The Onyx Throne - Ch.38-39

Chapter 38

"Mitchell, I'm so cold!" Lethelin said as they paused to rest. "Can we stop?"

The wind was whipping the snow into near white-out conditions in the path and he couldn't feel his face. He hugged Lethelin to him and rubbed her arms trying to warm her. Their bulky cold weather gear made movement stiff and awkward. He rested his chin on top of her head as he felt her body shudder against his.

"We've only been walking for a couple of hours," he told her, trying to be heard over the howling wind. "We have to get more distance before we stop for the night. We have to keep going, Leth."

Lethelin didn't say anything.

"Can you give me a couple of more hours? Can you make it?"

He felt her nod.

"That's my girl," Mitchell told her, hugging her tight to him.

She looked up at him and he could see the frost on her eyelashes and some frost around her lips. He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"We can make it. One foot in front of the other, remember."

Lethelin closed her eyes and nodded. It was a sign of her exhaustion that she didn't offer up any reply.

Mitchell stepped back behind Marvin and checked on Allora. She hadn't awoken again and seemed unchanged since nearly killing him a few hours prior. After looking over the ropes that held the pull-sled together and checking on the yulop's harness, they pushed on.

The path meandered back and forth, through switchbacks, down shallow ravines, over ledges, but always west. Mitchell never thought he would miss the heat of the desert they'd left behind but as the bitter wind found every seam through his leathers and furs, he thought he would give anything to feel warm again. The arctic wind howled through the passes and snatched the air from his lungs, freezing him from the inside. He hunched his head and tried to keep his feet moving.

While on the march he continued to keep an eye out for more caves that they might shelter in. He had to remember that his body was getting stronger as they crossed into Awenor, but Lethelin didn't have the same abilities. While he knew he had to push her, he had to be mindful of her limits.

He had taken the lead that morning, as it allowed him to trample a path through the drifts with Marvin and the pull-sled that would make walking easier for Lethelin. As the morning wore on and the snow continued to fall, it came up to his knees in some spots. Still, Mitchell trudged on. He had a mission and he had two women depending on him to get him through to the other side.

'One foot' had become sort of a mantra as he pushed forward. He found himself repeating it over and over as his mind went numb to the exhaustion. He didn't know how long he continued in that way but a bleat from Marvin finally snapped out of it. The rope had gone tight in his hand and he turned to see Marvin stopped with his head down and his feet dug in.

"Marvin, what's wrong?" Mitchell cried back over the wind.

Then he noticed he didn't see Lethelin behind them.

"Oh shit!" Mitchell said as he hiked back through the snow.

He found Tammi about five meters behind them bleating in distress. At her feet, partially buried in a snow drift was Lethelin. She lay unmoving with Tammi's lead under her body.

Mitchell scrambled to dig her out and then lifted her in her arms. Bringing her close he saw she had a fine layer of frost over her skin, but she was still breathing. Her eyes were frosted shut as well.

"Okay. Okay, okay, okay," Mitchell said as he started back up to the front of the line. "I got you."

He noticed then that Lethelin had tied the lead around her wrist.

"Clever girl," he told her as he grabbed Marvin's lead. "Let's get out of the cold. Stay with me. I got you."

It was another twenty minutes before Mitchell found a crack in a cliff face that was big enough for him to get into and that opened up into a larger chamber. Setting Lethelin down he rushed to get the tent up and get both women inside. The yulops hardly seemed to mind. He left them harnessed for now, needing to see to the girls first.

Mitchell opted to use one of the few so-called fire bricks that Allora had ordered from Nothok. Rather than the trouble and smoke of a fire, the stone, about the size of a cantaloupe, could be activated with a touch of mana and would warm up the interior of the tent for up to five hours. Or so they'd been told. It was now time to put that to the test.

He pushed a bit of mana into the rune as the old dwarf had instructed and dozens of other runes began to glow. Immediately, heat began to come off the stone and the tent started to warm.

He went over to Lethelin, who was still unmoving, and began to take her clothes off.

"This isn't how I planned to see you naked the first time," he said as he worked to get her pants off. "I had imagined something a little more romantic."

