Frost (17 page)

“But how can we trust them?” Ivy protested. “Shouldn’t we wait until we’re sure?”

Smart girl. I met her eyes squarely. She was turning into such a strong, smart young woman. But although her words were intelligent, careful, exactly what I might say…

“We may not have a choice,” Jonn said softly, examining my face. “Am I right?”

I nodded slowly. “I overheard the Farthers speaking. They are making another sweep of the farms. They believe he is being hidden by one of the villagers. They suspect us, I heard them say it.” I took a deep breath and let it out. “I don’t know who gave them our name. Maybe the Mayor.” I remembered my visit to see him, how he’d looked at me with such coldness. How I’d overheard him speaking my parents’ names. What did he know about us? Did he know about the Thorns, the secret room beneath the barn floor?

I didn’t mention my suspicions about Adam. If he was the one who had betrayed us, then all was lost. We could not do this without him.

I went to the kitchen and took down the lantern. “There’s no time left to make plans and hope circumstances change for the better. We’ve got the map. Now we’re going to have to move tonight.”

Their eyes followed me as I went to the door. I lit the lantern and went out into the gathering night. The snow swirled around me, brushing my cheeks like fat white moths in the darkness. I crossed the yard to the edge of the woods and hung the lantern on the branch of the tallest, barest tree. The flame glowed in the near-darkness, just a flicker as faint as a captured star. Far away, I knew Adam would look through the telescope he had described to me and see it, and he would know that it was time.

After one last look at that faltering light playing over the snow, I went into the barn and pressed the button to open the secret room.

Gabe was waiting on the steps, his arms folded and his head leaned back against the wall. He opened his eyes and watched me descend the steps. There were so many words to say, so many questions to ask, but he didn’t say any of them. He just watched me, and the pain splintering in my chest was almost unbearable. I sank to the ground beside him and put my head back against the wall beside his. The air around us seemed close, warm, and sparks crackled between the places where our arms almost touched.

“It went well,” I said, finally. “Ann helped me get inside the Mayor’s office, and I found the map. I spoke to Adam Brewer, and they agreed to help us. Everything is going according to plan.”

He turned his head a little so he was looking me straight in the eye, and the look in his eyes split me in half. “Then why are you so unhappy?”

The sting started behind my eyes. I blinked, keeping it at bay. “Have you ever felt that it’s just too dangerous to love people?”

He was quiet. Something glistened in his eye.

“My parents, and now you.” I realized too late my confession, and I glanced at him quickly. He reached out to touch my cheek, and I rushed on. “I keep losing people. Well, sometimes I wonder if it’s worth it. Is this struggle to
feel
worth it? I just keep bleeding and bleeding, and it seems like it never stops.”

“Lia, what if—” he started, but I put my hand against his mouth. If I heard his words I might not be able to continue.

“You’ve got to leave tonight,” I said, my throat tight.
And I don’t want you to
, I thought. But those words were best left unspoken, perhaps. “The Farthers are coming again to the farm tomorrow, after the danger of the Watchers has passed. I heard them saying it at the social. We don’t have much time.”

A single tear slipped down my face and fell like a raindrop. His thumb brushed the wet trail it left behind, and he said my name so gently I thought I was going to break.

“You’re right,” he said. “It’s not safe for you if I stay. And there’s no life for me here.”

“I know,” I said. “I know all of that. But knowing doesn’t make it easier.”

He kissed me at first like he was afraid I’d break, and then he kissed me like it was the last thing he’d ever do.

~

The world outside was black, the sky cloudy but free of snow when we left the barn. The lantern glowed against the snow and threw the trees around it into sharp relief. I saw a flicker of movement in the forest, a ripple of fur and claws that melted against the darkness so quickly that I might have only imagined it. A trickle of cold anticipation slid down my back and made me shiver.

We slipped inside the house. Ivy had a bag of food packed, and she handed it to Gabe wordlessly. Everyone suddenly had nothing to say. Ivy hugged him tight, and he and Jonn clasped hands. I hovered by the door, tense and full of roiling emotions. Taking a deep breath, I pinned the brooch belonging to my parents to my cloak. If we were caught with Gabe in the woods, they’d know who we were anyway. Wearing it made me feel closer to my parents.

