Plague of Ice

14

Regdar pulled his greatsword from its scabbard and readied himself for the expected onslaught of mephits. After their shriek faded, however, they stood eerily still, all staring at Regdar with their tiny j aws hanging open in shock and disbelief. A new imperative rang through their collective mind. They needed to go back through the rift. They needed to find the artifact and bring it back through to this plane.

That meant getting past Regdar. Only getting past him wasn't good enough. He needed to be slain for what he'd done. In blind anger, just as Regdar had hoped, they emptied the strongest weapon in their collective arsenal directly at him.

The missiles that streaked from their breasts toward Regdar weren't green like Hennet's but shades of orange and red, the colors of fire that the mephits so despised. Their blasts rocketed across the white field, and for a brief moment Regdar contemplated letting himself fall backward through the rift to escape them. Fortunately, he decided it was best to stay in the plane he knew. The missiles slammed weakly against his breastplate. The flurry of impacts pushed him backward, but he knew that if he kept his footing he would be safe.

One of the mephits nearest him tried to take advantage of Regdar's brief distraction to slip right past him into the rift, swooping down from above. It was a good plan with one lethal flaw. However it approached, the mephit needed to dive to Regdar's level to get through the rift itself. When it drew close, Regdar swung his heavy weapon upward, catching its wings and sending it tumbling to the ground. It opened its mouth to cry for help, but no sound came out before Regdar struck the tiny blue head from the body.

At this spectacle, the other mephits took to the air, too, flying through the swirling snow on straining wings, screeching as loudly as they could. Lidda fired her crossbow into the sky, hoping that she might strike one in the mass, while Hennet and Sonja rushed to aid Regdar in defending the rift.

With a reptilian roar and rush of cold air that altered the flow of the wind momentarily, Glaze swooped past and alighted on the side of his tower lair. Quickly he scrambled about, pointing his head down the tower in preparation for launching himself into another pass. In their earlier encounter, the dragon had nearly collided with the ground when forced to perform this maneuver unexpectedly. He knew better this time, and he understood that even his mighty wings were no match for the zephyrs howling toward the rift. This time he scuttled almost to the ground, below the wind, before launching himself from the tower toward Regdar. The warrior faced him with sword raised, ready for the dragon to burst across the far side of the rift like a juggernaut.

"I know what he's doing," Sonja mumbled.

The dragon intended to chase, or if necessary carry, Regdar from his place guarding the rift. This would give the mephits a chance to slip through to the other side and reclaim the Ilskynarawin.

"Stand guard here," she said to the others when they were assembled before the rift. Even as she spoke, the dragon was dropping from the tower. "Hold this position no matter what. I'll take care of Glaze. By the way," she added, "you may want to shield your ears."

"Why?" asked Regdar.

Sonja had no time to answer. Her robes clung to her form, her hair rose and crackled, and the sharp smell of a brewing storm filled the air as electricity arced over the cold ocean of blue in Sonja's eyes. A second later, a blinding zigzag of light flashed down from the clouds above, simultaneously with a deafening thunderclap that resonated against the far towers and echoed down the valley. The perfectly aimed lightning bolt blasted the young dragon out of the air. Glaze plummeted to the snowy plaza like a side of beef. Mephits scattered in all directions, cowering away from the noise and the brightness of Sonja's heartstopping spell.

Regdar and Hennet, too, almost lost control of their instincts and dived for cover, but Lidda smiled calmly at the display, which put all powderworks she'd witnessed to shame. Lightning from a snowstorm was possible after all. Sonja had proved it.

The air was curiously calm after the burst, and so was Sonja. Her hair and clothes hung limp, yet she seemed energized. Eyes blazing, fingertips glowing, she appeared every inch a witch of nature as she turned her stare on Glaze.

The dragon was not dead. From a crumpled tangle of wings and tail and neck, he sprang into a catlike crouch, tattered wings folded sleekly against his flanks. He would not fly again without months of rest and recuperation to his damaged wings. Pale, purple eyes flared at Sonja, matching the druid's gaze in intensity and anger.

"Don't let the mephits through," Sonja whispered to the others. "Guard the rift. Guard it no matter what happens."

She ran from them and from the rift, racing across the field of snow toward one of the towers. As she did, Glaze trotted after her on all fours, issuing a rasping cry in her wake.

