Cold Front Read online

  Yeah. The problem was, I didn’t think she was content with that either. I remembered moments last year where she wasn’t happy. She felt like she couldn’t do enough. It made her reckless, risking her life for mine. Dying for me. Because it was all she thought she could do. I didn’t think her attitude would change until she didn’t have to worry about me anymore. Until she didn’t feel like she was in a competition with all of us.

  “We should get going. We’ve stayed long enough. Ston?” I looked over at the dark elf, who was staring off into the darkness that surrounded the camp. “Yeah?” he answered absently, still not turning to face us.

  “You’re the only one who knows how to get to this place.”

  He turned to meet my eyes and nodded. “Right, let’s get going, then.”

  Everyone shifted their weight and adjusted their bags, waiting for Ston or me to start moving. I approached the chief, who watched us curiously. “And your next destination, Casey? Not to your Temple, but somewhere else?”

  “No, we’ll be at a city outside of the Temple in a few days.” The first city I had arrived in after I started my journey. “Anyone who will be helping us should be there in four or five days. That gives us a day or two to plan what we’re going to be doing. I have two more stops to make before I get there. If I can’t be there in time I’ll send Flick, Twitch, and Cam to oversee everything until I arrive. What I need to do, it can’t wait.” This Wulf character, he’d be in Scanton in three days. I had no idea how long it would take to get him to join us, but I couldn’t leave him there. Not after the dream with the Old One.

  “They will be there,” he assured me.

  “Thank you again for your help, Chief.”

  “You’re the one who convinced me. You were right. We become one of them if we decide not to take a side and we know you’ll lose. We are family, and family protects each other.”

  I smiled as I gripped his shoulder. “Thank you. You have saved many people with your help. I hope I can live up to your expectations.”

  “I have faith in you. Now go, you don’t have time to waste.”

  He was right; we needed to go. So I raised my hand in farewell and took our first steps out of the tent. Ston then took the lead, directing us toward this bar.

  The Dirty Gem. What type of person would I find there who could help? It didn’t exactly sound like the best place. But then again, I needed all the help I could get, the best people or not.

  Chapter 9

  STON SAID it was about half a surface day’s walk from here. There was one thing I had to say about this underground system they had. Everything was far away, and it felt even farther without the sun to tell me how long I’d been walking.

  And so we walked, Ston and Skye using two green spheres to illuminate the area around us. Fortunately, no one bothered us. No trolls like Skye and Twitch worried about. I’d come to find Flick didn’t worry about much of anything. He wasn’t worried not because he didn’t care, but because he knew he could handle whatever came his way. I was beginning to wonder if he wanted a fight.

  I guess it must have been around half a day, as Ston predicted, before I saw a few dim yellow lights on a small stone building. A crooked sign hung above the door. When we got closer, I saw the sign read The Dirty Gem and had a dingy-looking red jewel on it. I started to doubt my decision to go in there. I wasn’t so sure the Old Ones were right this time. This looked like a place you made enemies, not friends.

  As if on cue, I heard the sound of glass breaking and shouting in a language I didn’t recognize. Then, louder than the rest, a voice bellowed, “Quiet!” and silence fell in the building.

  Flick’s hand moved to the sword on his hip, and Regan’s moved to her gun. Skye and Cam gave each other nervous looks while Twitch held his bag in shaking hands and Cinder curled his lips in a snarl. Ston, however, remained perfectly calm. He didn’t even move. He just looked ahead at the Dirty Gem, waiting for us patiently.

  I took a deep breath, putting all my faith into the Old Ones, and said, “Come on.”

  I was leading them now, but when my hand touched the brass knob, the door was yanked open and someone hollered, “For Beshna’s sake, someone better come up with a better plan or we’ll all be dead within the week!”

  I looked down, following the sound of the voice, and saw a short man standing before me. He came just past my waist, and his hair was a dark reddish brown. He had a short beard and dark brown eyes. His face was red, and he looked like one of the angriest men I’d ever seen.

