Tower of Winter (The Traveler's Gate Chronicles: Collection #1) (2 page)

She put her mouth close to his ear and whispered as softly as she could. “What did I say before we climbed up here?” She loosened her hand, giving him a bit of room to speak.

“Quiet,” Nikolos breathed, barely moving his lips.

“That’s right. Better men and women than you, all Helgard Travelers, have made too much noise on this floor and regretted it. Do you understand?”

Nikolos nodded eagerly.

“Now, I’m going to take my hand away, and I want you to remain as quiet as possible.”

When the boy nodded again, Donia took her hand away and turned back toward the field of ice.

A worn, dirty Traveler with a scraggly beard stood not a pace behind her.

Nikolos shrieked, though to his credit he stifled it quickly. Donia’s heart was pounding, but she reacted with more composure, as befit a Traveler of Helgard: she held her right hand out in a sign of aggression, words of summoning on her lips.

The Traveler, whose blue-and-white Damascan uniform was torn to ribbons, held up both of his hands, palms out. The gesture showed he was unarmed and, for a Traveler, showed that he wasn’t making any hostile signs.

“No, wait!” he said, in a hoarse whisper. “Help! I need your help!”

Donia looked around, wary of a trap or ambush, though she couldn’t understand why this bait would be necessary if he meant to attack them. The floor was lonely and silent; he and his friends could have just jumped on Donia and Nikolos, if that was their intention.

“Where is the rest of your unit, Traveler?” Donia asked.

The stranger shook his head frantically, like a dog trying to shake off water. "Gone," he whispered. "Attacked. Viciously attacked. Please, help me. I can't leave this floor."

Nikolos must have felt the need to interfere, because he said, "Of course you can. We're standing not ten feet from the way down."

Donia ignored him, keeping her focus on the shaken stranger. "What's your name, Traveler?"

"Lukis, ma'am," he responded. "Inspector Lukis, Outpost Sixteen. Listen, I need you to take word back to the first floor. They're here. They're here for the Frozen Ones!"

By the end, his voice had risen until it was more of a scream than a whisper.

"Inspector Lukis," Donia repeated calmly. "Why can't you leave with us?" She had read that you were supposed to remain calm in these circumstances, even though all she wanted to do was bolt back down the ladder that had taken them here. This was more trouble than she was authorized to handle.

With a trembling finger, Lukis pointed down at the glowing ice on which he stood.

At first, Donia saw nothing, and she almost told him so. Then she noticed something deep below the frozen surface, like the glimmer of a fish's scales.

Lukis took a step to one side, and the distant gleam followed him.

"What
is
that?" Nikolos asked, staring down into the ice himself.

"They called it up from the ice," Lukis whispered. "They sent it after me, but it can't get me up here. It can’t break the surface. If I tried to climb down the ladder, I'd have to pass through the ice. It would have me."

"How do you know?" Donia asked.

Lukis shuddered. "I could feel it," he said. "It...called my name."

Donia felt a chill pass through her. Naming a creature of Helgard created a bond between the Traveler and her named companion. With intelligent creatures, it was more a sharing of names, in which both parties learned equally about one another. However, the Traveler always initiated the bond, and it was up to her how far to pursue it. If there was something here that could name them back...

"We'll carry your warning, Inspector," Donia said, trying to project the same absolute certainty that she had seen in Overlord Vasilios so many times. "Who's doing this?"

Lukis let out the quietest laugh that Donia had ever heard. "They’re some kind of cult, maybe a dozen Travelers. I don't know who they are, exactly, but they killed the rest of Outpost Sixteen before we could even react. They’re ruthless. And they…”

He leaned in close, his eyes flicking from side to side. "They want to raise the Frozen Ones."

Donia cleared her throat. He had mentioned the Frozen Ones before, but she had decided to overlook that. The Frozen Ones were part of an ancient legend of Helgard, and one that seemed to have its basis more in colorful rumor than actual history.

"Believe me," Lukis went on, sounding desperate. "Maybe they’re crazy, I don’t know, but
they
believe there are beings sealed here, on the sixteenth floor. They've been calling down into the ice for hours, trying to wake up whatever they can. They killed my unit because they need the bodies. They think the blood might help..."