Hennet or Regdar might have protested Sonja's actions or raced to her aid except that the mephits saw their opportunity as well and assailed the rift's defenders in mass. They swooped in as groups then pulled hack at the last moment. Over and over they rushed forward, group after group, probing for an opportunity to strike without suffering a counterattack. If they could provoke Regdar into swinging his sword, or Hennet into thrusting his spear, all the better. Lidda stood between the two men, firing crossbow bolts at the mephits which all too rarely found their marks as the creatures zipped and zagged through the air.

In all this, Hennet and Regdar avoided sharing any eye contact. An obvious red welt had risen where Regdar struck Hennet. In the cold air, the pain had settled down to a dull sting, an all-too-persistent reminder of what had happened between them down below.

Regdar unexpectedly let go of his heavy sword, letting it fall to the ground with a thud. "I think," he said, "one of those mephits must be using that ability Sonja told us about."

"You mean your armor's gone cold?" asked Lidda. She ran a hand over Regdar's breastplate and pulled it away. The visible metal was frosted over and was growing still colder.

"We need to get the armor off you," Hennet said.

Regdar shook his head. "Don't let your guard down. I can't move my arms now. My armor's locked in place. I can't fight while this lasts. I'm sorry. Look to yourselves."

"It's frigid!" Lidda said. "Don't tell me you can take that."

"I have to," Regdar replied through chattering teeth. "Anyway, I think I'm getting used to it."

Sonja, meanwhile, was letting the irate, snarling Glaze chase her around the towers, playing a dangerous game of hide-and-seek with the dragon to keep Glaze from getting a clear blast at her with his breath. She could feel the static electricity regenerating in the storm above, and she knew that soon she could use this to draw down another lightning bolt. There was no way the dragon could stand another shot of that sort. Sonja only needed to keep it occupied until then.

She was getting tired. The cold invigorated her, and the open air felt like liberation after the tight passageways down below, but this blast of energy slowly faded as days of exhaustion caught up with her. Sweat trickled down Sonja's cheeks, and she felt a lump of fear in her throat. She could hear Glaze trotting after her, claws scraping on the ice.

Rage gave Glaze energy. With his wings too badly damaged for flight, the dragon was reduced to something akin to a massive, mad dog, chasing its prey round and round the icy towers. Sonja wove and dodged the relentless pursuit. She managed to stay about one tower ahead of the dragon at all times, but she was tiring and Glaze was not.

The others were too busy fending off the mephits to keep track of Sonja, and doubly so since Regdar's incapacitation. As one mephit dived for the rift, hoping to take advantage of Regdar's inaction, Hennet jabbed at it with his short spear. The mephit was too far away, but it was leery of the spear and pulled back. Lidda had quickly learned that the moment when they drew back was the mephits' weakness. The abrupt change of direction forced them to drastically slow their flight. As the creature stopped short of Hennet's spear, it hung motionless in the air for just a moment-long enough for Lidda to launch a crossbow bolt through its belly. It shrieked as it tumbled down onto the point of Hennet's spear. The sorcerer thrust upward, neatly impaling the creature. He flicked it forward quickly, dislodging the body with great force so that it sailed halfway across the field.

"That's what'll happen to the rest of you," Hennet shouted, eyeing the mephits through the thin haze of his own misty breath.

"How are you doing?" Lidda asked Regdar.

Regdar didn't reply. His teeth were clenched behind taut, blue lips. Moisture around his tightly squeezed eyes froze into tiny, white pearls of ice. He wanted to scream against the metallic cage of cold formed by his armor, but he refused with Hennet present. He stood rigid as a golem, his flesh freezing and burning, and waited an eternity for the cold to fade.

Across the field, Sonja's energy was running out. She felt her legs ready to buckle beneath her, and she could not yet call down another lightning bolt. Slipping behind a tower still crusted in a thick layer of ice, she put her faith in a spell that had saved her parents countless times on the Endless Glacier. Her entire form became the white of snow, and she slipped up against the tower's side.

A minute, she thought, maybe two, then the lightning will have gathered its strength for another strike. Then the dragon would die. Glaze was born on the tundra, too, with great intuition about his native surroundings, but the dragon was not smart. He reacted out of instinct. Sonja used this to lure Glaze away from the rift.

