14. Hiding Out
Astra decides to make a deal...
Escape from Ice Mountain marks the start of an epic fantasy, one where a middle-aged fish-out-of-water librarian (and necromancer!) navigates love, betrayal, and the complexities of power as she struggles to embrace her destiny and uncover the mysteries of her own origins. Yes, there are dragons too! And also magical dogs. It’s gonna be awesome!
Previously: Astra took a chance to give them a chance...
Astra tried to drift away nonchalantly, but one of the rangers noticed her, so she made a complicated gesture indicating that she needed to relieve herself. The ranger rolled his eyes and waved her off, and she headed for the dry latrines that were around a far curve in the cliff.
Once out of direct sight, she clambered up a series of short ladders, zig-zagging her way to safety, fighting against the winds that whipped around her and wishing she did not have to fight her skirts and her cloak. She was glad, at least, of the shifting pre-dawn light. When she got to the crevice that she had painstakingly described to Xavai, she crawled through it and out to a “landing” filled with more caves and stopped to catch her breath. Even being used to the altitude did not make such a climb easy. A quick hike up the narrow path put her at the peak of the outcropping. Traz was there, tucked under a hanging ledge, the pack next to him. It was too big for him to carry by himself, so he had opened it and was filling a smaller back pack with things. Next to him on the ground was the fire horn, glistening and beautiful and radiating power. She wondered how anyone could have missed it, given the radiance of its magic, but it seemed that Traz, at least, was oblivious.
He looked over at her and nodded, but did not stop with his organizing and repacking. Astra looked around for the fire dragon, wondering if it was hiding nearby, but then remembered the snow dragons.
“Is it dead, do you think?” She asked softly, sitting down next to him.
He paused, face pinched with grief, then nodded once and returned to his task.
Astra was not good at offering condolences or, really, any kind of emotional support so she thought it best to say nothing more, simply pressing her shoulder against his to let him know she was there. She watched from their hidden perch as the rising sun splashed the mountain with color, and tried not to fall asleep from exhaustion.
She failed, and woke to Traz shaking her roughly. “The soldier is here.”
Astra sat up, got her bearings, then stood up, tucking her cloak around herself for warmth. Xavai had already spotted them and was marching up the path, but something seemed off in the way he was carrying himself. Astra looked closely, trying to find an injury, but saw nothing. She rubbed her face to wake up. The sun was fully risen but still low, so she knew she had not dozed for long.
Xavai come up to them and stopped. It was impossible to ignore the tension he carried, though.
“What is wrong?” Astra asked. Traz snapped his attention to her.
He took a deep breath. “I am here as a messenger.”
“What?” She felt her spine straighten, her jaw muscles tensing.
“You were right to mistrust the doyen superior. He knew you would sneak away, he told me as much. He has instructed you to return, and to bring the Dragon’s Grail with you.”
“You are his errand boy now?” She spat the words.
He looked crestfallen. “No, Tor Astra. He is holding my uncle and the nun hostage, with knives at their throats.”
Astra saw red and was marching down the path, shoving Xavai out of the way, before she even realized it.
He grabbed her arm. “He wants the grail. Do you understand?”
“Astra, what the hell is going on?” Traz asked, glaring at the soldier
“Dzrezor has double crossed us completely. He is holding General Hiloh and Zochur hostage in exchange for the Dragon’s Grail.” Astra seethed at the thought.
Xavai shook her by her arm. “Have you had it? This whole time?” His voice rose to a shout, echoing between the caves around them.
Traz jumped between them and pushed Xavai away from Astra with a growl.
“No one knew where it was, including me!” Astra said loudly, the words clipped.
Xavai’s eyes wandered behind them, as if looking for something he knew he would find. Astra felt a gentle push of magic from him, something distant but focused. “What is that pack?” He stared at it. “It is too big for you to have brought up here on your own!” He shoved past Astra towards the pack. He stopped, looking at what Traz had strewn about, his eyes landing on the fire horn. “It’s the grail. By the grace of Hestra. It’s right here.”
Traz got in front of him. “By the bells, does he think we have the grail?” He asked Astra.
“Yes, apparently even Dzrezor thinks we have the grail!” Astra said, her voice rising in frustration.
Xavai side-stepped Traz and picked up the large fire horn, frowning. Traz was one step away from yanking it out of his hands.
“He thinks that is the Grail?” His voice had gone unnaturally calm and betrayed nothing. In that moment, Astra saw in him something of the thief he had become—sharp, canny, and inscrutable. She did not think it suited him.
“Yes.”
“Let him think so.” Traz folded his arms over his chest. “If he thinks it is, then Dzrezor might as well. We can trade it for Zochur.”
