Storm of Arranon Fire and Ice (18 page)

“So what brings you to me, Jaer?” Nev’s smile
widened. “Let me guess. Erynn?”

“No, Nev. That will be a discussion for
another time.” Jaer squeezed the hilt of the dygaer to keep from
grasping the throat of the man who wanted his Kipa.

“I’ll look forward to that meeting. Yes? What
is it?”

Jaer took a step closer, glaring down at Nev.
“It has come to my attention that sensitive information has been
leaked regarding one of your patients. Your records are
confidential, are they not?”

Nev frowned, and his eyes took on a steely
glare. “This isn’t acceptable. I will look into the matter.”

Jaer’s jaw muscles worked. “Then I have your
word this will never happen again?”

“Of course.” Nev stood up and started to
turn. “Oh wait, have you heard from Erynn? I’d like to know how she
is.”

Jaer clenched his hands. He took in a deep
breath, relaxed. “Erynn is not your concern.”

“Is she yours, Jaer? I met Shan. She’s your
cheille
. Must be nice to have her here with you.”

So this is your game. I do not think I
will play. Yet
.

Jaer nodded in Nev’s direction and turned,
striding from the Medical Unit.

Dhoran leaned back in Gaden’s chair, his feet
propped on the desk, his hands over his stomach. He stared up at
the rock ceiling. “Jaer may be a problem. If he continues to
interfere with my attempt to get Erynn to bond with me, it will be
necessary to have him eliminated.”

Gaden stood before the desk, his head bowed,
his brown eyes staring down. “Yes, My Lord. They are sending
Interceptors to Deanaim to check on Erynn and Aven.” He raised his
head but kept his gaze on the floor. “They still have not been able
to contact them through the COM.”

Dhoran laughed low in his throat. “I told you
that damaging their communication equipment wouldn’t stop Erynn.”
He jumped up and came around the desk. “The oddest thing,
Gaden…Nev, his consciousness, likes Erynn. We truly enjoy her
company.” He held his arms wide and glanced down. He smiled and
closed his eyes. “She produces such a pleasant sensation. A thrill
rushes through me—us—catching my breath whenever I see her smile. I
actually look forward to being with her, to touching her.” He
opened his eyes, and the grin turned to a sneer. “To making love to
her.”

A chime sounded.

“Enter,” Gaden called, glancing to the
door.

The door glided open, and a woman shuffled
inside. She saw Dhoran and bowed her head. “My Lord.” Her tone was
timid, her voice shaky. She half turned to General Gaden. “General,
sir, you requested to know when the Interceptors reached Deanaim.
They will make their first flyover in less than five timnents.” She
bowed again and left in haste before being dismissed.

Erynn tossed in her sleep. Her eyes tightened
against a brightness glaring on her lids.

“Wake up.” A whisper, an icy breath, tickled
her ear. “Erynn, wake up.”

Erynn jerked upright. “Aven, what?” She
blinked and squinted. An intense white-blue light filled the Herk.
Her first thought was the Brusart. She scrambled back, pressing
into the cargo straps dangling from the brackets on the interior
bulkhead. Her breath came in short gasps.

The brilliant light dimmed. The voice of the
glowing blue spirit originated in the radiance and swirled around
her. “You’re here to help Arranon. We understand your intent,
perceive your purest desires, and have decided to help you.”

“Do you know where the portals are?” Erynn
whispered and pulled her knees up under her.

“No. But you’ve seen one.” The air pulsed
before her. Pinpoints of silver sparkled at the edge of her
vision.

“Yes. The portal of water. I know where that
one is. I was there not long ago.”

Memories of three days in the forest not far
from Glaskra filled her mind. It was where her friendship with the
maejen began and she first encountered the ghostly apparition of
her father. This was also where she’d found the jeweled statue and
the chamber below, leading to the portal of water. A round,
high-ceilinged room with lines of symbols on the walls held a door
that opened with the use of her father’s dagger. The exit from the
chamber led to the underground river and the waterfall cascading
from the pond above. Mysterious and magical incidents had happened
to her in that place. She had been transported through the portal,
a passageway up through the pond and back to the surface. It seemed
like a long time ago and far away.

She glanced at Aven. His chest rose and fell
slowly as he slept.