We finished our goodbyes. Ivy was openly crying now, the tears dripping off her chin. Jonn’s face had taken on a grayish quality. They huddled together by the fire, watching us, willing us safety in their silence. They looked so small and shrunken, and I turned away and went to the door so I didn’t have to see the terror in their eyes.

Somehow, I was glad to be the one going. Waiting here, straining at every hour for the sound of returning footsteps seemed the cruelest task of all.

Gabe wrapped himself in one of my father’s old gray cloaks, accepted the sack of food from Ivy, and took a handful of the snow blossoms from the bundle drying at the fireside. He joined me by the door, and together we went out into the yard.

By the tree, under the light, I saw Adam and one of his brothers waiting, their faces hidden beneath their cloaks. I breathed out in a sigh. Part of me had feared they would be accompanied by soldiers.

Gabe halted. “Are we sure we can trust them?”

“We have to,” I said softly. “We don’t really have a choice anymore.”

Adam pulled back his hood as we approached, his gaze flicking over me and then Gabe. His eyes lingered on Gabe, and he raised one eyebrow slowly, his mouth tightening as if he were seeing something that surprised him. I looked from one to the other, but I couldn’t see what had Adam so interested all of a sudden. Perhaps he hadn’t believed me about Gabe really being a Farther.

Finally, Adam spoke. “This is my older brother, Abel. Only he and I will accompany you tonight. It’s best to travel in small groups into the deep Frost, to avoid attracting too much attention from Watchers and anyone else who might be watching.”

After a moment, Gabe extended one hand, and Adam stared at it a moment before gripping it. “You don’t have any Farther technology on you?” he asked.

“What?” Gabe’s forehead wrinkled in confusion.

“The Watchers are drawn to it. They can sense it somehow. If you’re carrying anything, get rid of it.”

“I—I’m not,” Gabe said. “I mean I don’t.”

Something about Adam had flustered him. I gave him a curious glance, but he didn’t acknowledge it. His jaw twitched a little.

Adam crossed his arms and turned to me. He glanced at the brooch I’d pinned to my cloak, but he didn’t comment on it. “You have the map?”

I pulled out the makeshift drawing I’d made and extended it to him wordlessly along with the matching transparent piece. He put them together, his eyes lighting up and his mouth quirking in a sly smile as he silently absorbed the information. Now the section marked X had ruins lurking beneath the smooth surface of the lake. “This is incredible,” he muttered. “We’ve been searching for months, but in all the wrong places…your parents were the only ones who knew this location. They were the ones with the maps, you see.” He ran one hand over the vellum. “This is innovative.”

“It’s clever,” I said. “Instead of one map to Echo, you had to have both parts. The Mayor doesn’t have any idea where it is, or even what it is, even though he has one half. He probably thinks he has the whole thing, too, since his version is opaque.”

Adam nodded, still studying the papers.

“Will it take long to get there?” Gabe asked.

“It is not too far,” Adam murmured, raising his eyes from the papers. “An hour on foot, maybe less.”

“We’ll take the horses,” I said.

~

We rode out as soon as I’d saddled them. Gabe and I rode together on one, Adam and his brother on the other. I’d been worried about how Adam and Abel would fare on horseback, since most of the villagers did little riding, but they rode well. I remembered that his family was not from the Frost originally, and a part of me wondered what his past was and why he was wrapped up in all this now.

Adam seemed to make note of the way we rode together, Gabe’s arms around me. I had a feeling those dark eyes saw and made a note of everything. But he didn’t comment. I was grateful.

We plunged into the woods, and prickles ran down my arms as the branches snagged our clothing and scraped at our faces like skeletal hands. I carried the lantern, and the light sparkled over the ice and snow and transformed the world before us into a wonderland of silent beauty. Again I was struck by the majesty of my home, and with that awe I experienced a fierce desire to fight back against the ugliness that had infected our village and the Farther world beyond.

Adam pulled his horse back so that he and Abel rode parallel to us. “Stay vigilant for Watchers.” His voice was low, controlled. I heard no fear in it. “They can sense our body heat, but they will leave us alone if we take the right precautions.”

