12:17
Ben and Dan stepped in fast and caught Erik before he hit the snow. Now completely free of the snow and with his features no longer stiff with cold the resemblance to Al was uncanny. Un-freaking-canny.
Maybe if he opened his eyes it would one-hundred percent confirm that the person was Al. But his eyes, like Gia’s remained closed. His chest rose and fell subtly with his breaths, confirming he was alive, but except for that there would be serious doubt as he didn’t move, didn’t twitch, and for sure didn’t blink.
Kim looked to Gwen pushing up fast with her hand out. She stepped away to give her friend access to Erik. Al? Irrelevant in the moment. Again, calling him Erik. Just because.
Gwen laid her hand on Erik’s chest. Closed her eyes. Took several long breaths. Then sat back and looked over her shoulder at the group clustered around Kim. “He’s the same as Gia.”
“He’s Al!” Patti declared in a loud voice.
“We don’t know that.” Siobhan always the voice of reason. “We came looking for Erik. And Gia. It stands to reason he is is Erik.”
“Does it?” Ben pressed. “What if we think we found the guy and it isn’t the guy and we fail?”
“Gia thought it was Erik.” Everyone turned to look at Prairie.
“Explain?” Patti asked.
“Gia had her hand on the ice surrounding this person. Would she have done it if she didn’t think it was Erik?”
“Can we maybe debate this somewhere warm?” Gwen asked, rubbing her hands up and down her arms.
Siobhan bit her lip. “If Prairie is right, and it feels like she is, then we could leave. But if we are wrong–” She left the implication to form in everyone’s minds.
Kim looked at the limp figure between Ben and Dan. Then looked at Gia lying in Ivan’s lap. Back at the figure. Then something occurred to her.
“Prairie?”
Prairie tilted her head. “Yes?”
“Can you read his soul?”
“Uh, I–” Prairie looked to the side, lips pursed, then back at Kim. “I’m not sure?”
Siobhan pressed her hands to her mouth, blew on them. “Please try. If it doesn’t work we lose nothing.”
“Except heat,” Patti added. When everyone looked at her she made a face. “What? We are.”
“We are.” Siobhan sighed and looked at Prairie. “Can you try?”
“Yes.” Prairie walked over. She hovered her hand over the man’s chest. Then she moved it to his throat. Up to between his eyes. Her features firmed in a look of concentration. Then she stood back and took a long breath. “That is not Al.” At Siobhan’s reeling hand gesture she added, “I don’t know if it’s Erik, but I know it isn’t Al. I don’t think. He has the feeling of Al but,” she went quiet and looked at her feet, before looking up again with a troubled expression, “I do not think that is Al.”
“So,” Dempsey drawled, “let’s assume its Erik. Maybe if we get him and Gia out of the cold they’ll wake up.”
Prairie perked up. “Perhaps they are in a state of suspended animation due to the cold.” When the others gave her quizzical looks she added, “it happens. When people are submerged in cold water their hearts can appear to stop but there is a chance once they warm they will recover.”
Dempsey nodded. “Hopefully. I’ll get Erik.” He walked over and scooped up the limp man, grunting as he rose to his feet. Erik was tall enough that his arms and legs dangled. The logistics of it made it difficult for Dempsey to carry him in his arms bridal-style.
“Here.” Ben walked over and closed his hands around Erik’s legs. Dan moved to Dempsey’s other side and grabbed Erik’s arms. Between the three of them they seemed able to carry Erik now.
Dempsey looked at Ivan, still on the ground. “Can you get Gia?”
“Sure.”
Ivan didn’t show the same difficulty lifting Gia. Then again she was much smaller than Erik. Once Ivan had Gia situated her pivoted to head back in the direction they’d entered. With no other direction it felt like they were going to have to take the long journey back through the castle to get out.
That was if there was a way back. Which maybe there was. Behind the giant, fucking wall of ice blocking their exit. It wasn’t just a wall they could walk to the end of and around. It curved in a c-shape and it stretched into the mist. Kim suspected if they’d followed it they’d encounter the side wall of the room on either end.
“Ice!” Patti exclaimed, pretty much unnecessarily as Kim guaranteed everyone saw the wall of ice.
