Phoenix

CHAPTER FOUR

"The mountains," Eremil said unenthusiastically, looking up at the blue-white peaks ahead. "I should have known. What better place to go in the winter than the Sawtooths? It will be nice and frozen up there."

"Sh," I said. "Lexia requires no distractions." I entertained myself while we waited by flipping a flame the size of my pinky finger from hand to hand. Eremil tried to appear unimpressed, sawing at Cinder's reins when she flipping her head, but I saw the way he watched the flame dance. Magic could not be easily ignored, even by one who saw it as often as Eremil.

"The Darkness moves to the mountains," Lexia said, turning Princess toward them. There was a thin deer trail leading through the sear grass and banks of crusty, grey snow.

"Good call," I told Eremil, heeling Might to follow Princess. He looked at me as though I had said something strange before he spurred Cinder forward.

We followed the trail into the Sawtooth Mountains. Climbing sharply amongst barren rock faces and blue-needled forest. Our breath danced away in puffs of white, carried along with the steam that rose from the horses. It was a high and lonely place. The stillness of it hastened my heart. How could it be so silent, so empty? It was as though we were caught in the moment between breaths, when the breather is neither inhaling, nor exhaling, only waiting.

The world was waiting.

"Do you think the Darkness knows a pass?" Eremil asked, eyeing the sun sinking into the west as the trail led north. The snow was deep here, the horses laboring in drifts that touched their bellies. "I am unfamiliar with this area of the Sawtooths."

A chill ran through me, but I did not speak. The Darkness could be leading us into an impassible route, a trap. The Darkness could have soldiers waiting for us. They might even wear the faces of our friends. We could rely on none save ourselves, and even our reliability was uncertain.

Where do you go when you close your eyes? Lexia's voice said in my head. I turned to look at her, the vestige of memory surfacing. At that moment, it seemed as though I recalled an entirely different life, an entirely different world. I looked down at my hands as we rode, studying the scars, feeling heat riding between my fingers.

I hate fire. The thought was foreign and familiar in equal measures. Fire was my life and had cost me my life.

What was happening to me? Fear shimmied through me in bursts.

"Do not be afraid," Lexia said quietly over her shoulder. Might walked with his nose in Princess's tail and I had to dodge encroaching tree limbs. The trail grew narrower and steeper, but the snow had drifted away from it leaving it bare.

"Where is it taking us?" I asked. A breeze heavy with moisture and cold rustled the naked branches of aspen and the trail opened to a snow-covered meadow surrounded by tall pines.

"We will camp here," Lexia declared.

I could not shake the feeling that this austere white meadow was less desolate than it appeared. Unperturbed, Eremil wasted no time. He took Cinder in a circuit around the clearing to look for any sign of danger.

Pete, I thought, watching Eremil, why aren't you wrestling?

"Phoenix," Lexia said. I jumped when she placed a hand on my arm, just below my elbow. I turned to her and smiled. She did not smile back. "The Darkness wants you," she warned. "She will take you if you let her."

"She has always wanted me," I said. "Since the day she awakened my power. I will not go with her." Lexia frowned and shook her platinum head. Eremil signaled to us that the clearing was safe enough and I swung down from Might.