My eyes dropped to his belt, where a cluster of snow blossoms dangled. He had other things hanging from his shoulder and chest, bundles and contraptions that I didn’t recognize. Abel, who seemed the strong and silent type based on how many words he’d uttered so far, carried similar items.

“How is it that only my parents knew the way to this Gate previously?” I asked.

Adam flicked the reins over his horse’s neck, matching pace with my mount. “It’s the way the Thorns operate. Every person is one cog in a greater machine—much like the village here. Each operative knows only what they must know to carry out their job. Your mother kept contact with the Thorns, and my parents intercepted the people they sent to the Frost. Your father was the one who took them to the gate.”

Thinking about them made my eyes mist. All this time they’d carried on these secret activities, and Jonn and Ivy and I had never suspected. I wished they were here now to guide us to the mysterious gate.

“What do you know about our destination?” I asked.

Adam considered his words. “The gate is an ancient magic, powerful enough to transport a man. You've heard the stories about the ancient portals of our ancestors?”

I nodded. “My grandmother used to tell me about them when I was a child.” The portals were mythic, almost fairy tales. They’d once connected places all over the world. People had stepped through them and come out in places thousands of miles away.

“There used to be many of them in this world, but they’re all gone now. All but this one, at a place called Echo. Few know it is here. It has much power, but the Farthers can’t touch it because the Watchers guard it,” Adam said.

“The Watchers
guard it
?”

“Where do you think they got their name?”

I’d never really considered it too hard. “I thought they watched over the Frost.”

“And they do. They are part of an older time, the remnant of an ancient race,” he said. “They have been here for many years, protecting this place. It’s why our village and the others in the Frost have remained so protected and unscathed by empire-building for so long.” His gaze shifted to Gabe, who'd become quiet. “Those from Aeralis have their own stories about the Watchers, just as we here in the village have ours. Nobody really remembers anything about their origins. There is only speculation, tall tales, theories without any proof. Some say they are beasts, some say they are ghosts. Few have seen them, and even fewer have gotten a good look.”

“But where did they come from?” I asked. “What was this ancient race?”

Adam lifted a branch and held it so we could ride beneath. “There was a whole world here before ours, and the Watchers are just the tip of what remains visible.”

Just thinking about it took my breath away. I gazed at the world of snowy white around us, at the feathery pines and moonlit hollows. What forgotten secrets lay beneath this icy visage?

Gabe’s arms tightened around me. “In my country we called the people from this place the Forgotten Ones. Most believed them a myth. They are from a time so long ago that no one has record of it.”

“And the Watchers are from that time too? How are they still alive?”

“Who said the Watchers were alive?” Adam murmured.

I was silent at that, a chill descending my spine.

The horses shied abruptly, snorting, and I fumbled for the reins of my mount as panic spread across my shoulders. Adam turned his horse and lifted the lantern, and I heard his brother mutter something and point. The lantern light glittered on the snow, and I saw the dark seep of blood and a hand, the fingers curled in a half-formed fist. A dark gray uniform clothed the arm. Other bodies lay beyond it, their faces hidden in the snow.

Adam jumped down and approached the corpses, kneeling beside them to check for signs of life. “Farthers.”

Dizziness swept over me. I looked at Gabe. His mouth was set in a tight line at the sight of the bodies, but his face betrayed no emotion. “The ones that came to our farm—they went into the forest this afternoon,” I said. “I heard at the social that they hadn’t returned.”

“They were carrying technology,” Adam said, holding up a few devices with the tips of his fingers. Tossing the things into the snow, he remounted and kicked his horse into a gallop. I followed, leaving the bodies behind us.

We rode on for what felt like an eternity of held breaths and anxious glances over our shoulders. I tracked every shadow, straining for movement beneath the trees that might signal Watchers, but the night was empty. The horses snorted, steam rising from their withers in the light of the lantern.

Abruptly, the crunch of snow gave way to the clop of the horses’ hooves against stone. I caught my breath as pillars of stone rose from the darkness around us. Shadows scattered before the lantern light like ghosts, revealing strange ice-covered shapes and structures. It was a beautiful ruin covered in snow. Ahead, a lake of ice glimmered like a sheet of glass.