They all turned to look at Kim.
“Can you melt it?” Siobhan asked.
Kim dug into herself where her Magick reserve lived. And found it was a very shallow pool and not the pond or lake large enough to have its own tide she usually envisioned it as. Still, “Maybe? If it isn’t very thick.”
Abe ran over to the wall. They peered hard at it for a moment then ran back to the group. “It is very thick.”
“Thick like a book?” Kim asked, slanting Dan a glance by habit when mentioning books. “Or, like thick like, I don’t know, Ben’s head?”
This startled a laugh out of Abe. Then they grinned. “Definitely Ben’s head. Maybe even two of Ben’s head.”
A sinking feeling hit Kim right in the gut. She walked over to the wall, mist swirling away from her legs, to confirm Abe’s assessment. Yeah, that was thicker than two of Patti’s butts and Patti had a lovely thick behind. Or to put it in perspective it was probably the width of two of the columns Erik had been encased in. There was no chance.
She turned back around and shook her head. Siobhan instantly went into what Kim thought of as crisis mode. She paced to the left about five paces. Back. To the right. Walked up to the ice wall. Then she walked back.
“Dan? Abe? Can you Magick word it?”
“I–” before Abe could finish the thought Siobhan edited her statement, “Dan can you Magick word or Abe can you Magick code the wall out?”
Dan grunted. “Can someone take Al’s arms?”
“Here,” Dempsey stooped and then sat down with Al draped over his lap. “No use us getting exhausted holding him up.”
Apparently seeing the wisdom of this, Ivan sat down with Gia in his lap. Then he looked around.
“Gwen?”
When Gwen walked over he unwrapped the cloak from around Gia and held it up to her. “I can keep her warm with my body. You need this more.”
Gwen gave Gia a long look. She bit her lip then slowly nodded and wrapped the cloak around herself. It was a testament to how cold she had to be that Kim’s kind-hearted friend didn’t insist the cloak remain around Gia.
The mist rose up, obscuring Ivan from the ribs down and effectively hiding Gia in its depths. Looking over Kim saw a similar effect around Dempsey and Al. She eyed the mist. It was made up of cold water and its touch had to be leaching Dempsey, Al, Ivan, and Gia of heat. She searched her well of energy again but didn’t have enough to even move the mist away.
She pulled an energy bar from her cargo pocket and scarfed it down. When it was and the gaping pit inside of her felt like nothing had hit it she pulled out another bar and consumed it almost as fast. She knew she had to wait a little to feel the effect but she felt like they didn’t have a while to wait.
At least her hunger wasn’t reaching out to the others. That was something. There was still a puddle of energy inside of her. Not dry, cracked earth.
Once Dan was free of his obligation to hold Erik’s arms, he walked over to the ice wall with Abe half-skipping along beside him. He ran his hand over his mouth as he stared at it. Abe unspooled the ink from their arm and sent it to splash against the surface of the wall. Dan pulled out a book and paged through it. Then they started consulting in quiet voices. A few, “yeahs,” and “uh huhs,” drifted back to where the rest of the group stood.
After a long, long time – okay maybe two to three meros but the cold made it felt infinite – Abe came bounding back to the group while Dan remained staring at the ice and making quick notations in one of his books.
“Well, we have some good news.” Abe rocked back and forth, heel to toe, heel to toe. Then they bounced a few times for good measure before clasping their hands in front of themselves hard enough their knuckles popped against their tattooed skin. Like they could hold back their excitement with a firm grip and determination. Kim fought the urge to tell them it wasn’t working.
“Which implies you have some bad news.” Patti drawled.
“Does it?” Abe gave Patti a sunny smile.
Ben rolled his eyes then quickly grinned. “Do you?”
“Well, yes. But there is good news!” Always the optimist, that Abe. Glass half full? Glass half empty? At least there’s a glass!
In the situation they found themselves in it would probably be full of ice. And made of ice. But people did like a nice cold drink.
“What’s the good news?” Prairie asked.
“Dan and I can see the code!”
“And the bad news?” When Abe turned big puppy dog eyes her way, Patti changed the question, “What is the not good news?”
“The less,” Abe leaned heavy into the word, “good news is we tried to alter it and we can’t.”
