Page 192 of The Cradle of Ice

Rhaif ground his teeth. The Nyssian had clearly sold out the others, even the Reef Farer, all to spare her own skin, aligning herself with these Hálendiian butchers.

“I’m not wrong,” she answered coldly as she stepped aside for the new prisoner.

The captive was thrown down hard.

Still, Glace rose to her knees, a hard sneer to her face. Her hair and head were yanked back and a dagger thrust to her throat.

Rhaif’s leg flared with pain as he remembered that—like Brayl—this sister had also saved his life at the site of a crashed sailraft.

“Tell us where the others are hiding,” Ghryss hissed at Darant. “Or we’ll carve this one down piece by piece.”

Rhaif closed his eyes with despair. He had come here to save one of Darant’s daughters—now the pirate might lose both.

75

FROM HIS PERCH atop a boulder, Graylin clutched a farscope to his eye. The tool had been a gift from the Sparrowhawk’s engineer, Hyck—one that proved constructively useful now.

If only to convince Nyx of the folly of this venture.

He scanned the distant cliffs. Most of them remained dark under the stars, unreadable, but several glowed with hidden molten fire. In his ears, the rumble of the nearby watery maelstrom echoed in his chest, full of warning and threat. With each breath, the burn of sulfur flamed his lungs and stoked his fears. They could not stay out here forever.

“Do you see anything?” Nyx asked. “Any sign of the raash’ke?”

“Not yet,” Graylin answered honestly. “But it is a labyrinth of broken rock, wide chasms, and narrow defiles. And much of it is too dark to discern any detail. But I’ll keep trying.”

He continued his search, being as meticulous as possible, while also anxious to give it up. Once he admitted defeat, they could head back to the Crèche.

“Where could they be?” Jace asked behind him.

Daal answered, “The Mouth spreads for great distances across this rock. Hundreds of leagues, it is said. The nest of the raash’ke could be anywhere.”

Jace didn’t agree. “They would need fresh water, and it looks like it gets hotter the farther out you go. For those reasons alone, they’d likely roost close to the Ice Shield.”

“I agree,” Nyx said.

Graylin suspected her reasoning had less to do with the beasts’ need for resources and more about her heart’s desire. Even Nyx knew that they could not search this blasted landscape on foot. She needed the raash’ke—and Bashaliia—to be close by.

He swept his view down another canyon. It barely glowed. Whatever fires lit it were far down its throat. With a twist of the farscope’s tube, he focused in and out. He almost missed it. A white gleam against the dark rock. It could easily be a vein of chalk or another bright mineral. He shifted and sharpened his view.

The mouth of a large cave cut into the rock. He had seen many like it. Only this one’s threshold and the cliff below it was caked with aggregations and streams of a white blemish. It was too messy and haphazard to be a mineral extrusion. He knew what it was.

“Guano,” he mumbled.

Nyx heard him. “What?”

“Hold,” he warned. “Don’t nudge me.”

Even speaking jostled his scope’s focus.

He scanned the rest of the gorge, shifting through it methodically, painstakingly. He spied other befouled holes and cracks. He cast his view lower. The bottom edges of those cliffs were piled with deadfalls of broken bones. He shifted higher again, searching the glow itself. He held there, letting his vision adjust to that suffusing haze.

Slowly, he was able to perceive tiny silhouettes dashing throughout, winging wildly. They looked like tiny sparrows, but considering the distance, they must be the size of winter geese. He kept watching, waiting, then finally lowered the scope.

Expectant faces stared his way.

Except for Shiya, who merely continued gazing across the broken lands.

Vikas signaled impatiently in Gynish: “Well, what do you see?”