While he wanted to take a moment to admire her gorgeous naked body, he knew now was not the time. She had stopped shivering, which Mitchell knew was a bad sign. He threw the clothes into the corner of the tent and quickly took off his own clothes. Then, grabbing some of the blankets he'd taken off of Allora, he lay down on the mat and pulled Lethelin's icy body to his, trying to warm her up.

He rubbed her arms and her legs as best as he could, paying extra attention to her toes, and then wrapped as much of himself around her as he could before pulling the blankets over them both.

"Stay with me, Leth," he whispered in her ear as he hugged her head into his chest.

Her body was like ice but he ignored the chill as she pulled the warmth from him in much the same way Allora had tried to pull the life from him the night before. The stone continued to work and, after maybe fifteen minutes, the inside of their tent was, while not exactly warm, comfortable compared to the arctic conditions outside. The thick hide worked well enough, combined with their magic rock, at keeping the worst of the chill at bay.

Mitchell knew he needed to check on the yulops but Lethelin took priority. She began to shiver again, and Mitchell took that as a good sign. Despite himself, he fell asleep, her nude body pressed against his.

Sometime later, a voice broke through his slumber.

"I usually expect at least a nice dinner before I let someone get me naked," the raspy voice said.

Mitchell opened bleary eyes and looked down to see a haggard looking Lethelin staring up at him. Her body was no longer freezing against his. In fact, she was most pleasantly warm.

"Sorry," he told her. "You were freezing. This was the fastest way to warm you up."

"Is that what the men say on your world?"

Despite her situation, she had enough energy to give him a wry smile.

"It worked, didn't it?" he told her and kissed the top of her head. "I'm glad you're okay."

Lethelin snuggled deeper into him.

"It would be better if you had taken a bath," she mumbled. "You smell like a yulop."

"You're not exactly spring fresh yourself," he said with a laugh.

"Fair," she conceded.

"Speaking of, I need to check on them," Mitchell said as he reluctantly extricated himself from the thief's embrace. "I left them harnessed in the cave. They won't like that."

Lethelin groaned in disappointment.

"In a minute," Lethelin pleaded against his chest. "Let's just stay like this for a little longer."

Instead of answering, Mitchell pulled her tighter against him and felt her do the same. The feel of her soft flesh against his, the press of her breasts, her leg sliding slowly up and down his as they cuddled, was starting to affect him and, by the way she started moving her hips, he could tell the same thoughts were in her mind, half frozen and exhausted or no.

Mitchell wanted her. He wanted her maybe more than he had ever wanted anything in his life. But he didn't want it to be like this. Not when they were half frozen and filthy on a mountain side and with Allora maybe dying and trussed up like a turkey just a few feet away. So, in a move that he likened to yanking out his own tooth, he slowly pulled away before he lost control.

Lethelin felt him begin to shift and a small groan escaped her. He saw the look of disappointment in her face and realized he probably looked the same. He leaned down and gave her a soft kiss which she returned with a little moan and a whimper.

"When we make it through the mountains," he told her as their foreheads touched. "When we're safe."

"Promise?" she said, her voice tight. He could feel her nails begin to dig into his back.

"I promise."

With an exasperated exhalation of profound disappointment she rolled off of him and starred up at the tent ceiling. Then, in a very amusing display of childishness, she kicked her feet in a little tantrum.

"Stollar's hairy taint," she blurted out.

Mitchell couldn't suppress the laugh.

"Make us some tea and check on Allora, please."

"Yeah, yeah," she complained, but started to sit up and search for her clothes. She sounded annoyed but she had that twinkle back in her eye.

Mitchell threw on his clothes and decided he didn't mind that Lethelin watched him because he was watching her right back. They were both grinning at each other like teenagers by the time they finished.

As Mitchell stepped out of the tent into the small cavern they'd claimed for themselves, he noticed something was very wrong. It was quiet. Totally quiet. They had not been without the sound of wind since entering the mountains. It was an almost ever-present companion as they trudged up the trails. But now there was nothing. Not only that, but the small cavern wasn't freezing. It was almost warm, in fact. Then he scanned around and noticed the other peculiarity. Except for the small light he'd cast inside the tent it was dark inside the small cave. There was no light coming from outside.

