"You're not as easy to find as you used to be." Pitch said, dissolving from the shadows that filled the alley where Jack had been spreading frost. Jack whipped around, staff pointed defensively at Pitch's chest.
"What do you want?" Jack demanded, looking around to see if Silver was with him.
"As much as I hate to ask, I need your help." Pitch said. "Silver's in danger." Pitch tried to sound humble enough for Jack to know that he was serious.
"So that voice is going to make a move then?" Jack asked, still on the defense when Pitch took a few easy steps towards the mouth of the alley. Pitch frowned at him.
"Yes. I believe he is. He came and spoke to Silver earlier." Pitch held his hands behind his back, attempting to look as formidable as he used to. There were many things he had done in his long life, asking for help, especially from one sworn to protect the world from him, was not a thing he thought he'd ever do. But Silver was more important than his vanity.
"What do you want me to do about it?" Jack asked lowering his staff. Pitch debated telling the sprite "never mind" and leaving right then, but he swallowed his pride for the moment.
"I want you to help me protect Silver. I know she's your…friend." Pitch had never been one for any sort of pleading, and now here he was.
"Why ask me?" Jack asked, knowing that Pitch wouldn't be here unless it was dire.
"Because you understand…" Pitch stopped and snarled at himself. "I know you care for Silver. I just hope you'll help me protect her." Pitch hated that he wasn't strong enough to protect her himself. Hated that he had been reduced to the shadow of his former glory. Hated that everything that mattered to him was in the hands of the mischievous and spirited Jack Frost.
"Ok." Jack said. Pitch perked up, surprised that Jack had agreed.
"Ok?" He asked.
"I'll help you protect Silver." Jack replied. "But only for Silver's sake," Pitch smiled then and Jack frowned at him. Pitch always looked like he was up to something when he smiled, but Jack believed that Pitch really wanted to protect Silver. So he followed Pitch home while Pitch told Jack all that he knew of Death.
Meanwhile:
Silver sat in the main cavern of the Cave, playing with little orbs of moonlight she found she could control. Pitch had told her to stay in the main room until he returned from wherever it was he was going. She had agreed, if only to make him worry about her a little less.
Chattering was audible from across the cavern and Silver perked up. She stood and adjusted herself as she peered into the dark. Silver could just make out the whiteness of the little skeleton man from where she stood near Pitch's great globe. She smiled and shot across the room.
"Hello?" Silver called into the dark. "I know you're here." She said happily as she looked around the shadows for signs of the little guy. She heard his chattering again and she followed it down a hallway, ignoring the fact she was leaving the main cavern.
"Ssss!" She heard the little skeleton hissing. "Ya!" Silver knew he was trying to say something, so she darted forward, trying to hear him better. (This way!)
"Wait up!" She called after him as he ran ahead of her again.
The skeleton chattered at Silver from the other end of the hallway as if to challenge her. Silver narrowed her eyes at him and chased after him again, a laugh escaping her lips as she ran. The skeleton man waited for her when she lagged behind, but she followed him wherever he went. Silver found herself in the depths of the caverns before she realized how far she had actually chased the skeleton.
"Where are you taking me?" Silver asked cheerfully when the skeleton stood in the doorway of an anteroom. Silver giggled again, not noticing which anteroom she had entered. "You're a funny little guy, aren't you?" She just kept smiling until she realized she couldn't stop following the little skeleton. Even when he chattered at her from the edge of the very hole she had watched Death disappear down earlier that day. Fear spiked in her heart.
"Stop!" Silver said, her legs continuing towards the hole despite her every effort to stop. "Skeleton man! Let me go!" The skeleton paused at the edge of the hole with a mournful look and frowning eye sockets. He chattered at her sadly then jumped down the hole. Silver could do nothing but follow him down into that deep darkness. Fear raced into her veins as the shadows closed around her and she followed the whiteness of skeleton without having to really see him.
"Silver!" Pitch called into the dark when he and Jack made it back to the Cave. There was no answer and Pitch couldn't feel her anywhere in the cave. "SILVER!" Pitch bellowed. Jack frowned.
"Isn't she here?" Jack asked. Pitch growled.
"No." Pitch could feel Silver's fear then. It lingered somewhere in the depths of the caves and Pitch thought he knew which room it came from. He moved quickly and deliberately towards the other rooms.