Siobhan nodded her head, her expression solemn. “That is less good news.”
Dan ambled over. “Wants a password.”
“What’s a password?” Siobhan asked.
“Unknown.” Dan shifted his toothpick. “Based on the phrase I’d say it’s a word that is used to pass.”
Well, if that definition explain—absolutely nothing! It explained absolutely nothing!
“Pass what?” The question popped out of Kim’s mouth, blitzing her plan to not get involved in the chaotic conversation. Ugh. She had zero self-control. Zero.
“Pass the part that is stopping us!” Abe’s eyes sparkled with the possibilities. “We just need to figure it out!”
“How many words could it be?”
“Millions.” Dan said, deadpan. “Possibly billions.”
“But maybe less!” Abe bounced on their feet. If they were any more excited, Kim was pretty sure they’d levitate.
“Do you have any guess where to start?” Dan just gave Siobhan a steady look. She followed up her question with, “I guess that’s a no.”
“It is. A no.”
“Next question. How does a password work?”
Dan’s, “Unknown,” overlapped Abe’s excited, “You input it!”
Siobhan turned her attention on Abe. “Input it? How?”
“I don’t know!”
Siobhan shifted her gaze back to Dan. “How?”
“Unknown.”
“Do you have any guesses?”
It was Abe that answered, “There is a hole,” the sketched a shape on the air, “in the code. We can see it. I think we insert the password there.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.” If possible Abe’s smile got wider. Seriously that amount of enthusiasm had to be exhausting. Kim was exhausted just watching Abe bounce and jive and radiate excitement.
Gwen strolled over, swallowed up by the cloak that appeared to have been made for a taller person. “I’d say the first step is to find the password. Then figure out how to input it.”
“Millions of choices.” Patti looked to Dan. “Can they be narrowed down?”
Prairie tilted her head. “Is there a word in the story that might fit?”
Dan gave her a long, considering look. “Might be.”
“Then,” she gave him a gentle, close-mouthed smile. “Maybe that’s a place to start?”
Dan’s long blink made Kim think he was asking himself why he didn’t think of it. The cold. That was why.
Siobhan leaned towards Prairie. “Prairie, what are the signs of hypothermia?”
Her question suggested her mind was going the same place Kim’s was. And Prairie’s answer supported it. “Shivering.”
Patti hugged her arms around her middle. “Check.”
“It’s important to keep track of that,” Prairie continued. “If it stops that’s a bad sign.”
“Keep track of shivering.” Patti nodded. “What else?”
“Pale, cold skin. Shallow breathing.”
Ben made a show of slowly exhaling, a cloud of expelled breath forming in front of his face. “Not there yet.”
“Slowed pulse. Loss of coordination. Stumbling. Stiff muscles. Fumbling things with your hands.”
Siobhan flexed her hands. “I’m experiencing a little of that.”
Prairie peered at Siobhan’s hands. “Make sure to keep track and tell us if it gets bad.”
“I will.”
“Drowsiness. Exhaustion. Confusion. Slurred speech.”
“Oh, yeah,” Patti sighed. Definitely drowsy.”
“It’s important to stay awake. Keep moving.”
“Can do.” Patti made a point of marching briskly in place. Abe bounced on their toes then shimmied side-to-side.
“I think we’re all at the confusion stage,” Prairie added. “It would explain why Dan didn’t think to check the story.”
Dan looked up from the page he was perusing in the glow from the alchemy torch he still had clipped to his vest. He lifted his chin in acknowledgement then went back to flicking pages.
“It would be a great time for a friendly crow,” Gwen said, leaning her head back to scan the Aurora Borealis above them. “I said,” she pitched her voice louder, “It would be a great time for a friendly crow!”
When no friendly crow, or anything, appeared, she added. “A mouse? A mouse would be great too.”
Still nothing. Yet Kim strained her ears, thinking to catch the strain of bluegrass. She looked over at Patti. Patti’s face had a look of concentration suggesting she was scanning with her Magick. Then she blinked, met Kim’s gaze, and shook her head.
“No. Nothing.” The slur of the ‘nothing’ drew Kim’s attention.
“You okay?”
