Chapter Three

We were laying at the bottom of a hole.

Sheer ice lay underneath my back as it jolted every bone in my body when I connected with the ground. The walls were made of hardened earth, impossible to get a hold of with the permafrost. It was a wonder the hole was every dug—and to at least eight feet deep.

Twigs, snow, and debris had fallen in after us, coating my cloak and obscuring my vision for a few moments after the fall. I tested all of my limbs, making sure I still had mobility. Luckily, all my toes wriggled when I asked them to.

"Damn fairies," Rafi growled beside me, coughing and spluttering as he tried to sit up. I watched as he closed one eye as gazed upwards.

"How do you know it was fairies?" I asked, my voice raspy after being winded. I accepted his outstretched hand and pulled myself up only to have severe head rush.

"Whoa," Rafi cautioned, his gloved hand slipping around the back of my neck to brace my head. "Did you hit your head?"

I shrugged and then winced when he pressed his fingers to my skull. He held bloody fingers in front of my face. "I guess I did then," I yielded.

Rafi grumbled something and then stood up, his form obscuring what little light the moon offered us in the hole. He reached his arm up first, his hand coming in about a foot under the lip of the hole. He growled and tried to jump, but a man of his statue didn't take off from the ground overly well.

"You'll have to get on my shoulders," Rafi decided.

I swallowed and nodded, bracing my hand against the side of the hole as I tried to get shaky legs underneath me. Spots played in my vision field and I swayed, Rafi catching me before my head hit the wall again.

He braced my elbow as he helped me back down, his eyebrows drawn together in worry as he drew a cloth from his satchel and pressed it to my bleeding scalp. It was quickly becoming apparent that there was few emotions Rafi was capable of hiding.

"These traps are all over," Rafi murmured softly, checking the cloth to see how heavily I was bleeding. He didn't seem too concerned. "Especially as ya get further North around Sinner's Sea."

"What are they for?" I asked, wincing at the sharp pain.

Rafi settled down beside me, gathering his knees to his chest as he kept his hand pressed to my wound. "Some say its ta trap children so that the fairies can force 'em to dance in their eternal parties. Others say its how they hunt."

"I thought they didn't eat meat," I murmured.

Rafi laughed. "Some of em have pointed teeth."

I shrugged. "So do you think the fairies are coming to devour us?"

"Nah," Rafi shook his head, lifting the cloth and folding it over to a clean side. "I think this is just a forgotten trap. I reckon the fairies don't come this far South anymore."

"I like fairies," I offered, "a lot of sprites and fae live in Nordika. They used to entertain me when I was a child."

Rafi rolled his eyes. "Of course ya did," he scoffed, "they're nice to the heirs of powerful witches. It's us humans who have to be careful of 'em—of all the supernatural beasts."

I quieted at that, knowing it was true.

A small smile twitched onto Rafi's lips. "That's part o' the reason I decided ta join the army," he confessed, "I thought wearing Damatha's flame on ma armour would protect me from the ghouls and monsters."

"Did it?" I asked.

Rafi gave his head a terse shake. "Yer not the only one with a grudge against Damatha."

I gazed upwards, just catching the stars through the towering pines far, far above. "How are we going to get out of here?" I asked, my breath freezing before us. My legs were quickly growing frigid as they lay pressed against the ice.

"When ya can, ya got to get on ma shoulders and pull yourself out," Rafi planned.

I hesitated. "I won't be able to pull you out after me."

Rafi sighed, "you'll have to run and get help."

We both fell silent.

"That's too much of a risk," I murmured, "what if they recognize me? What if they recognize you? What if instead of helping me pull you out they push me back in and fetch Damatha's Dogs?"

Rafi seemed resolved. "It's just a risk we have ta take."

I pushed his hand away from my head and hid my wince before I wobbled to my feet, my hand pressed firmly against the packed earth. I gazed upwards, my head spinning as the trees swayed far above us. If I could summon the snow, fill the hole enough that we'd be able to climb out—a quick survey of my energy levels told me I wouldn't be able to draw that much magic without dire consequences.

