Chapter 10

With each passing minute Udonna was getting more nervous. Instincts told her to run away as quickly as possible, but she ignored them. She needed to see Koragg's face, even if she didn't want to. She only wanted to remain in blissful ignorance. Deep inside she knew it was impossible, but she simply didn't want to get hurt. There was too much pain in her whole life, so now she tried to avoid it.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw that Nick has already started cutting through the helmet. The desire to run away intensified. Udonna clenched her fists painfully hard, but the pain was welcome now – at least she had something else to focus on. She noticed the worried looks Clare was sending her, so she tried to smile comfortingly, even if she knew that it would look like a grimace.

After a few minutes the noise of metal being cut stopped. Udonna's heart started to beat wildly in anticipation. She didn't even look at Nick when he said:

"Well, here's the moment of truth."

In spite of herself she looked at Koragg just as Nick took off the front of his helmet. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw his face.

It was Leanbow – a bit older than she remembered him, but still as handsome as before. Suddenly she wanted to take him in her arms, to see his smile once again, to-

"So now you want to look at me again, witch?"

Something broke inside her. It was Leanbow's voice, but the words were definitely coming from Koragg. Her husband wasn't there. The man (she couldn't think of him as Koragg anymore) was glaring at her with Leanbow's eyes. Udonna couldn't take that any longer. Her legs moved on their own, taking her to the door and she ran out of the room, finally succumbing to her instincts.

Udonna wasn't sure what happened next. She only remembered running through the forest as everything swimmed in front of her. The trees seemed to laugh at her, their leaves rustling in the wind whispering "coward!" over and over. She wanted them to stop, to simply shut up and leave her alone, so she ran faster until she finally stopped at the edge of a small lake and sat there, curling into a trembling ball. Udonna's control over her magic slowly weakned, but she couldn't bring herself to care. Her mind seemed oddly blank, barely registering the growing coldness.

'I don't care. I don't care.'

The sun was already setting when Daggeron's anger has cooled off at last. It was a long time since he lost his temper like that. He looked around, surprised at how far he'd wandered off. 'I guess I should return to Rootcore. Udonna's probably worried about me.'

Daggeron knew there was a small lake nearby, so he decided to go there and relax a bit first. The gentle wind blowing through the leaves was soothing his strained nerves. It was quite a warm day - perfect for going on a walk – but soon it changed. The closer he got to the lake, the colder it got. At first he didn't think much of it, but when his breath started coming out as white clouds he realized that something was very wrong there. He quickened his pace and after a while he was able to see the lake from behind the trees.

The sight which greeted him made him stop short. It looked as if seasons had rapidly changed during his walk there. The lake's entire surface was frozen to the point of managing to trap some unlucky bird. Daggeron rubbed his arms and looked down. Ground under his feet was covered in frost. Everything around him was white. No, not everything. He squinted and saw a hint of red on the other side of the lake. Suddenly everything clicked.

'Oh, Udonna, what have you done?'

Daggeron quickly covered the distance between them. With growing concern he saw that she seemed to be unaware of her surroundings. She was staring ahead blankly, barely blinking.

"Udonna? Are you alright?" He wanted to slap himself. 'She's just freezed an entire lake! Of course she's not alright, you moron!'

He kneeled down in front of her and shook her shoulder gingerly. There was no response. He noticed Udonna was ice cold and her breath didn't come out in white puffs like his did. That wasn't good. 'Maybe I should talk to her?'

"Hey, what happened? Is it about Koragg?"

Suddenly she flinched and something sparked in her eyes. The next thing he knew, Udonna was in his arms, sobbing miserably. Daggeron gasped at the coldness emanating from her body, but managed to put his arms around her. He whispered comforting words in her ear, not believing them himself. He wanted to calm her down a bit, because at this rate the entire forest would be frozen.

She was muttering incoherently through the sobs. Daggeron tried to understand what was she saying, but only things like "not him" and "I can't" were distinguishable. He simply hugged her thighter, despite the fact he was already shaking from cold. It didn't matter. In that moment Daggeron only wanted to find Koragg and cut his head off. The bastard must have done something truly horrible to upset Udonna so much. It was the first time Daggeron saw her is such a state.

After about ten minutes he decided to put a sleeping charm on Udonna, because it would have taken him a very long time to calm her down. Daggeron lifted up her limp body and directed his steps to Rootcore, determined to find out what happened.

Nick and Clare's attempts to find Udonna were fruitless. They'd searched through the whole Rootcore and its immediate surroundings, but their mentor was nowhere to be seen. Relucantly they gave up and decided to return to finish their job with Koragg's armor.

Now that the Wolf Knight's helmet was gone, Nick was trying to deal with the fact that yes, Koragg was a human. In addition, he didn't look like some embodiment of all evil. His appearance suggested that he might be in his late forties, but Nick couldn't really be sure. All in all, he wasn't anything special – brown eyes, greying hair and a small amount of wrinkles, giving his face a stern look.

When they finally arrived in Koragg's room, they were met with an instant barrage of questions.

"Where is she? Why did she run out like this?"

'Damn, his voice is so weird now,' Nick thought.

Apparently noticing Koragg's growing confusion, Clare answered. "She had to... check... some potions! Yeah, that's it!"

He glared at her. "Don't lie to me. Where. Is. She?"

Damn bastard. "And why the hell do you care?"

That was the right question to ask. A myriad of emotions crossed Koragg's face and there was a long silence. Nick smirked.

"So you don't even know why? Pathetic."

Koragg's eyes narrowed into slits and he hissed: "How dare you-"

His next words were drowned by a loud crash coming from downstairs. Nick and Clare exchanged worried glances.

"Let's check it out!"

Daggeron cursed when he accidentally knocked down two chairs standing in his way. He was tired from carrying Udonna all the way to Rootcore. Now he just wanted to take her to her room.

"Daggeron, what happened?" He looked up. Nick and Clare were running down the stairs.

"Give me a second," Daggeron panted, out of breath. He pointed at the door to Udonna's room. "Open it for me."

He quickly laid her on the bed and left. It was time to answer their question.

"I was returning from my training and decided to relax a bit, so I went to a small lake which was nearby," Daggeron said, putting the overturned chairs to their previous positions. Then he plopped down on one of them. "When I got there, everything was frozen, even the lake. And in the middle of it all sat Udonna, just staring ahead blankly. I tried to get across to her somehow, but she didn't even move. But when I mentioned Koragg, she snapped out of it and... well, I shouldn't tell you, it's not my place to..." Upon seeing their expressions he relucantly said: "Okay, let's just say she got very upset. I couldn't calm her down, so I put a sleeping charm on her and brought her here. Now tell me: what happened to upset her so much?"

"I'm not sure, but I think it's because we've finally seen Koragg's face," Nick told him.

Daggeron was astonished. "You managed to take his helmet off? That's amazing!"

Nick simply shrugged. "It wasn't so difficult, really. Just a bit of magic laser and it was done."

Clare rolled her eyes at Nick's display of modesty. "Well, anyway, when Udonna saw his face, she looked really shocked, but also... happy, I think. And then Koragg, being himself, said something nasty to her. But, you know, it wasn't really that nasty, yet Udonna's expression went blank, just like her emotions suddenly shut off. Soon after that she ran out of the room. We tried to find her, but we couldn't."

Daggeron sighed and stood up. "I suppose I should take a look at him."

He tried to ignore the gnawing suspiction which appeared inside his head.