Destiny's Harbinger: A(n Unhinged) Merlin and Young Justice Crossover

Chapter 16: Or Perhaps the True Sign from the North?

It was bitter cold. On the horizon, the first hints of sunrise were starting to show, streaking the deep blue sky orange and yellow. The wind howled around Merlin and I, tugging at our clothes. Even though the lower half of my face was covered with a buff and I wore goggles to protect my eyes, my skin was burned by the frigid, unforgiving wind. I pulled the material of my puffy jacket closer, grateful for the various layers of clothes I had piled on underneath.

Merlin stood a few paces away from me, his feet carefully planted on the glacier. He, too, wore layers of thermal and winter gear. His hood was drawn over his head and he all but disappeared behind the faux fur lining.

He had pulled his gloves off to try the spell again. Already, his fingers were bright red with cold. In one hand, he carried Leon's dagger. The other he used to accentuate the spellcasting, his fingers flexing with strain as he held his palm out.

"Anything?" I shouted.

"It's faint, not enough to tell."

Jason had given us the coordinates where the shield had been pried from the ice. We had started there, but the spell had failed. Merlin had trekked several hundred meters north to try again, but when that didn't work, we had moved toward the east. Now we were starting to pick up the trail.

I followed Merlin across the vast spread of white and blue that hung between two mountains, the brown stone visible in a few locations. Each footstep was deliberate, calculated. We carried trekking poles and our shoes were studded to provide grip on the ice.

When Merlin cast the spell for a third time, it was obvious that it had worked. The dagger tugged free of his hand. It hovered in the air, slowly moving north of east.

"We've got a lock!" Merlin shouted. "Come on!"

I didn't need the encouragement. I was already following Merlin and the floating dagger, which followed a straight path through the air. For several hundred meters, we followed the blade, dodging between ice boulders and uneven patches of ground, before it suddenly dropped, the tip imbedding itself in the ice.

Merlin and I found ourselves on either side of the dagger, looking straight down. Not that we could suddenly see Leon encased in ice. The top layer beneath our feet was white, and below that, it would be blue.

"Well? What now?" I asked.