A light cold rain pelted down on Elaine as the caravan made its way ever north and west. The storm from the night before had only let up a little, but there wasn’t time to spare. Elaine pulled her borrowed cloak tighter around her chest to keep the cold out.

  Her hand strayed to the hilt of her sword as she walked. Familiar warmth flooded through her with just that touch, so much like the warmth of Astor. It gave her renewed strength every time she touched it, but there was something different about it.

  She wanted to use it more and more each time.

  Elaine shuddered at the thought. She wouldn’t deny that she could feel the power coursing through the blade. She just could not bring herself to trust the spirit. It had called itself Astor, but Elaine had never heard of a second. There was only one Astor.

  Perhaps she was only saying that to herself, but she could not deny the connection she felt. The magic was no different from Grace in feel. The spirit might have been a lesser god, just not as great as Astor. It might have been a liar in the guise of Astor. He was not the only one after all.

  She banished the thought from her mind. It would do her no good to dwell on what she could not change. She had the sword now, and it would give her the strength to finish the journey. Perhaps she had learned something from Logan after all.

  He was walking beside her. She could only see the vapors of his warm breath from underneath his black hood. Silence ruled as the caravan walked on. It seemed the colder it was, the less friendly everyone became.

  “My manhood is frozen to the core!” Carl yelled, breaking the silence. “What I wouldn’t give for some soft hands to warm it up.”

  “We can put a torch to it if that’s warm enough,” Van said, pulling out a cloth-covered stick from his pack.

  She was also getting used to that kind of talk. In Nethas, only a fool would say something like that before a knight and he would suffer for it. She still might not be comfortable with it, but she could understand it.

  She had been thinking about something since her visit with the spirit. She didn’t understand the way sigils worked, not truly. She was not sure, but Richard might be able to understand them. Whether they were the same as the Order’s own, she did not know, but with the same power, they would all stand a better chance of survival.

  The problem was that she could not share the Order’s sigils. They could not fall into anyone else’s hands because the chaos that would ensue would be unimaginable. It would destroy everything that they worked so hard for.

  But, she did not want these men to die. If just the knowledge of the sigils could help, she knew that she must share it. The rules of the Order were wrong in this case. The risk to the world was too great if she did not.

  She resolved herself. She would reveal the sword when they next made camp. They marched on throughout the day, until the moon peeked down from over the horizon. It was then that Richard announced that their destination was in sight.

  “The outer wall to the kingdom,” Richard said, pointing to a dilapidated stretch of black stone in segmented pieces. “They built it to keep the monsters out, and their people in. It once stretched all the way from the northern mountains to the southern coast.”

  “What happened to it?” Elaine asked.

  It was like a great serpent, fallen to almost nothing. There were humps of varying sizes protruding from the snow, each one a piece of its burrowing spine. It would have been formidable if the walls were still intact.

  “It was torn asunder from within,” Richard said, his voice shaking. “No one knows who or what did it.”

  “An open path makes it easier for us at least,” Adrian said, pointing to the shadow of the wall. “We’ll make camp there. It will at least give us some relief from this damned rain.”

  They marched on in the cold, and the wagon had a tough time making it over the frozen ground. They made it, and set up tents in the shadow of the wall. It was colder there, but the setting sun would soon make no difference.

  The rain slackened as darkness crept over the icy tundra. They lit a bonfire and the men gathered around it with smiles and cheers. At last, there was a reprieve to their suffering, and warm food for their bellies.

  Elaine took Richard aside at the fire, and drew the blade for him to see. The sigils practically glowed in the orange flames. Elaine’s soul emptied once she handed it over to Richard for examination.

  “Amazing,” the mage whispered as he ran his fingers over the sigils. “Where did you find this sword?”

  “The sword is the same one that Logan gave to me,” Elaine said. “But when we last travelled through the Veil, a spirit wrote the sigils on it.”

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  “So you don’t believe it to be the same as the Order’s runes?” Richard asked.

  “No, I don’t think they are our sigils.” Elaine shook her head. “I don’t recognize them anyways.”

  “They might not be yours, but I do see some similarities to ours,” Richard said.

  Elaine suppressed a shudder. She still had some issue with the magic that mages used. She couldn’t say it aloud. She leaned in closer as Richard pointed to the first rune above the hilt.

  “That is close to one of the symbols for piercing fire, one that can be inscribed onto nonlife,” he said. “The pointed end at the bottom is used only for an inversion.”

  “What does that mean?” Elaine asked.

  “Nothing when just controlling the element,” Richard said. “That rune shouldn’t work. You can only invert fire by using the rune for water directly beneath it.”

  He kept working his eyes down the seven sigils on the blade, and then flipped it over to see the other seven. He closed his eyes for a few moments, until finally he handed the blade back to Elaine.

  “It is inscribed as a negation of the four elements on eight of the runes,” Richard said. “The other four aren’t familiar to me, but my knowledge isn’t inexhaustible.”

  “Can we use them?” Elaine asked. “Can we place them on everyone’s weapons?”

