There it is, Mellayr breathed. The Glacier.
In truth, they had been able to see it for leagues and leagues from the air. A sharp line of ice, it cut straight across the landscape as if some giant being had sheared it down.
Embrald dropped down and landed on the lip of the Glacier. The ice curled away from his talons, falling in a frozen cascade a thousand feet down to the barren brown stone below.
Mellary untangled herself from the saddle and jumped down, her thick boots landing with muted thud on the ice.
The top of the frozen river had been scoured of everything. It stretched away from her in a flat plane, reaching and reaching on forever into a distant horizon. Light from the sun reflected off the surface, making the distance shimmer and dance like a heat-born mirage.
Beneath her boots the ice continued down, an endless deep expanse of the most perfect blue imaginable. Even the sky paled in comparison to the rich hue of the ice.
She drew a deep breath of the clean air, feeling the icy chill burn the soft lining of her nose. The corners of her lips quirked upward.
Her attention shifted, and she looked out over the barren rock plains that spooled away from the base of the glacier. With Embrald's borrowed eyesight, she could just make out the amethyst haze of mountains in the distance. It had taken them almost a day and half of flying to make it across the plains, after they had both woken late after their encounter with Murtagh and Thorn. By the time Mellary had stumbled her way out of their hiding place, the sun had already begun its slide towards the horizon.
The burning orb hovered just above the rise of the earth to her left, though she estimated that they still had close to an hour of daylight remaining. Already, deep lines of shadows were gathering to the east.
She scanned the expanse again, recognition taking hold in her mind. The colors were more muted, and she couldn't actually see trees from the Glacier, but the scene was eerily similar to the dream that had woken her in a cold sweat. Tiny shocks raced up and down her spine. It had been nothing but a dream.
How are you expecting to find this 'strange magic' that the elves reported? Embrald asked. She shook herself, banishing her unease.
By looking for it, Mellary replied. The Grey People had no interest in the frozen wastelands of the north. The spell that they cast encompassed the magic of the world, but it… how do I describe this… wore thin? Using magic reinforces control over it; it has to, otherwise the energy sustaining the spell would fade, releasing the magic.
So, if everyone ceased using the power, then it would vanish, commented Embrald thoughtfully.
It would break free. There is a difference. Mellary took another searing breath. It would take hundreds of years. However in regions like this one, with no one to reinforce the spell, that control has worn away. That's why wild magic is heavy in place like the deserts, the mountains, the deep forests. And the Glacier. She closed her eyes, able to sense it moving against the shields that locked the world away from her mind.
How can this be known? Embrald asked. The sealing spells were never written down, or were lost.
We don't know precisely what the Grey People did, but by interacting with magic we can divine the nature of the spell. As for how I know, some I pieced together by reading the works of various elven masters. Some Oromis told me. And some I found out for myself. I traveled the abandoned regions of this land for a long time. The very essence of this place feels different.
I know. Embrald's voice sounded different in that moment, as if it carried the weight of millennia of knowledge.
Mellary turned to face the Glacier and closed her eyes. One of her shields, a specialized one that she had based on her mother's design, kept ambient magic from leaking into her mind as she traveled. She let the defense fall, taking down her other barriers as well. This far from anywhere, the risk of someone attacking her while she shields were down was nonexistent.
Mellary reached into her mind, finding the natural walls that sequestered her power until she was ready to use it. She breached the wall quickly, with the ease of long practice.
Magic flooded her from inside and out, mixing together like a fresh river meeting a salty ocean. For a heartbeat it churned and eddied, creating wild currents that threatened to drag her under. Then it smoothed out, flowing through her like a gentle sea. It wasn't powerful enough to make her lose herself, like she had before, and it didn't gather in her mind; Mellary had opened herself like a sieve.
As she concentrated, the magic shifted and changed. No longer an ocean, it was a symphony. Threads of individual melodies wound together to create a concordant whole with an astounding beauty that threatened the bring tears to her eyes. Mellary let the magic flow through her, just…. listening.
Time had no meaning as she drifted.
Out of the melodies, a strand began to stand out. Mellary nudged at it, brow furrowing. It wasn't discordant, precisely, but it didn't fit with the rest of the symphony. Not quite flat, not quite sharp, but a half-step off from the rest in a way that raised the hairs on the back of her neck.
There, she said, working quickly to isolate the feel of the magic. It goes….northeast?
North northeast, Embrald corrected. Mellary let go of the magic and opened her eyes, shading them from the glare of the sun off the ice.
She stretched her legs, ignoring the complaints from the unused muscles. We have more time before the sun falls, she informed him. We should keep flying, to get away from the edge of the Glacier. A blazing fire could not have stood out more in the daylight that her deep emerald dragon.
Is there shelter? Embrald asked uncertainly.
Mellary shaded her eyes as she looked out over the icy expanse, though she already knew that she wouldn't see anything. There is, just over the horizon. A few hollows, created by ripples in the ice. I managed to make it that far before, but the chill forced me to turn back. She pulled the elven coat tighter around her shoulders and climbed back into the saddle.
The winds close to the surface are difficult, she warned. I don't know about the higher currents.
We shall find out, Embrald said wickedly as he leapt off the Glacier and into the air. They plummeted to gain speed and swooped up over the ice. Embrald tilted his wings and veered north.
The ice passed below at an astonishing rate as they raced the dying light towards the horizon. The air chilled noticeably. Her breath streamed behind her in a misty cloud, freezing the skin of her face. Mellary pulled the hood up over her ears and wrapped the thick scarf around her lower face, tucking the loose ends into her coat to keep them from slapping against Embrald's wings.
