“It’s clear that whatever kind of person he is, Baldur doesn’t want to be found.” I imitate Bjorn’s heating breath, a series of rapid pants through my nose, as I look at him. “Lærke said Baldur’s cagey, and that no one knows exactly where he lives or how he comes and goes. Stands to reason that if he’s got portal-magic, he could set up a series of these things to take someone who-the-fuck-knows-where if they tried to follow him. And get hopelessly lost along the way.”
“Good thing you have that scale.” Bjorn eyeballs it, still gripped in my gloved fist. “Without Hekla’s essence leading us to her brother, we’d be up shit creek.”
“We still might be.” I nod my chin at the thick snowstorm all around us on the glacier-capped peak. “We need to move on or even with the supplies we’ve got, we’re going to freeze to death.”
“Lead the way.” Bjorn is terse, knowing the truth of my words.
He and I don’t waste our energy talking now, but soldier on as he nods me forward. We struggle through the bitter snowstorm, fierce at these high latitudes near the north pole.
As we trudge through thigh-high snow, part of me wants to shift up and weather this storm as my dragon, which can tolerate extreme temperatures far better than I can in human form.
I know we might miss another portal entrance if we did that, however, and it leaves us trudging up and down through the tall peaks, over the tricky ice of the glacier. This trek is also far longer than the one at the beach; it’s been over an hour when we suddenly flash through another portal.
Whisked away from the mountain snowstorm to someplace else.
Devoured by a glacial blue darkness with only the faintest glimmer of the aurora far above, I see we’ve come into a vast ice cavern, glassy and dark. As I blink away the light behind my eyes, and the searing whine from my ears, I haul a Bloodlight pendant out of my fly-bag and put it on, as Bjorn does the same.
It’s far warmer down here than in the mountains, as the meagercrimson glow of our pendants lights up the glossy blue ice all around. But even though we’re warmer, thanks to the igloo effect of being beneath a glacier, even I know we can’t stay down here forever.
We have to get going and hope Baldur’s defenses will wear out before we do. Bjorn and I continue on, in silence. All night, we wander through the rugged beauty of Iceland, as we pass through portal after portal.
I can’t remember how many we’ve come through, as we’re spit out beside a towering waterfall, then walk twenty paces and are cast into another ice tunnel. We travel another half-hour before we emerge right at the rim of a fiery volcano that’s still active on the island.
We’re only at the volcano’s rim ten steps before we’re thrust into the rustling gloom of a birch forest. As we stumble into a natural hot spring, then back to another beach, then land waist-deep in a peat bog, we both fight to stay alert now.
Because with each venture through another portal and yet another, I feel my energy being stripped away—and it’s not just from Mikkel.
It’s as if with each portal we travel through, layers of innate protection all around me from my dragon-aura are being stripped away. As if all the defenses I erect around myself are being peeled back like the layers of an onion, I’m left with a raw, bare sensation now, as Bjorn and I both stumble to the ground, emerging through our latest passageway.
We’re beyond exhausted now; I feel it in my bones as everything inside me aches and shivers, screaming for rest. Though Aesa’s protection is still inside me, preventing the worst of what the Black Dragon Knights have done, I can feel how even her tremendous power is being sapped from whatever these portals have been doing to us, besides Mikkel still lost in his wrath far away.
Bjorn is no better as he growls and shivers even harder than me. Brisking his hands over his heart, he does his heating breath endlessly now to stay warm.
Through it all, he’s also still using his Blood Magic to brighten meagainst Mikkel’s wrath. I know Bjorn will not hold out much longer, as I watch him tremble and shake now like he has a palsy.
And I’m shocked to see his lips are turning blue.
“We need to get you inside somewhere. Now,” I say, knowing that if this rabbit-trail of portals keeps up much longer, I’m going to lose my First Drake. I feel his energy flicker, like a candle in the brisk wind.
Threatening to snuff out, as he swoons.
I’m up under his arm, fast. He tries to push me off, but with a growl, I maintain my position. Bjorn is too weak now to resist me. But it shocks me he could go from so vital earlier, from Insinio’s blessing and Aesa’s gift, to so drained tonight.
I feel deep inside how much Aesa’s protection has been stripped away from me, almost gone now from Mikkel fighting us as his Wraith all night and Bjorn and I crashing through all these unknown portals.
As a hard instinct snarls up inside me now, from both my black drake and brighter drakaina, fighting whatever’s happening to us, I know we won’t make it if we travel through even one more portal tonight.
Though I don’t want to be, I know we’re done; whatever else he is, Baldur’s a crafty fuck and we will not find him tonight. We have to cease searching, at least for a day, so we can regain some of our strength.
I glance up at the lightening sky, seeing that we trekked all night through this endless shit-maze, and morning has come. Though it’ll be less cold soon, it’s still going to be death for Bjorn if I can’t get him somewhere, fast.
But this most recent portal has tossed us out halfway up a cliff, only a secluded ravine with a tight valley down below. The center of the narrow valley is green, though patches of snow linger in the shadows of the cliffs.
I see no dwellings or a village, but a curl of steam rises from the little river that burbles through the ravine’s vale. One of Iceland’s natural hot springs, I pray that it’s warm enough to save Bjorn as I growl and heave him up to my back.
I shift now that we’re done searching for portals, diving into thatvalley as my dragon so I can carry Bjorn. Miraculously, he stays on, and we make it to the little river.
I splash down, shifting back to human. Bjorn is way ahead of me, already shucking his parka and clothing to the snowy shore as he chucks our gear to a patch of moss.