  Skye was standing close enough for me to hear her sigh and breathe the word, “Dwarves.”

  “And what the hell is this?” He spun around shouting at the other short men in the bar who were all shrinking away and looking at one another nervously. “Is this some sort of party for you? Inviting dark elves and pixies? What the hell are you thinking? Who did this? Amistar? Inslak? Whose idea was this?” When he didn’t get an answer, he turned back to our group. “Who invited you? Which of these idiots thought this would be a good idea?” I opened my mouth to reply when his face paled and he took a step back. “A hound from hell,” he managed to whisper. “We’re doomed. They’ve found us, and they sent a hellhound.” He took another step back and slammed the door shut. “All right, everyone! Arm yourselves for battle! The usurpers have found us, and with them they drag a hellhound as tall as the dark elf!”

  We all looked at one another in confusion while battle cries and the sound of heavy footsteps sounded from behind the door. I looked at Cinder, and then at Ston. I wouldn’t have said he was as tall as Ston, probably about a foot or so shorter. As for looking like a hellhound, I could see that. His eyes were black with flecks of red like a hot coal, his fur was dark with red streaks, his claws dug into the earth, and his teeth were about the length of one of my fingers. However, I knew Cinder. He had grown up in the last year, but he still had the mindset of a puppy most of the time. He would roll on the floor, flop over until you rubbed his belly, drooled on anything and everything, and chased birds, cats, and sometimes small children, but at least the children liked it. Cinder was usually a sweetheart, unless there was someone unfavorable around. Even now he had his head cocked to the side and his tail wagged slowly, thumping Skye’s side occasionally.

  Is that me? he asked, the pain in his voice echoing in my head. It had been months since he had been so hated. The people in our neighborhood had feared him at first, of course, but now he was almost like the neighborhood babysitter. He was loved and fed scraps from everyone. He hadn’t been liked at the pixie camp, but at least they weren’t preparing to try to kill him there.

  You’re not a hellhound. You’re a cinderwolf. A brave and loyal creature. A protector of mankind. They haven’t seen cinderwolves in a long time. Even the humans hadn’t seen you in hundreds of years. Just be patient. They are obviously afraid of someone. We just have to prove that we are friends. Cinder sat down, his tail not moving anymore, and Skye let out a sigh of relief.

  We all stood for a minute or so, waiting for the noises to stop and quiet to fall over both groups.

  I then knocked on the door, not wanting to just pull it open for fear of being shot. There were a few moments of waiting until the door creaked open a few inches. A different man this time. He had a square face with short black hair and the ghost of a five o’clock shadow. “Who are you?”

  “My name is Casey Kelley. I am a mage from—”

  “We know where mages are from, surfacer,” he snarled.

  “A surfacer? Here?” I heard someone say quietly.

  “No way. They wouldn’t come down here, at least not this far.”

  “What the hell could it want?”

  “Probably to murder us all with its curse.”

  “We’re doomed.”

  “I wish the usurper had found us instead.”

  “It even has a hellhound with it.”

  All right, that’s enough. They could insult me all they wanted, but Cinder had done nothing to hurt t
hem, and I was done listening to their nonsense.

  I put my hand on the door and pushed, but it barely budged due to the heavy man behind it. So I just helped myself out with a little bit of Life Force to blow the door open, knocking the man behind it to the ground. The dwarves covered their faces as they screamed. They had probably never experienced wind like that down here and had no idea what this was. I stopped the wind and stepped through the door and over the dwarf who lay there, looking up at me with eyes like saucers.

  I cleared my throat loudly and began again. “My name is Casey Kelley. I am a mage from the surface. Here are my friends. They are good people. This is Cinder.” I gestured to Cinder who had his head hunched forward. I could feel the sadness and pain coming in waves from him. He wanted to help; all he had ever wanted to do was help. It had been so long since he had been treated like this. “He is a cinderwolf. A protector. Given to us from the Old Ones to protect us against harm.”

  The first dwarf stepped forward, his voice rough and unwelcoming. “Cinderwolves were wiped out by your Old Ones who had sent them here in the first place. They turned from protector to predator long ago.”