His whispers trailed off, but Donia had no idea what she could say.

"Are they from Enosh?" Nikolos asked, sounding strangely excited. "I've heard that the Grandmasters do things like that. You know, blood sacrifice to raise monsters, that sort of thing."

From what Donia had heard of Ragnarus Travelers, the Damascan royal family was more likely to be involved in human sacrifice than anyone from Enosh, but she kept that to herself. The annual sacrifice was cloaked in mystery, and no one outside the Royal Palace in Cana really knew what went on there. It was all way above her, and none of her business besides.

"Not Enosh," Lukis said. "I know all of the Helgard Travelers that Enosh ever sends to this floor. One of them was visiting the outpost when these...cultists tore it down."

Nikolos' face twisted into an expression of revulsion. "How can you stand to be so close to an Enosh heretic? I'd kill them on sight, myself."

Nikolos wasn't a Traveler, and Donia was of the opinion that he would get himself eviscerated before he managed to kill anybody, but she held her opinion close. "Inspector. Are we safe here?"

Lukis chuckled bitterly, though he didn't raise his voice above a whisper. "As safe as we ever are on this floor. They're busy with their ritual, or whatever dark business they have going on, and they're all the way over by the outpost. Where the outpost used to be, anyway. They won't be coming back after me."

"You should stay here, then," Donia said, though she realized immediately that her suggestion was useless. Of course he would stay here, where it was safe. What did she expect him to do, run back in and fight the cultists single-handedly?

"In the meantime," she continued, "Nikolos and I will head back down and warn the Inspectors on the first floor. From there—"

"Hold on," Nikolos interrupted. "How long will that take?"

Donia sighed. "Nikolos, surely you can see that—"

"And what will they do about it?"

"They will send Travelers," Donia said impatiently. "A small army of Travelers, with powers at their command that you couldn't even pronounce."

Nikolos met her gaze, his eyes more serious than she had ever seen them. "So we climb back down sixteen floors, which will take us hours, if not longer. We convince the Inspectors to send people up to the sixteenth. Even if they believe us without sending someone to look for themselves, how long will it take for them to gather enough Travelers? Not to mention getting them back up here."

"What would you have us do, Nikolos?" Donia asked. She meant it to be mocking, but if he had a real suggestion, she was more than willing to listen.

"There's a route to my father through here, right?" Nikolos said. "That's why we're on this floor in the first place. We should go to him. It's faster, he'll believe me immediately, and we won't need an army. My father alone will be more than enough."

Donia had to admit that the boy had a point. She had seen Overlord Vasilios in action, and the man was like a Helgard Incarnation in the flesh. And according to rumor, the Overlords each had artifacts of Ragnarus that ensured they would always be more powerful than their competition. With that kind of weaponry on their side, they would have nothing to worry about. Besides, the Overlord would surely want them to come to him with this.

She turned to Lukis, outlining exactly which crossing they needed to take. "Where is the enemy?" she asked. "Can we cross without running into them?"

Lukis rubbed his gloved hands together nervously. "I couldn't say...I think, if you skirted the center of the floor and headed straight to the crossing, you could open a Gate without them being any the wiser. But there would be no guarantee that you wouldn't run into a straggler, or a scout, or just somebody in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Donia stared off into the featureless waves of ice, mulling over the situation. It would be safer to go down to the first floor, that was for sure. It was her responsibility to keep Nikolos safe. The safer option wasn't necessarily the right one, though. She wasn't certain whether the Overlord would love her for bringing him the news first, or hate her for taking his son into danger.

As she sometimes did, she pictured herself as she imagined others thought of her: strong, skilled, confident. Always ready with the right answer. That woman would know exactly what to do. She would likely press forward, relying on her own ability to keep them all safe.

Unfortunately, Donia wasn't sure that woman actually existed.

"We will move forward," Donia said at last. Lukis groaned, but Donia continued speaking. "As carefully as we can. If we see anyone, anyone at all, we immediately turn around, no questions asked. Now, Inspector Lukis, are you with us?"

