Chapter 104: Demon-Powered Wagon

I didn’t rush up the hillside. The snow was getting even worse, and I wanted every chance to see the road. I heard the others before I found them.

“…She’ll be fine. You heard her,” Seyari said angrily. “You and Phol can leave if you want to, but I’m staying around here until she gets back.”

“I don’t care what we do, but can it involve gettin’ warm?” Taava practically shouted.

“Me too!” Nelys shouted as well. “It’s so cold I can’t think!”

“Fine,” Myrna relented just as I walked into view. “We’ll—Zarenna?”

“I said I’d be fine.” I looked at the group arrayed around a now even more damaged wagon. Seyari and Myrna were facing each other, while Phol looked nervous behind his employer and Taava and Nelys were openly shivering. By some miracle, the canvas covering had held and the cargo was still under it. “Thanks for waiting. But unless you want another avalanche, don’t shout.”

“Screw waitin’!” Taava ran over and attached herself to me, heedless of my state of undress. “Heat! Now!” Despite her urgency the kazzel kept her voice low.

A moment later, Nelys hugged me as well. “I’m glad you’re safe,” they said, shivering.

Truthfully, I didn’t mind being a walking heat source. I warmed us up and walked with my attached friends over to Myrna.

She looked me up and down and groaned, sounding like she was trying to laugh, but too exhausted to manage. “Where should we camp? I want to avoid getting caught in another slide like that.”

“Flat area below a hillside, or a cave if we can find one.” I looked up the hill, but lost vision about ten meters out, the snow still getting more intense.

“I think it’s safe to say that won’t happen.” Seyari walked up and leaned over Taava to give me a peck on the cheek.

Myrna sighed and shivered. “Let’s just get off the road then. We’ll make do.”

Seyari peeled Taava and Nelys off me, and I picked up the wagon. “Where to, Renna? I have a plan for the campsite, so anywhere flat is good.”

“Is the wagon even heavy for you?” Phol asked.

I almost shrugged but stopped myself. “A little? Not really. It’s unwieldy though.”

I couldn’t tell if Phol relaxed because of the full-body shiver that passed through him.

Myrna pointed me in a direction and we walked off into the snowy trees until the road was just out of sight.

***

Seyari’s plan was far from ideal, but I couldn’t think of anything better. For my contribution, the spell worked as I’d hoped, and I didn’t singe anyone in the process. Between Seyari’s magic and my own, we created a small, heated dome around our cart, tents and firepit. I felt a little bad for making Myrna and Phol wince as I broke down a tree for firewood, but I wasn’t about to wander off.

Outside our tenuous shelter, the winter storm swirled and raged, unnervingly silent across a barrier of heat and wind. Quietly at first, Taava began to play her lute. The melody was vaguely familiar—something I’d heard hints of in other songs of hers. But this time, it was different. Whole. A style I knew immediately to be Raavian despite having never heard a note of Raavian music in my life.

Under the melody, Taava sang. Not her usual belted soprano, but something lower; her voice was more intimate. I didn’t understand the words, but the tone of the song—somber, yet hopeful—washed over our huddled group as the fire burned merrily, blissfully unaware of the storm raging just beyond its reach. Taava’s song wasn’t a long one, and the silence it left behind when the last notes faded made my head pound.

“What now?” someone asked.

It took a moment to realize that someone was me.

Myrna hummed in thought, her eyes opening languidly to glance at me, then the fire, then the storm. “As a merchant, I’ll want to make sure my goods are safe. I’d still like to get to town, but you’re only here to guard me as per the contract.”

“Don’t ask her to climb a mountain carrying the wagon!” Phol’s sudden interjection startled me.

When our eyes met briefly, I could see he’d been crying. Even now, despite the warmth I could feel seeping into my bones, he shook.

Myrna reached over and ruffled his hair. “I wasn’t gonna. We’ll dig ourselves out and head back down the mountain. The main road should be clear and we can flag down help or have Zarenna’s group go.”

“I’m sorry we couldn’t get you up the pass,” Seyari started, her own posture relaxing. “But I’m glad you’re making a sensible decision.”

“I don’t wanna give up,” Nelys said, looking into the dancing fire.

“Neither do I,” I said. “You didn’t hire normal guards, you hired—”

“Normal guards wouldn’t have been able to save us. It’s a pity about the horses, but Phol and I are alive and I’m not facing financial ruin.”

