Winter Warrior (Song of the Aura, Book Two) Read online

  Lauro sat in shock. Gribly swore so hard it made the other two jump. “There go our plans to warn them,” he groaned.

  “You were coming to warn my people?” Elia asked, surprised.

  “Well… yes, among other things.” He wished he could think of a more comforting response. The nymph looked so beautiful and heartbroken. He wondered how he had missed it in her face when they’d met, that sadness that seemed natural to her after only, what- a week? Is that what she had said?

  “I must hear your story,” the girl said, a little brighter than before, “but first I must finish my own. I have been fleeing these… these draiks for a short time, and have managed to largely escape them. This is my most recent sleeping place, and they have not found it yet. I reached it three days ago, and last night a dream of the Aura Viator came to me and told me to watch the sea. I did, and I saw your ship wake the Ice Demon that destroyed it.”

  “Ice Demon? That’s what that beast was?” Lauro made a face.

  “That is the name the Treele give it,” she replied.

  “It fits,” Gribly said. She nodded.

  “There are many of them in the Inkwell, though most do not awake until high winter. I do not think this one intended to wake- I think someone or something awoke it- and not your ship.”

  “We know that much: it was a Pit Strider.” Lauro quickly told Gribly what he had seen, and Elia listened intently. It took moments, and she continued when he was finished.

  “I did not see this person you speak of, but when the Ice Demon had gone back beneath the waves Viator spoke into my mind, telling me to find you and showing me your faces in my head. I had already seen you,” she told Lauro. “I saw what you did, attacking the Demon when you could have escaped. I have never seen the like of it.”

  Gribly positively seethed, as much because he knew he would have fled in Lauro’s place as because of the admiration in Elia’s eyes for the older boy. It drove him mad to be reminded of his own cowardice, and he determined to try being better. The prince just tried to look surprised and keep his stupid pleased grin in check.

  “I swam to you both in my Swimmer Form and did wave striding to get you ashore easier.” At this Lauro interjected and Elia quickly explained about her tribe’s ability to shape-shift.

  “The Zain couldn’t do that, could they?” Gribly asked.

  “No. In ages past they could assume a Second Form, stronger but not as sleek as my tribe’s. At present, though, they have lost the ability over generations of dwelling on land and building boats.”

  “What is your other form for?” Gribly asked, feeling strangely intrusive, as if he was asking the girl how much she weighed or something as ridiculous.

  “For surviving,” she said simply. “In the north the Reethe live in a fashion similar to ours. They have Other Forms made for living in Ice and Snow, for climbing and running instead of swimming.”

  “Oh. So… you rescued us both in your Other Form, and brought us here?”

  “Yes.”

  “How did you find this place the first time?”

  “I fashioned it with my gifts.”

  “That’s… impressive,” Gribly said. “I’m not sure I could do the same thing if I tried, and I thought I was pretty good.”

  “You are a Wave Strider?” Elia questioned him, wide-eyed.

  “No,” he answered, “Not a Wave Strider. A Sand Strider. I stride sand. Odd, I know- I’m still getting used to the idea myself.”

  “I am not sure I understand. Are you both Striders from some other place, then?”

  “Yes,” both boys said at once. Gribly turned to Lauro.

  “I think you’d better be the one to explain, m’prince. It’s your war we’re trying to stop.”

  “War? Prince?” Now Elia was the one who looked bewildered. Gribly knew how she felt- he was still working out what she’d told them about herself.

  “Well, I suppose we owe it to you to tell you everything,” the prince allowed. “But the tale will take a while. Do you have any more of these fruits, perhaps? I’m famished.”

  Chapter Four: Wavechase

  It took several more rounds of explaining between the three young people before they had worked it all out. In the end each knew each other’s story almost as well as their own, and had firmly decided it was in their best interests to follow on the youths’ original course, traveling back along the path Elia had taken from her tribe’s former home. If any draiks were encountered, she could wave stride out of trouble, and Lauro was fairly certain he could fly high enough to evade the beasts, even with Gribly hanging on his back.

  It was a shaky plan, but with no place to go and enemies on every side the threesome could think of no other. So they wrapped themselves in the few seal-skins Elia had collected during her escapades and set out over the snowy terrain that very day, hoping to make it to the next Berg by nightfall.

  The sun was just beginning to set, casting golden rays across the ice from their left and bathing them in a warm glow. Gribly thought it seemed to drive out the chill of the eternal winter, if only a little. The threesome had been tramping across a wide, flat part of the Berg for almost an hour, with the sea far ahead of them and the cliffs far from their backs.

  “Blast!” he swore, a random thought striking him. “The weapon from Byorne! It was with my things back on the Mirrorwave!”

  Lauro matched his stride and shrugged. “Nothing you can do about it now. It’s probably at the bottom of the Inkwell with the rest of the ship and crew.”

