Page 98 of Horn of Winter

Eadevane waited between the stairs and the elevators, his gaze scanning us critically before sweeping across the covered trolley. “And the horn?”

Mathi stopped, undid the straps, then flipped away the shroud. Martha lay on her side, and the chill radiating from her body was now sharp enough that I could feel it from several feet away. The horn might not currently be in use, but it remained dangerous.

Eadevane moved around taking photos, then nodded and motioned Mathi to cover her up again. “There is no elevator to Liadon’s door, and I suspect it would also be nigh on impossible to get the stretcher up the stairs.”

“I’ll use the air to get her body up there,” I said.

Mathi frowned. “Unwise, given your current state. We can simply carry her?—”

“No,” I cut in, “we can’t. She’ll be just as hard to maneuver in her current state as the stretcher and besides, we can’t risk touching the horn.”

“The shroud should?—”

“She may be dead, but that horn is still active. Look at the trolley’s legs, Mathi.”

His gaze darted down. The visible metal sections now held the slightest silver sheen.

“We can’t risk the chill leaching across to us via contact, no matter how brief or protected we may be.”

He didn’t look happy but didn’t argue any further, either. The plain fact of the matter was, I was the only one who could get into Liadon’s domain and would probably end up having to use the air anyway.

“You head up while I release the remaining straps.”

I nodded and walked around the two men to the elevator. There might be only two flights between me and Liadon’s stairs, but the less I had to climb, the better for my energy levels.

Even so, by the time I reached her door, my breath was a harsh rasp and my body shaking. I pressed a hand against the unnatural-feeling wood and waited for it to do its scanner thing. Once it had opened, I stepped back, leaned over the metal railing, and shouted, “Okay, I’m here. She clear?”

“Yes,” Mathi said. “I’ll come up and wait for you.”

“You don’t?—”

“I do, and I am.”

His tone said “don’t bother arguing” so for once, I didn’t. I sucked in a deeper breath, then created a rope of air and flung it down to Martha. Pain exploded through my brain, and I hissed, fighting tears as I hauled the older woman’s body off the trolley and up through the atrium. A red mist began to fall across my vision, but I ignored the warning and dragged Martha’s body over the railing, then thrust her into Liadon’s tunnel. I staggered in after her but had barely taken half a dozen steps when my strength gave out, and both Martha and I crashed to the shiny black stone.

For several minutes, I didn’t move. Couldn’t move. I just knelt there, my arms huddled around my body as I rocked back and forth, fighting the dark unconsciousness that threatened to overwhelm me. While I doubted Liadon meant me any harm, there was probably a very good reason the sheer black walls separated me from the other beings that inhabited this place.

And walls, no matter what kind, could always be breached if the attack was determined enough.

After a few more minutes, a greenish light began to press past closed eyelids. I forced them open and glanced up. The orb hovered several feet in front of me. Martha was nowhere to beseen. She’d obviously been silently swept away while I’d been wrapped in misery.

“Borrhás wishes to thank you for the return of his horn” came Liadon’s soft comment. “And for the soul and the flesh of the one who wielded it so unjustly.”

I nodded. I really couldn’t do anything else.

The orb drifted closer, its light washing waves of oddly warm air across my face and down my length. Strength trickled back into my system, and the immediate desire to simply collapse retreated a fraction.

I sucked in a breath, then whispered, my voice still tremulous, “Thank you.”

“I wish I could do more, but I am considered neutral in these games of theirs and will not risk that position being altered. What I protect is too valuable.”

And what she protected was what I was hoping to use to find my mom’s killers, so I wasn’t about to argue.

“He did also wish me to remind you that he wants the woman behind this scheme captured as soon as possible. He does, however, understand that even a godling needs rest.”

“That’s good of him,” I muttered.

Her amusement swam around me, even though she wasn’t physically present. “You have no idea how true a statement that is. You should go and recover. Darkness still hunts you, and you will need the strength to survive what comes.”

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