How can he sleep through this
?

The glittering moved inward, filling the
small space. “No. Another. I speak of the portal of air. I know
nothing about the doorway of water you describe.”

“How do you know I’ve seen the portal of air?
Where did I see it? When?”

“As the portal of water is vivid in your
mind, so also is the location of the portal of air. From a great
height in the sky, the colors layer, building when the winter
comes, rising as an ice bridge into the clouds.”

She stared at the blankets balled beneath
her. “Ice bridge? Layered colors? I was flying?” Her gaze shot up.
“The lake near the base. Air. Cace said the symbol meant air.”

Silver pinpoints of light whirled. “Go back
to the room where you found the
Olas Imian
, the inscribed
tablets. There is a false floor. A chamber below will lead you to
the portal of fire. Go there alone. You’ll jeopardize others if you
don’t. Do you understand? Only you can enter and then close the
portal of fire we guard.” The shining blue ghost glanced at Aven
with opaque, luminescent eyes. His gaze returned to Erynn. “You
must go alone. This is crucial. Stay within our line of protection.
The Socar Batahs watch the forest and their side of the portal. You
must hurry. The Brusart will gather their courage and return before
the sun is midway in the sky. You and your companion must be gone
before they come for you.”

With a quiet pop, the dark returned. The
silence thickened around Erynn.

Pale gray light seeped under the horizon of
menacing black clouds that threatened rain. The time was now. She
would enter the chamber and close the portal of fire, forever.

After all, how difficult could finding the
door of fire and closing it be
?

Erynn unlocked the cargo door and jumped out.
She glanced at Aven. He slept, snoring softly. She closed the door,
latching it with a quiet click, and ran across the yard toward the
building where she’d found the wooden plates engraved with the
Comhra symbols.

The Olas Imian. I was right. They were
left here for a reason. Symbols marking the location of the fire
portal. Just like the symbols on the statue above the chamber to
the water doorway
.

Thick iron-gray clouds masked the faint
morning light. The grass appeared black under her pale boots.
Shadows crouched against the dark silhouette of buildings. The
fortress remained colorless, cloaked in mist, and ominous in a way
it had never felt before last night. She could smell the coming
rain.

Erynn slid around the ruined door of the
two-story structure and into darkness. She pulled out a small lamp.
A meager beam chopped through the inky air, only to be swallowed in
blackness that seemed to be a solid entity. From a distance, she
heard the rumble of Interceptors overhead. She looked up, expecting
to see…

What
?

The drone of powerful engines neared.

Is it Cale
?

The words of the guardian echoed through her
mind. She must go alone or endanger others. Time was running
out.

She sprinted through narrow halls and around
corners. Her breath fogged before her. Erynn pushed into the small
room. The door moved easily this time. Through long, thin window
slats, the glow of a fighter’s twin exhaust stood out against the
cloud-darkened sky. They raced above, over the fortress, over her.
Their roar trembled in the air. The ground vibrated beneath her
boots.

“Erynn.” Aven’s voice sounded muffled from
her location deep inside the stone rooms. “Erynn, where are you?”
His tone held panic.

She began scuffing and kicking her boots
along the dirt floor. In the corner where the plates had been, a
dull thud answered her kick. Erynn dropped to her knees and scraped
the dirt away, exposing a large metal ring. Clearing more dirt, she
found the edges of a wooden door. She tugged at the ring. The hatch
didn’t budge. She stood, her legs straddling the door, and pulled.
Her arms ached and her legs quivered under the strain.

A pop echoed in small space, and the door
gave with a sudden release. She landed against the wall, sliding to
hit the hard ground. She scrambled up and hurried to the opening,
shining the light into the dark maw. The vague shape of an ancient
wooden ladder disappeared into inky blackness. She remembered the
chamber below the ground that led to the portal of water. An
ancient wooden ladder had disappeared into the darkness there as
well. “A ladder. Well, that’s familiar.”

“Erynn.” Aven’s voice was closer. “Erynn,
come out now!”

The Interceptors returned, making another
pass, engines slowing, starting their descent. The ground
trembled.

Erynn sat down, her legs dangling into the
hole. She found the ladder with her foot and swung around, her
hands grasping the top rung. She hesitated.

