By the time we glance back, its too late. The temperature where were standing just plummeted a good thirty degrees. The Hoar Frost King is vanishing into a slit in the air just above the street about a hundred yards away. The fog sucks in, the dark blob glides into a portal, the slit vanishes and noise returns to the world.
Sort of. Jos crying but it sounds like shes doing it in a paper bag beneath a pile of blankets.
One day, in the field near the abbey, a cow head-butted me in the stomach because I freeze-framed into her and woke her up, startling her. I feel exactly the same way now: I cant get a breath into my lungs. I keep trying to inflate them but they stay flat as pancakes glued together. When I finally do manage to breathe, its with a great sucking wheeze that sounds hollow and wrong and its so cold it burns going down.
I stare bleakly down the street.
Theyre all dead.
Every last one of them is dead.
Chesters topside is a sculpture of frozen statues shrouded in ice and silence.
Feck, no! I explode and wail all at the same time.
Where, moments ago, people were talking and singing, worrying and planning, living, for fecks sake, living, not a spark of life remains. Every man, woman, and child we were standing in the middle of is dead.
The human race is down by another few hundred.
Hoar Frost King: 25. Human Race: 0.
Dublins going to be a fecking ghost town if this keeps up.
I stare. White bumps and knobs and pillars, folks are coated with hoar frost then glazed with a thick shiny layer of ice. Icicles hang from their hands and elbows. Breaths are frozen plumes of frosted crystals on the air. The cold the scene radiates is painful, even from here, like part of Dublin just got dunked into outer space. Kids are frozen, huddled around the fire cans, warming their hands above them. Adults are frozen, arms around each other, some swaying, some clapping. Its eerily silent, too silent. Like the whole scene is heavily baffled and all noise is being absorbed.
Beside me, Jo is crying soft and pretty. Its the only noise in the night, heck, it sounds like its the only noise in the whole world! Figures she even cries like a dainty cat. Me, I blubber like a snot-nosed hound with big wet, gulping sounds, not tiny sighs and mews. I stand in silence, shaking, gritting my teeth and fisting my hands, to keep from blubbering.
I retreat like I do when things are too much for me to deal with. I pretend they arent people under all that milky frost and ice. I refuse to let what happened touch me because grief isnt going to save Dublin. I pretend theyre puzzle pieces. Nothing but evidence. Theyre the way to keep it from happening again, if I can interpret the clues they left. Later, theyll be folks to me again, and Ill make some kind of memorial here.
They just wanted to get warm.
You should have let theminside, I say.
Speculate why it came to this spot at this moment. Ryodan says.
Speculate, my ass. Dude, youre colder than they are! And aint that the million-dollar question? I cant look at him. If hed let them inside, they wouldnt be dead. If I hadnt stood there arguing about stupid stuff and spent more time talking him into letting them inside, they wouldnt be dead. I shiver and button the top button of my coat, right up under my neck, and scrub frost from the tip off my nose. Do our voices sound wrong to you?
Everything sounds wrong. This whole street feels wrong.
Thats because it is wrong, Dancer says behind me. Massively wrong.
I turn. Dancer!
He gives me a faint smile but it doesnt light up his face like usual. He looks tired, pale, and there are dark circles under his eyes. Mega. Good to see you. I thought you were coming back. He looks at Ryodan then me with a quizzical expression.
I slice my head once to the side and shrug. Last thing I want him to do is bring up that I told him Ryodan was dead. He reads me well, like always. Later well chew over how the heck Ryodan survived a gutting. I was coming back
No, you werent, Ryodan says. You live at Chesters now.
Do not.
I had to go to somewhere, Dancer says, and thought maybe you came looking for me but missed the note I left.
I try to flash him a grin that says how happy I am to see him but it comes out wobbly.
Me, too, Mega.
I do grin then, because were always on the same wavelength.
She lives with me, Christian says from somewhere above us. Im the only one that can take care of her.
I look up but dont spot him. I take care of myself. I aint living with nobody. Got my own digs. What are you doing up there?
Tracking the Hag. Trying to devise a way to trap her. Shes fast but shes not a sifter.
I jerk, and look around warily. Thats all we need right now. Is she here?
If you brought that crazy bitch near me again. Ryodan doesnt finish his sentence. He doesnt need to.
I left her south of the city. Knitting. Shell be busy awhile.
Theres a sudden, flat whoosh of air and it instinctively makes me duck, hare to a hawk. I think the noise made by the winged fliers of the Wild Hunt is branded into a sidhe-seers subconscious. Im dusted with black snow. Christian, you got your wings! Theyre huge. Theyre incredible. He can fly. Im so jealous I almost cant stand it.
