XIV

  The Frozen Plateau

  The harpy mimicked my arms and raised its wings.

  ‘…I meant for it to take flight.’

  My gaze narrowed. It wasn’t that the harpy wasn’t listening to me. But our connect was…muddled. As if I was yelling at it from underwater.

  ‘She’s too powerful.’

  Our bond needed to grow before I could command her as I wished.

  Well, what better way to do so than through battle?

  Ray stepped up beside me. Judith and Jake positioned themselves between me and the harpy.

  “That’s…a lot,” Jake heaved.

  Five sets of eyes circled around us, one of which stepped out of the fog.

  [Frost Lynx - lvl. 6]

  Sleek physique, white fur, nails from which a small amount of fog rose. They weren’t big but their numbers made up for that. Also, Judith and the others had struggled against the level four and five prowler.

  These creatures were a few levels higher.

  Frosted breath swirled out of my mouth as I slowed my breathing. I jabbed two digits upwards. The harpy’s takeoff forced Judith to step back since its wingspan was wide enough to cover the girl two times over.

  ‘Let’s see if this will work.’

  The first of the beasts rushed forwards. Soundless. If not for sight, I wouldn’t have noticed it coming.

  I envisioned a crescent of fire cutting a line in the dirt and swung at the air. The harpy’s wings struck too: a harmless slap of fire that dissolved quickly.

  Its intended target snarled.

  Blades of light hurled from Judith’s staff. Jake loosed his arrow at the same time.

  I dipped my head at how well-practised the two were together.

  The archer grimaced though, for his arrow sailed wide.

  “Don’t mind it!” Ray yelled. He lunged and the tip of his spear popped the lynx’s eye.

  The other cats cried out in tune with their kindred as if they’d been hit themselves. Two bolted through the snowfall and curved into our flanks.

  I swung my arm down at one of them, which led to another useless slap from my summon. My lips pursed.

  Blades rained and pelted the ground. One found its way into the rear of the lynx I’d failed to strike and the beast tumbled. Judith whirled towards the remaining beast trying to pincer us.

  “Not sure what you’re doing,” Ray yelled, “but I could use a little help!”

  His spear swept out in an arc and forced two of the beasts back. But one of them crouched underneath the blow. Leg muscles flexed to lunge into his guard.

  I loosened my hold on the harpy, giving it only the general command to attack. The summon’s wings beat. An arc of flame carved through the sky and the lynx’s neck both.

  Its head rolled.

  Another general command saw the harpy dive as if she’d done so from a mountaintop. Clouds of snow mixed with sprays of blood shot from the ground.

  The lynx was dead upon impact.

  Back on our side, the remaining lynx darted between Judith’s volley. Jake’s face reflected in its fangs.

  The boy tried to jump back, which amounted to nothing but wobbling knees.

  Red Fang freed its sheathe, and the sharp whistle brought the charging beast to a halt.

  It eyed its remaining brethren, who were also locked in place.

  A pool of light formed over Judith’s head and Jake knocked another arrow.

  Our enemies snarled but dashed into the fog out of our sight.

  Judith sighed and leaned on her staff. “Good job, people.” She glanced at me and the harpy. “You alright?”

  “Just trouble commanding it sometimes, that’s all.”

  She slowly nodded. “From what I hear, most summoners have that issue.”

  I perked up, ignoring the pulse of my shard. “There are other summoners?”

  “The Firelights,” Ray said. He poked through the belly of one of the corpses halfheartedly. “Their summoning differs from yours.”

  “They forge their beasts from fire like I do my weapons,” Judith said. “Yours…seem to actually come from somewhere though.”

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  “These Firelights are inside the realm?”

  She shrugged. “They’re a Dawnflame vassal clan so I’m not sure.”

  “It’s clear,” Ray called.

  And now I could no longer ignore the shard, whose throbbing I could feel in my skull like a headache.

  I frowned. The pounding was growing heavier.

  ‘What happens if I keep ignoring it?’ Does it go away at some point? Or…

  Though I was keen on trying, we didn’t have time. I dragged the two corpses inside the garden, then glimpsed inside.