Aven entered the building, his boot steps
pounding on the packed dirt floor.

Voices swirled in the dark. “
Go. Now.
Hurry
!”

Erynn descended. Five rungs passed…six,
eight, ten. She held the small, narrow end of the lamp clamped
tight between her aching teeth. The beam bounced across the uneven
rock as she hurried down. A red line cut across the stone before
her.

A marker. For what
?
The point of no
return
?
But where’s the portal
?

She glanced below. Only a vast, impenetrable
darkness lay beneath her. No flaming portal. Taking one rung at a
time, Erynn sucked in a breath around the cold metal against her
lips. The red line slipped past her vision, above her now.

Too late to worry about the marker’s
purpose now
.

Overhead, a flurry of movement preceded a
bang and a hiss. A fine smattering of dirt fell on her. The hatch
above closed and sealed with a sucking vacuum draw of air. Erynn
slowed, then stopped. Her heart hammered against her ribs.

A trap
?

She took a step up the ladder, reaching above
for a higher rung.

A hand clamped around her ankle as another
grabbed her waist, and they jerked.

Her foothold on the rungs loosened, and her
boots lost their grip on the treads below her. She scrambled with
her one free foot to find the ladder and failed. Her pulse pounded
in her ears. Pulled by unseen hands, her other ankle was dragged
back and down. She gasped, her clenched teeth losing their grasp on
the light. The small lamp dropped. The meager glow extinguished as
it spun downward. She listened for a shattering, a chink of
breaking glass against stone.

Nothing.

Fingers wrapped around her wrists. They
tugged and jerked at her precarious hold.

Unable to maintain her grip, Erynn fell
backward into the dark. The hands grasping at her were gone.

JAER’S BOOTS SLIPPED ON WET grass and
squished through watery mud. His long dark hair hung dripping
around his face and over his shoulders. Moisture collected in his
neat beard and mustache. He hurried between the shadow-cloaked
stone buildings, darted into each entry, and inspected every empty
room. They had already been searched, thoroughly. Jaer knew this.
Aven, Sean, Tam, and Tiar had made sure no space was left
unexplored.

Erynn was gone.

He had to see the truth of this for himself,
though. With each vacant structure, his anger grew. He welcomed the
fury burning in his gut. This fire would sustain him through the
night.

Never show fear. Ghosts feed off fear.
Ghosts grow powerful from the terror they create, gaining in
strength
.

With the COM repaired, and communication to
Glaskra and Leathan established, Jaer would soon have contact with
Cale. After listening to Aven’s account of the night before,
Leathan sent Anbas and Glaskra City Guards to help. Jaer hoped the
sheer number of live inhabitants in the fortress would keep the
dead ones away. His heart skipped. Before the night was over, the
ghosts would come. He recognized this in the same way he understood
sunrise followed the dark of night.

Ghosts take heat from their surroundings.
They take the breath from your lungs, stealing energy and
increasing their power. Do not allow this
.

Jaer ducked under a collapsed beam and out an
empty doorframe. He stepped over what remained of the door decaying
into splinters just outside.

Shadows darkened and then faded. The storm
was reluctant to relinquish its grasp on the night. Blades of
moonlight from two moons slashed and hacked at black clouds.
Tattered rags of thinning mist churned and swirled, authority spent
and weakened by the push of wind. The last of the rain shimmered,
silver beads in the pale white glow of light from twin full
moons.

Aven yelled over a gust of wind as he ran
across the yard, his boots splashing in muddy puddles. “Jaer, the
relay is set up to the base. Cale wants to talk to you.” He slowed,
stopped before his brother, and lowered his gaze. “I’m sorry, Jaer.
I’m so sorry.”

Jaer pulled Aven into him, clasping his back.
“I do not blame you, brother. Erynn’s disappearance is not your
fault,” he whispered and pushed away. His hands still gripped
Aven’s shoulders. Jaer glared around him at the barren, dilapidated
buildings. “I blame this place and the unnatural spirits that
reside within these walls.” He turned, pulling Aven with him. They
headed toward a portable hut constructed in the middle of the yard.
The slow heat of rage seethed in Jaer’s chest, gave him courage,
and fed his strength. “The guardians wanted Erynn and they took
her. I will take her back.”