"We have to get you up first," I decided.

Rafi raised an eyebrow. "And how do ya reckon we do that?"

I crossed my hands and kneeled, ready to give him a boost. He burst out into a fit of laughter that lasted longer than my blush. "Come on," I encouraged, "I can take your weight."

"No," Rafi corrected, his chuckle still thick, "ya can't."

"Okay," I said, pushing my hair from my face. "What if you stepped on my back and—"

"Now I'm starting to think yer were lying about going ta school," Rafi chortled, "if I step on yer back I break it, hen." I gave him a flat look and he stood, coming over to me and peering up the side of the hole. I thought I heard a crack when he stood by I chalked it up to an overactive imagination after hitting my head.

"Can you reach far enough to plant your hatchet up there?" I wondered aloud, "could you lift yourself up with it?" Rafi grinned and extracted the hatchet from his belt. He lifted it but it came short of the top. With a grunt, he jumped.

And the ice cracked beneath us.

We both froze, our eyes meeting each other's. Terror was another expression Rafi was incapable of keeping off of his face. "I don't think this is a fairy trap," I whispered, watching as the deep, white crack in the ice below splintered.

"No," Rafi agreed, "I think it's an old sinkhole."

I traced the crack with my eyes. "So... the ice below us... is groundwater."

Rafi nodded.

My mother had told me stories about the massive rivers that ran underneath the ground and the sinkholes that swallowed up bad children, rushing them away in the current. She never told me stories of those children returning.

"You have to get up," I muttered, keeping my voice low lest it crack the ice too.

Rafi shook his head. "Ya have ta get on ma shoulders."

"No," I replied harshly, "the weight of us stacked will crack the ice for sure."

We were at a standstill.

Rafi grabbed me and forced us to our knees, throwing his dark jacket over me to obscure my light blue cloak. The ice below cracked and groaned and both of us held out breath until it stilled once more. I was about to lash out until I heard what he did—footsteps.

"We should call for help," I whispered to Rafi, his face close enough for me to feel his breath. Rafi only shook his head, his pale eyes upturned. We waited until the footsteps faded.

"How tall are ya?" Rafi asked.

I shrugged. "Average?"

He rifled through his satchel, murmuring to himself for forgetting rope as he dug and searched by ultimately found nothing. He leaned back against the wall of the hole, the ice groaning beneath us.

"Why didn't it crack when we initially fell?" I asked, heart hammering.

Rafi rubbed his face. "It probably did," he guessed, "we just didn't hear it. If not, we definitely weakened it when we fell."

I watched the ice, imagining that I could see the rush of the stream underneath. I slipped off a glove and pressed my hand against the ice, my fingers prickling with the cold. The ice itself was almost pulsing and for a moment I really did see the black water beneath it.

"Any way ye can make that ice a little thicker?" Rafi joked.

I gave him a flat look. "This is why we need to find Edensaw."

Rafi rolled his eyes. "Oh yes," he mocked, "let's just go find the legendary birth place of the Goddess—that won't be a waste o' time."

"Can we not get into this right now—"

We both paused as a shadow fell over us.

"Help!" I yelled just before Rafi slapped a hand over my mouth. I pushed him off and stood, waving at the stranger as the ice splintered below. Rafi growled and stood too as the stranger pulled away, grabbing my elbow.

"Are ya crazy?" he grunted.

The ice gave a loud smack and we dropped an inch. I screamed and grabbed onto Rafi, pulling him close as his hands grabbed for me too. There was a tiny fissure in the ice now and water was bubbling upwards, spreading across the bottom of the hole and soaking the bottom hem of my cloak.

"We're easy prey 'ere," Rafi grumbled to me, his eyes fixated on the water that was rushing around our feet. I could tell from his stare that my mother wasn't the only one to share stories of the underground rivers that swept naughty children away from their parents.

"We have no choice," I fired back. "Even if I were to get on your shoulders and pull myself out the ice would crack and you'd—no, we have to get out together."