Astra tilted her head up to disagree, but stopped. Traz was too eager to trade with Dzrezor, and he had always been clever with his phrasing, rarely lying but always shading the truth with the sin of omission.
Xavai slung the strap to the horn over his shoulder, strapping it to his chest. He glared at both Traz and Astra, daring them to challenge him. Astra shook her head.
“Xavai, do you honestly believe Dzrezor will let any of us walk away when he has what he wants?”
“Should we not try to at least bargain for their lives?” He challenged.
She held up her hand, and both men stilled, Xavai in confusion, Traz in frustration. Looking past them to the mountain ranges beyond, she thought of everything she had read about the legend of the Dragon’s Grail, how it was rumored to grant immortality yet cursed all who traded in its magic. She thought about the Yosoi and the snow dragons, who were usually bitter enemies. She thought about the fact that Dzrezor had given the fire horn to a minor noble to the west. She thought about the dragon who had carried and protected it. She thought about how long ago General Hiloh’s search party had been sent after the Grail.
And then she looked at the grail itself, the talon of a long-dead fire dragon, used for centuries by humans as a fire horn as it lay, inert, near the hearth of the distant, unnamed place where she had been born.
“Ashtraka?” Traz asked after a moment.
“Dzrezor would not trade in the destruction of Qordashi, because it is the source of all his power. No, he made a promise to give the Grail to the Yosoi, because he knew where it was. Or he suspected.” She turned to her brother. “You came back before now, didn’t you?”
He paled, and it was the answer she needed. She walked up to him and poked him in the chest. “You said to me that you intended to come back. That was no lie. You meant to, didn’t you? You wanted to return, but you knew as a renunciate you would not be allowed, not without dispensation from the father superior. You came back, begged for clemency, and he sent you to steal the fire horn in exchange for the right of return!”
He glanced at Xavai, who was watching them intently, if uncomprehendingly.
“Does he understand us, at all?” Traz tilted his head back, glaring at the quickly lightening sky.
“No. A word here and there, maybe.”
Traz slumped. “I did as you say. I swear, the only reason was to return! I missed home…I missed you, I missed Zochur. I even missed Naboch and her ridiculously boring history lessons.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “Traveling is a hard life, Astra. Harder than I thought. I’m tired and I just…I just wanted to come home.” He looked up at the sky, his eyes glittering with tears.
“Traz,” Astra tried to speak, but he waved a hand to stop her.
“Dzrezor swore that if I got the fire horn back for him, he would grant me the right of return, and also leave me in peace. I had no idea he thinks it’s the damn grail! He did not say a damned thing about that! He promised me a station in the western ward, with Naboch. But, the fire horn had been traded a few times, so it took me longer than expected to find it. The dragon with it, though. Part of that bastard’s ‘collection.’ I couldn’t leave the poor beast, so I freed it while stealing the horn.”
“Why didn’t you give it to Dzrezor, Traz?” Astra asked.
“I tried! By the damned, I wanted to. But once we cleared out of that old castle, the fucking dragon would not let go of the horn! It would not let me have it. It kept pushing me to go north, but I couldn’t…I couldn’t.” He rubbed his face, then waved a hand at Xavai. “This is how I know the dragon is dead. It would never let me carry it, or allow him to wear it, otherwise.”
“You thought it would let me have it?” She shook her head.
“I thought it was worth a try.” He shrugged, then slumped in defeat. “I hoped your connection to it would let the dragon know you would take care of it. That you and I could then take it to Dzrezor together.” He finally looked at her again with a soft, sad smile, his hopes unspoken but so clear to her.
He had tried to come home, but the winds of fate would not let him.
Astra took a deep breath into her lungs, for all the air was thin and did not help her think. She looked between them for a moment, trying to collect her thoughts.
“If we take it to Dzrezor, he will have the rangers kill us. You know that any promise you wrested from him is void.” Astra glared at him.
Traz nodded helplessly, then waved a hand at Xavai. “I’d gladly let him take the cursed thing himself, but…Zochur.” He looked at Astra, his eyes wide and pleading.
Xavai was impatient, shifting from foot to foot, clearly ready to march off with or without them. Astra raised her hand again to stay his impulse.
“We go back,” she said, repeating it in both Atyim and Deshilli. “But we go back empty-handed.” Again, she repeated the words. Both Xavai and Traz opened their mouths to protest, but she motioned for them to stop. She started with Xavai, who was the one closer to simply running back down the mountain.
“If we walk back in there with what Dzrezor believes is the grail, they will cut us down, along with your uncle and my sibling nun. I have read of tales like this, of bargains double crossed by greed. I know what will happen.” She nodded firmly. “The grail is our bargaining chip, the only item we have that the doyen superior wants. I do not know why the snow dragons have not come up here yet, but they haven’t, so their eyes are not on us.”