As near as he could tell, Lethelin had collapsed around midday, and they couldn't have napped more than a few hours. It should still be light outside, even with the storm, and he should see it through the entrance. The entrance that was no longer there.

Mitchell cast a mage light on the nearest wall and examined where he thought the entrance was. In the glow he could see the puddles of water where the snow they'd trekked in had melted, and he saw the yulops standing placidly against a far wall, still harnessed, but of the entrance there was no sign. He walked up to where it should be but found only smooth stone. He could even see where the wall bisected one of the puddles of water. Mitchell pushed on it but it was firm, not an illusion.

They were trapped in here.

Mitchell tried to quell the panic that was welling up inside him. He took some calming breaths and began to scout around. He could hear Lethelin moving around inside the tent and thought about calling to her, but she'd been through enough. He didn't want to startle if he didn't have to.

He made a circuit around the small cave, throwing up a couple of more mage lights as he did. It was a rough oblong shape that tapered at each end, about ten meters long. The widest portion near the middle was maybe three meters across but the walls were rough and irregular. The ceiling of their little cave also narrowed to a sort of seam about eight or nine meters above their head. He could see the beginnings of some stalactites forming from the slow trickle of mineral-laced water that must run through the cracks.

At the opposite end of the small cave where the taper came to a close there was a small crack just a few inches wide but that was it. Beyond it was darkness.

"Okay..." Mitchell said out loud. "This isn't good."

Was this a trap of some kind? Were they being followed? But how? They hadn't seen any sign of pursuers the whole time. They'd found tracks here and there from people that Allora had speculated were probably prospectors as they were about the only ones that dared the mountain paths while searching for ruins and relics from the time of the dragon lords, but they hadn't actually seen a living person.

He mulled over the problem as he unharnessed Marvin and Tammi and gave them some food but no answer revealed itself. With nothing left to do, he crawled back inside the tent. He found that things were little better inside.

Lethelin was sitting cross-legged next to Allora's bound form with a look of consternation on her face.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he sat beside her.

She looked over at him, her brow creased and her eyes slightly panicked. He noticed then that she was still holding the cup of tea in her other hand.

"She's not breathing," she said.

"What?" Mitchell exclaimed.

He shot his hand out under her nose, panic rising in his chest, and sure enough, there was no movement. Normally, her breathing had been a quick, harsh thing, almost a pant, but her body was still. There was no rise and fall to her chest, no rush of air from her nostrils. Then, he noticed her skin. It was warm. He touched her face and the skin, while waxy, was soft. She wasn't dead. At least, he didn't think so.

"What the fuck is going on?" he said as he pulled open her eyelids.

Her eyes were still the same featureless white they had been when she'd awoken briefly and tried to suck the life from him.

"What?" Lethelin said.

Mitchell realized he'd fallen back into English. He repeated himself in Common and crossed her arms and rubbed them absentmindedly. They stared at Allora for a moment, neither of them knowing what to do.

After a moment of silence, Lethelin asked him if everything was okay outside. That's when he remembered the other oddity and relayed the information to her. She got up and went to check for herself. A few moments later he heard the sound of some colorful swearing drifting in through the thick hide of the tent.

Lethelin came back in with a huff.

"What in Stollar's blue balls are we supposed to do now?"

"Well," Mitchell began, trying to organize his thoughts. "We've got enough water and food in the magical bag thing to last us several days. It's not too cold with the exit sealed off so we won't freeze to death, and there is a slight breeze coming in through the cracks, so we won't run out of air. If we've sprung some sort of trap, we just have to hope that whoever set it comes to get us out of it."

Lethelin looked around the tent as if she could see through the material and at the encasing stone walls beyond.

"So we just sit?"

"For now. I don't have the kind of magic that's needed to try and manipulate stone and I don't think I would want to risk trying to blow it up with some higher level spell."

Lethelin started mumbling something under her breath.

"What did you say?"

"I said, 'Why did I have to get myself involved in a fucking holy quest!'" Lethelin snapped. "I should have stayed in Varset picking pockets and slitting the occasional throat here and there. But no! I had to go marching off across half of Tawadunn, meet up with the most wanted woman in all of Awenor, and fall in love with the next monarch! Now I'm going to die in a fucking hole!"

