Lissie looked at the sky, and felt stinging tears freezing at the corners of her eyes. The Wind was unreal here. The stars were too real. The ice sheet pulled at the warmth of her body, and drew her down with it. She took out her bones and bowl and found she couldn’t open the pouch with one hand. “Cora, can you help me with these?”
Cora fumbled with the tight knot of the draw string. The pouch came open and she dumped the bones into the bowl resting in Lissie’s good hand. Lissie tried to crouch, and found herself almost falling on the ice. Cora caught her by the shoulder.
“I’m not sure where I can throw these in the wind.” Lissie worked her way back to her feet leaning on Cora.
“We can move over there.” Cora pointed to one of the few spots of bare rock. “It won’t help with the wind but it might be less slippery.”
Everyone took small steps. Alexander had returned Ruskin to the backpack. Nikolai was taking the smallest steps of all. Lissie looked up at him towering behind the group.
“Are you having trouble with the ice?” she asked.
“I’m having trouble not breaking it.” Nikolai lifted his foot again, and set it down. She felt a tremor.
The wind was the same away from the edge. Relieved, Lissie found she could crouch on the bare black stone without falling. She looked into the bowl of bones in her hand, and tossed them before her. Riley and Alexander crowded in at her shoulders to look at the bones.
“Well?” Riley asked.
Lissie pushed her and Alexander away. She stared at the bones, and saw Ariland. At the border, there were men and women standing in a long line, and there were soldiers with bows drawn and spears harrying them away.
I must have been thinking of home.
She stared out around her at the ice, and the sky. It was beautiful in a way. The sky was bright and blue, no clouds. Endless. The mountains to every side of the plateau rose and fell like waves.
She reached out and started picking the bones up, one by one. Riley flashed her a look and snatched the bowl out of her hand before scooping all the bones back up in one movement. The bowl was placed in the palm of her still outstretched hand. Lissie frowned at her.
“What? It’s cold.” Riley mocked shivering under her heavy coat and said, “Brr.”
Lissie scowled at her.
She stared into the bowl of bones and thought of every mushroom she had ever seen. The pocked morels, the black inkcaps, the white button mushrooms they’d eaten every night of her childhood.
Mushrooms.
She threw the bones again, and stared at them.
Puffballs on lawns, turkey tails on trees. Come on! This is what you’re here for.
Terndowns. Lady Maribelle was running around, weaving her way through a heavy crowd of people. There was a line of what looked like soldiers behind her. Soldiers? Men carrying weapons, but none of their armor matched. She watched as Lady Maribelle slipped into a strange leather outfit, and wrapped her face in a hood with a metal mesh. The warriors were donning similar clothes.
She looked to the edges of the bones and saw a great crowd of people penned in like animals. Their faces were marred with red bleeding wounds. There were wide circles in the crowd, and at the center of each was a snarling beast.
No, it’s a person.
Their jaws were snapping at any who tried to get near. Lady Maribelle forced her way into the crowd. Warriors flanked her, carrying nets and bolos. Lissie turned away as one of the warriors lashed out at the man’s feet.
Lissie was breathing hard, and she felt a hand on her shoulder.
Riley wasn’t smiling. “What did you see?”
“What we’re here for. But not what we’re looking for. I saw home first, and then I saw Terndowns.” Lissie started picking at the bones and tried not to look at anyone.
“I do not know if it is the same for you.” Nikolai’s voice soft and controlled. “When I try to control it, the magic, it explodes.” He paused for a long time. The wind whistled around her, and he continued, “Everything explodes. Think of the rabbits.”
Lissie looked at the cup of bones in her hand.
We’re not looking for rabbits, she thought, but nothing else is working.
She took her mind to yesterday. The stillness. The quiet waiting. The greens on the snow and the quick movement. They came slowly, then all at once. She fixed that image in her mind and threw the bones without looking at them.
Her eyes lowered and she saw it. The cave. It was not far but it was deep. It was buried beneath the ice.
“How did you know?” She turned to him as she asked.
“I said I did not know. I told you what works for me.”