Now she was in a position where Glaze's instincts could prove deadly. There might be no fooling such a creature, no hiding from his heightened senses. She flattened herself as best she could against the icy tower, hoping desperately that her ruse would keep her invisible long enough.

When Glaze emerged around the tower, it was the first time Sonja got a good look at the creature. He limped, and his left wing was in tatters. The beast stopped and growled. Sonja left no footprints on the ice, yet Glaze somehow knew she hadn't gone past here. He could smell her presence in the air. Like a scaly bloodhound he sniffed the air, trying to trace the druid's path. He looked up to see if she somehow climbed the tower, then clawed the ground in frustration. Dismayed, the dragon began pacing round the tower, scouring every inch for his wayward prey.

Glaze picked a random section of the tower, stared at it intensely, and then slashed it with his claws and snapped at it with his jaws. Content that this wasn't the spot, he moved on and repeated those actions a few feet farther on. Sonja meticulously shifted her way round the tower, moving imperceptibly ahead of the searching dragon.

The dragon stopped in his tracks and cast a look at her location. She stopped, standing very still. Slowly, deliberately, the dragon moved in her direction. Glaze's throat rumbled and his eyes were riveted directly on Sonja's invisible form. He knew exactly where she was. Sonja was sure of that. She was trapped, and she would live only until the dragon opened his jaws.

A single mephit swooped close to the rift, staying just out of the reach of Hennet's spear. It hurled incoherent curses and taunts as it dodged Lidda's crossbow bolts.

"Tell your friends they can give up," Hennet advised the mephit. "We'll never let you through."

"Your Pendant is gone for good," Lidda said.

"Whaaat say you, large one?" it hissed at the unmoving Regdar. "Is iiit too cold for you?"

Regdar could hold hack no longer. He opened his mouth and let out an agonized yowl. As he did, he bent down, armor squealing in protest, and grabbed his greatsword off the ground. An upward slash struck the unprepared mephit directly between the legs and sliced completely through its body. The mephit fell into halves before their eyes.

"You're all right!" Lidda cried.

"Not yet," said Regdar as he straightened his back painfully. "I think I'm just too cold to feel how bad it really is."

Glaze plunged a talon at Sonja's location and she pulled slightly to the right. He snapped at her and she shifted slightly to the left. She realized that she lived only by virtue of the dragon's playful malice. In the sky above she saw static electricity dancing among the clouds, and she felt its strains moving through her own bones, awaiting her command. At last she gauged that she could draw down another lightning bolt, but now it was too late and the dragon was too close. She needed distance between herself and Glaze.

Sonja bolted from the tower in a great burst of speed. Her spell of concealment faded as she raced right past Glaze. Immediately the dragon was after her as she charged toward the rift, but she had intentionally run to his right, knowing the beast would have a harder time turning away from his injured side. She ran and ran, and when she was sure she had enough distance between herself and Glaze she stopped and whirled to launch her spell.

As she did, a well-placed mephit exhaled a blast of ice along the back of her head and neck. Its breath would have constituted little more than a nuisance in another circumstance, but the unexpected assault broke the druid's concentration and scuttled her spell. Lightning flashed down from the storm but without Sonja's direction. It struck randomly, disintegrating an unfortunate mephit and melting the ice within a ten-foot radius. A splash of steaming water struck the mephit that attacked Sonja and instantly dissolved its wings and half its body. The creature flopped to the ground where it squealed in agony until the warm liquid melted it completely.

Undeterred, Glaze bounded headfirst into Sonja, knocking her backward into the snow. She reached for her cudgel to strike back, but the dragon was quicker. He unleashed the full force of his powerful breath onto her. Her hand jutted forward in an instinctive but useless act of self defense. The dragon's breath buffeted her with an awesome mix of freezing air, gale-force wind, and icy magic. She was wrapped in a cocoon of cold, unable to breathe or see. Searing waves of cold pierced the core of her being. When she tried to scream, her throat filled with ice. She tried to struggle, but ice bound her limbs in place. A white field wrapped across her eyes, burned her face, shut her off from the world.

Exalting, Glaze moved in for the kill. Mephits flanked him, several alighting on the dragon's back or hovering next to his shoulders, all of them hissing in glee at the ice druid's impending death.