There, Embrald said after a while, flashing her a glimpse of the ground below. Something had disturbed the normally flat ice, turning it into waves that had frozen just as they crested and broke.
That's them, Mellary said, so cold that her mental voice was beginning to chatter.
Embrald angled his wings, descending in a rush. They swooped down into the hollow. The air warmed immediately as the ice broke the wind off.
The dim light coming in cast them both in deep blue, turning Mellary's hair a rich magenta and Embrald into something from the depths of the ocean.
Mellary curled up against Embrald's side, basking in his radiating warmth as she nibbled on some dried meat that Aerwyn had included. There would be nothing to hunt or scavenge on the Glacier. She had four days of rations if she stretched it carefully. Embrald had hunted before they had left the mountain range, and would be fine for at least a week.
Despite the exhaustion that was weighing on her, Mellary remained awake as the last light faded from the sky. As full dark settled over the ice, she tapped on Embrald's wing bone, asking to be let out from the warm pocket under his wing. The cold air struck her as she scrambled on the slick ice, climbing up to the lip of the hollow. She curled up, looking out into the night sky.
Mellary? Embrald asked after the silence stretched on.
Can you hear that? she asked quietly.
Hear what? Embrald laid his great head on the ice next to her. In her seated position, the bony ridge over his eye was level with her shoulder.
Silence. Pure, deep, absolute silence. Not a living thing stirred across the great sheet of ice. Even the wind had ceased to blow. The flat surface, cleared of snow, reflected the stars above. Orientation vanished, leaving them adrift in a bright diamond sea.
This is what brings you peace?
Yes, Mellary said. Seeing it again had relaxed a tightly wound part of her mind. But this isn't the best part. Just wait.
Her sense of time vanished as they sat there, watching the stars glide across the sky and waiting.
Green sparks flared to life above them, and the sky seemed to split open. Great drifting sheets of green and blue, streaked with sparks of red, painted themselves across the sky. As if caught in great celestial currents, they shifted and moved with silent grace.
Embrald's utter astonishment filled her mind, bringing a smile to her lips.
…. I thought you had dreamed them, he said quietly.
Mellary stared at the ghostly lights dancing across the sky. They were bright enough to reflect off the ice below in a myriad of colors. As she watched the celestial performance, her mind blanked and her thoughts drifted with the unearthly fire.
Embrald's head suddenly jerked up. Yes!
What? Mellary asked, dazed. Her thoughts must have bled down the ties between them as she dozed. What had she been thinking, again?
Embrald was already climbing out of the hollow, his claws raising harsh screeched as they dug into the ice. He rustled his wings, flexing them open and closed in that manner that cried he was itching to take off. It was his invitation to climb aboard.
She had been remembering those once-futile desires to fly among the lights.
Mellary leapt to her feet, almost falling back into the hollow as her frozen muscles locked. She scrambled into the saddle, not bothering to strap herself in as Embrald launched himself into the night air.
The cold immediately bit into her. The winds may have died, but the temperature had plummeted. A grey glow still lit the horizon, as if the sun was just about to come up. Mellary remembered stories of continuous days and endless nights she once heard from another wanderer. She wasn't sure if it was because of the strange magic of the place or some other feature of the northlands that she didn't know, but the sun and moon felt no need to follow normal patterns.
Embrald surged upward, his wings sweeping in great strokes as they flew. The lights continued to dance above them, beckoning an promising. But however high they flew, the lights remained just in front of them.
We have to stop, Mellary said eventually. The thinness of the air was making her gasp for breath, blackness beginning to encroach on the edges of her vision. Embrald… too high…
With a resigned harrumph and a billow of emerald fire the exact color of the lights above, Embrald dropped back down until she could breathe again.
Mellary tilted her head and looked up at the brilliant, unreachable luminescence. It had seemed so close from the ground, but they were now higher than all but the Beors, up so high that she couldn't make out any details on the ice below….
She stopped and squinted, leaning out until she had a clear view over Embrald's shoulder.
What is that? she asked, sending him an image of the dark structure illuminated by the drifting lights. It jutted out of the flat ice, dark against the mirrored surface and casting a dancing shadow that stretched far behind it.
Embrald turned his head and focused on the object. It snapped into detail, and Mellary hissed in a breath.
A citadel, made from the ice itself, towered above the Glacier's surface.
Magic wrenched at her, filling her mind with the jangling chord from before. Whatever the magic was, it was emanating from the citadel.
And they were silhouetted against the celestial lights.
Land, Mellary urged. There. Farther to the north was a mountain range, the Glacier washing up against the steep slopes like a frozen ocean. There had to be caves somewhere, or at least a crevasse where they could take shelter.
Embrald immediately descended, dropping out from between the lights and the citadel until they were skimming just above the ice. They came upon the range quickly.
Her dragon's night vision was far better than hers in the shifting and uncertain light, so Mellary stayed silent as Embrald found a wide crack in the cliff face. He landed outside and sidled in.
There wasn't much room in the crevasse, just enough for the two of them to fit without being squished. Looking out, Mellary could still see the strange structure coming out of the ice. She hadn't been able to see much in the brief moment, but she had seen enough to know that the thing was in no way natural. The sheer shapes of the walls and styling of the towers meant that someone, somehow, had created it.
That is the source? Embrald asked. The trace was less clear to him. Dragons possessed unbound, and inherently chaotic, magic. It was more difficult for him to find a trace that was so very similar to his own power.
That's it, Mellary said. Whoever enslaved those elves can be found there.
Sooner or later, they were going to have to face it.