  The cindertree deposited the corpses beside a tree that wasn’t yet half my height.

  [Ashenblood Tree | Grade: F | Rarity: Normal | Stage: Early]

  ‘Still big for how short I have it.’ I’d received its seed the night before after absorbing the leopard.

  Given the nature of the beasts the ashenblood used as soil, I had a suspicion of what new summon awaited me. It’d require more corpses before it sprouted, though.

  “Let’s hurry,” Ray said.

  Our party got a move on.

  The battle had tired Jake out even more, so we searched for a place to camp.

  We came upon a smattering of ruins. Broken pillars worn by time and frost. Homes whose foundations had collapsed, leaving them jutting out of the earth at an angle. It wasn’t comfortable—the damage to the structures didn’t block the wind—but it was better than nothing.

  My chicks helped us pick one of the more intact buildings to spend our break. I was sitting on the roof, ears closed to the whispers of Judith and Ray, which curled through the gaps in the stone. From the highest edge, the looming range was barely visible.

  ‘The mist has gotten thicker.’

  And colder. My enhanced vitality and the enchantment on my robe were barely enough to keep up.

  I condensed the experience I’d gained from the fight from last night and the one just now.

  Ashenkeeper - lvl. 3 -> Ashenkeeper - lvl. 4.

  Vitality: 8

  Strength: 10 (15)

  Dexterity: 8

  Fortitude: 18

  Perception: 8

  Arcane: 11

  Free Points: 0

  Despite the cold, I didn’t level vitality. Two points went into dexterity, another into perception; the lynxes had come too close without me noticing.

  Arcane was my highest stat if you disregarded the bonuses I’d received. It was responsible for powering most arts, including my summoning. But as my summons didn’t currently lack power, I held off on levelling that too.

  My summons’s strength wouldn’t matter if an enemy caught me off-guard. Speaking of summons though—

  Breathing in, I painted on the world. Ashwing stepped out.

  I’d decided to transfer her name to the current strongest version of her tree. Lesser versions would be referred to by their genus. If another situation like that of the two chicks happened, I’d just refer to their genus as well.

  My arm rose. Ashwing raised her wing. Cold air pushed through my lungs. Palm flat, my hand struck out like a blade. Ashwing smacked the sky, the reverberations of the hit rippling into the fog beyond.

  No arc of fire.

  I envisioned the bond connecting me to Ashwing. Was it not possible to make her use her arts on purpose?

  …

  That didn’t make sense. She listened to my other commands. Arts should be no exception.

  ‘It must be a matter of communication.’

  If I could control my summons with hand movements, they must be capable of understanding me. To a degree.

  ‘What if it’s like a regular language?’

  The system translated speech between different cultures, but separate languages still existed.

  …

  Let’s say I was a beginning speaker of a second language, of which my summons were natives. Telling them to move to a certain location or attack may be akin to basic words. But to instruct them to use an art? That may be a sentence or two—a structure too complex for a speaker that only had the bare bones of vocabulary like myself.

  So I had to teach myself more words. But how?

  My gaze bore into Ashwing. I let go of our bond and directed her attention to one of the broken pillars. She reared and spread her wings. Air distorted near the tips. A warm waved crashed into my face, snow sizzled, and abandoned rubble clattered to the ground.

  “Again.”

  Her wings reared and widened the wound in the stone.

  “Again.”

  The third strike cleaved a chunk out of the pillar.

  I kept my eyes glued to her. Whenever she reared, essence rotated and condensed in her wings.

  ‘No wonder my commands don’t lead to anything.’

  I was taking control of her body and telling her to fire without also creating the necessary buildup of energy.

  But though I noticed the deficiency, solving it remained out of reach. It was one thing to cycle your own essence. Another entirely to control that of a being external to you, even if the two of you were linked. Her insides were also more complex than that of the chick. So much so that I had to figure out where her core was.

  For now, I had Ashwing attack intermittently while I honed my perception on its wings. Tracing her essence to her centre would take time.

  I didn’t make any real progress before a call came from below.

  It was time to move again.

  Hours passed. Our party traversed the plane, my two chicks scouting from the skies. