Neva Silvermark's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

The moon rose. The gully went dark, just as the panther guard had promised. Neva Silvermark slipped into the passage with the iron token cold in her paw. She moved fast while the watch was thin. Then the trail split. Two paths cut into the rock, and she had no memory of which one his directions meant. She crouched and studied both. The left path climbed. The right ran flat and smooth. Kaine had said to climb higher. She took the right, thinking flat ground would be faster and quieter. She was wrong. The path bent, and a wall of ice rose ahead. A guard stand stood carved from solid ice, its edges sharp, its surface frosted and pale. A lamp burned inside it. Two guards leaned against the base. They saw her at once. "Hold," one said. He stepped forward with a spear. "No one passes here." Neva raised the token. Her hand shook. "The night guard owes a debt. This clears me." The guard squinted at the iron in the lamplight. He did not know it. The wrong post. The wrong path. He reached for her arm instead. A shape moved in the dark behind the ice stand. Pale fur, and antlers made of clear crystal that caught the lamp and threw light across the snow. A frostwisp. It stepped between Neva and the guards, calm and slow, its crystal antlers glowing. The guards froze. One dropped his spear and backed away. "A spirit," he whispered. Both men stumbled from the stand and fled down the flat path, their boots loud on the ice. Neva stood alone with the creature. It looked at her with pale eyes, then turned and walked toward the left path, the climbing one. It paused, waiting. She understood. She followed. The creature led her up until the flat trail was far below. Then a voice spoke from the rocks. "You took the wrong turn." Kaine Shadowpelt stepped out, red cloak dark against the snow. His yellow eyes went to the frostwisp, then to her. "I heard the guards run. I thought they had you." "They almost did," Neva said. "Your token means nothing at that post." "That post isn't mine to buy." His jaw tightened. "You should have climbed. I told you to climb." "You told me riddles." She stepped close. "Those men saw my face. They'll report a snow leopard on the mountain." Kaine went still. He knew what that meant. The occupiers would double the watch. Every path would tighten by dawn. "Then we can't wait," he said. "You have to reach the upper gate tonight, before the report climbs faster than you do." The frostwisp turned up the slope and waited again. Neva looked at the peak above, closer now than it had ever been. She started to climb.