Sort of. Jos crying but it sounds like shes doing it in a paper bag beneath a pile of blankets.
One day, in the field near the abbey, a cow head-butted me in the stomach because I freeze-framed into her and woke her up, startling her. I feel exactly the same way now: I cant get a breath into my lungs. I keep trying to inflate them but they stay flat as pancakes glued together. When I finally do manage to breathe, its with a great sucking wheeze that sounds hollow and wrong and its so cold it burns going down.
I stare bleakly down the street.
Theyre all dead.
Every last one of them is dead.
Chesters topside is a sculpture of frozen statues shrouded in ice and silence.
Feck, no! I explode and wail all at the same time.
Where, moments ago, people were talking and singing, worrying and planning, living, for fecks sake, living, not a spark of life remains. Every man, woman, and child we were standing in the middle of is dead.
The human race is down by another few hundred.
Hoar Frost King: 25. Human Race: 0.
Dublins going to be a fecking ghost town if this keeps up.
I stare. White bumps and knobs and pillars, folks are coated with hoar frost then glazed with a thick shiny layer of ice. Icicles hang from their hands and elbows. Breaths are frozen plumes of frosted crystals on the air. The cold the scene radiates is painful, even from here, like part of Dublin just got dunked into outer space. Kids are frozen, huddled around the fire cans, warming their hands above them. Adults are frozen, arms around each other, some swaying, some clapping. Its eerily silent, too silent. Like the whole scene is heavily baffled and all noise is being absorbed.
Beside me, Jo is crying soft and pretty. Its the only noise in the night, heck, it sounds like its the only noise in the whole world! Figures she even cries like a dainty cat. Me, I blubber like a snot-nosed hound with big wet, gulping sounds, not tiny sighs and mews. I stand in silence, shaking, gritting my teeth and fisting my hands, to keep from blubbering.
I retreat like I do when things are too much for me to deal with. I pretend they arent people under all that milky frost and ice. I refuse to let what happened touch me because grief isnt going to save Dublin. I pretend theyre puzzle pieces. Nothing but evidence. Theyre the way to keep it from happening again, if I can interpret the clues they left. Later, theyll be folks to me again, and Ill make some kind of memorial here.
They just wanted to get warm.
You should have let theminside, I say.
Speculate why it came to this spot at this moment. Ryodan says.
Speculate, my ass. Dude, youre colder than they are! And aint that the million-dollar question? I cant look at him. If hed let them inside, they wouldnt be dead. If I hadnt stood there arguing about stupid stuff and spent more time talking him into letting them inside, they wouldnt be dead. I shiver and button the top button of my coat, right up under my neck, and scrub frost from the tip off my nose. Do our voices sound wrong to you?
Everything sounds wrong. This whole street feels wrong.
Thats because it is wrong, Dancer says behind me. Massively wrong.
I turn. Dancer!
He gives me a faint smile but it doesnt light up his face like usual. He looks tired, pale, and there are dark circles under his eyes. Mega. Good to see you. I thought you were coming back. He looks at Ryodan then me with a quizzical expression.
I slice my head once to the side and shrug. Last thing I want him to do is bring up that I told him Ryodan was dead. He reads me well, like always. Later well chew over how the heck Ryodan survived a gutting. I was coming back
No, you werent, Ryodan says. You live at Chesters now.
Do not.
I had to go to somewhere, Dancer says, and thought maybe you came looking for me but missed the note I left.
I try to flash him a grin that says how happy I am to see him but it comes out wobbly.
Me, too, Mega.
I do grin then, because were always on the same wavelength.
She lives with me, Christian says from somewhere above us. Im the only one that can take care of her.
I look up but dont spot him. I take care of myself. I aint living with nobody. Got my own digs. What are you doing up there?
Tracking the Hag. Trying to devise a way to trap her. Shes fast but shes not a sifter.
I jerk, and look around warily. Thats all we need right now. Is she here?
If you brought that crazy bitch near me again. Ryodan doesnt finish his sentence. He doesnt need to.
I left her south of the city. Knitting. Shell be busy awhile.
Theres a sudden, flat whoosh of air and it instinctively makes me duck, hare to a hawk. I think the noise made by the winged fliers of the Wild Hunt is branded into a sidhe-seers subconscious. Im dusted with black snow. Christian, you got your wings! Theyre huge. Theyre incredible. He can fly. Im so jealous I almost cant stand it.