Understanding lit up his face, and Astra tried to smother the pleasure she took in finding out that he was, after all, intelligent. “You mean to trade,” he said, the Atyim words ponderous and undulating.
She nodded. “Yes. And we can do so because Traz is a thief, and knows where to hide precious things.”
Xavai was not impressed. “A thief who will just run away with it.”
“Not without me. He won’t leave without me.” She pointed at herself.
His eyes narrowed, glancing over at Traz, who had crossed his arms and was not looking any happier about than he was.
“Is he your husband? Your betrothed?”
“What?” Astra held her voice from shrieking. “No! I’m a nun consecrated to Bu!”
“He guards you like a husband.”
“Well he’s not.”
Xavai look, inexplicably, pleased. “Good.”
Astra frowned.
“By the heart of Mamum, please stop before I am forced to hit him,” Traz said with a groan. “Just tell me what you said to him…I mean, before the flirting started.”
She glared at him. “We weren’t flirting, he thought…well, it doesn’t matter. He suspected you might run off with the fire horn.”
Traz gave Xavai an affronted look. “Why would I do that?”
Astra explained her plan to him, and he grinned. “Yes, oh yes, I can hide it well. By the time they find it, we will be halfway down the Golden Inkstone Steps to the Dark Lake.”
“We will still have to find a way to make sure of our escape. He could try to cut us down as soon as you tell him where you hid it,” Astra said, thinking.
Xavai was nervous again. “We should go, before he starts sending out rangers to hunt us down.”
“Yes. Give Traz the horn, I mean, the grail.”
Xavai paused. “The horn?”
“We always believed it was merely a fire horn.” She shrugged, acting as nonchalant as possible. Xavai clearly did not buy it.
He looked down at the long, curved horn that sat over his torso. “It is the grail. There is no question.” He looked up at her.
“Oh! You’re the dowser, aren’t you? The one sent by your king to track it. I wish we could have talked about your gifts under less dreadful circumstances.” Astra sighed. “If my plan works, you will leave the mountain empty handed. It will not go to your king.”
He nodded, his expression closed off. “What is the point of trying to get it off this mountain if we die in the attempt? This quest has already cost me dearly. I am glad to end it empty handed but alive.”
Astra reached out, her fingers gliding over it, this time understanding the magic she felt. The life dust of the dragon, part of its very soul, lived in the thing. “For the best. Although I dread Dzrezor, much less the Yosoi, having such power.”
Xavai placed his hand over hers. “For all that it is the fabled grail, it is still just an empty horn.”
They both knew it was a lie, but one they were willing to share for the sake of the saving the lives of people they loved. Astra sighed, pulling her hand back.
“Actually, it is not a horn at all. It’s a talon that once belonged to a great fire dragon.”
Xavai whipped it off of his body with a panicked look, tossing it to Traz who barely caught it.
“Ah. I guess I’ll go squirrel it away, then,” Traz said, clutching it so it didn’t fall to the ground, looking askance at Xavai. “Did you tell him it was carries leprosy or something?”
“No. Go hide it, then find a hiding place for yourself in view of the compound. Use your magic to listen to me.”
“It’s not magic,” Traz grumbled, tightening the strap over his chest.
“Listen to me,” Astra repeated, annoyed. “I will tell them you have hidden it, and will only reveal the location when we have gathered Hiloh and Zochur and are locked in the Golden Eagle Steps. You find your way down to one of the other tunnel entrances and meet us at the Sunken Lake.”
He smiled again, this time with less malice and more pride. “You always think things through for me. What a team we would have made in Parthikapum! We could have stolen the Orbital Stone right out of the Witch’s hand!”
Astra rubbed her temples. “Go.”
He scampered off, quickly climbing up a rock face, the grail swinging on his back.
She turned to Xavai. “We head back, now.”
He nodded gravely, then led the way back down as Astra explained the plan to him.
“He will be able to find his way?”
“We grew up here, and he was more adventurous than I. He knows many entrances to the tunnels.” She felt worry and fear lapping at her heart. “I am more concerned about your uncle. His wound and the altitude are not doing him any favors.”
“I am barely walking in a straight line myself. If you had not been here to think for me, I would have run straight to slaughter with the grail,” he said, his voice filled with gratitude. Astra nodded, trying not to feel too enamored, remembering that he did not know the true nature of her magic.
It didn’t really matter, she decided with a grimace, since their chances of living through the day were not very high, anyway.
NEXT: Making a Run for It
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Ooh she knows Traz so well! Also, I like the flirting. Hope the plan works!