Just as I said that a rope flew down the hole, landing directly between us. When we looked up the stranger was peering down again. "Climb," he instructed, his voice buttery smooth and...foreign. My heart lurched.

"You first," I said to Rafi, thrusting the rope outwards to him. "The ice will take my weight longer than it will take yours." As if to reaffirm my claim, the ice splintered again, the water rushing out faster.

Rafi didn't argue, he just fixed the stranger with a deadly look as he grabbed the rope and started to climb. The ice popped, readjusting to the loss of pressure Rafi's weight provided. I dropped a hand to my stomach as it rolled, silently pushing for Rafi to climb faster.

I grabbed onto the rope as the ice cracked again, watching as Rafi threw a leg over the edge of the hole. "Let's go, lass," he shouted down. I took a deep breath and started climbing, my limbs loose as my head grew fuzzy. The back of my skull was buzzing where I'd hit it earlier.

I was about halfway up when my vision ebbed and I fell.

Rafi yelled for me as the ice splintered completely, water rushing all around me and freezing me in a split second. I gasped and jolted upwards, dislodging the ice further. A large chuck succumbed to the water that was indeed rushing below me. The chaotic whoosh of the water was all I could hear.

My cloak tugged at my throat as it got caught in the current, whipped underneath the ice and below the ground. I gasped and spun, planting my feet against the side of the hole as I grabbed my cloak and gave a fierce tug.

"Lee!" Rafi shouted. He said more but I didn't hear him as I started to slip forward, my thighs stinging as I fought to remain on the last piece of solid ice. One of my feet slipped and my leg was plunged into the underground river, the current strong enough to take a boot from my foot.

"Your hand." I looked up to see the golden-haired man above me, the rope tied around his tapered waist and his arm outstretched towards me. I gasped and offered my bare hand to him, the other braced against the earth as I fought the current that still had my leg.

The man's skin was impossibly warm as his hands enclosed mine, tugging me upwards with staggering strength. I gasped as the ice groaned, the last chunk giving way and dropping my entire body from the breast down into the water.

The Golden Man grunted and dropped further one the rope, his hand plunging into the icy water to wrap around my waist. With a great heave I was lifted upwards, my numb hands clutching onto the man's shoulders.

I looked up to see Rafi with clenched teeth as he pulled us upwards, heaving on the rope. His eyes met mine and some of the panic ebbed. Rafi grabbed me underneath the arms when we got close enough, heaving me upwards and onto his body as we both fell backwards into the snow.

The Golden Man climbed out a moment after.

"Thank you," I rushed out in a hurried exhale, "you saved our lives."

Rafi pushed my soaked cloak off of my shoulders and replaced it with his jacket, his hands rubbing my arms in an attempt to warm me. I watched the Golden Man as he coiled the rope and stuck it back in his satchel before pulling his own cloak over his shoulders and swinging the bow he had stolen from the Dogs across his back. Unfortunately, Rafi was watching too.

"That weapon is army grade," he rumbled, fixing the Golden Man with a glare. "Where did ya get it?" I watched the Golden Man's deep blue eyes flicker to the flame tattoo on Rafi's neck which was now visible without his jacket.

"I found it," the man replied evasively, continuing to pick up his gear.

Rafi's mouth hardened. "It's not the sort of thing ya stumble on."

The Golden Man didn't reply, instead his azure eyes met mine. "You need to get warm," he said, "follow me." I watched as the Golden Man stood and heaved his pack onto his shoulder, waiting.

Rafi's hands clamped down on my arms. I could feel the tension in his body, could see how disturbed he was that the Golden Man had weapons and gear picked from the bodies of the dead Dogs. I didn't tell him that I was the one to kill him and the Golden Man didn't offer any explanation—we had promised one another we wouldn't.

"We should go with him," I whispered to Rafi, my eyes still locked with the foreigner's. "He saved us—we can trust him."

"We can't trust anyone, hen," Rafi rumbled. His body gave a violent shake without his jacket. That was enough of a reason for me. I shrugged him off and stood, hopping awkwardly without my left boot.

