Page 170 of Season Warriors & Wolves

“It could take weeks to climb it,” Alaric said. “Without even considering the chances that whatever lives up there will let anyone climb it at all.”

“There is another way,” the old Crafter revealed, drawing a line on the map through Hanai mountains to the Isline villages. “My congregation used to take the mountain route to the temples on the other sides of the mountains. We’ve visited Islines many times by foot.”

“He is correct, there is a way,” the Autumn Queen said, walking to Nia’s side. “Just not a very nice one. There are tunnels that run through the old mountains that take you to the Isline temples in Isjord. We’ve sealed them all after the Terian war against Silas’s father when they snuck through the night and slaughtered villages in their sleep.”

“Once inside the temple and Melanthe would be no issue, right?” Cai asked and then turned to Visha. “How long could you keep Melanthe from being alerted of her presence if she keeps her magic tightly sealed?”

“A minute at best,” Visha said after thinking about it for a bit. “The blood trace they have on is not only connected to their magic.”

“A minute could be enough,” Oryn agreed. “The tunnels inside the temples take you right over to the other side. I’ll make the map for you.”

“Can’t someone just fade her to the other side?” Pen asked.

“The old magic around the mountains won’t allow it. And besides,” my brother said, “that minute might be cut short if I use my magic. Considering the beasts are appearing out of thin air whenever they can feel us use it, I doubt we would even have a couple of seconds.”

I pulled Snow to sit on my lap and murmured in her ear, “Eren has travelled through Islines. How about asking him to join you?”

“No. Whatever is out there is still haunting him, I know it. When he speaks of that place, it feels the same way how I speak about that night at Solstice.”

“You still don’t want me to come?” I pleaded one last time. I’d said yes, but my mind had pounded to say no.

She nudged her nose with mine. “Nope.”

Nope?

Not even no?

Nope?

Chapter thirty-four

Black Queen to C7

Snowlin

We stood facing a cave sealed by a boulder of rock. Even all the way across from Isjord, I could feel the chill of winter down my neck. Unnatural winter. The season beyond was no blessing, no divine touch—it was all human and manmade, desecrated and stripped from all its meaning.

“If I say you grab my hand,” Mal said to us, tightening my sister’s holsters. “You grab my hand, understand?”

Both Thora and I nodded, pulling our hoods up.

Eren turned to us three. I’d given the order for him to stay back. No matter what he knew about Islines, I would not force him to face that place again. “Whatever you see out there, it will be something you’ve never seen or fought or felt before. The magic of these people is intense, so intense that they have created a sense of bonding with the environment. Like a morph bonds to a human. Do not try to kill anything that doesn’t try to kill you first. Even if you see a beast, go past it, pretend it does not exist, even if it looks threatening, do not kill. It is very tempting to be afraid beyond there. They’ve preserved everything to remain the same as it was the first day Krig touched the land—fanatically. No lightning.” He said to me and then turned to Mal and Thora. “No shadows or wind. Only ice. Casting magic out there is dangerous, especially for you, Mal. Their spiritual is not the same as ours out there. I’ve seen…I’ve seen grown men and women gouge their own eyes out only so they wouldn’t see what the land beyond wanted them to see.”

Thora’s eyes were wide. “What the hells has happened to you out there, Eren?”

“Nothing I can properly describe. Do as I say, and you will find the north easily. Follow the wind, it will take you there. Never walk against it, only where it sends you.”

Mal threw an arm over my shoulders and Thora’s. “Scared, ladies? Why so?” The smug fool smirked. “Big bad Mal is here to protect you.”

Eren ruffled his hair and the younger Castemont stunned on the spot. “Big bad Mal also used to pick his boogers with a crane.”

Mal shut his eyes, his head dropping back. “Fuck me.”

“I’ll pass,” Eren muttered, fixing Thora’s hood.

The corridors were wet and dark, thin stalactites hanging from the ceiling, dripping all over the muddy floor.

I shot a thin line of lightning ahead, the magic travelling all the way to its end to find it empty. Instead, something else just as fearful caught our eye.