"Where are we going?" Jack asked. Pitch stopped and turned to Jack with an angry snarl.
"He took her. I can feel her fear. He took her and I want her back," Pitch sounded dangerous and Jack was glad it wasn't at him. While Jack knew he could probably take Pitch on if he had too, it was best that Pitch's rage was directed elsewhere.
"Death took her?" Jack asked. Pitch didn't even respond as he hurried to the anteroom where he'd found Silver this morning. Silver's fear was sharper here.
"You do not have to come," Pitch said peering into the deep hole that Silver had told him Death had disappeared into. Silver had been afraid when she went down this hole, and Pitch needed to find her before Death did something terrible to her.
"You asked for help. I'll help." Jack said. Pitch turned to Jack with something like gratitude on his face. "For Silver." Jack added hastily. Pitch grinned slightly despite himself.
"Silver is lucky to have your loyalty," Pitch said before he jumped down the hole, straight into the dark. Jack shook his head and jumped in after him.
Elsewhere:
"Silver, my dear, beautiful Silver!" Death preened when the skeleton man stopped before him with Silver still under control. Silver could only glance around at the cavern she was in. It was well lit with torches of blue fire along the walls that were lined, floor to impossibly high ceiling, with shelves filled with jar after jar after jar. Each jar had something in it, but from the flickering of the firelight and the distance she was away from the walls, it was hard to tell just what each jar contained.
"I do not belong to you," Silver said shortly.
"Of course, of course," Death said. He sat upon a grand chair, a throne of sorts, on a raised platform in the middle of the room before Silver. It was three steps up that she hadn't intended to make, but her legs were still not her own. She stopped close enough to Death that the hem of her dress brushed against his night-black pants.
"Why can't I control myself?" Silver demanded, frowning.
"It's a simple spell, you'll be fine once you are released from it," Death said dismissively. He was looking at Silver with both wonder and a sort of hungry. Death took her hands in his and Silver shivered. His hands were colder than she thought possible. Cold in ways ice couldn't dream if.
"Then release me from it," Silver said, attempting civility, which was hard when she was angry.
"But first…" Death pulled her forward suddenly and she collapsed onto his lap. "You have something that I want." Silver met his insanely colored eyes and saw only ambition. He knew what he wanted.
Death grabbed Silver's hair in one hand and brought her face to his in what looked innocently like a kiss. However, when Death's lips touched Silver's she felt ice spread into her mouth, down her throat, into her blood and as Death drew back from her, she felt as though he was drawing out something precious from inside her and she fought it.
But it wasn't enough.
Death held in his hand a brilliant silvery-blue light that cast wicked shadows upon his sharp cheekbones. Silver watched him cradle the light in his hands as it transformed into a lamb that sat daintily upon his hand. Death laughed, pure joy at his find. Silver lay across his lap, hollow and dazed, unsure if she felt anything anymore. All she knew was that she needed that lamb back. It took all of her remaining strength, but she managed to reach out.
Death didn't notice until it was too late. Silver's hand brushed against the lamb, which changed back to the blue-silver light and darted back into her.
"NO!" Death bellowed. The light warmed the ice that Death had placed in her, but she continued to feel weak. "Take her away!" Death bellowed again and a whole herd of skeleton men came up and pulled Silver, still impossibly dazed, from Death and his throne. She could not move and her eyes were quickly closing.
Silver was carried from the room by the mob of skeleton men, who all chattered as they took her away. They laid her gently on the stone floor of another room and left her there. One skeleton man stood at the doorway as his counterparts departed. He chattered at her sadly and followed the others. Silver's eyes closed, but sleep evaded her. All she felt was a dull fear of what may happen next.
Something whinnied from the back of the room and Silver managed to turn her face towards the noise. She saw nothing, but the whinnying came again. Silver tried to make light, but it didn't work. She was drained from her exchange with Death and she needed sleep. Silver tried to sit up, but her arms wouldn't hold her. The whinnying came yet again and Silver just lay against the cold stone, wishing she knew what it was in the back of the room. Her eyes closed as she wished, and an image came to her mind of the little white nightmare running around her hand at the Pole. The whinnying echoed in the room and was accompanied by hooves stomping on metal. Silver lay there for another moment, then did her best to drag herself towards the white nightmare she knew would be waiting for her.
Inch by inch, Silver managed to move towards the back of the room.