“No? If I thought my tits were freezing off outside I was wrong. Now? Yeah.” She showed no shame in clasping her boobs with her hands while hunching her shoulders forward. Then she slanted a glance to where Sass clung to her neck. The mouse was visibly shaking.
Patti sniffed and released a boob to carefully pick up Sass. She moved the mouse to the neck of her sweater then shoved it under so her arm disappeared to the wrist. Catching Kim’s confused look, she explained, “They may be freezing off but my boobs are the warmest place on my body. Except for my groin. And I’m not shoving Sass into my bush!”
A small peep seeped out from under Patti’s sweater. Kim read it as agreement about the whole vag thing. She did not need to think about Patti’s vag, mouse or no mouse being positioned there.
She shifted her gaze when it wanted to go unerringly to that part of Patti’s body. Impulsive, her? Something in her peripheral caught her eye. If she hadn’t shifted away from staring at Patti’s groin she might have missed it.
Turning slightly to face the ice wall, she squinted through the mist, trying to catch a view of whatever had niggled her notice. Her heart squeezed as several transparent figures separated from the wall and started towards them. With the mist and the challenged lighting, it was hard to make out details but there was no question there was movement.
The figures didn’t so much seem to walk as flow. The mist curled and swirled around them, alternately obscuring and revealing their forms. They were pale, almost white though there was a sense of transparency about them, making it hard to pick them out against the backdrop of snow and ice.
“Guys? Folks? People?”
There was the sound of movement behind her and then Gwen’s gasp and Ben’s “Shit!” suggested that she wasn’t the only one seeing whatever was approaching.
A wave of cold hit them, coming from the direction of the figures. No, not the direction. The figures.
Kim’s earlier debate about whether there were ice elementals flitted through her mind as she fought to focus on the advancing forms. Pretty sure those were ice elementals. Instinctively she reached out with her Magick. Whether it was her low reserves or the fact that she’d never encountered an ice elemental and didn’t know if she could connect with one, her effort failed.
She dropped back a step and cast a look over her shoulder. “I can’t reach them. They might just be curious but if they aren’t–”
Patti groped around and picked up the shield she’d rested against her legs. She held it out with a slightly unsteady grasp then unhooked her cudgel from her belt. Her “Ready” was hard to hear through her chattering teeth.
By Patti’s reaction Kim realized the approach of the elementals was driving the cold up by several notches. Notches Air was challenged to compensate for.
Not good. Not good at all. Even if the elementals were just curious, the cold they brought with them was a very real threat. And Kim’s reserves were so low she didn’t have the energy to boost Air or potentially call Fire to assist. Ben was lucky MF had formed on its own and latched on to him, but he was the only one in the group, except for Gwen with her cloak, that was likely not staggering beneath the effects of the approaching elementals.
A quick look over her shoulder confirmed this as she watched Siobhan choke for breath then clasp her hand over her mouth and nose, likely to conserve whatever heat was escaping her with her breaths.
Kim felt her nasal passages drying up. It was like she felt each individual nasal hair and those hairs felt brittle. A lump of what she guessed was mucus formed somewhere around her upper palate, lying so heavy she swore the roof of her mouth was touching her tongue. Her lungs burned and her chest heaved and she fought the cough that wanted to escape. Somehow she thought expelling a bunch of air from her lungs, where it was ostensibly warmer, was a bad thing.
As she fought the effects of the cold, swallowing hard to try to dislodge the wad of mucus threatening to cut off her breathing, Kim took a quick survey of her friends. Siobhan teetered on her feet, then righted herself. She narrowed her eyes on the approaching elementals then pulled a potion from her bag’s strap.
Prairie clutched her daggers against her chest, hands crossed so the tips of the blades poked out at angles over her shoulders. Her hands visibly shook, causing the blades to waver. Kirby manifested next to her and pressed close, shoring her up and probably sharing its warmth.
Ben held his hands to his sides. Shadows wreathed them. A small tendril of ink flowed from Abe’s tattoo dark hand and formed a cloud that shimmied above their knuckles. Dan closed the book he was reading, put it in his vest pocket, then withdrew another book which he clumsily paged through.
Gwen clutched the cloak close at her neck, looked down, and closed her eyes. Even from where Kim stood a short distance from her friend she could see the rapid rise and fall of Gwen’s shoulders, indicating shortened breaths.
