Ice-Bound Promise [Wattys 2023 Shortlister]

27

"Is that it? How are we supposed to get out of here now?" Wandering further away, Hatyara peered out into the darkness. "We can't go back to the city, can we? Is that invisible bridge still there and, even if it is, how are we supposed to find it? This is ridiculous and unacceptable."

"Unacceptable? I've just killed a Patron!" Standing, her hand never leaving Barsa's head, Únik threw her hand out towards where Frianchenzer had once stood. "Did you expect an escort to the way out?"

"You don't know you killed a Patron." Moving behind Únik, Shihiri lifted Únik's torch from her bag and held it against the head of her own until the torch caught afire, placing it Únik's hand. "Who's to say it was a Patron at all? It could have been any number of magical creatures, or an illusion left by a mage. Or a hallucination. We don't know anything."

"I know." Dipping her head, she saw the glint of metal upon the ground near her feet. The spear tip glittering in the flickering torchlight. "I'll always know."

Seeing the direction of Únik's eyes, Shihiri spotted the spear upon the ground. Crouching, she picked it up, examining the shaft and the tip, testing the weight of the weapon in her hand and the balance. Nodding in appreciation, she tossed it into the air, changing her grip and held it out to Únik.

"Here. You've earned this." When Únik didn't reach for it, Shihiri shook the spear, raising her eyebrows in mock admonition. "Take it."

"I don't want it." Turning away from the blighted weapon, Únik continued to scratch the top of Barsa's head. She felt great relief her hound no longer suffered. If nothing else, killing the Patron had given Barsa respite.

"Look, you don't even know what death means to an immortal, even if it was what it said it was. How can an immortal even die?" Shifting back into Únik's eye-line, Shihiri scowled. "For all we know, you only 'killed' an, I don't know, an avatar, a projection of its real form. Take the spear! We still have your pursuers to contend with and we'll need every weapon we can lay our hands on."

"Our pursuers will have a hard time finding us down here." The Ice-Kin came to stand beneath the cloak of light from the torches, pressing herself between the morose Únik and the annoyed Fae. "Unless we find a way out, we'll save them a job by starving in this hole."

Once again, Shihiri thrust the spear towards Únik and, with reluctance, she took it from the hand of the Fae. She could still feel the warmth that had rippled through the weapon as she had plunged it deep into form of Frianchenzer. She could feel all the sounds, the sensations and her emotions from that moment and she wondered if she would ever stop feeling them.

Almost laughing to herself, cringing at the thought of how out of place such laughter would be, she realised she had no idea how to use a spear at all, in the first place. The closest thing she had ever held in her hands was her whale hook and she would take that mere tool over this thing designed and made to take lives. But her whale hook had become lost, as her quiet life had become lost, as her loved ones and friends and innocence had become lost.

The only thing she had left was Barsa, now. With the torch in one hand, the cursed spear in the other, she could no longer show affection to her dog. Only able to look down to his deep, dark eyes and smile. But Barsa's attention remained elsewhere. His ears, no longer flattened against his head, now pricked up as he stared out into the darkness.

"What is it, boy?" Únik tried to follow the dog's eyes, but could see little beyond the spread of the torchlight. "Is it something good, or bad?"

Barsa stepped forward once, his tail making slow, uncertain sweeps behind him. He made another step forward before turning back to look up towards Únik. He made an aborted move to run and looked at her again, giving a small woof. His tail began to wag faster and he set off, running a good twenty feet away, at the very edge of the torchlight, before stopping, looking back. Then he ran again, disappearing into the dark.