Zach Brenner's Arc

Chapter 24 of 86

The pass climbed higher, and the sky went gray. Then the wind turned. Snow came down thick and fast, driven sideways across the trail. Zach pulled his cloak tight, but the cold cut through it. Ahead, Garrok stopped and squinted into the white. The barbarian guide had led them since the barbarian town, hunting the same sorcerer who killed his men. Now even he looked lost. "Blizzard," he said. "Coming down the whole pass. It'll bury the trail in an hour." Zach's stomach dropped. Lose the trail, and they lose their lead on Malachar. He turned to Lyra. The elf mage knelt and pressed her palm to the ground, the way she'd read the fangcrawlers before. "Can you feel the path?" he asked. She shook her head. "Only living things. Not stone under snow." The white was already swallowing the rocks. Raven's cat ears flattened against the wind. Ayla gripped her staff, the silver crystal dim in the storm. Garrok pointed to a dark gap in the rock wall. "There. Old mineshaft. The miners cut it through the mountain years back." He wiped snow from his beard. "We could cover more ground under the stone. Faster than the trail. But the dark holds worse things than cold." Zach looked at the vanishing trail, then at the cave. Stay out here and they'd freeze and lose Malachar both. "We go in," he said. "Trail's already gone." No one argued. They pushed into the dark as the wind screamed behind them. Inside, the storm fell silent. Zach's blade gave a faint glow, enough to show wet stone and old wooden beams. They walked until their legs shook, then stopped in a wide chamber. Zach dropped against the wall. His arms ached. Raven sat beside him and leaned her head on his shoulder. "You're bleeding again," she said, touching his side. The old wound had opened on the climb. Ayla came and knelt over him. She'd healed him once in Tyr Alys, and she still watched him like a stranger near her cousin. But her hands were steady. The crystal flared white and warm. The pain in his side eased. "Rest," she told the group. "All of you. I'll mend what I can while it's quiet." She moved to Garrok next, then Lyra. Zach breathed slow. The blizzard could bury the pass now. It didn't matter. They were under the mountain, and the stone would carry them north faster than the trail ever could. He almost felt safe. Then Lyra went stiff. She pressed her hand to the tunnel floor, eyes wide. "Zach." Her voice dropped. "Something's down here. Ahead of us. It's big, and it's moving." Zach got to his feet and lifted his sword. The way back was buried in snow. The only path left ran straight toward whatever waited in the dark.