I shrugged and stretched, feeling the magic flowing from me into the warmth around us. I’d grown so much magically. In terms of combat, I’d yet to really show my skill with spear and shield, but despite the fog in my mind, my body wasn’t tired at all from tonight. And I could keep this spell up all night—which was looking necessary.

“Like I said,” I shot Myrna a shark-toothed grin, “you didn’t hire normal guards. You didn’t even hire a normal demon. I’m the Sovereign of Wrath, and right now I’m pissed at this storm and that snowslide. I’m pretty good at beating whatever pisses me off, too.”

“Are you gonna kill the storm?” Nelys asked, clearly doubtful.

“She’s not,” Seyari answered for me. “You can’t possibly be thinking of—”

“Why not?” Taava interjected, bouncing up from the edge of the circle to walk, spinning next to the fire. She pointed at me and then the wagon. “The boss can carry all a us no problem. S’long as the storm dies down a bit, she can get us ta town no problem.”

“I was thinking that, yeah.” My confident grin turned sheepish. “You all can ride in the wagon.”

“What about the slide area?” Myrna questioned. “It’s not safe, and what’s to say a detour would be safe either?”

My confidence deflated. I could survive an avalanche. My fragile friends and fragile client weren’t a guarantee. “Yeah, you’re right. It’s too risky.”

Taava gave me puppy-dog eyes and Nelys copied her. Seyari swatted Taava on the head.

“Hey what was that for!” the kazzel hissed, tail bristling.

“For encouraging Zarenna to do something stupid.”

“Why didn’t ya hit Nelys too?”

“Hey!” Nelys protested.

“They copied your influence so it’s your fault!” Seyari said matter-of-factly.

Nelys stuck out their tongue.

“They’re an adult!” Taava groused.

Nelys nodded. “Yep!”

The kazzel looked to me for help, but I didn’t give any. I was too busy trying to think of a solution. The best I could come up with was running ahead and blazing a trail, but I’d cause even more damage doing that much. Darn. There goes my hero moment.

“Let’s just get some sleep, okay?” an exhausted looking Myrna pleaded.

“Eh, fine,” Taava relented.

“What about their magic?” Phol asked, looking at me and then Seyari.

“We’ll be staying up too,” Seyari explained. “I’ll sleep tomorrow and Zarenna doesn’t even need to sleep every night.”

“Is that true?” Myrna asked, probably thinking about watch schedules.

“Yeah, it is.”

“Then why do you sleep like a human?” Myrna’s asked, curious despite her fatigue.

I tilted my head and scratched at a horn. “Sleep is comfy. I don’t think it’s anything deeper than that.”

Myrna seemed to accept the answer and soon the others besides Seyari and myself retreated under whatever they could, falling quickly asleep. Seyari came over and leaned next to me, relaxing as I put my warm tail over both of us. We stayed like that the whole tense night.

Whenever a tree fell nearby my eyes would catch the motion and I’d tense, ready for something to jump out of the snow and attack us. Each time, Seyari squeezed my hand, her own hand tense, and we relaxed together. A few times we even had to stop each other nodding off.

***

The storm hadn’t relented by sunup. Visibility was better, but the snow outside was getting deep. Worse yet, after carrying the cart with everyone trudging alongside me (despite my insistence they could ride), we came to the site of another, even larger avalanche back down the way we’d come up. We were stuck between two slides.

What now?

“Shit,” Myrna kicked at the snow, which was now deep enough to be nearly to her knee.

Before I could reply, Taava tensed. The kazzel heard something, her ears and head snapping to a large tree just uphill from us. Motion caught my eye, and I tensed, too, as a figure in red and white vestments walked out from around the tree.

Yevon had his hands up, and his breath puffed out a cloud of steam as he sighed. “It’s a real problem, isn’t it?”

“What do you want?” Seyari asked icily.

Nelys and Taava stayed on alert, quiet but attentive.

“So cold.” Yevon rubbed his hands together and blew into them. “And here I was thinking I’d offer to help you.”

“Who the hell are you?” Myrna snarled, making me jump. “No one should be out here—least of all dressed like they belong in an Ordian church!”

“Church of Dhias,” Yevon corrected. “Ordia has more faiths than just the church, even if they’re minor.”

Phol put a hand on his weapon and took a protective step closer to Myrna.

Myrna glowered. “I asked: Who the hell are you?”

“Language!” Yevon took a step back when Myrna drew a crossbow from her belt and aimed it at him. His hands went up again and he straightened slightly from his slouch, lidded eyes widening a little. “I’m Yevon Styon, High Priest of Dhias.”

“High priest,” Seyari muttered under her breath. “Shit.”