  “And here one stands, responsible for protecting thousands of humans. The Old Ones restored the powers they took, and will hopefully bring them back in large numbers, thanks to him.”

  “You want more of these creatures? You surely are lost up there on the surface. They will turn on you. There is no avoiding it.” His back straightened as he spoke, and his lips formed a thin line.

  “Everyone deserves a chance to prove that statement wrong. Cinder would never hurt someone who didn’t deserve it,” I snapped back.

  “What is it you want, mage? A medal for bringing back the scourge of the earth? For finding those who were hiding from you? Why are you here?” another dwarf spat out, moving on from the other conversation.

  I turned to him. He had dirty blond hair and dark eyes. “I’m here to ask you to help us surfacers. I was sent here by the Old Ones. They said this would be a mutually beneficial relationship. I’m beginning to doubt them now.”

  The dwarf with reddish hair spoke up again. “What is it you need help with?”

  I blinked in surprise. How had we gone from arguing to him suddenly being interested in helping us? “The dark elves are planning to attack us. We are barely prepared to even face them, but they’re building an army of the underfae as well. I didn’t even know about the existence of the underfae until a few days ago. We won’t survive if the dark elves come at us and we have nothing to go up against them.”

  He nodded slowly. “This is very true. And it has nothing to do with us. The dark elves have come to us, asking for help with mining on the surface. It has been generations since we mined at all, let alone up on the surface. We have nothing to offer you, nor a reason to help you.”

  “You’re telling me you’ve survived this long just by luck? I doubt it. You must have some skills.”

  “War is not in our nature.”

  “War is in everyone’s nature. You just practice less. The trolls. The dark elves. The pixies. Many other creatures I could never even fathom. You must have some secret, something you hide from the rest, but whatever it is, we need it. Because the dark elves won’t settle with us. They’ll take the underground too when they get the chance.”

  “We keep our skills secret for a reason, surfacer.”

  “What do I have to do to get your help?”

  “Your Old Ones said this would be mutually beneficial? Help us too, then.”

  “What is it you need?”

  “I may not look it, but I was next in line for the throne.” He was right—he didn’t look it. He wore ragged clothes, and his voice was rough. His hair looked like he had cut it himself, and he didn’t have a regal demeanor like Liam. “My father was a horrible man, a terrible ruler, by all accounts. What you call a king, we call a kalmun. In our language it means the gods sent him.”

  “The gods? You mean the Old Ones?”

  The dwarf scoffed. “The Old Ones? No. Not the ghosts you worship. The gods. The ones who created the Old Ones, the demons, you, and I. Do you think that your Old Ones came first? No, they came only after life had started. The gods sent the kalmun to us. But the god who sent my father must have been angry with us, because all he has done is bring us misery. The dwarves need a new ruler, someone who can make them thrive, not wither and die as my father has done. And so we decided to overthrow him. As peacefully as my father would have it. I was to be king after. We had all agreed on it, voted on it. And then the time comes, a short and easy battle with very few lives lost, and I go to take my place on the throne. And Janek turns his blade to me, talking about how I cannot be trusted since I’m the son of that horrid man. He turned them all against me, and I was thrown out. The men who had supported me were given a chance to forsake me. This ugly bunch stuck with me.” He chuckled as the men behind him mumbled in mock outrage. “We have been planning for months now on how to overthrow the bastard. Everything we try, he already sees coming. We don’t know how he does it, but he’s impossible to get around. So, I’ll help you humans against the dirty dark elves, and you help me take my throne back.”

  “Dirty dark elves? What an insult coming from you trolls,” Ston spat angrily. “We don’t need them, Casey. Let’s get out of here.”

  “No. We do need them. The Old Ones told us they could help us, and we need all the help we can get.” I nodded to the dwarf. “What’s your name?”

  “Kalmun Naldri Kilm, formerly Drurak Kilm, child of Kalmun Pikno Kilm,” he answered gruffly.

