Firebrand

No king.

He was about to ask Nari his questions when he noticed the cat standing with its fur on end. It growled. The cave amplified the growl until it expanded into every nook of the cavern and sent sonorous vibrations along the dripstone formations.

Magged emerged from the passage that led to the lower cavern. “What is—?” she began.

Zachary never heard the rest of her question because freezing air shrieked through the cavern and slammed into him. He was blown back and ice crystals raked his skin. He leaned into the maelstrom and shielded his face with his hands and tried to see what was happening. Nari jumped behind a large stalagmite to shield herself from the tempest. Magged huddled against the cavern wall.

The wind eased and a translucent form, like a glazed man, appeared before him, and he realized it was of his own approximate shape and features, had he been made of ice. The elemental’s body, if it could be called such, was crisscrossed with deep scores as though from sword blades and was missing one of its arms. Zachary broke off a large stalagmite and held it like a club.

“So,” he said, “you have been ousted.” Wind gusted into him.

“You!” the elemental shouted, its voice the oscillating howl of the winter wind. “You will exact the price. All I wanted was to treasure her.”

“Treasure, or imprison?” Zachary demanded, but he did not await an answer and launched at the aureas slee, brandishing the stalagmite. He pounded it into the glassy form, but it was the limestone that shattered into thousands of glowing pieces, not the ice.

The creature laughed. “Did you not know that ice shatters rock?”

It then swung its one arm and Zachary flew across the cavern. He skidded across the floor and must have blacked out for a moment, for the aureas slee loomed over him, reached for him.

“Slee!” Nari cried, leaping out from behind cover and shouting in Eletian.

The aureas slee turned and advanced on her. Zachary climbed unsteadily to his feet and leaped on its back, gripping it around its chest. It shook him off as though he were no more than a flea, then turned and knocked him over again. Zachary peered up through a haze, his consciousness wavering, his whole body screaming. The aureas slee reached down and grabbed him by the neck and lifted him with monstrous strength.

Zachary pried at ice fingers that crushed his throat, his legs dangling, the world growing ever more dim. He gasped for air. Vaguely he heard Nari shouting and a roar filled his ears. Was it the wind that roared, or some great beast? There was an impact, and an impression of tawny fur and giant wings. The aureas slee released him and he dropped to the cavern floor. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, Nari was there kneeling beside him, her hand on his chest.

“Zachary . . .” She glanced over her shoulder. There was a great din, the sound of snarling and crashing. “There are two of them.”

Two of what? he wanted to ask, but he didn’t seem to have the energy to speak.

A translucent hand of ice swept Nari away and grasped Zachary’s wrist and lifted him like a doll. The rest he was never sure of, whether it was real or a nightmare. A pair of gryphons—one tawny and one black—had sprung to life as if from ancient tapestries, and attacked the elemental. Dripstone formations shattered as the aureas slee hurled the gryphons off itself, all the while keeping hold of Zachary. A portion of ceiling came crashing down revealing the daylit sky overhead, freshening the air, but Magged disappeared beneath the rubble. He could not see Nari through the dust.

The gryphons flew through the cloud of dust and dug their scimitar claws into the aureas slee, and lifted it with great wingbeats. Slee still clutched Zachary’s wrist even as it was carried away. Up and up and up into the sky they went, and then dropping to skim the tips of evergreens. The gryphons tossed the aureas slee between them, toying with it like it was a mouse, jerking the dangling Zachary back and forth. He thought his arm would surely be torn from his shoulder.

The aureas slee howled at its tormentors, sent sputtering winds at their wings, but its efforts were fruitless. “I am done with you,” it hissed at Zachary, then it flung him away, away through the unbearable cold and into darkness.

Nari wiped grit out of her eyes and filled her lungs with the sweetest air she had breathed in centuries. It was laden with fir and spruce, the scent of damp, fecund earth. The vision of gryphons carrying Slee away, Slee in turn lifting Zachary away, played in her mind. Did Zachary still live? Mortals were such fragile beings.

Magged.

Nari gazed where she had last seen the woman. It was all rubble. She clambered over fallen rock, unwieldy stone clacking underfoot, only her Eletian sense of balance keeping her upright.

“Magged?” she called. She pulled away rock and debris. “Magged, can you hear me?”

There was a muffled sound from nearby. She worked even faster, tearing away the debris, and soon found Magged’s face plastered in a mask of dust. The rest of her was buried beneath more rubble and gigantic slabs of rock that had once been the cavern’s ceiling.

“Nari?” Magged whispered. Blood traced through the dust on her face from her nose and mouth, and from a gouge on her temple. She seemed unable to see. Nari sensed the life leaving her.

“I am here, Magged.” Nari lightly touched the woman’s cheek.

“I—I am sorry,” Magged said. “I wanted him to be family.”

“What do you have to be sorry for?”

Magged’s breaths were ragged and wet. “I know the way out.”