Song of Blood & Stone (Earthsinger Chronicles #1)(20)

Jack rallied, drawing whatever inner strength he could into his depleted limbs. A small hum of Earthsong tickled at his wounds, but he could sense her weakening. He cracked his knuckles and tried to fashion his frozen face into a grin.

“Now’s not the time to grow lazy.” He wasn’t sure she could understand him over the chattering of his teeth, but she nodded and they stood. At a groaning rumble overhead, they looked up. Something large shifted and slid. He moved forward to see what was happening, but she grabbed him by his coat and pulled him back. Her eyes were huge circles of fear as everything around them started to shake.

With a violent boom, an avalanche of snow slid down the mountain, obliterating the path that they were on. The motion pushed them back against the wall as sheets of snow and ice crumbled away and slid off the mountain in front of them. Beneath their feet, the ground convulsed, knocking them off-balance. Jack fell forward into the rioting rush of snow.

Where he’d expected his hands to hit the ground, they hit nothing. He reached out frantically, grasping for purchase as his weightless body plummeted into the darkness blanketed by the cold wet pressure all around him.





CHAPTER THREE


“Jack!” The rush of the avalanche swallowed Jasminda’s scream. Desperate fingers came away empty as he disappeared beneath a gush of snow and ice. She reached for Earthsong, opening herself too quickly and not able to control the flow of energy. Her heart stuttered. It was as if the ground beneath her own feet had just fallen away.

She tried again, this time connecting, drawing a stream of power inside her, but she was so weak there was little she could do with it. She stared at the sudden drop-off where the path had been moments before. The shotgun and the lantern had fallen with Jack, leaving her only the dim glow of ambient moonlight to see by as it reflected off the whiteness all around her.

The crush of snow from above tapered off, then stopped. She fell to her knees, leaning over the edge, panic and anguish blinding her as much as the storm. Nothing but snow was visible in any direction.

She called his name again into the black.

Was this how Papa’s and the twins’ last moments had been? This mountain had already taken so much from her, and now it had claimed Jack, as well. She sank down farther, allowing the cold to leach away what little feeling she had left in her feet and legs. What was left to fight for? What was left at all? Despair choked her, cutting off her oxygen, silencing her sobs.

Look up.

The thought appeared in her mind as clear as a voice, though the night was silent save for the wailing wind. She obeyed, peering up toward the blustering clouds. Like water swirling around an open drain, the falling snow overhead swam in a spiral with a patch of clear sky in its middle, directly over her head. The snow ceased and starlight twinkled down on her. A sound from over the cliff’s edge pulled her attention back down. A soft, glowing light approached her, floating upward as if on wings. She rose on trembling legs, unable to look away from the eerie brightness. As it drew nearer, Jasminda recognized the outline of her lantern. Rising along with it was an unconscious Jack.

The soft buzz of Earthsong surrounded her, lifting her off her feet, as well. Her head whipped around, searching out the mysterious Singer, but nothing pierced the weak lantern light. She grabbed Jack’s motionless hand and pulled him into her arms as they floated straight up. Having him back calmed her enough that she could take a breath and reach again for her own connection to Earthsong.

The energy moving them was benevolent. She could never have sung a spell strong enough to lift two adults into the air, but at least she could sense that the powerful, unknown Singer had no ill intentions. Her relief was short-lived. As she stretched her reach further, she brushed against the awareness of several others nearby. She could feel their presence but all other emotion was blocked. Tension tightened her belly once again.

The avalanche had destroyed much of the physical path. The spell carried them to where it began again, farther up the mountain, and set them down on a patch of snowy ground. The space was protected from the storm by a sort of bubble, similar to the one she’d made to protect them from the palmsalt, but this one was much larger and stronger. While she couldn’t see anyone, she felt people close-by.

Jack stirred, pulling her attention away from their surroundings. She brushed snow off his face and let out an anxious breath when he blinked his eyes.

“Welcome back,” she said.

“Delighted to be here.” He frowned. Flexed his arms and legs.

She crawled closer, anxious. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

A brilliant smile spread across his face. He shook his head. “Not at all.”

She studied his energy and found his wounds completely healed. Bones sound, blood stanched, the hole above his heart had not even left so much as a scar from what she could tell.

The darkness around them moved and shadows broke away from the rock wall, stepping into the weak circle of light. Two men and two women, all Lagrimari and armed with rifles, came forward. Jasminda scrambled back, her hand diving into her coat pocket where she’d stored her pistol. Jack too produced a revolver—the sergeant’s—holding it at his side. The Lagrimari weren’t pointing their weapons but held them at the ready. They weren’t soldiers; they wore no uniforms. Their clothes were made from tough, gritty-looking material similar to burlap. The men and women themselves seemed tough and gritty, as well. Jasminda tensed as the group regarded them with hard gazes.