Yndrasta: The Celestial Spear by Noah Van Nguyen

Author:Noah Van Nguyen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-08-15T08:12:44+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

Like a primordial titan that hadn’t moved in aeons, Yndrasta dominated the dark boreal forest ahead. Njda almost mistook her for one of the mossy boulders in the glade. Even after twelve days, she was hardly used to it. Each time the Suku would pass her, the unmoving huntress lingered behind until the taiga’s loveless embrace swallowed her unblinking visage. Then, without fail, Njda would glimpse her silhouette looming before them in the snowfall, or in the cold bowers of gloomy conifers and doleful birches, awaiting their arrival.

Njda paused as Valter limped along. ‘It’s not natural,’ he hissed. ‘She’s a ghost.’

The huntress’ impassive eyes watched as the Suku trudged closer. ‘The path is clear.’

Njda gave a hesitant nod. Leading the huntress on their journey was different from tracking the spoor of wounded prey or navigating by the light of stars. Each step brought Njda closer to her ma. She felt it in her gut, listening to herself as she might listen to Ghur’s whispers. Yndrasta had insisted Njda’s heart would lead them where they needed to go. But why must that be away from everything she had ever known? Where had Mai taken her ma?

‘Rest here,’ Yndrasta said as the others filtered into the white glade. ‘Eat.’

They took their meal in silence. Through the trees, the white seas of snow-banks deeper than lakes stretched into haze. One false step out there could have seen Njda or her kinfolk disappear with a grainy crunch, gone like pebbles in the ocean. When they finished their mirthless meal, Yndrasta beckoned for them to resume their journey.

‘And Valter,’ the huntress said. ‘This is as good a place to die as any.’

Frozen, the Suku traded glances. Njda walked between Yndrasta and the byrkaller, who sat on a stone in bleak shock. ‘You made a promise.’

‘A promise I now uphold.’

Through motes of snow, Njda gazed at Valter. He had been limping for almost two days. It had seemed like mere fatigue, but…

She crashed before him and shook off his boots. ‘Shut up,’ she said as he objected. Beneath the worn mesh of his threadbare stockings, a rank of black toes peered out.

Horrified, Njda lifted her eyes. ‘Valter.’

‘I had no snow gear.’ Valter gritted his teeth and brushed sweat from his brow. ‘I couldn’t slow us down.’

‘Wilds damn you,’ Njda breathed. ‘You should’ve said something.’

‘He may live.’ The reverent woods quietened at Yndrasta’s imperious interruption. ‘If he chooses.’

Magga stormed closer and ripped into Valter’s coat. He mumbled and raised his arms as she rifled through his inner pockets. She extracted a foggy phial of shining fluid and pressed it into Njda’s hands.

‘Queencure.’ Njda shook the phial. ‘How long have you had this?’

‘I found it before we left. In my wine cellar. Don’t ask how it got there – I don’t know.’ Valter’s good eye crawled to Heigen, who had stiffened. ‘If I’d known, I would’ve shared it with her. Really.’

Heigen’s lips hardened. Magga snatched the phial and popped the top, then forced Valter’s jaw open. ‘Down the hatch, Valt.

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