The Lost Realm by J. D. Rinehart

Author:J. D. Rinehart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

CHAPTER 16

I don’t think I can do this much longer.”

Tarlan kicked at the smooth surface of the stone platform in frustration, then dropped to his knees. He peered down into the water, willing Melchior to move.

But the wizard remained just as he had for the past few days: stiff and immobile. No breath lifted his chest. His spine was bent backward, his arms were thrust out, his fingers were clawed. His mouth was drawn down in what might have been pain or dread or both. He looked like a man undergoing the worst torture imaginable.

Sometimes, in the wastes of Yalasti, Tarlan had come across animals frozen in the ice. In what passed for the Yalasti summer, a sudden thaw might occasionally create a flash flood that cascaded down the mountain slopes, washing away any unwary creatures caught in its path.

Tarlan remembered a particular hunting trip he’d taken from Mirith’s cave. He’d rounded a corner and there it was: a sinuous ice snake of frozen floodwaters, standing twice his height and extending far out of sight both up the mountain and down. Inside its glassy, blue-white confines was a black mountain bear, locked inside forever.

The bear had looked peaceful.

Melchior looked like he was dying.

“It’s no good,” said Tarlan, leaning down toward the water. “I’ve got to get him out.”

“Wait more,” croaked Theeta from behind him.

It took all Tarlan’s willpower to stop himself from plunging his hands into the silver pool and dragging Melchior clear.

Oh, Mirith! What must I do?

His hand went to his throat, seeking the green jewel the dying frost witch had given him.

But the jewel wasn’t there.

Neither was Mirith.

Mirith may be dead, but Melchior isn’t. Not yet. Mirith told me to find him, and now he’s told me to wait. Theeta’s right. I just have to be patient.

But it was so hard.

He turned his attention back to the dull white stones embedded into the black walls of the crater. Melchior had promised that as his powers returned, the stones would begin to shine, just like the star constellations they represented.

They don’t look any different to me.

Feeling glum, he took a strip of dried venison from his pouch and chewed it disconsolately. His supplies were getting low. He’d managed to keep warm at night by nestling with the thorrods, and had stopped his legs seizing up by walking endless circuits around the perimeter of the stone platform. But if he stayed here much longer, he was going to go mad.

Large wings obscured the light filtering down from the crater’s mouth, high above, and suddenly Nasheen was there, landing silently beside her two thorrod companions. Concerned for his friends, Tarlan had sent her to check on the members of the pack who hadn’t been able to make the journey across the sea to the Isle of Stars.

“Wolf moved,” Nasheen said in her scratchy voice. “Tigron moved. Bear moved.”

“They’ve moved? Moved where?”

The short feathers on Nasheen’s brow flexed into something resembling a frown. This was quite a speech for a thorrod.

“Not sand. In trees.

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