The whispers were not as quiet as those whispering thought they were. D’Argen looked over his shoulder at the three mortals clustered closely together. Two of them were the women that had been stuck with Thar when the ice broke apart. That little block of ice, cut out from the rest, had already broken apart and disappeared. Those two women would have been floating frozen along with those chunks of ice if it had not been for D’Argen.
Or Thar.
The person they were whispering about.
Because Thar had done something incredible. In their eyes, it was the magic of the gods. In the eyes of the Never Born – it was impossible. Not with the chain wrapped around his mahee. Not with how each and every one of them felt the ice under them break and yet stay together with only Thar’s mahee keeping it solid.
When that single block of ice finally broke apart, Haur had dropped to his knees and stared in awe. When Thar got up and used his mahee to raise the temperature around them, that awe turned to fear.
Nobody was that strong.
Nobody.
Darania, maybe, but even she would hardly be able to stand and walk after that. The fact that Thar not only did that but also urged the others to start moving?
D’Argen turned to look at where the man sat in the snow with his legs crossed and arms loosely draped over his knees. Thar had his eyes closed and was breathing slow and deep, so slow it could have been sleep. The man’s mahee covered their entire camp. The cold air around them was soft, and less biting. The winds were almost completely gone even though the clouds above them moving swiftly. And even those that had fallen into the water a few days ago were back on their feet and in high spirits.
As Thar filled up his mahee, using the cold around them to restore what he lost, the rest of the camp was feeling it too. D’Argen was even tempted to remove his winter cloak. A quick glance at Lilian sitting beside him, wrapped up in three different cloaks, made the decision for him. He unclasped the brouche at his neck and as he stood up, he swung the coat around. Snow fell from the edges and he shook it more firmly before placing it over Lilian’s shoulders.
Lilian had not said a word since they fell into the water. They were back to that same dangerous quiet after Sky Mountain and D’Argen did not feel comfortable leaving them alone. He wanted to go to Thar, ask him—something! Anything. What happened was… nobody was that strong. D’Argen had a hard time wrapping the strands of hair of his companions with his mahee, he could not imagine holding together millions of shattering and breaking pieces of ice together to keep them from bursting apart and into a solid chunk above the water.
“Stay here,” D’Argen said to Lilian and received no reply. “I want to see what our next step will be.”
Lilian remained silent and did not look up at him.
D’Argen made his way across their small camp to where Haur and Nocipel were sitting, hunched over a wooden tablet. For the entire length of the short walk, his eyes stayed focused on the side where Thar sat alone. He wondered if the cold from the camp that the man was consuming was gathered around him or if it was even hotter there.
“The break is leading us further east than I anticipated,” Haur was saying just as D’Argen approached.
Both of them looked at D’Argen and raised their chins slightly in greeting. D’Argen returned the gesture, glad for the high collar of his undershirt that covered his neck.
“We are exploring,” D’Argen said when Nocipel did not fill the silence.
“The water under us… it still goes on. I have yet to feel land,” Nocipel said. She brushed her long hair back over one shoulder and pulled the fur of her cloak closer to her cheek, burying her face in it. “I fear we are not prepared.”
“No?” D’Argen hummed out the question.
Nocipel looked up at him and frowned. She looked down at the open blanket beside her and then back at him with furrowed brows.
D’Argen took the hint and sat down so the two of them would not have to look up at him and bare their necks to the cold air.
“I was originally hoping we could go straight north,” Haur said, looking down at what would eventually become a map. For now, it was only a list of notations including their speed and distance travelled so far. “There is… something to the east though. I do not want to go there.”
“Right? You feel it too!! I knew it,” Nocipel voiced and threw out a gentle backhand at Haur’s arm. “I have been feeling it for days. The currents under us, they tell me there may be land east so it makes sense to go east, yet I do not want to go east.”
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“Say ‘east’ one more time,” D’Argen drawled out only to receive another glare.
“How is Lilian doing?” Haur asked, trying to change the subject.
“They’ll be fine. You mentioned something about supplies?”
“Ah… another week. A few more days after that if we start rationing now.” Haur looked back down at his papers. He shuffled them around and D’Argen recognized a supplies manifest even if he did not read it. “Unless we find something else for food and drink, we will have to turn back soon.”
“So little?” D’Argen asked and looked around the camp. Everybody was eating or drinking. The dried meats were tough to chew but they were filling and did not give off an extra strong scent that bothered D’Argen. The biscuits were hard and crumbled easily, but every mortal with them had gone adventuring before and knew to save those crumbs. The wine skins were mostly empty but the boiling water was plenty.
“I could go on ahead and see—”
“No,” Nocipel interrupted him with a wave of her hand. She then hesitated and stared at her own hand as if it betrayed her. “Why?”