  “Perhaps.” Richard reached into his bag and pulled out a quill, a ruled edge, and a small tightly bound leather book. “I will copy them in here and then place them on another weapon. We can test it then.”

  He let Elaine hold the sword as he measured and transcribed the sigils. He made each one with care, with notes and measured copies made for each. When he was finally done, he rummaged in his pack again to pull out a brush.

  “Adrian, let me see your sword.” Richard pulled the man away from the revelry.

  He set to work on Adrian’s sword, drawing the seven sigils on both sides of the blade. When he was finally done, he handed the sword back to Adrian. The red haired mercenary held it aloft for a moment.

  “I’m not so sure of what you’re trying,” Adrian said with a frown.

  “I’m sure I did it perfectly,” Richard said. “I’m certain it was right.”

  He took the sword back from Adrian and examined it in the firelight. Back and forth, his eyes roved over the blade. His eyes widened as he finally stopped, and Elaine jumped as he spun around to face her.

  “It needs a spark!” His voice echoed through the camp, drawing everyone’s attention. “Take both in your hands.”

  Elaine looked at the hilt of the sword for a few moments as she thought about what he meant. Finally, she reached out her right hand and grasped the hilt of the sword. With her left, she reached down to the hilt of her sword and drew it partially from the sheath.

  The warmth, so close to Grace, filled her bones and flowed through her body. It reached all through her until it flowed through her right hand and into the blade. For a brief moment, bliss filled her heart.

  Then it cracked back through her. It coursed through her body until it returned to the source. Her vision blackened. Elaine dropped the sword and fell down from the force of the blow.

  The darkness enveloped her. She wasn’t sure how long it was. She awoke to the orange glow of the fire, with a warm blanket wrapped around her. Logan sat next to her, watching the fire unwaveringly.

  “What happened?” she asked as she rose up on one arm.

  “There was a backlash from the magic.” Logan’s gaze didn’t waver. “Richard said that it would be rough if it was your first time.”

  “Did it work?” Elaine asked.

  Logan turned to her with a lopsided grin, “Yes.”

  Elaine fell back and smiled as well. Perhaps there was some hope then. She hadn’t had a chance to test the new sword against the savod, but at least they would have greater strength. At least they would have some hope.

  “Your eyes are still distant,” Elaine said as Logan returned his gaze to the fire. “There’s something more still bothering you.”

  “It’s much the same, as before,” Logan whispered. “I just might have realized something that chills me to my bones. I’m not sure if I can accept it.”

  “What is that?” Elaine rose again, leaning forward on her knees.

  “I think it’s why I can’t talk to Talan anymore,” Logan said.

  He fidgeted where he sat. Elaine wanted nothing better than to hit him a few times for all that he didn’t want to talk about it. She didn’t know why couldn’t he just come out and say what he wanted to say.

  “Tell me already,” she said, rubbing her eyes.

  “Maybe if I accept it myself,” Logan said, turning to her again.

  His eyes were hollow, like all the life in him merely drained away. Elaine had seen the look before, in a reflection after the battles in Nethas. Rain and blood mixed beneath her knees in the puddle of her memory.

  The eyes were her own.

  They were the eyes of someone who realized something so terrible that they no longer wanted to live. For Elaine, the death around her after the battle had nearly driven her to madness. Only the comforting hand of Nathaniel had saved her.

  Logan was walking that same path; she could see it even if she did not know why.

  “You can’t just die,” Elaine said suddenly, gripping his shoulder. “No matter how dark it seems that’s not the way.”

  “I’m not ready to die yet.” Logan shook his head.

  “Then why do you look like you’re already there?” Elaine asked.

  “Do you remember what happened when the savod struck me?” Logan smiled softly.

  “I didn’t see it.” Elaine shook her head.

  “He threw greens flames through my chest,” Logan said, touching at the dark absently. “I remember the burning flame, but that’s it. Talan sealed it before I could feel anything else. I didn’t have time to think about it after that, but now…I think I’m already dead. Talan is using all her strength to keep me together, but if the magic breaks, I will die.”

  “Are you so certain?” Elaine asked.

  He was ready to give up so easily. She could hardly bring herself to believe it. This was what he had promised that he would not do. She had to do something about. His thinking could just as easily get them all killed.

  “No.” Logan shook his head. “But I cannot shake the feeling.”

  “Ignore it,” Elaine said, frowning. “You can’t afford the distraction right now. What’s important is that we stop the savod.”

  “That’s easy for you to say.” Logan laughed quietly. “But I understand. I’ll try not to think about it until this is done.”

  She wasn’t sure that she believed him, but she had to trust him. In the cold wastes of the north, there were very few left that she could trust anymore. She knew what she should say then, what she should do.

  “I promise you that I won’t let you die Logan,” she said. “We’ve come so far in so short a time. I’ve seen places that I never thought I would. I promise you that I won’t let you die.”

  She had hoped that it might inspire him that he might reply in kind, but only a grim smile crossed his face. He nodded in response but turned his eyes back to the fire. Elaine shuddered, suddenly feeling the cold anew.