Kim turned back to assess the advance of the elementals and realized there was more than the first three or four she’d seen. A lot more. Maybe as many as twelve. And each of them projected a wave of cold as they moved, the force of them combining into a wall of super-chilled air that was having devastating effect.
The mist grew thicker around them, swirling around and making it difficult to see the creatures and to pinpoint where each was. The creatures seemed to jump from place to place, the view of them jittering so they appeared to teleport but Kim didn’t think they were. She hoped they weren’t. She hoped the jittering and jumping was just an illusion cast by the shifting mist.
Again she dug down into her well of Magick, hoping for just a little more. Enough that she could affect the elementals. Or just hold back the cold.
Again she found nothing.
An elemental broke from the group and approached Kim’s team, flowing over the snow with a speed that was both unnatural and the most natural thing in the world. As it drew closer its form became clearer against the mist. It was tall. If compared to Ivan or Dempsey Kim thought it would tower over both men and they were not short.
Its frame was stretched out, almost warped, like it had been formed of something like taffy that was pulled and tugged to form that impressive height. Its arms were long, showing a similar effect, and it trailed long fingers over the snow as it flowed towards Kim’s group.
Where those fingers brushed the mist froze, individual droplets hanging on the air and glittering like crystal. The frozen droplets made a sound like chimes as the creature moved through them. The closer it came the more intense the cold coming off it became. It halted a few short steps in front of Kim, close enough she could see the way its face was made up of features that closely resembled melting wax. Or fast freezing water.
It had what passed for a mouth, but was closer to a dark hole in its face. Long, pointed nose, with an icicle hanging from it obscuring the mouth hole. White orbs in deep recesses passed for its eyes. It fastened them on Kim and cold smashed into her face.
She fought to not breathe it in even as her lungs demanded she draw in air. As it was the cold hit her face like it had mass. The bones of her sinuses, her eye sockets, her teeth ached as if they’d taken a hit from a brick.
Along with the cold she felt something probing into her. Her Magick, what little there was left, absorbed the feeling, translating it into an image of a tightly focused ray of sun burning through ice-coated tree limbs. Intrinsically she understood this as curiosity. Why? Maybe it was her Magick but she just knew that was what the image meant.
“Hel–” Her voice broke as she tried to speak. Instead of forcing it and possibly hurting her throat, which instinctively she knew was a real danger, she pushed at her Magickal reserves and sent out a silent call.
Hello.
The elemental didn’t give any indication it heard or felt her.
With her second Hello? she felt her insides clench around the empty place her energy should be pooling. A wave of hunger seized her and she had to clench down hard with her abdominals to contain the rumble. She felt her empty reserve open and begin to reach out and she clamped down harder.
No. No, the hunger did not control her. She didn’t need to feed it. She was stronger than her Magick was. At least she prayed she was.
But, she couldn’t use her Magick anymore. If she did the hunger would grab energy from her friends and fuck that shit. Fuck it.
Two more elementals flowed up to form a loose line with the first. With them came more cold. The two new elementals looked at Kim and then beyond her. The cold mounted. Two more images formed in her mind. One of a lens of ice, acting as a magnifying glass. Or at least that was how she interpreted it. The other was less concrete. More an image of the flow of liquid washing through her.
That image morphed. The liquid froze, swelling in volume inside of her until she felt like she’d explode from the pressure. Then a wave of cold cunning – she couldn’t think of any way else to describe it – flooded her. The creature drew its hand from the snow and shot it forward with a speed that she could barely follow. As its hand came at her face, she realized its long fingers were tipped with sharp claws.
She braced for an impact that never came. Patti dove in front of her, shield out, and took the force of the hit on the wooden surface. It struck with enough force that Patti reeled back into Kim. Kim threw her hands out and braced them on Patti’s back, keeping her friend from falling to her ass.
The two other elementals flowed forward, claws out. Ben ran in. Shadows wreathed his hands. He swept his hands forward, the shadows lashing out at the elemental in front of him. The elemental stopped. Cocked its massive head. Then lifted his hand, what passed for a palm out. The shadows struck the hand and were absorbed. The elemental gave no evidence it was affected at all by the attack.
