T Lain - Plague of Ice

“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.