Soul Seeker

20: Stone Circle

The stone circle was ghostly in the weak morning sunlight, an arresting sight, ancient and weathered by time. The stones stood upright and resolute, their shadows marking the pure snow around them.

A blood-red sky greeted them as they sledded towards it. Was it a bad omen? A sense of power thrummed through the air. No wonder the rumours had started. Compared to this monument, Ciara was small and insignificant, her life only a brief murmur in the passage of time. The stones had seen centuries pass and would see many more.

"I've never seen or felt anything like this before," Tonraq said.

The wind made Fell's dark hair ripple behind him as he led the way. "This is it. This is where we'll find a guardian."

Something cold surged under Ciara's skin as if in response, and all the doubts she had had faded away. It was impossible that these stones had stayed standing and relatively unscathed throughout the Ice Age, let alone centuries before that. It had to be the work of a guardian.

"We proceed with caution," Fell said, strapping a couple of extra knives to his belt. "One at a time. Hall, with me. Isa, get at the back."

"No!" Isa looked outraged.

Fell passed a hand over his pained face. "I've brought you into enough danger over the years. Isa, please. I don't want you charging headfirst into this one." She pursed her lips as Fell beckoned to Ciara.

Ciara looked at Tonraq, who nodded encouragingly. Rufus tried to pad after her but she batted him back. "Midgarson, hand me my axes. If the guardians really are this dangerous..."

"No."

"Why not?"

"If it comes to it, we will defend you with our weapons."

"Really." She resisted the urge to snort. "Why me?"

Fell gave her a sidelong glance. "Why not you? You want to find a guardian, do you not?"

Ciara found herself hating him for how well he had healed. Perhaps she should have just let his life end after all.

Fell paused for a fraction of a second before passing through the outer circle of tall rocks. Ciara followed, craning her neck to look up at them, and a tremor rolled through the air. Something about this wasn't normal. Fear built in the pit of her stomach.

"Did you feel that?" Fell whispered, and she nodded.

The snow fields were silent around them. Animals didn't venture here.

They stepped carefully into the main circle, which was even bigger. Some of these monoliths had been stacked into arches, with one stone lying across two pillars, and it felt like the air around them stood still. The low sun shone through one of the arches, blinding her, and she lifted a hand to block it out.

Minutes trickled by, and the others followed them inside. Fell's jaw clenched. He paced the empty space in the middle.

"Fell," Sebastian said. "I don't think there's anything here."

Had they come all this way for nothing?

"We can't leave straight away after all the effort we made to get here," Tonraq replied.

"No. No." Fell was not accepting defeat. "We felt it – we felt something."

"A cold breeze," Isa said.

"Face it, Midgarson," Ciara said. "You don't like admitting you're wrong. But we must have been too desperate – of course there's nothing here, someone else would have found it by now." These stones, to her frustration, were blank. "The rocks are pretty, I guess." More like magnificent. Half were silhouetted by the sun, while the other half were illuminated with its rays. "But there are no guardians."