Rafi rumbled a few curses under his breath and picked up my sopping wet cloak before putting his arm under mine and half lifting me as we followed the Golden Man through the woods. Neither one of us looked back to the sinkhole.

The Golden Man slunk through the forest like a wraith, the snow seemingly melting as soon as it touched him. I watched him with fascination as he tilted his head, stepping so lightly through the brush his footsteps barely made any noise at all.

Rafi was watching the stranger too, his eyes focused on the bow that was carved with flames. I wanted to put him at ease but there was nothing I could say without making him doubt the tentative trust he had put in me.

"How much further?" Rafi called out, his eyes dropping to my exposed foot. The skin was raw and tight—it would have been frostbitten if not for my resistance to the cold. Likely, I would have been hypothermic too.

"Through here," the Golden Man called, holding back the branches of a thick pine. Rafi paused, eyeing the dark space beyond. The Golden Man offered no words of reassurance, he just pulled the branches back further and waited.

"Come on," I urged, my teeth slamming together as I started to shiver more violently. Rafi's skin was cold too, his jacket still draped over my body. With a grumble, Rafi walked us forward, ducking to avoid swiping his head on a low hanging branch.

We entered a cave—that much I was sure of based off of the damp smell. Without the wind, my body was able to relax slightly. Our footsteps echoed eerily in the dark space, our breaths even bouncing back to us.

Rafi pulled me closer, his heart hammering against my skin as he shook with tension. I was starting to understand that he was anxious in the dark. A match struck and the light blinded me temporarily until my eyes could adjust to the warm glow.

The Golden Man was bent over a stack of twigs and brambles, trying to get one to catch. A moment later, we had a roaring fire. The Golden Man shirked out his pack and weapons, dropping them by the mouth of the cave.

I looked around as Rafi set me by the fire. Though the shadows ran deep, I could tell that it was a large space. Tall enough for both Rafi and the Golden Man to stand up straight with ample head space.

It was forged of a dark stone, marbled up the sides with a reddish rock. The Golden Man took off his cloak, revealing a deep green tunic etched with gold swirls. He caught my stare and dropped his eyes to the tattoos across my knuckles.

"You should get out of your clothes," he murmured, pulling a pair of loose linen pants and another tunic of burnt orange from his pack. "You'll warm up quicker." I took the clothes from the stranger, ignoring Rafi's gaze as I stood and disappeared into the cave, moving until I was sure I deep enough in the shadows not to be seen.

"So what were ya doin' wanderin' the woods at night?" Rafi asked the stranger, his pale eyes sharp in the firelight. My stomach knotted as I changed, fighting with my bodice as the laces were frozen and my fingers were still clumsy and numb.

"What were you doing?" the foreigner asked, gaze even.

Rafi bristled. I returned to the fire, spreading out my clothes so they'd warm up. I felt Rafi's eyes on me, unaccustomed to a woman in men's clothing. I crossed my legs when I sat, pressing my hands near the flames.

"What's your name?" I asked the Golden Man.

His lips puckered. "Taz."

I held my hand out for him to take. "Lee," I introduced, "and this is Rafi."

Taz inclined his head. "You're a witch?" he asked me.

I nodded, withdrawing my hands. "Yes."

Taz looked to Rafi. "And you're one of the Dogs?"

Rafi's eyes narrowed. "I'm no gunna lie ta ya—I don't trust ya. How did ye get those weapons?"

Taz's lips twitched. "I came across dead soldiers and took their weapons."

"It's bad luck ta steal from the dead," Rafi threatened, "the Goddess frowns on those who remove a dead soldier's weapons."

Taz shrugged, poking at the fire. "The Goddess frowns for many reasons."

"Do you live here?" I asked, looking around the cave. I had spotted various stacks of firewood and kindling along with a pile of pelts and a bowl of water that made me assume Taz had bunkered down in this cave for a while.

Taz followed my eyes around the cave, making me blush. "For now," he replied, his voice like better with his soft accent. "I'm heading North."

"So are we," I admitted quickly, catching a glare from Rafi.

Taz's eyes flitted between us. "I'm going to Edensaw."