  “Then…” his frown creased deeper. “Then how will we convince this Aura we’re hoping to find that we’re supposed to be friends?”

  “The Aura will know,” Elia assured him. “The Aura know much more than any mortal, and their understanding of all things is deeper than ours. What was the name you had for this Aura?”

  “Wanderwillow,” Lauro answered.

  “Then I am sure Wanderwillow will know us when he sees us.”

  For some reason Gribly couldn’t explain, he was irked by her unwavering faith in these mysterious beings that had so far only existed in dreams. He was about to object when a long, metallic screech rent the air at their backs, rising higher until it broke into a howling cacophony of growls and barks.

  Elia turned white. “Draiks!” she snapped fearfully, looking over her shoulder as if she expected to see a horde of the creatures closing in on her at any moment. Maybe they would. Gribly wasn’t about to wait and find out.

  “Come on!” he called, sprinting ahead of the other two Striders. “Let’s get to the water before they figure out we’ve gotten past them!”

  The Wave Strider soon caught up with him, but Lauro passed them both easily on feet that barely touched the ground. “It’s… no use… to hide from… them,” Elia puffed as she kept Gribly’s energetic pace. “They’re made… to hunt… us.”

  “Won’t matter if we can reach the edge of the iceberg in time!” huffed Gribly back at her, and increased his pace. Lauro let himself fall behind, glancing repeatedly over his shoulder. In a minute he urged the other two on with his voice.

  “Faster, faster! I can see something behind us!” Despite the warning, Gribly couldn’t help but slow down as he tried to catch a glimpse of their pursuers. Black, fuzzy spots appeared in the haze that rose up from the flat expanse of ice behind them. In the evening light it was hard to tell, but they appeared to be getting bigger each second. Draik-calls echoed across the iceberg, louder and louder.

  Gribly turned his full attention back on his pumping feet and pounding pulse. He felt the ice seem to melt away under him as he sped faster and faster across the Berg. The glimmering bay ahead came closer at an unbelievable rate- he felt like he had wings on his feet! He realized his friends must have been left far behind by now, and looked back to check on them… to find that they were right on his tail, going just as fast. Elia was wearing a look of utter surprise, and Lauro a mask of determination, his hands crossed in a double-clawed gesture in front o
f him.

  He was striding wind.

  “Yes!” Gribly yelled, turning back to keep his pace up. Lauro was wind striding to help them outrun the draiks! “Hah- HAH!”

  “Shush,” grunted the prince, “I’m trying to concentrate!”

  Gribly kept his celebration to a low chuckle, and ran as fast as he could, feeling the wind surge under and around him and at his back, manipulated by Lauro’s gifts. Now this was adventure! It could almost put his tower-jumping burglary escapes to shame!

  ~

  The sun sunk lower and the light grew dimmer as the great chase progressed. Within a half hour it was almost dark, and with the aid of Lauro’s wind the three Striders reached the edge of the iceberg long before their hellish chasers.

  “Whoah- call off that breeze, prince boy!” Gribly yelled, and the unnatural wind at their backs subsided, leaving the three breathless and panting on the edge of a several-hundred-foot cliff of ice that stretched down into the churning bay below. “That’d be quite a fall,” the thief commented drily. “How in Vast did you get us up here in the first place, Elia?”

  The nymph girl smiled ruefully. “It wasn’t easy… But the shore is lower where I brought you aboard.”

  “Aboard?”

  “Well…” she paused. “It is a little like a ship; this great chunk of ice floating in the water like an island with no roots… It’s a wonder how none of them hit the sides of the bay. They sometimes hit each other, but not much.” She said it casually, but Gribly saw her rub her neck with a bitter face, as if she was remembering the ordeal of dragging him and Lauro out of the stormy bay after weeks of near-starvation and hiding, with nothing but a waking dream to guide her.

  “Well,” he responded, “We won’t need your help so much now. Look. We can cross easy as walking- the next Berg is coming closer.”

  It was. A huge iceberg shaped like a cluster of half-submerged mountains with patches of flat land in-between was veering in their direction, borne on a gradual swell of the waves.

  “Viator guide me…” the girl breathed. “It can’t be…”

  “What?” asked both of her companions at the same time.

  “It’s the Treele Berg… It’s my home!” A short silence followed, broken by the far-off howls of approaching draiks. “That Ice Demon that woke… It must have disturbed the sea so much… maybe swam away to a different part and caused all the Bergs to shift…” she looked at Gribly, her face almost as fearful as if one of the titanic monsters were here now. “Unless… unless more of them are waking. Unless there’re more, causing more and more waves…”

  “Whatever it is,” Lauro interrupted, “It’s not the problem now. Those draiks are getting closer, and soon our lead will be lost.”

  “Not just that,” Gribly added. “If these two icebergs collide, the draiks’ll be able to cross just as easily as us.”

  “That settles it,” the prince said. “We need to get across now. Now! This minute!”