Instead it twisted its wrist to stare at the palm. After a moment it swept its arm out, impossibly long, and hit Ben across the chest and shoulder. Ben was lifted off his feet by the force of the strike. Abe threw up a hasty wave of ink, stopping Ben’s fall before he hit the snow.
When the third elemental flowed forward, both hands out with claws flared, Patti shoved away from Kim and met the advance with her shield. It hit at an angle, sending her spinning before she stumbled to her knees, facing the opposite direction of the elementals. Fear a wave in her chest, Kim stepped in, hands out in front of Patti’s fallen form.
She didn’t know what she was going to do. She had nothing to block with. Not even the residue of Magick. But if she had to she’d take the next hit with her bare hands. She wasn’t used to physical combat. Her Magick was always there. So, she didn’t think she’d fair well if she did have to block an attack with her hands. But she wasn’t letting Patti get hit while she was on her knees.
She heard Dan say, “here,” a moment before the sound of Patti scrambling to her feet came. Then Dan said, “It takes more courage to retreat than advance. Joseph Stalin.”.
There was a force to his words. They appeared to hit the elementals. The elementals jerked up, taller than before, like their substance was stretching in surprise. And then they flowed backwards. The mist swirled around them then fell in frozen droplets to the snow. They didn’t retreat far. Maybe no more than ten steps. But they retreated.
They stopped and focused their dreadful stares passed Kim to where she knew Dan stood. And then as one they flowed forward with twice the speed of their previous approach. From behind them surged the other eight or nine elementals. As one they approached in a cold, inexplicable wave.
Dan barked out the phrase again. All the elementals paused. Pulled back. Stopped. Flowed forward in a synchronous wave.
Multiple things happened at once. Dan repeated the phrase. His words sounded slightly garbled and they didn’t hit the elementals with the same effect although the elementals did at least pause in their forward movement. For a moment. But then they started forward once more.
They were close enough Kim could see what passed for expressions on their faces. Their features were disturbingly still. One could almost say frozen. But the white orbs of their eyes burned. Light radiated from them. Also malice.
Maybe that wasn’t from their eyes. Maybe it flowed from their cores, traveling the distance between them and Kim’s group on an increased wave of cold. Kim’s mind filled with the image of shattering ice. Of things frozen solid being struck and exploding. Of image after image of the destruction ice could bring until she reeled beneath the promise of obliteration that flowed from every elemental.
Abe darted forward, sweeping a wave of ink out at the advancing elementals. It hit them like a battering ram, driving all but the ones at the far edges of their group back. The ones not affected by the ink flowed around the edges of Abe’s ink wedge. Two of these elementals raised their hands and lashed them forward, palms out. From their hands a blast of cold hit Abe, one from the left and one from the right.
The force seemed to coalesce somewhere to the center of their mass. They were literally lifted off their feet and flung back so hard and so fast no one could stop their fall. Kim tried. She lunged in that direction, but the cold was so fast she had no chance of beating it. As it was all she managed to do was grasp at the air as Abe went flying.
She spun around, hands out. Again she had no damned clue what she was going to do with the hands, but she couldn’t do nothing!
The elementals driven back by Dan’s Words reformed their advance, flowing yet faster over the distance separating them from Kim’s group. Siobhan ran up beside Kim and threw an alchemy bomb. It arched on the air, slowing with the force of the onward thrust of cold, but still managed to hit one of the central elementals. As the vial broke and the alchemy compound splashed over the elemental, the creature shattered.
A ragged cheer came from the group. Hoarse with the cold but still jubilant.
Ice flew, hitting the elementals closest to the shattered elemental. Those creatures stopped and they all turned their terrible gazes on Siobhan. Siobhan yanked another vial from her bag strap and pulled it back to throw it. Her motion stilled as the shattered crystals of the elemental froze on the air. A high-pitched hum sounded and then the crystals snapped back to where the elemental had stood and from one blink to the next the elemental reformed from the shattered ice. One moment a cloud of ice. The next a giant, looming elemental.
Kim threw her hand out in Siobhan’s direction. “Don’t!”
Siobhan drew her arm down then replaced the vial with fumbling fingers.