Her face had flushed red and she was gesticulating enough that she almost smacked him a couple of times. She blew herself out pretty quickly and sat fuming and angrily twisting at some of the furs they'd laid on the floor of the tent while muttering expletives.

"Did you...?" Mitchell started. "Did you say you fell in love with the next monarch?"

Lethelin's hand froze in the act of trying to yank out some clump of fur. She went very still.

"No?" Lethelin said meekly after a very pregnant pause. Even in the dim light he could see the color rise in her cheeks.

"Yeees, you did," Mitchell said, unable to hide the note of teasing in his voice. "You said you fell in love with the next monarch. Which is..."

Mitchell paused for dramatic effect.

"Which is me, I believe."

"Oh, balls!" Lethelin said and threw herself into the pile of furs and hid her face.

"Lethelin loooves Mitchell!" Mitchell said in a sing-song voice. Although it didn't have the same school-yard-taunt feel to it in Common as it did in English. Maybe he would teach that phrase to her.

Lethelin kicked out a leg at him in response, which wasn't even close.

She yelled at him from inside her wad of furs. Her voice was muffled but he could still understand her.

"Are you forgetting Mira? I could cut you!"

Mitchell chuckled and decided not to tell her that her admission, even accidental as it was, had sent his heart racing.

Chapter 39

The next several hours were uneventful. After a few minutes of awkward silence, Lethelin had sat back up again but would not look anywhere near his face. Mitchell had to bite his tongue not to tease her further but he got the sense that now was not the time. There was a tension about her that he didn't think had anything to do with the teasing and he didn't want to push his luck. Instead, he moved the conversation on to safer topics, which she seemed to appreciate, and after a little bit she seemed to shrug off the embarrassment and was more or less back to her old self.

Allora's condition had not changed and Mitchell tried to console himself with the fact that there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. She still wasn't breathing, but neither was she getting cold and stiff. Her body remained warm but unresponsive to any stimuli. Water poured into her mouth simply pooled there. When he placed an ear to her chest, he heard no heartbeat. He tried not to let it show but he was very much freaked out. Still, as long as she wasn't getting all corpsified and gross, he wouldn't give up hope. The fear that they were too late was like ice in his veins but he refused to let it win.

It drove Mitchell nuts that he was so helpless in this situation. Mitchell knew how viruses worked and he thought he knew most of the major ailments a person could suffer, but he had no frame of reference for this. Grey's Anatomy had no episodes with a mysterious illness that drained all color out of someone and then turned them into some sort of white-eyed mana-sucking zombie.

Lethelin, still not fully recovered from her icy trip to Death's door, opted to sleep, albeit fitfully. Mitchell wanted to sleep as well but they'd been pulling guard shifts for weeks and he didn't feel comfortable with both of them unconscious, even if they were trapped in here. Something might happen and he wanted one of them awake when it did. So, while she curled up under the furs and began her cute little mouse snore, he pulled out his spell book and started going over the fire bolt spell, hoping to have it locked in when the time came to use it again. Not for the first time he wished for a simple wand, a little hand waving, and a special word to cast a spell, but real magic was not so easy. That thought gave him a chuckle.

"Real magic!" he told himself and marveled once again at how quickly he'd adapted to the new reality.

Hours passed. Mitchell had become so proficient with the mage light spell that he didn't even have to think about it when he recast it. The rune form snapped instantly into his mind and, with a flick of his wrist, he sent it above his head. Lethelin awoke and looked around bleary eyed for a moment as if she'd forgotten where she was. He watched her rub the sleep from her eyes and pull her long, delicate fingers through her blood-red curls trying to tamp down the bed head.

"Anything?" she asked him finally, her voice still raspy with sleep.

"No," he told her. "I checked outside a little while ago and there's no change."

Lethelin made a face like she wanted to swear but controlled herself. Instead, she picked herself up, went out to find a crack to relieve herself in, then joined him back in the tent.

"Get some sleep," she told him around a mouthful of smoked meat that she'd plucked from their provisions pack. "I'll wake you if anything changes."