Varga pulled tightly on the reins of his bull-horse, and it finally settled onto all fours. He moved forward, grabbing the reins off my driver to steady the carriage.
“What in Nevertide is that?” Varga muttered.
Ignoring the instructions I’d been given, I stepped out of the carriage and stood in the middle of the road. I glanced in the direction that Varga was facing, and stopped still.
Ahead of us were the forests that surrounded Hellswan. Moving rapidly through the trees came billowing white clouds. I thought it might be a strange low-hanging storm, but as I watched flames appeared to lick at the tops of the trees—but they weren’t red or yellow, but a bright bluish white. The white flames had ravaged the forest in their wake, leaving nothing but frosty, dead-limbed trees where flames still danced on their topmost branches. I had never seen anything like it in my life, and I stared dumbstruck as the flames flew closer toward us.
“Change of plan,” Varga asserted calmly.
Before I knew what was happening, he leaned down and wrapped his arm around my waist. In one rapid movement he hoisted me up on his bull-horse, setting me down in front of him.
The bull-horse reared up again, and he spun the creature around in the opposite direction. I could see the intense and determined look in his eyes as he bent low over me, kicking the horse with his back legs as we galloped off—getting as much distance as we could between us and the approaching ice inferno.
Hazel
We headed toward the Viking graveyard, flying as low as we could in the hope of spotting Benedict wandering in the forest. The air was mild at the Fells, but as we approached Hellswan it became still and cold. We circled lower when we approached the cove, and as soon as we caught sight of the muddy sands, a brilliant flash of light momentarily blinded us. A second later, white flames leapt up from the surrounding trees, billowing dry smoke toward us that smacked into my face like shards of glass.
“What on earth is that?” I gasped, leaning forward on the neck of the vulture as I looked down at the forest below.
“I have no idea,” Tejus replied in wonder.
He turned the bird away from the oncoming flame, but it seemed to chase us—ice-cold, bluish flickers leaping from one branch to the next, quickly surrounding the cove.
“We need to turn around!” Tejus yelled over the crackling of the leaves and the high-pitched blast of the fire.
“No!” I cried out. I couldn’t leave Benedict down there. “We have to land—please, Tejus!”
The flames leapt higher still, and Tejus pulled the bird upward.
“You’ll get us killed, Hazel,” he growled, holding on to me tightly as the vulture rose.
“I can’t leave him!”
“We must!” he shouted, trying to steer the bird away from the cove in the direction of the castle. The bird screamed. It was the most atrocious sound I’d ever heard, more human than animal, and it ripped right through my eardrums.
“Damn!” Tejus yelled, tightening his grip on me as the bird spun out of control. I looked over at its wings, expecting flames to be spreading across its giant feathers. Instead I saw that the tips had frozen, their color turning an icy white, like a frost that was steadily moving up the wing to the creature’s body.
“Hazel.” Tejus spoke with quiet control in my ear. “You need to hold on. I can’t control the bird—it’s in too much pain. Whatever you do, hold on.”
I clutched at the feathers beneath my fingers, my heart racing as the bird flew uncontrollably, spinning and whirring into the sky. I shut my eyes, too scared to see the ground come rushing up to meet us. Its horrific scream continued, and in trying to block it out I became aware only of Tejus’s firm chest behind me and the vice-like grip he held me in.
“We’re going to land,” Tejus called out to me, but I could barely hear him over the rushing wind as the bird picked up speed.
We were too low. Branches swiped at my face as the bird juddered, smacking into the tops of the trees. My stomach jolted as we suddenly dropped lower, free-falling in the air. The bird gave another thunderous squawk, and we hit the ground. I nearly went flying off the creature, but Tejus held on tight around my waist, yanking me back toward him.
A moment later we were still. All I could hear was the sound of my and Tejus’s rasping breaths, our thundering hearts and the soft whimpers of the bird beneath us. Slowly I opened my eyes. The surroundings looked familiar, but in my shock I couldn’t quite place them.
“Where…where are we?” I stuttered.
“Ghouls’ Ridge,” Tejus breathed.
I looked around once again and saw the precipice of the mountain to my right where the trials had taken place, and the steep drop on either side—which I knew was miles deep, ending in swirling mists and jagged rocks.