The Iron Traitor
Page 46

Kenzie, of course, ignored me. Her eyes were wide as she ran a finger along its snout, shivering. “It’s so cold,” she whispered. “How long has it been like this, I wonder?”
“Kenzie...”
A shout boomed from behind me, and something grabbed my arms. I yelped and spun, drawing my swords and slashing wildly at whatever had sneaked up on me from behind.
Puck—of course it was Puck—staggered away, gasping with laughter, having already dodged my swords. I relaxed, lowering my weapons as annoyance swiftly replaced alarm.
“Hilarious.” I sheathed my blades and glared at him. He cackled, and I stifled the urge to march up and punch him in his grinning mouth. “I could’ve cut your head off, you know.”
“You’re way too uptight, kid,” Puck said, giving me a friendly wink. “Man, you’re just like your sister when she first came to the Nevernever, jumping at everything like a startled rabbit. And no, you couldn’t have. I spent decades tormenting ice-boy, who has far better reflexes than you. I’m afraid you’re no touch-me-and-I’ll-kill-you Unseelie prince, human.”
A few yards away, Razor cackled with glee on Keirran’s shoulder, bouncing up and down and shouting “Funny, funny!” in a high-pitched voice, but the prince looked far less amused. “We should keep moving,” he said, sounding like he was trying to hide his impatience. “Kenzie, Ethan, you’ll probably see several more frozen animals, or even people, before we reach the caves. It’s best to leave them in peace.”
Kenzie stroked the elk’s furry neck. “Will it ever wake up?”
“It’s dead,” Keirran told her gently, and she pulled her arm back in horror. “The Cold took it when it lay down to sleep. And if we stand in one place for too long, it will try to take us, too. Come on, let’s keep going.”
We kept marching, our steps muffled by snow, barely making any sound as we forged ahead. The forest around us remained eerily silent and still, except for brief flashes of color from once-living creatures trapped in ice. A fox sleeping in a hollow log, its bushy tail curled around itself. Another stag, its antlers entangled in the branches of a low tree, now immobilized for all time. Countless birds frozen to the twigs they perched on, feathers puffed out against the cold, looking like fuzzy golf balls. Even a gray wolf, its fur bristling with icicles, lay curled in a ball at the base of a tree. Solemn and beautiful, in a morbid kind of way. Kenzie and I ate another flamefruit as evening approached and the effects slowly wore off. But our supply was dwindling, and I hoped we could do whatever we had to do here quickly and return to Arcadia before we ran out and froze to death.
As darkness began to fall and the sky overhead turned navy blue, the temperature dropped sharply. Even through the warm haze of the flamefruit, I could feel the chill prickling my skin. Puck glanced nervously at the sky and made a comment about picking up the pace.
“Why?” Kenzie asked, briskly rubbing her arms. “Does something happen at night?”
“Oh, nothing serious,” Puck said cheerfully. “It’s just the frost wraiths come out at night, and we probably want to avoid running into any. Nasty buggers, no sense of humor at all. Will suck the warmth right out of you, and all the flamefruit in the world won’t save you from them.”
I felt a weird sensation along my own forearms and looked down to see frost creeping over my skin. Shivering, I followed Kenzie’s example and quickly scrubbed it away.
“The caves aren’t far,” Keirran said, looking up at the mountain peaks. Razor peeked out of his collar, his huge ears and eyes the only things visible. “If we hurry, we should be there in a few...”
An unearthly wailing rose from the trees around us, making Puck wince and everyone else jump. Razor buzzed with alarm and hid down Keirran’s shirt.
“Well, I told you so,” Puck said and drew his daggers. “Better get ready. Here they come!”
Figures floated through the trees, blurred and indistinguishable. As they drifted closer, I saw they looked like gray wisps of tattered cloth, fluttering over the ground. Glowing blue eyes stared out at us as bony hands slipped from within the layers of rags and reached out, clawing and grasping.
I shoved Kenzie behind me and met the first two that flapped toward us, pale fingers reaching for my face. My first slice hit one right in the center of the floating rags and it frayed apart with a wail, the cloth fluttering to the ground. The second one tried sliding around me and going for Kenzie. Snarling, I whirled, slashing viciously at the wraith as it passed, cutting it from the air. It flopped limply to the snow, an empty pile of rags, before the wind blew it away. More ragged figures floated toward me from the darkness. I glimpsed Puck and Keirran a few yards away, slashing and dancing around their own attackers, blades whirling. Kenzie stood protected in the center of the triangle, and I intended to keep it that way. Raising my swords, I faced the next three swooping down from the branches of the trees.