Rafi swore and I jumped up, moving closer to Taz. "You've got ta be kidding me—" Rafi rumbled, shaking his head as he started searching his pack for food.

Taz radiated warmth, as if his golden skin exuded the sun's light. "We're going to Edensaw as well," I chirped, offering Taz a smile.

"No, we're no," Rafi rumbled, reclining as he took a chunk out of an apple. "Because I spent nearly six month lookin' for the damned place and couldn't find it."

"You should come with us," I urged, rejoicing at the prospect of him joining. For some reason, I found Taz alluring and magnetic. I wanted to know where he was from, wanted him to tell me stories of far off lands. More than anything, I wanted someone to take my side when Rafi and I fought.

Rafi cleared his throat.

"Perhaps you two should contemplate," he murmured.

I could tell by the way Rafi's brow dipped that he wasn't sure what Taz meant. "He wants us to think about it," I clarified. My stomach dropped as Rafi's expression darkened. I made a mental note not to explain words to Rafi in front of Taz again.

Without a word, Taz got up and drew his cloak across his shoulders before picking up his bow and disappearing into the forest. Rafi threw the core of his apple at me.

"Hey!" I called, wiping bits of apple from Taz's tunic.

"What do ya think yer doin'?" Rafi demanded.

"Hm," I pretended to wonder, "maybe I'm trying to strengthen our group? He saved us from that sinkhole, Rafi, and he gave us shelter and warmth. He has resources, weapons, experience and knowledge—"

"And I don't?" Rafi challenged, face flooding with color.

"Of course, you do," I treaded, "but another set of eyes and hands isn't a bad idea. I—I trust him and—"

"Sure, ya do," Rafi chortled, "ya fancy him too."

I flushed. "I do not," I denied. "Besides, you're one to talk about fancying people. You choose a Succubus out of an entire inn filled with women." Rafi shook his head as I snorted. "I just have a feeling about this guy, I think we should bring him with us."

Rafi paused. "I'm no going ta pretend that I get any feelings like the ones ye do," he yielded, "I'm no a witch. I don't like that we found him with weapons he picked from the dead, that doesn't sit right wit' me."

"I'll protect you from him should he attack us," I jested.

Rafi sighed, "fine, this is yer trip. If the future Queen of the North wants the thief to come with us then so be it." I was just about to inform Rafi for the third time that Damatha wasn't a queen when Taz came back holding a dead rabbit.

Rafi's demeanor changed immediately, his face turning into a scowl as his hand dropped to the hilt of his sword. Taz watched every movement Rafi made as he set about skinning the rabbit for dinner. I was impressed by how quickly he had come back with a kill.

"We want you to join us," I said after a few moments of silence. I elbowed Rafi in the ribs until he grumbled an affirmation.

Taz inclined his head, "then I will be happy to accompany you North."

"What are you going to Edensaw for?" I asked.

Taz didn't reply as he held the rabbit meat over the fire. He held out a piece for me to take and I accepted with a rare smile, my stomach twisting as his eyes lingered on my tattoos again. The meat was rich and greasy, satisfying my growling stomach.

After we had all eaten, Taz offered us whatever blankets and pelts he had before he added another log to the fire and retreated to his own corner. Rafi's head was close to mine, his body curving around the opposite side of the fire. He was asleep the second he closed his eyes.

I watched Taz from across the fire, catching snippets of his face as the flames snapped and crackled. He had a dusting of freckles I hadn't noticed before, gathered from hours spent in the sun. He had to be from the South.

"The South is full of snakes and foxes," my mother told me, her bangles chiming as she dragged a boar brush through my hair. "It is a deceiving paradise," she cautioned, "a place where you can feel the warmth of the sun on your face whilst someone drives a cold dagger through your back."

I could almost feel the brush as it grazed along the back of my neck, shivered as I felt her hand smooth down my hair. "I'll be careful," I whispered to her, savouring the smell of the jasmine oil she lathered through my hair. "I promise."

When I opened my eyes Taz was watching me. I didn't sleep for the rest of the night, and neither did he.