Ice Shards - By Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,10

set down his spoon. “We are traveling to the ice fields. You know the shadow that lurks on the Skirts of Hel?”

“Yes . . . Don’t tell me you are headed up to challenge it. We’ve lost so many to that black shade of Hel. But then—you are an Elemental Lord,” Jonah hastened to say.

“I am. And with me I have a dragon, a witch, an incubus, and your friend—the Talon-haltija. It is her fight, truly, but we come to give aid.” Howl frowned. “Have you heard any reports lately of the shadow creature?”

Jonah was staring at me in earnest now. “Talon-haltija?” Blinking rapidly, he scooted his chair back. “There were reports, so many hundreds of years ago, of a powerful priestess, a sprite, who misused her powers, and the result . . . was the creation of the shadow creature. Are you she? Were you the Ar’jant d’tel who was disgraced and turned out of Undutar’s temple?”

My cheeks flamed. “I do not know if I am responsible for the shadow—nothing could ever be proven and I have never been able to remember exactly what happened. But yes, I am Iris, and I was Ar’jant d’tel—Chosen of the Gods, the pariah of the temple.”

I bit my lip, praying he wasn’t regretting helping me all those years ago. “I come in search of the truth. To clear my name or to accept my punishment, whatever the case may be.”

Smoky leaned across the table. “We need to sleep. Hold your questions till later, dwarf. Iris is an honored friend of mine, and I am dragon. Do not entertain thoughts I would not cotton to. Understand?”

Jonah’s eyes grew wide. “Not a problem, Lord Iampaatar. I know who you are.” He turned to Howl. “As far as your question, yes, the shadow has been active lately—in fact, he claimed a village girl from the Edanuwit people recently. They found her, her life force drained, her body mangled.”

“How do they know it was the shadow?”

“It leaves a magical residue. If you go looking for it, you’ll surely find it.” And then Jonah bid us good evening and went back to the bar.

I finished my meal but felt terribly self-conscious. It was clear that our conversation had been overheard. The rest of the patrons skirted around us, which was probably just as well, but it made me feel like I had a big red bull’s-eye painted on my back, or a scarlet A on my forehead.

As we headed upstairs to bed, I couldn’t help but hope that when—if—I proved my innocence, every single person who had given me icy stares would hear about it. And in the pie-in-the-sky corner of my wishes, I wanted an apology from every one of them.

*

MORNING SAW US on the path at the break of dawn, after a hearty meal of eggs, bacon, bread, cheese, and soup. The network of trails joining the villages in the Northlands were a loose affair, opening and closing with the storms that raged down the mountains. We veered onto a fork that would take us to the Skirts of Hel, an ice field that buttressed up against Odin’s Glacier. Apparently, Vikkommin had chosen to make this his home.

“Vikkommin has been following you for years?” Camille struggled to stay on her feet. The trail was hard going, with large patches of ice glazing the surface. In places, small boulders the size of my head were buried just deep enough in the snow to trip over.

“You saw him—that one time when we linked minds. He’s been following me for hundreds of years, daring me to return. I think he believes I was the one who did it. He comes to me in my dreams, looking for revenge.”

As we turned the corner, we found ourselves at a copse of trees. The forest was dark and old, but at least we wouldn’t be pounded so badly by the elements.

Howl glanced at me. “Come. We must get through the woods with all haste.” He ducked under the low-hanging cedar boughs, setting off a shower of snow from the upper reaches of the trees.

I glanced back at Camille, who gave me a brave smile. “I’m sorry I brought you—I asked too much. This can’t be very pleasant.”

“You’re family, Iris. Smoky and I were happy to come.”

“That we were,” the dragon said, kissing the top of Camille’s head. “We would have been worried sick with you out here by yourself.”

“Ditto,” Roz said.

And so, after a long breath, I followed Howl into the