“This is bad,” she muttered through stiff lips.
“So bad. We need more shields. We need a plan, but first we need more shields.”
Kim turned and screamed in the direction Ivan and Dempsey sat with Erik and Gia. “Ivan! Dempsey! We need you!”
There was no response. And no movement. The mist shrouded the area Ivan and Dempsey sat in, making it impossible to see them. But she should have, if they moved. They were tall enough that if they rose at least part of them would be above the mist.
She stared at the mist, willing them to just be slow with the cold. Especially since they were sitting on the snow. A mikro passed. Flowed into another. There was no movement.
Patti cried out. Kim spun around in time to see Patti slide backwards, her feet finding no purchase on the snow. She must have blocked another hit with her shield. It wasn’t enough!
“Ivan! Dempsey!” Kim took off in that direction, running as fast as she could over the slick surface of the snow floor. As she closed the distance and no response came her heart hammered in her chest.
Prairie’s statement about slowed pulse rang in her mind. Funny it didn’t feel like her pulse was slow. It felt very, very fast. Erratic. Her head spun and she had to stop and take a few shallow breaths. Her lungs screamed for deeper ones but she knew the cold air would hit her chest like a sledgehammer. So, she drew enough air to stop the head spinning, then shook off the feeling and powered forward to where Ivan and Dempsey should be. The mist thwarted her ability to find them. She wished for one of Siobhan’s alchemy torches. If only she had the energy to draw a ball of fire into her hand. She didn’t though, so she was forced to drop to her hands and knees and start patting the snow around her, groping to find Ivan or Dempsey.
“Ivan?” Her voice croaked and then cracked. “Dempsey?”
Her fingers brushed against something that wasn’t snow. Cloth. Cold cloth. Bracing her weight on her one arm she ran the fingers of her free hand along the cloth until she encountered what felt like an arm. A stiff arm.
Heart in her throat she scooted forward and fell to her knees so she could use both hands. She ran them up the arm, following it to a shoulder, a neck, a jaw. The prickle of facial hair against her almost numb fingers told her it was Ivan. Unmoving. Unmoving Ivan.
“Ivan!” She yelled, her voice breaking. “Ivan!”
No response. No movement. Just cold, stiff flesh. She applied both hands to exploring his face, tripping her fingers over his cheeks until she reached his eyes. Very carefully she felt along the sockets, encountering only a sparse brush of lashes not enough for his eyes to be closed. One finger brushed over a trail of frozen tears at the inner corner of one eye.
No. No. This was not good. No!
“I need light!” She screamed, trusting her voice to carry through the mist to her friends despite it being scratchy and crackly with the cold.
The sound of running footsteps, slightly muffled by the mist, came from behind her and then there was a flare of yellow light. Kim cast a look back in that direction, seeing Ben and MF emerge from the mist. Ben’s steps faltered, either from the cold or what he saw over Kim’s shoulder. She twisted back to look where his gaze was fixed and froze. Not literally. Figuratively. Froze when she saw Ivan. Frozen. Literally.
His skin was blanched of color, the naturally healthy brown somewhere closer to beige though that could have been the color of the light MF cast. Her fingers, pale as they were, stood out against the unnatural hue. He sat statue still. Gia, draped over his lap, was in a similar state.
She turned to Ben again. “Find Dempsey!”
His gaze lingered a long moment on his best friend’s still form, then he turned and began to slowly fumble his way through the mist. It wasn’t very long before he called, “Found him.”
Kim gulped. She didn’t really want to know the answer but she had to ask. “Frozen?”
“Yes.”
Tears rose unbidden to her eyes. She felt them freeze on her lashes. She dug deep into her core, praying her Magick had refilled enough to summon fire. Nothing. Empty, echoing, nothing!
“Ben! Can MF thaw him?”
“Trying. I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Don’t worry. MF does. Just hold him close to Dempsey.”
There was a long pause then Ben cried out in frustration. “He’s– I don’t know—It isn’t working.”
MF was a very small fire elemental. A fire elemental, yes, but a very small one. Given enough time he’d probably thaw Dempsey but Kim was afraid not fast enough. The speed of the cold whipping over them just was more powerful than a single small fire elemental. In normal circumstances she had complete faith MF could do it. In these conditions she didn’t think he stood a chance.
