Claws [The Icefjord Saga 2] by Zaya Feli

Author:Zaya Feli
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2019-05-17T16:00:00+00:00

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As they sat by the mouth of the cave and watched for sunrise, Rakkian waited for something to happen. Isa sat with his eyes closed, back against the cave wall, a hand folded over his ribs. He looked tired, with dark circles under his eyes. Rakkian thought they’d grown a little darker since he’d severed the seal, but it might have been his imagination. Skygge lay cuddled up in Isa’s lap. Rakkian felt bad for her, too. She’d had to watch Isa go through so much hardship and there’d been hardly anything she could do to help him.

Rakkian didn’t feel different. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected. It was a relief simply to see Isa alive and not writhing on the ground in agony. If severing the seal had had that effect, Rakkian would have had no way to help him.

Isa opened his eyes and gazed at him. Rakkian looked away. He felt like a child caught staring. Instead, he looked at the sky, which had turned from black to a dark blue-grey.

A tiny light danced near the edge of the dry riverbed, bouncing up and down. Rakkian followed its path with his eyes until another joined it. The two lights circled each other, bumped together, and drifted apart.

Rakkian gasped, retreating farther from the cave entrance when he realised what they were.

“What?” Isa sat up, hand going to the knife, making Skygge squawk indignantly at being jostled.

“Those lights! They tried to drown me in the lake!” He pointed and shuffled farther backwards until he bumped into a sharp edge of rock at his back.

Isa leaned sideways and craned his neck to look where Rakkian had pointed. Then he rose to his feet and stepped outside.

“Isa!” Rakkian gasped.

It was quiet for a moment, then Isa’s voice sounded from farther away. “It’s all right. Come out.”

Rakkian glanced at Snowball, who sat with her ears pricked, head tilted to listen to Isa’s voice. Cautiously, Rakkian stepped outside.

The lights were everywhere, dancing and bouncing around them. Rakkian ran from the mouth of the cave to where Isa stood, bumping into Isa’s shoulder in his haste before righting himself. “Are you sure this is safe?” he asked, pulling back when a little white light darted close to his shoulder.

“The lights that tried to drown you were yellow, right?” Isa asked.

Rakkian frowned, then nodded. “Yeah. Why?”

“Those are lantern men.” Isa held out a hand, palm up. The lights drew closer, circled his hand, then quickly dispersed. “They’re malevolent creatures that lead you astray and feed on your panic. These are white lights. Glimr alfr.”

“I’ve never heard of those before,” Rakkian said, watching as Snowball crouched in the snow, then leapt at a light with her paws outstretched. The light darted away easily. “Are they creatures?”

“Uh-huh. Don’t hurt a soul, just want to play.” Isa turned to him. The lights of the glimr alfr reflected in his eyes. “I’ve heard stories about them but I’ve never seen them before. They never venture close to settlements. I didn’t think they’d be this curious.

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