Lukis gaped at her. "Me?"

"We've never encountered this enemy before, we're not familiar with the floor, and the boy here is the Overlord's son. He's not a Traveler."

Inspector Lukis looked Nikolos over more carefully.

"The boy?" Nikolos whined.

"As you can see," Donia went on, "we could use your help."

Lukis glanced from one side to the other as though trying to find his way out of a trap. At last, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Let me show you the way," he said at last.

***

For the first few minutes, the silence of the sixteenth floor was laced with tension. Donia barely took a step without craning her neck to see over a frozen wave, and three or four times she almost called on Helgard's power to destroy a shape that turned out to be nothing more than a flickering shadow.

But Lukis set a pace barely greater than a crawl. He called a stop at any sound, seemingly even the echoes of their own footsteps. An hour into the journey, without seeing any sign of danger, Donia's alarm began to fade, and she started to worry.

Nikolos drifted up to her, seemingly casual, speaking under his breath.

"What do you know about him?" the boy asked, nodding toward Lukis. The Inspector stared intently between two man-sized curls of ice as though expecting someone to materialize inside them.

"Nothing more than you do," Donia said. She had never heard of Lukis before. But then, Outpost Sixteen was one of the most isolated positions in the Tower. The more social or ambitious Travelers avoided it, leaving those who had a reason to stay alone.

"I've been thinking. Isn't this a little suspicious? We haven't seen anything wrong this whole time. We're taking his word that there's a threat. We're taking his word on where it is. How do we know there are even any enemies out here at all? Even if there are, how do we know he's not with them?"

They were far enough behind Lukis, and Nikolos was speaking quietly enough, that Donia doubted they would be overheard. In truth, Donia thought much the same. Lukis had shown them nothing to back up his claims.

But there was something of an understanding between Helgard Travelers, even between Travelers of Enosh and Damasca. They may be enemies on the outside, and they would work against each other when ordered, but the real danger was the Tower itself. Tradition said that she could trust Inspector Lukis.

"I say we trust him," Donia said. "Just for now. But I'm on my guard."

Nikolos clearly wasn't satisfied with that, and he seemed on the verge of voicing another complaint.

Then the ice in front of them exploded.

The frozen wave burst with a sound like a thousand falling trees, bursting into a cloud of ice shards that tore into Donia, tearing through her clothes, slicing her skin.

With well-trained speed, Donia threw her hands up, holding her fingers in the correct signs, and whispered a quick word.

Helgard Travelers collected names and gestures that allowed them to summon, control, and influence the creatures of the Territory. But she was not limited to calling on living creatures.

She held out the signs, whispered the key, and the Tower of Winter answered.

Freezing wind whipped up around them, tearing at the fringes of her coat, throwing her dark hair in her face. In front of Lukis, it was much stronger. So strong that the wind blasted many of the flying ice chunks from the air, blowing them to one side of Donia's group.

Some of the ice got through, drawing lines of burning red on her skin. Far fewer than before, though.

Lukis hadn't reacted as quickly as she had, but then, he had been closer to the initial explosion. As the ice shards continued to fly, he huddled behind Donia's barrier of wind, curled up on the ground. His torn coat was in tatters now, and he was visibly splattered in blood.

Donia didn't have time to worry long over Inspector Lukis. Three figures appeared in the blowing snow and ice. One of them raised a hand, and the daggers of ice stopped flying.
 

I guess I owe Lukis an apology,
Donia thought. Here were his mysterious cultists.

And they were dressed...exactly as she had imagined.

They wore the typical uniform that all Helgard Travelers shared, out of necessity: a fur-lined coat with a hood and thick, warm gloves. Unlike Donia's outfit and Lukis', both of which were blue with white fur, these three wore black coats lined in dark gray fur. The lower halves of their faces were covered by a black mask that, Donia had to admit, looked rather warm.

In another circumstance, the effect might have been silly. They were dressed up like the villains of some bad play, and there wasn't even any reason for it; black was no good for stealth up here. The landscape was white, the light blue-green, and night never fell on the sixteenth floor. Part of her thought they couldn't be serious.