“No, I agree, it is not—” Haur interrupted himself with a frown on his own lips.
D’Argen stared at the two of them in confusion. “What is happening with you?” he asked.
“It makes sense,” Haur said, his voice wavering, “yet I do not agree with it.”
“Nocipel?” D’Argen asked.
She shook her head and pursed her lips as if refusing to speak.
“Do you not feel it?” Haur asked, his voice now sounding accusing.
D’Argen felt the words like an attack and cringed back from it. Even so, he thought about it.
East.
If Nocipel said the currents revealed land in that direction and if the crack in the ice, so long they had been walking alongside it for a few days now, led them in that direction – it only made sense to continue. He did not like deviating from Haur’s original plan of going north, but he was used to changing his plans as they progressed. And going ahead to make sure they would have something available would only make sense. He could do it. He could go further away from the crack and Thar could harden the ice under him to prevent it from breaking again. He could run and be back to help them decide whether it was time to turn back.
He hoped it was not yet time to turn back.
“Let us sleep on it. I would like to have a discussion with everyone at the camp first thing tomorrow. D’Argen? Would you tell the others? If I could speak to Abbot and Yaling beforehand, I would appreciate it.”
D’Argen nodded along to Haur’s words. “Lilian? Thar?”
“Thar is busy now and Lilian… well… I just—”
“It’s fine,” D’Argen interrupted before Haur could tangle himself into an insult. He pushed off his knees and walked away without saying goodbye. As he walked back to where Lilian was covered in the furs, Yaling and Abbot back at their side, his eyes once more wandered to Thar. The man was sitting in the exact same spot as before but his eyes were open, tracking D’Argen across their small camp.
D'Argen could have sworn he felt those eyes on him the entire night as he stared up at the star-filled sky – for once clear of clouds – but he refused to look over to check. Instead, he kept one hand on top of Lilian’s where they lay beside him. Every now and then he brushed his thumb over Lilian’s pulse point, glad to feel how strong and hard the beat was.
The following morning, everybody from the camp gathered in a circle around Haur. He announced their predicament that they would have to continue east and that they may have to turn back soon due to a lack of supplies.
“Why not send him ahead?” One of the women from the crowd asked and pointed at D’Argen. She was older, with white streaks in her hair and deep lines on her face. She was, also, one of the most experienced climbers in the group. Not much to climb on the flat ice they had been travelling, but she was used to the cold and took care of the others.
“That’s what he does, isn’t it?” she continued. D’Argen tried to remember her name when she looked at him. “Runs ahead? Makes sure it is safe? In this case, check if there is natural vegetation?”
“The problem is not sending him ahead,” Haur started. “He can jump across the gap, no problem. But then he would have to carry each and every one of you across too.”
“Across the gap? No. I meant east. Break says we go east, so we go there.”
Haur visibly hesitated. Nocipel, standing forefront in the crowd, also started fidgeting. Surprisingly, so did Abbot and Yaling. D’Argen caught their eyes and both of them turned away, looking down as if in shame. They agreed? A look at Lilian revealed that they were probably not even listening to the crowd. Thar, on the other hand, was looking right back at him. D’Argen was surprised only for a moment before focusing on Thar.
As Haur and Nocipel both tried to convince the woman, and the other mortals, that continuing east was not a good idea, D’Argen moved through the crowd until he was standing beside Thar.
“Do you know what that’s all about?” D’Argen asked quietly, whispering into Thar’s shoulder to keep those around them from hearing.
“Could be his intuition,” Thar replied, white eyes focused back on Haur. Haur’s mahee was based on instinct, telling him when to turn back and when to go right instead of left.
“You trust it?”
“Always,” Thar replied immediately. Then he hesitated.
“Then it makes sense to go east!” A few of the mortals around them clamoured even though D’Argen had missed whatever Haur said beforehand.
Thar narrowed his eyes at where Haur was scratching at the back of his neck in the middle of the circle. “Something is wrong,” Thar said.
D’Argen looked first at Thar then at Haur.
“East it is,” the leader of their party finally caved. “Everybody, pack up and get going. D’Argen will run ahead and…”
D’Argen stopped listening when he heard that and looked at Thar. Thar was once more looking at him. They both nodded in agreement and as soon as the crowd dispersed, they walked away from the others. Once they were far enough away from the gap Thar hardened the ice under them and D’Argen pushed off to run east.
It felt like barely a few breaths before he slid to a stop and stared. There were rocks beside his feet, solid ground, footprints in the snow that must have belonged to some huge animal—bear, most likely by the size and shape—and then there was the giant pillar of stone that jutted out in a straight line from the snow and disappeared into the clouds above.