Page 69 of Ties of Frost

Sajen lightly bumped his eagle head into her chest, then lumbered to his feet and took to the air.

With the increased altitude and speed of Sajen’s flight, the air over the Aizurgon Sea went from chilly to frigid. I drew on my powers to keep myself warm, thankful that Sajen’s fur and feathers meant he didn’t need my help. Using my magic to keep someone else warm was much more complicated and taxing.

Sajen slowed and banked lower when we reached the inlet. A vertical blue line of ice shimmered on the rock faceson either side of the entrance, the magic so potent I could sense the warning and danger laced into the ice without effort. As agreed, Sajen turned aside and flew over the steep cliffs to the south rather than directly over the water or the lines of magic.

I gathered my magic into my hands, ready in case I needed to protect us against a magical attack. Snowflakes swirled around my fingers, and I sent threads of magic to test the borders of the inlet.

At the end of the inlet, a cabin sat tucked under the protruding rock of a cliff. A man stepped out, his white hair tied at the back of his neck. He craned his head back to watch us approach. Sajen slowed even further. The man raised a hand, and a blue-tinted glow swirled around his fist. Snowflakes grew to ice chunks.

“We come in peace!” I withdrew my own magic to almost nothing, just enough that I could still react quickly if the man didn’t listen or couldn’t hear me. “We’d like to talk!”

“What?”

“Rengiri! Here to talk! Peacefully!”

The man didn’t respond or move to attack. Sajen dipped down as if preparing to land on the pebbled beach in front of the cabin.

“Not yet,” I cautioned. “The air is half-choked with ice magic, and by the way he’s scowling at us, I’m not sure he isn’t going to attack.”

Sajen turned instead to fly across the width above the beach. The man watched us cross once and back again.

“Permission to land and talk?” I shouted as Sajen passed the cabin a third time.

At last, the man lowered his hand, although blue light still spiraled around his fist. But then some of the stifling ice magic surrounding the inlet relented.

“Land cautiously and be ready to take off again,” I advised.

Sajen bobbed his head and dove, forcing me to grab a fistful of feathers with a stammered apology.

We landed several paces from the cabin and the man. White pebbles scattered from the impact of Sajen’s landing. I jumped down, and Sajen shifted back to his true form. We both bowed our heads. The wrinkly-faced ice elf just crossed his arms and grunted.

“Thank you for allowing us to land,” I said. Given the old man’s attitude, I deemed it best to give some information before I asked for any. I pointed to the insignia pinned to the breast of my tunic. “I’m Rengir Kyrundar Ilifir, and this is Rengir Sajen Hargren. A friend of ours, Rengir Zidra Eilmaris, requires specialized magical medical attention. Are you Gautindar Rouven?”

The man stared back at us, his expression like that of a toddler asked to eat vegetables. Was he deaf? I didn’t remember enough hand signs to communicate without any words. Or was this not Rouven at all?

“How did you find me?” he snapped, his voice rough as wood bark.

A calm sense of Iskyr’s reassurance nearly made me slump with relief. “It wasn’t easy, but the powerful ice elfhermit with expensive tastes seemed a good guess.”

Rouven grunted again. “I’m retired. And a hermit. Leave me alone.” He turned toward the cabin.

“Wait!” I held out my hands, begging him to halt. The moment he slowed, I sprinted across the rounded stones and skidded to a halt within arm’s reach of the man we’d traveled so far to find. “Please! We’ve been to Merael’s, and they couldn’t help us. Physician Mirlanwen told us to find you. I don’t know where else to go if you don’t help. My friend, my…the woman I love is going to die.” My voice cracked.

“I’m still retired,” Rouven grumbled, although with less vehemence. He stepped toward his house, but I grabbed his arm. His other hand snapped up with speed that belied the age spots on his skin, and I barely had time to raise a defense before our magics crashed into each other with the sound of shattering ice.

I moved back and held up my hands in a conciliatory gesture. “I’m sorry. But you might be the only person with both the power and the medical knowledge to save her. The only way I’m leaving here is with your permission to bring Zidra back or because I’m dead.”

Rouven’s bushy white eyebrows pinched together low over his eyes, but he didn’t fully turn back to me. “What under Iskyr’s great sky could possibly be wrong with the girl?”

“She has an ice curse in her arm.”

His head tilted subtly. “Zidra Eilmaris… Not an ice elf name.”

“Wyveri,” I supplied.

His eyebrows sprang up. “And she’s not dead?”

“I was able to pull the cursed magic back and trap it at the initial puncture site, but I couldn’t remove it.”

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