“Why isn’t this working?” Ben’s voice cracked.
“Ben.” Kim’s voice was barely a whisper. “Stop. Conserve MF’s strength. I can’t call any more Fire and he’s all we’ve got. At least he’s keeping you warm.”
“Why can’t you call Fire?”
Kim closed her eyes. More tears welled. “I’m tapped. Completely out. My Magick keeps trying to grab on to yours.” It hurt to state that truth, but she had to establish the threat she posed. “I need you to get the others. We need to regroup here and protect Ivan, Dempsey, Gia, and Erik while we figure this out. At least we can use Dempsey’s shield. I don’t suppose you know how to make Ivan’s work?”
“It takes a word of power. I don’t know it.”
“Well, at least we have Dempsey’s. Go. Get the others.”
The sound of retreating steps on the hard-packed snow forming the floor of the room announced Ben’s leaving. It was almost no time before multiple footfalls fell and then the rest of the group was staggering and stumbling in close, their shadows cast over Kim by Ben and MF in the rear of the group.
MF seemed to glow brighter, casting a small circle of light so the group could see each other’s drawn faces.
“The elementals are following!” Abe announced, looking back in the direction they’d come.
“Okay,” Kim said through stiff lips. ”Someone get Dempsey’s shield. We can’t use Ivan’s because we don’t know the word he uses to activate it.”
“Servo.”
Kim turned at Dan’s voice. The word cracked after the ‘r’ but it was clear enough.
“What?”
“Servo.” His voice was a bit firmer though he did seem to have to concentrate to say it without cracking or slurring. “Says Servo.”
“Do you think it will work if someone else says it?” Siobhan asked.
Dan shrugged. “Unknown.”
The familiar phrase, even said with a slur, drew a small smile to Kim’s lips. Instantly she felt like shit for feeling amusement. Ivan and Dempsey were frozen. Elementals were kicking their ass. And if they didn’t finish them then the cold for sure would.
Siobhan crawled over to Ivan and ran her hand under the arm of his jacket. She pushed the sleeve back. It was stiff with cold but moved enough to reveal the bracelet holding his shield.
“Servo,” she whispered. Nothing happened. “Servo!”
She threw more force into the word. Still nothing. Sitting back on her heels she sniffled and shook her head. Then her eyes widened. Kim twisted to see what Siobhan was focused on. Of course it was the ice elementals. Why wouldn’t it be the ice elementals? Why would ARFA give them a break?
Kim lowered her head and took a long breath through her nose. Her sinuses seized and a throb of pain settled in the front of her forehead. Damn it. Damn it!
Ben picked up Dempsey’s shield, strapped it to his arm, and turned to face the oncoming elementals. “We need to protect Ivan and Dempsey. Make a circle! Patti next to me. Anyone with a weapon that might work closer to us. Anyone without one to the back of the circle.”
He spared a look for the group. “Dan, I know your Words are holding them back, but we need you to figure out this password thing.”
Dan nodded. He didn’t waste energy vocalizing. Or maybe the cold had finally fucked up his brain and mouth enough that he couldn’t. If it was the latter then they were utterly fucked because Ben was right. They needed Dan to figure out the password.
Abe stepped up next to Ben. “My ink works.”
“Then be ready. They are almost here.”
Grim expressions across the board, the group slid into formation with Ben next to Abe and Patti on the other side of the tattoo artist. Siobhan looked down at the strap of her bag. She looked down for a long time. Then she looked up with tight lips.
“I’m useless.”
“You aren’t,” Kim whispered. “Help Dan figure out the password.”
“It doesn’t take two people to read a book.”
“He can bounce ideas off of you.”
“It would help,” Dan croaked, drawing Sioban’s attention. “Would.”
Maybe it was the slowness of his words that made the argument for Siobhan. Whatever the reason, she picked up her skirts and moved to stand next to Dan at the back of the circle.
Gwen looked at her plunger then squared her shoulders and stood next to Patti halfway around the circle. Prairie fumbled her daggers then scurried over next to Ben. They all braced as a wave of cold hit them, a precursor to the elementals approach.
Enter The Woods 