
vanished.

On the third day, the deep brown of soil and
the gray of large rocks began to show through the snow in patches.
There was still no communication with the base or anyone. Rugged
mountain ranges, EMF interference, and just the vastness that
remained between her position and the nearest outpost kept her in
isolation. She couldn’t easily forget how large and unpopulated
Arranon was.

By late afternoon small trees dotted the land
and the NAV directed her to turn right. The terrain was no longer
relatively flat, but sloped downward at a sharp angle. The spicy,
musky scent of needle leaves and bare soil returned. This was where
the going would get tougher, though. More hills and uneven ground,
and then on to treacherous mountain passes. She was close. Another
day, if she pushed it, and she’d be back at the base. Home.

Jaer
.

Night crept across the hillside. Shadow
fingers stretched from thick stands of tall trees clumped in ever
widening swatches of forest. Erynn found it necessary to go off
course to traverse around them.

Day relented, orange-red on the edges. The
sun threw a final burst of fiery gold light across the top boughs.
Aleuns wheeled in the sky, hurrying to sheltering limbs.

She didn’t want to stop. Not yet. Her hands
gripped the controls. Tendrils of blue static arced around her
fingers. When the light was fully gone, she would have to end her
journey for the day. The irregular push of rock thrusting from the
soil under soft snow would catch the transport, high-center the
vehicle, and possibly do irreparable damage. She needed all the
light available to watch for this danger.

As if reading her thoughts, the right track
of the transport caught, squealed, and threw the vehicle left a
quarter turn. Erynn stopped the forward motion. With a light touch,
she feathered the throttle and turned to the right. The transport
complied and rolled over the obstruction, edging ahead, back on
course.

“Okay. Time to stop.” Erynn searched for a
level site to stay the night. To the left, between a stand of
trees, the snow-covered ground smoothed. Glancing right, she saw
the line of rocks that had grabbed at the transport. “Stay away
from the right. Just a few more meters—”

The transport lurched and tipped on its nose.
She continued to slide forward several meters, the vehicle leveling
at the bottom. The snow depth was misleading here. Before reaching
the area beneath the trees, the right track screeched. A heavy
cable from inside the tracks snapped in two. The end slammed the
driver’s side window, breaking the thick panel.

Erynn ducked below the length of swinging
cord. The metal cable continued on its trajectory, whipping through
the cab, smashing the front window, and wrapping around the left
doorpost. Icy air rushed into the space.

Erynn rose slowly, her heart pounding against
her ribs.

If I had been a fraction slower
…

She shuddered. Her breath frosted before her
in icy plumes.

The transport screamed, the harsh roar of the
engine echoing against stands of timber and hills. She quickly shut
down, hands trembling. The transport rumbled, jerked, and stilled.
Quiet rushed in with the chilling breeze. Only a soft sigh of wind
through trees buffeted the hush around her. Headlight beams met the
dense face of the forest and stopped, unable to penetrate. Her
shudder turned to a shiver. Cold pushed in and replaced the heated
air in the cab.