He added, “I accept that we may not have control over these choices.”
I nodded at him. “If they stay, and if we survive, I swear I will help them adjust to this world. They will be happy here.”
He smiled at me and got up, walking back to his tent with slow steps. Astrid watched him go, turned and said to me fiercely, “Do not forget. I am staying,” and then she ran after her father and put her arms around his waist. He bowed his head to rest on hers.
I raised inquiring eyes to Julian’s. “No,” he shook his head at me. “I’m the counselor, not you. I’ve known from the first that she wanted to stay. I think it has been the root of most of her bad attitude.”
I told him, “I think Cato will want to stay too. He’s so young and he’s really bonded with Theo. This is all too exciting for him. Bard, though, I have no idea.”
Julian agreed. “It’s good to have a choice.”
When I climbed back into our tent, I found Owen still awake and in berserker form.
“I just wanted to make sure you were all set before I crashed,” he said. His hulking body was so large, his ears brushed the tent wall.
I settled next to him on the blanket and moved my legs away from his frozen toes. “We never fixed your footwear situation,” I said.
Owen reached over and placed his sheathed sword along the tent wall, letting go. He slowly settled back onto the blanket and pulled me across his body.
“Next time,” he murmured, echoing Theo from earlier as he fell asleep.
Chapter 32
A day and a half later, we finally approached the familiar crater, so close to our house and all its creature comforts. I caught myself daydreaming more than once about a shower, and a warm meal. I heard Julian at one point describing a grocery store to Astrid and her eyes looked ready to pop with excitement. Wait until she tried pizza, or ice cream. Okay, now I was drooling.
I never heard the outcome of their fight on the avalanche field, when Julian pulled her out of the way, but they seemed to have reached a truce for now.
Rurik took each of his children aside over the long hike and told them that they had a choice to stay or to go. As Julian and I predicted, Cato wanted to stay. Bard was keeping his choice a secret so far. He’d walked for a little while beside Owen and they’d talked seriously.
We were loosely grouped, trudging along, when suddenly there was an azhdaya on our path. Its scaled body was small and brownish-green and its eyes, all four of them, glowed orange.
It had chain collars around both of its necks, held tightly by a psoglav.
The psoglav barked in surprise when it saw us, and yanked hard on the dragon’s chains. The azhdaya hissed at it but backed away from us.
“Rurik,” I said urgently, “is the gate open?”
“Yes,” he answered, his voice distant. “Abaddon is sending his scouts through.”
“New plan!” I shouted to my group. “Astrid, you stay by my side. Owen, you take point. We book it to the gate and anything that tries to stop us, you kill. Cato, you and Julian are the rear guard. Bard, Theo, and Rurik, can you handle these two?” I gestured at the azhdaya and the psoglav.
“Yes,” Bard answered firmly.
“Catch up as fast as you can,” I told them. “I’ll hold off the earthquake until you get there.”
“Now we run,” I told the others and started into the trees, skirting the two besy on the trail. I saw Rurik pull both of his swords and Theo raise his crossbow; then Bard started launching blue bolts as we slipped past. At least one connected because I heard a howl.
It was hard to run through the deep snow off the trail, but I wanted to avoid any other scouts if we could. I knew the crater was just south of us on the trail, which meant we needed to curve back around to find it from the east.
My heartbeat echoed in my ears as I ran, following Owen’s footsteps as best I could. I pulled my sword; Owen pulled his long knife.
Finally, we started to pass the blown-down trees and I knew we were close. I slowed.
Astrid nocked an arrow and Julian and Cato drew their swords. In the crater below us, two more psoglav paced with a chained azhdaya. The portal was open; I could see it shimmering in the twilight gloom.
As we watched, two bauks stepped through.
“We can’t let any more through,” I said. “Owen, can you take the bauks?”
He nodded and sheathed his knife. He strode down the slope into the crater, swinging his longsword with both hands on the grip. He didn’t transform, but he looked menacing nonetheless. The bauks glared at him and started forward.
“Astrid, start shooting the psoglavs. Julian and Cato, you’ve got the azhdaya. I’ll control its fire.”
Everyone burst into motion. I could hear Astrid’s bow twanging beside me and the psoglavs were quickly bristling with arrows. They dropped the azhdaya’s chains and it lunged at Julian, snapping its two sets of teeth.
Julian slashed his sword at one head and when the other reared back to belch a jet of fire at him, I whistled it to the side. It hit one of the psoglavs instead. The head that fired twisted to look at me and Cato darted forward from invisibility, hacking at its neck. His blade connected and the neck flopped, broken and bleeding.
The remaining head shot fire out in a long blast, aiming to sweep across both men. I whistled it again and pulled the spark away. When the fire died out of its mouth, Julian chopped off that head as well.
I checked on Owen and the bauks and saw he had killed one and was