“And what’s a high priest doing out in the middle of heck-all nowhere?” Myrna asked.

Yevon gave a wry smile and pointed at me. “Observing her.”

Myrna swore under her breath. “Fine. You Gelles Company folks take this conversation then. So long as you don’t break our contract and you get me and Phol somewhere safe, I’m fine with any plan.”

“Understood,” I acknowledged Myrna before addressing Yevon. “Why would you want to help us?” I asked, bluntly. “I’m a demon, you know.” I almost gestured with the wagon I was still holding above my head, but refrained from doing more than a light tilt.

“Because I want to.” Yevon shrugged and then continued, “Is that heavy? Because it looks heavy.”

“It isn’t. Are you going to help or not?”

“Could you try asking nicely?”

“No,” Seyari replied for me. “Fuck off.”

“Rude!” Yevon gasped, putting a hand over his heart. “But you’re lucky I asked Zarenna and not you. So,” he met my gaze with seemingly dull light brown eyes, “what’ll it be?”

I took a moment to look at Yevon with aura sight. His aura was odd: almost clear, but with a prismatic sheen like a soap bubble. It was a lot smaller and dimmer than I would expect—was he hiding his aura? The man was suspicious, yes, but I wasn’t about to tell him to go sit alone in a snowstorm. Plus, if he could really help, we could really use it.

“High Priest Yevon,” I said grouchily, “Could you please help us get to either the next town up this pass or back to the main road?” Admittedly, I wanted to see what sort of help he could offer. Sizing up potential threats and all that.

“Of course I can!” Yevon’s expression flipped instantly to one of jovial casualness. “I want a warm bed and a hot meal too, y’know!”

“Right,” Seyari said, clearly unhappy. “What can you do?”

“Magic.” Yevon waved a hand. “I can keep whatever way you choose to go from collapsing.”

Seyari jabbed a finger at him. “And how can I trust you won’t just bury us?”

“All that would do is kill everyone except Zarenna,” Yevon said with a shrug. “Never mind that I don’t actually mean you any harm, that would get me in a lot of trouble.”

Taava shot a hand up, then spoke immediately. “What kinda magic d’ya have?”

Yevon twirled his fingers and a thin trail of snow rose up to wrap around his hand. “Ice.”

Seyari narrowed her eyes and Taava’s ears lowered. Ice magic in a strong ice storm was suspicious, but I had to doubt he caused this huge mess to indirectly inconvenience us. Or that he even could.

“You can make it so the snow is stable?” I guessed.

Yevon smiled. “Yep! Got it in one.”

I looked to the others, and then Myrna and Phol. Seyari didn’t respond, Taava and Nelys shrugged, and Myrna nodded with some hesitation.

“Fine. We’ll accept your help.” I shifted the weight of the wagon I still had lifted over my head. “I’d shake on it, but, well…”

The high priest chuckled. “I understand. Now: up the hill or down it?”

“Up the hill,” I answered for everyone else.

“Can do.” Yevon gave a thumbs-up.

***

We made excellent progress the rest of the day. True to his word, Yevon kept the slide area stable under us long enough for us to cross, and by evening we were at elevation along a flatter stretch of road. The high priest kept his distance while he worked, and I couldn’t get a read on him. Seyari as well was flummoxed—her ability to tell lies wasn't infallible and she couldn’t read much from Yevon.

Snow continued throughout the day, but the storm itself had already done its worst and was more manageable. We hadn’t reached the warm town yet, but Myrna told us there was a cave a little way off the road that was frequented by travelers. When I finally set the damaged wagon down and pushed it into the cave, I almost toppled over—my balance took a moment to adjust.

Still standing outside in the evening twilight, Yevon excused himself once the rest of us had gotten inside. “Try not to get in trouble, Zarenna,” the slouching man said with an air of detached amusement. “And don’t try to follow me.” With a tilt of his head, he turned and walked off into the snow.

I made no attempt to stop Seyari and Taava from trying to follow him. The two of them came back shortly, rimed in frost and shivering. Taava held her ears flat against her head and Seyari wore one of her typical scowls.

“You two alright?” I asked while warming them up.

“Fine.” Seyari grumbled. “He made it very clear we’d either fight him or leave.”

“Thanks for not fighting him.”

Taava shrugged, teeth chattering as she grabbed one of my arms. “No sense in blowin’ what we’ve got now. Don’t wanna give the church any more ammo against ya—even if that guy makes all the hair on my tail stand up. Now, can we get a fire goin’ and tents set up?”