  Droplets of water wet Gribly’s hair and neck, causing him to look up. The sky was almost dark and it was beginning to rain. Ominous spiraling storm-clouds were forming where minutes ago there had been none. “I agree,” he said, “So… how do we get across? Elia, you can swim, Lauro can fly… but what about me?”

  “We’ll just leave you here,” Lauro replied, so completely serious Gribly almost believed him, before the prince winked to let him know he was joking.

  “But truthfully,” Elia said when she’d picked up the joke, “what will we do? Time’s running out…”

  “I might be able to fly Grib across,” Lauro guessed, “But maybe not. I can’t know without trying, and I’d rather not make a mistake.”

  “You’re sounding more like a commoner every day, y’know that?”

  “Stoppit!” Elia cried, halfway between laughing and yelling. “This is not funny.” It wasn’t. Something about her voice shut them both up right away. “Now listen,” she told them when they were quiet. “I think I may know how to cross safely, if you’re not afraid of getting cold and wet, Gribly.”

  “Getting dumped into the sea by a giant Demon tends to make one a little less afraid of water,” he answered.

  “All right,” she said, taking his statement at face value. “Then here’s what we’ll do: I’ll change into my Swimmer Form and dive into the water. Then Lauro can fly you down to me without much trouble, and I’ll take you the rest of the way across.”

  “Are your gifts really that strong?” Lauro asked. “Could you take him all the way?”

  “I can’t swim, remember?” Gribly put in, before it occurred to him he hadn’t actually mentioned it before.

  “I’ve thought of that,” Elia said without missing a beat. “And it’ll be hard, but not impossible… as long as you can hold your breath for a little while.”

  “Sure,” he answered, though he wasn’t sure at all.

  The draik howls grew louder. “We’re losing our lead…” Lauro snapped, clenching his fists.

  “Right then,” Gribly said. “Let’s do this.”

  Elia nodded and stepped back. Raising her arms to the heavens, she closed her eyes and brought her hands down in front of her as if she was pulling a heavy curtain down over her. Her form began to shimmer and sway, becoming watery and almost transparent. It looked almost like she was actually putting on another body; a slimmer, sleeker, almost fish-like one that was neither nymph-like nor spirit.

  In seconds it was over, and Elia stood before them in the water-dwelling shape of her people. It was more angular and slightly taller than her nymph shape, and- Gribly hoped it didn’t show on his face- even more beautiful. Lauro merely nodded, seemingly unaffected.

  “Can you talk in this form?”

  “Of course… Different, yes? But still speech…” Her voice had undergone a change, too. It was higher and more musical- watery, just like the rest of her.

  This is so strange, Gribly thought. Not for the first time during his journey he wished he could have had more of a choice.

  Swimmer-Elia paused, waiting for any last words from either Strider. When they said nothing, she did another compulsive nod and ran to the edge of the cliff, throwing herself off in a perfect arching dive. Gribly rushed to the edge, Lauro right behind him. Together they peered into the water below, where Elia’s falling form was almost invisible against the waves. Eventually, though, they saw her leaping in and out of the sea like an excited dolphin or fish. She reminded Gribly of a mermaid, one of the legendary creatures from tales told by gritty sailors that sometimes drank at one of his old haunts in Ymeer.

  “Well, she seems to like it,” he commented. Lauro looked at him strangely, but said nothing to the point.

  “Let’s get this over with,” the prince said. “You may as well climb on my back and we’ll see if I can even get off the ground.”

  “Fine.” The wind Strider bent over a little and Gribly clambered onto his back, almost choking him with his arms as he tried to feel secure in the idiotic thing he was about to do.

  “Ugh… leth gho ath lithle…”

  “What?”

  “Leth… go…” Oh. Gribly let go a little. Lauro nodded and put a foot up cautiously into the air. He flexed his ankle and suddenly stomped, pushing the pair a few inches off the ground. They hung there for less than a second before sinking back down before Lauro could get another kick in.

  “Well… that was productive,” Gribly said.

  “Shut up.”

  The predatory howls and barks behind them grew louder. Gribly felt that if he looked back he’d be able to see the draiks closing in behind them. Lauro tried wind striding again, without much luck. Then again. Then again.

  On the fifth try the pair went airborne and stayed there. The prince pedaled furiously with his feet and leaned forward more than Gribly liked, but they moved slowly through the air until they had passed the cliff’s edge and hung suspended by nothing but Lauro’s powers over a drop of more than a hundred feet.

  “Don
’t lose your breakfast,” the wind Strider cautioned. Gribly was about to say that he hadn’t got any breakfast when Lauro pointed his toes and the pair shot down at a speed that ripped the thief’s scream right out of his lungs.

  A long, drawn-out hisssssssssssssssssss was all that came from his mouth. The fall almost did make him throw up. Wind rushed by and the ever-thickening rain pelted them faster than they could fall away from it.