“You said it wasn’t far, Lissie, not that I’m complaining.” Alexander’s face was hidden inside his hood. The back of his coat was covered in ice. The sun had left them, and they marched under the glow of one of his blue lights and a wide swath of stars.
“It’s not far,” Lissie said again and smiled to herself.
It’s no farther than I walked to Niko’s house.
“Do you need to throw the bones again, Lissie?” Cora was at her side.
“It was only a little way over the ice sheet.” Lissie held her fingers close together. ”It’s hard to gauge distances when you’re scrying.”
Riley and Cora were shivering and had their arms tight around their chests. Ruskin had stopped poking his nose out of Alexander’s pack. The wind came pushing, whipping their clothes. Lissie could see it, but she could not feel it.
The stars had come out in a show like she had never seen before. They reflected brilliantly on the ice, illuminating them all from above and below. The constellations were all in the wrong place, as though the sky itself had tilted above them. The Leopard was on the northern horizon back home, but now it was to the south.
How far have we come?
Niko called back, “The ice is black up here.” He was further ahead than Lissie realized. His small steps were still much larger than hers.
“That’s where we stop.” Lissie closed her eyes and opened them. She looked at her companions. They glowed yellow.
Riley spoke and the red in her core rose to the edges. “See, not far!”
Niko stood on a perfect circle of black ice. Lissie walked around the edge of it, and peered at the center. It had a hollowness to it that made Lissie think of a hungry maw. It devoured the light, but when they stood upon it, the cold fell away as well.
“We need to go inside.” Was all Lissie could think to say.
Alexander was rubbing his gloved hands together. He moved his face like he was going to say something, and then stepped back off the circle and onto the snow. Lissie watched the light from the glowing jar tied to his belt.
He stepped back onto the circle, and the light was cut in half. He tore at his gloved hand with his teeth until it came off, and then removed his other hand and untied the jar. He knelt, and held it very close to the ice.
“Fascinating!” His grin was in shadow.
“What are you on about?” Riley moved to stand next to him.
“The light is gone.” He moved the jar over the snow. “Light.” He moved it back over the ice. “Darkness!”
“I’m glad you’re excited, but I’m hoping it is warmer inside.” Riley stepped away from him and towards Niko. “Nikolai, can you break it?”
“The struggle is in not breaking it.” He moved to the edge of the circle, his steps measured and slow. “Everyone stand wide away.”
Lissie moved back and watched as he raised his blue fists in the air. They crashed into the black ice, and she braced for the explosion.
None came, only a faint cracking sound.
“That’s not what I was expecting, Niko!” Alexander yelled. “Give it all you’ve got.”
Niko raised his fist, and brought them down. Crack. Again and again. Crack. Crack.
Lissie walked with the others back to the edge of the circle of darkness. “Niko?”
“I am not holding back.” He stared down at the cracks in the ice.
“Maybe we can melt it? If we had something to burn?” Cora was kneeling and examining the cracks. “I don’t think it goes down very far, I think it’s just a shell.”
“My turn then.” Lissie waved them back from her.
She fumbled off her glove with her mouth. It tasted like sweat. The candle came out of its pouch on her belt easily; she hadn’t tied it closed. She knelt down and held the candle to one of the cracks Niko had made, the wick was almost touching her lips. She pursed them and blew gently, thinking of the heat of the Plains. Of the Sun as it stripped them of water on the salt flats. She felt the warmth that gave life as it killed.
Her breath drifted out of her, and when it touched the ice, the ice pulled. She felt herself being drained.
Not me! The Sun!
The yellow light in her eyes, the sweat on her face. The draining heat. She let it flow through her, and let the ice pull that.
Drain the Sun.
And the ice began to melt. The crack widened and still it pulled. And the heat coursed through her. From the base of her spine she felt the heat of the sun, rising through her spine and out of her lips.
And the ice pulled, and melted. The pull intensified, it was ripping at her, trying to take everything she had. The Sun did not care, he coursed through every part of her, touching, tasting her.
The pulling stopped, there was no more ice. For the darkness, she could not see the water coursing down the sides of the rock. But she could hear it. She could see dark clouds of steam rising up.
She collapsed panting. Niko was the first to arrive, but he did not touch her. Cora helped her to her feet, Riley was staring over the edge into nothing. There was nothing to see.