The metallic scent of blood pervaded the air. Dark crimson liquid pooled from the wound, indicating trauma to the vein. As I knelt beside her, I felt grateful that the blood only trickled free. We still had time.
“Do you have an extra shirt or something?”
He didn’t move. It seemed that if he did, he’d break his composure. “In my pack,” he said after a pause. He grabbed his bag and pulled out a dark, tweed-like sweater. It didn’t seem terribly absorbent, but it would be good enough. I took it from him.
Pushing the shirt to Heidel’s leg, I felt Kull’s hand cover mine. “You’ll have to apply more pressure,” he said. His grip tightened. I watched a tiny spot of blood seep through the layers of fabric. Holding my breath, I knew it wouldn’t be enough. We needed a hospital. She needed blood.
Although I didn’t have much practice with healing spells, I knew I had to at least try. I inhaled, exhaled, and then closed my eyes.
“Forge,” I whispered. An image of a blacksmith’s furnace and kiln appeared in my mind. A piece of white-hot metal, representing the scab I would create, rested on the hearth. I imagined holding a hammer as I began to pound the metal.
My mind’s image of the metal began to cool, and I pounded it with more intensity. Sweat beaded my forehead. I had to try harder. Heat radiated from my hands into the wound. I pounded a piece of cold metal, but still I persisted.
When I heard Heidel stir, I opened my eyes.
She stared at the sky, looking disoriented. “My leg hurts.”
I pulled the shirt off her wound. A thin scab of dark blood covered the gash. She’d be okay. I exhaled.
“You healed her,” Kull said to me.
“Yes. I got lucky.”
Sitting up, Heidel stared at Kull’s shirt soaked with her blood, then turned to the torn remnants of carriage. “We should go,” she said.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “You’ve lost a lot of blood, and—”
“We should go,” she repeated. “Now.”
“Not until you can walk,” Kull said.
Heidel ground her teeth and caught Kull’s hand. She pulled herself into a sitting position, then limped upright until she stood. A strained smile stretched across her face. She took a tiny step. “Looks like I can.”
“You’re a fool, Heidel.”
“Then I must be related to you.”
Kull stood and wrapped a cloak around his sister. “The Borderlands are nearly an hour away. You’ll never make it.”
“I will.” The steely determination in her voice kept Kull from arguing.
Kull turned his gaze to the light-rails. Thick smoke curled from the charred metal.
I could feel the magic from where I stood. Dark magic, but something else, too. I recognized the spell. Only a few races used it.
“How did this happen?” he asked.
“Hard to say. But someone spellcasted that carriage. A rending spell—not many creatures possess that sort of magic.”
Heidel looked at me. “Goblin magic?”
I glanced at Kull. “Or elf.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Elf?”
“It’s hard to say for sure.”
“You think elves did this to their own carriage?”
“I’m not sure.”
Kull scratched his beard.
“Why would someone want to harm us?” Heidel asked.
“There are Wults who consider this place sacred to outsiders. They could have tried to stop us,” Kull offered.
“But Wults wouldn’t have used magic. The elves may have found out that Kull was missing,” I said.
“No,” Kull said. “Even if they had found out, they wouldn’t have tried to kill us.”
Heidel shot her brother a questioning glance. “You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
Wind howled past as I pulled a pair of gloves out of my pack. The wool warmed my hands a little, but my fingers still felt numb. “We should get moving.”
“The elves will hear about this,” Kull said. “Those cursed carriages are supposed to be the safest way to travel.”
Our boots sank into the snow as we walked alongside the rail. After what had happened, I didn’t think any of us were anxious to climb inside another carriage.
The light-rails ended at the foot of the mountains. Just across that range lay goblin country. I could feel it, even if I couldn’t see it. Not many people had traveled through those wastelands. With all the research I’d done on goblins, I realized one thing—we knew next to nothing about them. They were secretive, clannish, and didn’t welcome outsiders.
Kull pointed at an opening in the base of a mountain. “The caves our ancestors came through. Crossing through them should not take long. The temple ruins are on the other side of those mountains.”
With a gust of frigid air in our faces, we headed for the caves. I kept my hands in my pockets. Even with my gloves, I feared I’d get frostbite if I took them out.
My ears stung in the freezing wind. Snowflakes stuck to my eyelashes. I focused on the black dot at the bottom of the mountain. With each step, we drew closer.
My toes felt frozen to my shoes as we neared the caves. Its mouth rose overhead, black against a white landscape. We climbed a steep incline to reach the entrance.
Below us, the light-rail shimmered, a barely discernible swath of gold. Far in the distance, the remains of our carriage marred the white snowfields like a cancer spot. Smoke rose into the sky. Whoever had destroyed our carriage wanted us dead. That thought stayed with me as I turned away to enter the cave.
Chapter 14
The ice cave’s warm air surprised me. My frozen fingers began to thaw, and I removed my cloak. Water trickled somewhere, with an echo that came to us like a drumbeat. After the rift of Earth and Faythander, evolution had changed more than just the species inhabiting each world.
Magic had transformed Faythander from a world like Earth into a world alien to humans. The ice caves were evidence of it. The walls sparkled, humming with magic trapped beneath. They shone crystalline blue. Bursts of magical energy sparked like lightning through