Across the field, still standing guard before the rift, Hennet looked at Lidda, Lidda looked at Regdar, and Regdar looked at Hennet. Each sought some sort of encouragement or dissuasion. They needed confirmation that the plan could be changed, that they had to fight for everyone's life. Most of all, they had to agree that letting Sonja die that way would serve no higher purpose.

Abandoning their positions at the rift might be wrong, but no matter the consequences, it was what they needed to do.

As one they sprang across the field toward Glaze and Sonja. Hennet launched a magic missile, the last he had prepared, and it struck the dragon's side. Glaze turned away from Sonja to face the new threat instead. The mephits flew away and winged their way toward the rift, cackling delightedly to each other. This had been their hope all along. But none of the advancing heroes turned back to watch the mephits vanish through the undefended rift into the Plane of Ice.

Glaze sucked in a mighty breath, but then his targets scattered, leaving the monster unsure where to attack. Regdar veered to the right, Hennet to the left, and Lidda kept coming straight on. Confounded, Glaze lunged toward the smallest foe, but the halfling dived into the snow. She slid under the dragon and slashed her sword upward as she went, drawing blood from Glaze's tender underbelly. Hennet drove his spear through the dragon's already-damaged wing and sliced with it, and Regdar slashed at the scaly, flailing tail.

The dragon snarled, clawed, twisted, and roared, railing against his assailants. Lidda sank her sword deeper into Glaze's belly. Hennet stabbed his spear into the side of the dragon's neck, bringing a steady stream of blood that pulsed like a tiny geyser. Shocked and howling with pain, Glaze made a last attempt to escape. Jumping, whirling, spinning uncertainly, he spilled dragon blood across the white field until the ground was cloaked like a red carpet.

Recovering his wits at last, Glaze gathered his limbs beneath him and set himself to bound free of his attackers. In the moment when the dragon was coiled and motionless, Regdar's greatsword stabbed into his flank just ahead of Glaze's right haunch. The blade sliced forward through flesh and ribs until entrails tumbled free. The dragon roared, firing a blast of icy power straight up into the sky then down into the ground with such force that the frozen paving stones buckled. His attackers scrambled away from the flailing limbs. Thrashing and writhing, Glaze raged against the pain until the beast finally lay still. Within moments, frost coated the gory heap.

Hennet, Regdar, and Lidda didn't spare a minute on the spectacle of the dead dragon. When they turned to look at Sonja, they saw her emerge from the cocoon of ice. She was transformed, no longer a frail human in a hostile environment but master of the element glorying in its strength. Her pale cheeks were streaked with lines of fiery red. She clutched her cudgel in a fist rimed with ice, and glittering crystals scattered from her blonde hair, to be carried on the wind toward the yawning rift.

They faced her almost sheepishly, having violated her orders to guard the rift no matter what, but there was neither disappointment nor blame in her voice, only determination.

"None of you must follow me now," she said. Her voice rang with icy, otherworldly detachment. "None of you could survive where I must go. This time, your own lives depend on you obeying my command."

With that, she turned toward the rift. Her white robes fluttered and crackled like ice as she ran and jumped. A white flash outlined the invisible rift, and she was gone.

For long moments they stood gazing at the spot of air where she disappeared. Eventually Regdar said, "We must still guard the rift. If any of the mephits find the pendant, they'll try to come back through. It's up to us to kill them before they can do any more damage."

Lidda agreed, but Hennet said nothing. He was lost in his own thoughts.

"Hennet?" Lidda asked, tugging at his leg.

The sorcerer looked down on the halfling and put his hand on her head.

"I'm sorry," he told her.

Hennet turned to Regdar, meeting his eyes for the first time since their feud in the treasure room, and said, "I have to know."

At that, he too rushed through the rift, vanishing into the cold oblivion.

"Hennet, don't!" Lidda shouted but too late. She clutched Regdar's hand. "Regdar, we have to go after him. He'll die in there!"

Regdar shook his head. His first instinct was to say, "Some of us have to be smart," but he thought of Naull and what he would have done, months ago in the City of Fire, if a portal had existed linking him to her. With that memory in mind, he gauged his words more carefully. Instead, he said, "Hennet made his own choice, as surely as Sonja has."

All they could do was wait.