Two wraiths came shrieking at my face, skeletal arms outstretched. I jerked back as one clawed at me, lashed out and sliced through its neck. The next attacker flung itself at me, right onto the tip of my sword as I stabbed upward, impaling itself on the blade.
The last dodged my swing and swooped low, darting beneath the second blade like a jerky puppet. Before I could move, it latched on to my leg, wrapped itself around my jeans and sank needle-sharp teeth into my calf.
The cold that lanced through me from the thing’s bite was a physical pain, sharp and burning. It was like I’d plunged my leg into a vat of ice water. My leg nearly buckled, and my howl of pain came out as a strangled rasp because my jaw was clenched so hard.
With shaking fingers, I put my weapon between my leg and the thing clinging to it and shoved hard, hoping I wouldn’t cut myself by mistake. By this time, my arms were shaking violently as well, but I managed to pry the wraith off and hurl it away. It darted back at my face with a shriek, and I slashed wildly, cutting it in two by sheer dumb luck.
That was the last of the wraiths, but I was shaking so hard now I thought I might throw up. I couldn’t keep ahold of my swords; they dropped from my numb fingers into the snow, and I didn’t think I had the muscle coordination to pick them up again. My teeth chattered, and breathing had suddenly become a painful chore.
“Oh, God, Ethan.” Kenzie put a hand on my arm; it felt like a hot coal, searing and wonderful. “Your skin is like ice. Here. This is my last one.”
She pressed something to my lips—one of the flamefruit pods, which was good, because my hands were shaking too hard to hold anything. I swallowed and felt the little fruit burn a path down to my stomach, easing some of the pain. Just a little, but it was enough for me to be able to move again.
Keirran and Puck walked up, both looking grim. “One of ’em got you, huh?” Puck muttered, peering at my face. “Nasty. Good thing you managed to get a flamefruit into your system before everything shut down. Even so, you probably won’t be able to get completely warm for about a week. But hey, better cold than dead, right?”
A sarcastic retort came to mind, but I couldn’t force it past my chattering teeth. Keirran swept up, shrugging out of his black cloak, and wordlessly handed it to Kenzie. She smiled at him gratefully and turned back to me, wrapping the dark fabric around my shoulders. I was beginning to feel a little embarrassed with their concern; I was just cold, not bleeding to death. But I couldn’t think of an argument right now, and besides, another layer of cloth between the air and my bare skin felt pretty good.
“Let’s get out of the open,” Keirran muttered as an icy breeze tossed his hair and made my teeth clack together painfully. “The caves aren’t far now.”
* * *
We finally reached the cliffs, following Puck through a gorge with huge sharp crystals spiking out of the ground and walls. I was still freezing, shivering badly even with the flamefruit and Keirran’s cloak, and moving around didn’t seem to be helping. So when we stumbled upon a large black hole in the cliff wall, surrounded by jagged blue crystals that looked sharp enough to impale yourself on, I was relieved to get out of the wind, at least.
Inside the cave, the walls and floor glittered with more jagged crystals that glowed with a faint blue light and threw weird toothy shadows over the cave. I glanced up and saw that the ceiling was covered in dangling icicles, insanely long and sharp enough to worry me if I wasn’t so freaking cold.
Farther back, the cave continued into the darkness. Keirran walked to where the shadows hovered at the edge of the glow and stared into the black.
“There’s a tunnel,” he murmured. “It looks like it goes down, below us.”
Puck shot me a glance and shook his head. “Yeah, well, we’re not going anywhere tonight. Not until Popsicle Boy thaws out a little.” He gave an exaggerated shiver, rubbing his arms. “Geez, it’s cold! I hate winter. Don’t see how ice-boy can stand— Oy, princeling, where do you think you’re going?”
Keirran had taken a few steps into the tunnel, but paused and turned to stare at us. In the looming darkness, his eyes glowed an eerie blue-white.
“I can feel it,” he said, his voice cold and lethal again. “It’s down there, waiting for us.”
“Yeah, well, like I said, we’re not going anywhere for a while.” Puck glanced at me. “Fire first, then when this one can hold a sword again, we’ll see about marching down and taking on the big nasty. So you’re just gonna have to sit tight and cool your heels until we’re ready, princeling.”
Shaking his head, Puck moved to an open spot on the floor, kneeling down to start a fire. How he was going to do that with no wood and everything covered in ice was beyond me, but that was where magic came in, I guessed. After a moment, Keirran went to help, leaving me shivering in the middle of the room, wishing I could help but grateful not to move right then.
Kenzie came up beside me, peering into my face. “Your lips are blue,” she stated, her brow creased with worry. I tried managing a shrug and a smirk, but I couldn’t quite feel my face.