Ulean gently gusted past. I could feel her swirling amid the frosty air. She liked the winter. Even though summer winds might be fun to work with, I knew that Ulean preferred the cold, blustery gales of the dark months.
I think that she knows you better than you might wish for. Myst may be lost in her desire for control, but she does not underestimate her enemies, and like it or not, the two of you have commonalities. Cicely, you may have to try to understand her better, in order to defeat her. Find your similarities and you will find her weakness.
But finding her heartstone and destroying it seems easier.
Never count your storms before they brew. While you may find her heartstone, I have the feeling you will have to face the Queen herself.
And with that to chew on, I stood, surveying the vast chamber. I closed my eyes, searching my intuition. Ulean, can you tell me which way to go?
I will scout around, but I think . . . I think you can figure out which way without me. I’ll return in a moment.
As she swept off, I inhaled, then let out my breath slowly, searching the slipstream, trying to feel my way around. To the right the wasteland of ice continued, and I could sense nothing stirring. To the center? Again, a long uninterrupted stretch. But to the left—to the left, I caught the faintest hint of motion, and then, a hush as whatever it was felt me probing the slipstream.
Did you sense it? Ulean returned.
Yes, to the left. What is it?
I honestly don’t know, but whatever it is, it’s big and lumbering. I can’t give you an estimate, though, because it feels like it phases in and out of this plane. However, I can tell you that it isn’t really an Elemental. Truly? It’s like no creature I’ve ever before seen.
That was so not reassuring. A large, lumbering behemoth that wasn’t an Elemental. Not much to go on with regard to what it was, or how dangerous it might be.
Did you sense any malevolence?
Like the snow weaver? No. I’m sorry I’m so vague, but I’m perplexed. I’ve never encountered this creature before, or anything like it. There is sentience, yes, and intelligence, but it feels distanced.
Maybe it was an animal of some sort. Which would make it harder to kill, at least for me. An animal wouldn’t have any personal motivation against us—it would just be doing what it was summoned to do: protect.
I told the others what we were facing.
“How big is it?”
“Good question. Ulean says large, but she doesn’t seem to be able to pinpoint what it is, or how large it is. Apparently it phases in and out, so it has to be magical to some degree. But there’s no deliberate ill will there. The thing was probably summoned rather than being one of Myst’s creatures.”
Hunter frowned. “That doesn’t give us much to go on, and it doesn’t make for confidence. Let me go up front with the men. I’ve seen many things through my life; perhaps I’ll be able to recognize whatever this is.”
As he moved to the forefront and we continued on, Hunter suddenly turned. “The temperature of the air has just plummeted at least a good twenty to thirty degrees, all within one step. Magical cold coming up. A few more feet and you’ll enter it. This is no natural cooling. No, it’s caused by something, and I have a feeling we’re going to meet up with whatever it is all too soon.”
I steeled myself, and sure enough, another couple of yards and the temperature of the air plunged. If we’d been yummanii or strict magic-born, the sudden drop would have been dangerous, but without Kaylin here, we were all either immune or conditioned to the cold.
My breath appeared in tiny white puffs as I pulled my cloak tighter around my shoulders. The landscape hadn’t changed much, save that we were behind a tall group of boulders. Clusters of them dotted the entire cavern, and this collection happened to stand a good ten to twelve feet high, and higher still the farther we went. It was like a forest of stone.
“Where is this creature?” Hunter had no sooner than asked the question when we broke out of the stone forest and into a clearing. There, ahead, was a wall of snow and ice and an opening leading into yet another cavern. But between us and the dark maw stood a creature that seemed to be wavering in and out of existence—plane-shifting as we watched.
I smiled. How could I help it? The creature reminded me of a cross between an elephant and a mastodon, but it was a vibrant blue, with eyes as silver as the moon. It had a trunk, and a tail, and four great legs on which it stood, and yet the fur on its back was long and wispy, looking so silky I wanted to bury my head in it.
“It’s beautiful,” I whispered.
“Yes, and deadly,” my grandfather answered.
“You’ve seen this before?”
“A few times. The creature is definitely a plane-shifter, and you’re right—it’s not evil, but it is a summoned guardian and is bound to obey to the death. It’s a paralaxium, and it’s from the plane of Ice, so in a sense it is somewhat like an Elemental, but not at all like Ulean or the Ice Elementals. It’s simply a creature that happens to live there.”
“How is it dangerous?”
“Unfortunately, it can kill you with a touch if you are of living flesh and blood.” He glanced over his shoulder. “They are rare and beautiful beasts.”
As I studied the creature, it studied me back but made no move against us. Most guardians were set to a specific area—cross the boundary line and they would react. There was no telling how close we’d have to get before the paralaxium would charge, and I wasn’t quite sure I wanted to find out.
“How do they kill?” Grieve turned to Hunter.
Hunter shrugged. “A touch will drain the warmth of the body, plunging you into instant hypothermia. And I do mean absolute hypothermia. You’ll go from your normal temperature to zero in ten seconds flat. The body goes into arrest. Even those of us from the realm of Snow and Ice—even you, Cicely, the Queen of Snow and Ice, would die.”
“So, we don’t want to pet the pretty pony.” I let out a long sigh. “How do we kill it? We don’t dare touch it. So, is there a way to banish it back to the plane of Ice? Can we do something to make it disappear?” Even as I suggested it, I knew that was a long shot. None of us had that kind of power. As far as how Myst had managed to get the creature here, I had no clue. If she could reach into the plane of Ice, we had bigger worries on our hands than we knew.
When I looked over at the creature, it met my gaze again. The giant silver eyes were incredibly soft, almost gentle, and I wanted to talk to it—to get to know what it was like. Ulean was right, there was no malevolence here, no hatred. The creature would guard this gate because it had been bound to do so, but not because of any anger toward us or loyalty to Myst. And that knowledge left me furious. I didn’t want to destroy the paralaxium. It was, as Hunter had said, a rare and beautiful giant, deadly but without guile.
“What do we do? I don’t . . .” I paused, turning to my grandfather. “I don’t want to destroy it—I don’t want that on my conscience.” Collateral damage was unavoidable, I knew that. But Myst had put me in a place I hated right now, and I wished she were here so I could unleash all my frustration and anger on her.
“The only way would be to break the binding, or to banish it back to its own plane.” He cocked his head. “I somehow doubt any of the guards have the knowledge of how to do this. And neither does Grieve nor I. Nor, I doubt, the vampire—Lannan.”
“That would leave me. And I . . .” I studied the paralaxium, skirting around the creature, trying to assess how close I could get before setting off its alarms.