Ash

On my knees in the snow, I struggled to pull my mind around what had happened. How quickly things had gone sideways.

“Hey, I thought we were going to pull a prank?” The Yeti crouched beside me. “I want to pull a prank.”

A one-track mind didn’t even begin to describe his intensity. As I said, there was something off with him. I was going to have to continue to play along for now.

“It’s going to be hard now that I don’t have my cat with me.”

“Oh. Well, damn it, I was looking forward to pulling a prank.” He was thoughtful for a moment. “Can we pull a different prank?”

A different prank. The words rumbled through my head, sparking off a possibility. Cassava . . . why would she have taken Peta? Why not kill her?

Because she knew that I would come looking for the snow leopard. Because she said she wanted to destroy both Lark’s heart and soul.

You can find them both. You just have to look. The Yeti can help you.

I wasn’t sure if the words were mine or not, but I agreed, shivering away the crawling sensation on my spine.

“Yeti, do you have a name?”

“Me?”

Goddess, this was going to be painful. “Yes, you.”

“Well, my mema calls me Norm. I guess you could call me that. She said only my friends could call me Norm.” He scratched at his ass with one hand and then held it out to me. “What’s your name then, friend Terraling?”

“Ash.” I slapped my hand into his and shook it once. His grin widened.

“Never had a friend before, not since the accident.”

I did a slow turn, thinking about what I needed, and knowing that I was about to break every rule I’d held to as an Ender to find Peta, and stop Cassava. “Is there a mage amongst your people?”

“Oh, yeah, he’s great. Big guy, kinda grumpy, but I haven’t seen him in a long time. You think he can help with a prank?” Norm’s blue-green eyes lit up.

I nodded slowly. “Yes. I do.”

He reached for me and threw me around in a circle so I landed on his back with an oomph. I scrambled to get my arms around his neck.

Again, this was not normal behavior for a Yeti, I knew that. From his back, I could see the possible reason why. There was a thick scar where the hair hadn’t grown back. It looked old, and yet I could see that it had been bad. What had he said? No friends after the accident. I knew that many supernaturals kicked their own out if they became sick, or injured. Survival of the fittest was a true principle in our world.

A head injury then, that did explain the strange behavior. He loped forward through the snow with ease, carrying me like I weighed nothing. I clung to his shoulders and used the higher vantage point to see if there was any trace of Cassava or Peta. Not that I truly expected to see them, but I could hope. I wanted to believe there would be some clue as to their whereabouts.

Nothing. There wasn’t even so much as a footprint.

Norm bounded away from the site of the avalanche and along narrow slopes that I wasn’t sure even Peta could have traversed. He didn’t so much as blink. Though I will admit there was a moment or two where I closed my eyes and tried not to think about how high up we were, or how one simple misstep could have sent us tumbling to our deaths.

“Almost there, friend Terraling,” Norm said. “You think Miko will help with the prank?”

Miko, that had to be the mage then. “I’m going to ask,” I said.

The big Yeti slid to a stop at the very edge of a ledge overlooking the biggest chasm yet, his feet scrabbling for purchase as his momentum carried us forward. His arms pinwheeled and I clutched harder to him while I considered leaping off. Shit, we were going down.

As fast as he’d slid, he stopped and I held my breath. What the hell?

He barked out a laugh and looked over his shoulder at me. One big eye winked back at me. “I scared you, didn’t I?”

My heart was pounding and I was sure that a lesser man might have lost control of his bladder. I slid from his back and took a big breath, my legs trembling more than a little. “Yeah, you scared me. Good job.”

He slapped a big hand on my back, nearly sending me into the chasm a second time. I went to my knees and tapped into the earth, letting it anchor me.

“Wow, that’s a nifty trick. Think you can show me?” He crouched down and put a finger to where the rock had wrapped up around my legs.

“Probably not. It’s a Terraling power.”

“Darn. I’d like to learn a new trick.”

I drew a breath and somewhat reluctantly let go of the earth so I could stand up. “Your mage, Miko, is he here?”

Norm crouched beside me and shook his head. “You know, I wasn’t supposed to come back here.”

Oh shit. I wracked my brain for anything else I knew of Yeti. I vaguely recalled that they abhorred weakness or difference—again, survival of the fittest. Norm was not fit to survive here, even I could see that.

“Stay behind me,” I said, and he slid around until he was between me and the chasm. Already, three Yeti approached us, their faces drawn and completely devoid of emotion. Built like Norm, their coats ranged from pure white to a soft pale cream, and their eyes varied likewise from a pale, almost silver blue to a deep summer blue that had hints of violet. All three were males, all three were posturing with the way their three-fingered hands were fisted, and their nostrils flared. Subtle, but the signs were there.

I held up both hands, palms facing the approaching Yeti. “I come to speak with your mage, Miko. It is of utmost importance I can hear his wisdom.”