The rabbits scattered. Lissie turned and looked to Nikolai.
“They’re coming.” He stood up and moved in front of her.
Lissie took a step back into Nikolai’s home.
Who’s coming? She wondered.
Aloud she asked, “Should I hide?”
He said nothing, just held up a closed fist. She stayed in the doorway and listened. There was a high whistling sound. She peered past his blue arm, careful not to touch him. A brass canister was arcing through the air. It landed in the snow right in front of him. The whistling reached a shriek, and a flash of blue light blinded her. She took a step backwards into Nikolai’s home.
Nikolai was a blur in front of her. She watched him bend at the waist and punch into the stone beneath the snow with both fists.
He rose holding a massive chunk of the earth in each hand. “Hide.”
She moved deeper into the dwelling, watching him through the opening. He was standing at the entrance, blocking it with his body.
The spots were clearing from her eyes. She moved behind the bed as far back as she could get in the round chamber and still see him.
He stood still as the sky.
She heard feet running in the snow.
Nikolai took a step forward, and past him Lissie could see Riley.
She was running full tilt at him with her sword drawn.
Lissie rounded the stone slab she’d slept on last night and rushed to the doorway as fast as she could. The laces came untucked from her boots.
She reached the door as he threw the first rock. It crashed into the earth a foot away from Riley who had sidestepped. A crater formed. It sent a shower of snow and earth into the sky. Riley rolled forward and sprang back to her feet. She was holding her sword with both hands.
Lissie reached out her hand and laid it on Nikolai’s bare back.
He froze, the rock in his hand fell to the ground with a crash. Riley was rushing forward, sword swinging in an arc. Lissie watched the blade as it swung into his thigh. There was a horrible screech and shards flew into the air from the impact and rained down like ash on the snow.
Lissie could not move. A deep and lasting cold sank into her from her hand. It coursed down her arm, and into her heart.
I’m going to die, Lissie thought.
Riley was saying something.
Nikolai was saying something.
Voices through water, across the sky and in the earth. Nothing. Echoes of times long past. All that mattered was the stillness in her heart.
Her blood would not move. She dove into herself. It’s the opposite of the wind, I need to go deeper.
She drove herself into her body, into her heart. Thump. Damn it, wake up, she screamed at herself, the cold was piercing every part of her. She was going to die.
The fire, the candle, the flame. They were nowhere. She could see no heat in this world. She could feel no life anywhere. The ground beneath her was swallowing her.
Deeper.
She dove. Past herself, past the mountain. Down, the earth was warmer. She drowned her soul in the depths, and still she went deeper. She found the fire. It was old. It was untouchable, and she could draw from it forever. She pulled, she snared it. It moved slowly, refusing at first. Then faster than she could control.
It raced with her, back up, back into her. The heat penetrated through her, her heart screamed to life again. Thunder inside her. She gasped for air, and forced the heat from her heart down her arm to the source of death that was trying to kill her.
Her eyes flew open, and there he was. Nikolai was screaming. Bellowing. The mountain shook with his scream. She pulled her hand back and he fell to the ground.
“I’m sorry.” Lissie whispered, she collapsed near Nikolai on the cold ground.
Riley moved closer, and Lissie could see her sword was once again just a stick.
“Lissie!” Riley shrieked.
“We have to help him!” Lissie pleaded with her friend.
“I thought he had you captive. We started searching for you as soon as we got back down.” Riley moved closer and laid her warm hand on Lissie’s shoulder. “We searched all night, I thought you—”
The fire raged inside of her. “We have to help him, Riley! I think I hurt him.” Lissie was speaking fast. “I don’t know what he needs! Cora might know, or Alexander? Where are they?”
Riley opened her mouth and sheathed her sword, the jagged edges catching on the scabbard. “They are hiding in the forest, I’ll go get them.” She glanced back at Nikolai as she left. He was silent.
He has lamb’s ear, but burns need honey. She looked at his back, but there was no mark where she had touched him. Her chest twisted. What could she do?
Cora, Alexander and Riley came at a run. Lissie spoke first. “What do you know of giants? Not the stuff from fairy tales.” She crouched over him, careful not to touch. “But maybe that too. I burned him.”
“So he saved you?” Cora looked around, eyes wide. “He built this, I suppose. Lissie, we have been hiding from Giants the whole time we were searching for you.”
“Yes, yes. But how can we help him?” Lissie’s arm tingled and itched. It was feeling a lot better.
Riley said, “I don’t even know how you hurt him. Arrows covered in burning pitch or poison is how they fight them at the Towers.”
“In the stories, their hearts are made of ice.” Alexander was looking everywhere. “I don’t think we are safe here.”
“Help me cover him in snow.” Lissie did not ask.
They worked together, Lissie struggled to help with her arm splinted. The ice melted when it touched him, but slowly it stopped melting. A mound of snow covered him, and her friends stared at her.
Riley asked, “What happened?”
Lissie told them of the fall, what little she could remember. She told them about waking up in the crevasse, and the earth being ripped apart above her. Climbing out after him, and how he refused to touch her. To carry her. Her story was interspersed with more efforts to replace the snow as the pile shrank. The sun was high overhead.
“I don’t think he’s a real Giant,” Cora said, “he’s a lot smaller than the ones that were chasing us.”
The snow began to shake, and Nikolai stood. He shook the snow off and asked, “Lissie, are you safe?”
“These are my friends.” Lissie wanted to rush in and wrap her good arm around him but held back.
Riley mumbled an apology, and tried to explain how they had been hiding from other Giants, but Nikolai interrupted her.
He said, “I’ve never felt warmth before. Thank you Lissie, that was interesting.” He moved outside the circle past Lissie, and picked up the boulder he sealed himself away with. “We need to get inside.”