Brest fell to his knees then to the ground where he sank through the round pebbles that made up the creek bed. Urake stared wide eyed as the last of Brest’s gray cloak was swallowed beneath the creek bed. One of the cultists jumped down in front of Urake a moment later. Seeing the bow in the man’s hand, he went into a rage. Before the man had a chance to turn around and see Urake, he had a half dozen stab wounds. Urake watched the man fall to the ground and half expected him to sink through the rocks also, but was disappointed and shocked back to reality at the same time to see the man just lying there.
The sounds of brush being crushed alerted Urake to the rest of the cultists. They were far enough away to risk another dash for safety. Taking the creek bed, he doubled down and sprinted along it with a nagging worry that he might encounter another spot of sinking sand like where Brest had fallen. Reaching a cliff that the creek had once cascaded down during the wetter winter months, Urake paused. The sound of advancing cultists were drawing nearer on all sides.
“Wake up!” Urake jumped as the rocks next to him shifted as Brest pushed them aside and stood up.
“This isn’t right. Something is wrong.” Urake regarded Brest suspiciously.
“That is what I have been trying to tell you!” Before either of them could react, a black robed figure dropped down the bank and plunged his sword into Brest’s back. The man pulled his sword free and shoved Brest over the edge of the precipice before coming at Urake. He dodged the initial thrust and countered with a thrust of his own. Ice Heart was a superb blade that was perfectly balanced. Fighting with it was like moving an extension of your own body. Urake danced back and forth with neither swordsman able to land any telling blows. Hearing more cultist dropping into the creek bed, Urake glanced at the dozen men approaching with drawn weapons. There shouldn’t have been so many. There hadn’t been last time.
“For Brest!” Urake charged into the cultist that had murdered his friend and tumbled over the escarpment. Below could be seen a pool of water as the two tangled. Plunging Ice Heart in the cultist’s torso Urake separated from the corpse and prepared for impacting the water. A few seconds later, when the expected impact didn’t come, he opened his eyes. The pool of water had changed to an ice lake. Miraculously, Urake was able to land on his feet without suffering any harm. In fact, the landing was a little fuzzy as he tried to ponder it. One moment he was falling and the next he was standing on the ice. The inkling that something wasn’t right slipped through his fingers like water as sound, beyond that of loose snow being blown along the glassy surface, struck his ears.
Looking up, Urake saw through the falling snow a band of approaching horsemen. Turning, he ran for all he was worth. He had looked the King in the eyes while he held Ice Heart to the man’s throat. The emotions of frustration and powerlessness he had seen there haunted him even now as he ran for his life. Running had been all he had done since sparing the King three days ago. Had it been three days ago? Horses and men alike screamed in terror as the thin ice covering the lake broke and plunged the entire cavalry unit into the frigid water. With the ice crumbling behind him, Urake used every ounce of speed that he could muster.
“It isn’t…” Urake lost his footing as he saw Brest’s familiar form fall from the sky and break through the ice a few feet distant. A fall like that combined with the frigid water was not survivable so when Urake climbed to his feet, he took off again for the approaching shoreline. Unfortunately this section of shoreline was a rocky vertical wall. Hearing the sounds of shattering ice at his back Urake leaped for the wall and caught a hold on a rock that jutted out. Glancing back, he gasped as the ice shattered and fell down into a seemingly bottomless canyon that had replaced the lake.
Pulling himself up over the rim of the icy canyon, Urake was only just able to react fast enough to keep from being thrown back into the canyon by a hidden soldier. Using