  Formerly? What does that mean? Why would he change his name? Cinder asked, cocking his head to the side.

  “Cinder is wondering why you are formerly Drurak. Frankly I, too, am curious about why you changed your name,” I said.

  “It is a neutral name here. It is often used for jinstar.”

  “Jinstar?” Regan asked.

  The dwarf blinked in surprise at the question. “Jinstar. When gender is not male or female. Or perhaps when it is both or sometimes one and sometimes another. Where your jin, gender energy, is not what has been given to you.”

  There are many strange concepts here. The underfae are strange creatures, Cinder mused.

  I’m not so sure. Perhaps this idea of “jinstar” isn’t isolated to the dwarves. They may just have a word for it here. On the surface we have transgender men and women, but I’m not familiar with this in between or neither idea. It makes sense, though. If you can be one or the other, why can’t you be something entirely different? I said. I wondered if I knew anyone who was “jinstar” as they called it, and if there really was a name on the surface for this that nobody talked about.

  “A jinstar as kalmun? How interesting,” Twitch piped up. “The dwarves have always been the most accepting of this, but none have made it to such a high rank before. Your father must have been proud to have a jinstar child.” His voice shook slightly; he was probably still thinking about the guns and threats that had been going on moments ago.

  “He wasn’t. He used to send soldiers to murder jinstar in their sleep because he feared them. He would have done the same to me if I didn’t have my own men protecting me after my mother died. She had been killed by a jinstar. After that he became paranoid and things took a turn for the worse in our city, blaming all of us for one’s actions. And now the man who has taken over is hunting down people who aren’t jinstar and murdering them. He thinks we can survive since jinstar make up about 40 percent of our population, but we can’t just rid ourselves of more than half of our people. He’s worse than my father for doing this. We revolted for peace and for the good of all people. He’s gone too far now.” Naldri sighed heavily. “The last thing I want is more bloodshed over such a trivial issue.”

  Flick stepped forward, pushing me to the side so he could stand in front of Naldri. He gripped their shoulder and said, “Then help us. War is breaking out. The dark elves are attacking the humans for something
that happened thousands of years ago. Things they don’t even remember. They refuse to talk to the humans, to come back to the surface peacefully. They are going to burn the human cities to the ground and kill or enslave them all. Help us stop this senseless killing of their people”—he gestured to Regan, Cam, and me—“and we can help stop the killing of yours.” Flick’s fingers had turned white, and I could see the urgency in his eyes. I hadn’t known him long, but I didn’t think he felt so strongly about this. Now I knew I was wrong. Perhaps he felt close to the dwarves, or maybe it was Naldri specifically.

  Naldri looked up at him for what felt like ages and then lightly touched the pixie’s hand as it dug into their shoulder. Flick jerked slightly, as if surprised by the soft contact, like he had been expecting something else. “We’ll help you. No one should die based on what they are. Human, underfae, or jinstar.”

  I saw the briefest smile on Flick’s face before he coughed and took a step back. “Thank you.”

  “Casey Kelley, that’s your name, right?” I nodded in response to their question, “I will venture with you, not only to make sure you keep your end of our bargain but to protect you on your journey. What you are doing is noble, something most underfae haven’t seen from humans since long before they cast us down here. Perhaps by helping you, I can help change the world.” Naldri held out a thick, calloused hand, something I would have called a man’s hand, but now I knew that wasn’t true. This was Naldri’s hand, a jinstar’s hand, neither man nor woman, or perhaps both. This would have to be something I asked more about, but at another time.

  I took their hand in mine, unable to stop the smile spreading across my face. “Thank you, Naldri. We need all the help we can get. We have never fought this type of enemy before. As of right now, we are lost.”

  “Perhaps that is something we can help with,” a deep voice called out from the back.

  Naldri chuckled and released my hand. “Of course! We are allies now, and as allies it would be rude of us to hide from you something that could save you in this fight. We are no longer miners. Most of the underfae, including the dark elves, believe we are now simple farmers, surviving off the land without giving or taking anything.”