Page 28 of Cloak of Night
Liga shrugged. “I do not know for sure. Somewhere very cold, I imagine. Gods loathe the cold, so none of us would bother to go there, no matter how glorious the treasure was.”
“Naimo Ice Caves.” Sora gasped. They were glacial underground labyrinths in the southernmost part of Kichona. Both remoteandbone-chillingly frigid. “I’m willing to bet that the lake is there.”
The others thought it over, listing other chilly places in Kichona. But after a few minutes, they agreed that Naimo Ice Caves was the most daunting—and the coldest—of the possibilities.
“Assuming that’s where the Lake of Nightmares is,” Broomstick said, “we still have a problem. If the vault is protected against gods and demigods, then how dowehave a chance?”
The lines around Liga’s eyes creased again, as if he were barely restraining his laughter.
“What?” Broomstick said.
“We’re not important enough for the gods to worry about,” Fairy said. She turned to Liga for confirmation, although she was surprisingly unperturbed. “Isn’t that right? It’s kind of like what you were saying, that you don’t care about human trinkets.”
“It isn’t that we don’t care about humans,” Liga said. “It’s more that we don’t notice you all that often. For example, how closely have you been paying attention to those ants?” He pointed to a tree on the far side of the grove. Sora couldn’t even see the ants without a hawkeye spell, let alone expend any thought to what they were doing.
“And how worried are you about them stealing your things or ruining your plans?” Liga asked.
Daemon grumbled, but it came out more like an offended growl. “Humans aren’t ants.”
“It’s an imperfect analogy—” Liga began to explain.
“I understand,” Sora said. “There’s a lot going on in the world, as well as in Celestae, I imagine. Our human affairs are small in the grand scheme of it all. But ironically, it helps us if Zomuri didn’t put much thought into protecting his vault from humans. We should head to the ice caves as soon as possible.”
“I can’t go,” Daemon said.
Right. Because he was a demigod, and Zomurihadprotected the vault against them.
“You could wait outside the ice caves,” Broomstick said.
Daemon shook his head. “And be completely useless while you all have to face whatever’s in there? No way.”
They stood around for several moments, trying to come up with a better idea.
“I could stay with Wolf outside the caves,” Broomstick said. “We could be your guards.”
“Or maybe we could try to rescue Empress Aki first,” Fairy said. “She might know a weakness—or something like that—about her brother that can help us get close enough to him so that we can reunite him with his soul and kill him.”
Sora chewed on her nails. “I think you’re both right,” she said.
“How?” Fairy asked. “Our suggestions are mutually exclusive.”
“No, they’re not. We’ll divide up again,” Sora said. “We have three things we need to get done right now: retrieve the soul pearl, find and rescue Empress Aki, and do everything in our power to stop—or at least slow down—Prince Gin’s progress toward attacking the mainland kingdoms. So Broomstick and I will go to the ice caves to take care of the first part, and Fairy will stay with Wolf here to work on the other two. With our gemina pairs divided, we’ll be able to use our bonds to check in with each other.”
“And each pair will also have some brawn,” Broomstick said.
Fairy rolled her eyes. “We don’t need boys to protect us.” She glanced at Daemon, though, and seemed to realize something. “But still, I can stay with Wolf. I feel like we could use that time productively.”
Jealousy reared its ugly head at Sora, but she shoved it away.I’m happy for them, she reminded herself.
It helped to keep focused on the gargantuan tasks before them. “Maybe Liga can also teach you how to use your powers,” Sora said to Daemon, “and you can train for our inevitable showdown against Prince Gin.”
“Oh no.” Liga raised both hands in the air. “I only came to sate my curiosity about your prayers and to see how my brother was doing.”
“What?” Sora shook her head. “We’re up against an army with more magic than we’ve ever encountered before. You have to help us.”
“I can’t risk being seen involved in a plot against Zomuri and his Evermore army.”
Sora huffed. “You’re a coward!”
