Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,117

“Not yet.”

“I’m not really sure I believe in foretellings,” Tala admitted.

Nya nodded understandingly. “I probably wouldn’t believe them either, if Grammy hadn’t been my grammy. She said I had to stay close to you guys, that there was something important I had to do. I don’t know what that is yet.” She paused, suddenly looking stricken. “I’m not being a burden to the rest of you, am I? I know she asked, but…”

“You’re not that at all,” Tala quickly assured her. “You were, ah, amazing back there, with the ice wolves. Like a female Indiana Jones. You, uh, know who Indiana—”

“Of course, silly,” Nya said, grinning. “We still had television and films a dozen years ago.”

West had volunteered to scout ahead, shedding his clothes rapidly before assuming the form of a large eagle to survey the area before them. West, Loki explained, had a finer grasp of direction once he was in any other form but human. He returned within the next hour, shimmering and changing the instant his feet touched the ground.

“We’re getting closer now,” he reported, wrapping his cloak around him. His face however, was troubled. “You’ll be able to see it once we’re over that hill.”

“See what?” Ken asked, but a profound change had come over Nya’s face.

“Maidenkeep,” she said simply.

Ken stared at her, his face conflicted between anger and grim determination. “So we’re finally gonna see what those cold bastards did to the place, huh?”

Zoe seemed sad, and Loki resolute. Cole’s gray eyes were as hard as ever, but there was a strange blankness to Alex’s expression, as if he was forbidding himself from feeling anything.

“What are we going to see?” Tala asked with some trepidation.

“You’ll know soon enough,” Loki told her, guiding their horse up the hill West pointed out, near the edge of what looked like a sheer vertical drop, and the others followed closely behind.

Tala found herself staring down at a low, expansive valley. Directly below, frozen swampland stretched on for several miles, an ugly greenish-blue birthmark amid the small patches of ice. Farther beyond that was the faint outline of a large city, a collection of rooftops no bigger than dolls’ houses from where she stood.

But it was neither the swamps nor the city that caught her attention. Farther in the distance, still within Lyonesse’s territory, lay what Tala could only describe as a tall shimmering peak, rising above even the tallest of the frost-tipped trees that hid most of it from view. Even in the dusk, it shone, catching the last rays of sunlight on its numerous surfaces. Pointed ridges stuck out at odd angles every several feet. It was a captivating, almost haunting sight, but there was something about it that struck her as being unnatural, like it was made out of…

“Ice,” Nya breathed, completing her train of thought. Her brown and gold eyes looked awed. “I’ve never seen it before. Not like this.”

“Maidenkeep was hit hardest by the frost,” Zoe said quietly. “We’re finally here.”

“And we’re gonna take her back,” Alex added, a rigid cast to his jaw. “You hear me, you bloody ice witch? We’re taking my kingdom back!” His voice rang across the plains below them, like he was calling on the Snow Queen herself to defy his words, and several miles away the castle gleamed brightly, as if in challenge.

26

In Which the Marsh King Chooses a Wife

The marshlands were a brittle miasma of stunted growth and frigid decay. The only signs of life were the dark indistinct figures that slithered underneath their feet as they carefully picked their way through the frozen ice. The mist hovered low, limiting their sight to no more than several feet. The only vegetation around were several sickly looking reeds and dead tree stumps, and what brief view they had of the sky soon faded, obscured by forbidding-looking clouds; the harsh light that remained, rendered irrelevant somehow.

A constant hissing and bubbling noise, muffled but still apparent, seemed to saturate the air. Tala had a sick, unshakable feeling that beneath the thick layer of ice separating them from the murky bog below, something was following them. Other than that, an eerie silence had descended on the place, blocking out every other noise.

“You’re the expert here, Loki,” Zoe said, shivering. “What do you suggest we do now?”

“We don’t have much of a choice. This is the only way to get to Maidenkeep. The only other option is to retrace our steps and take a longer, circular route that’ll add at least a month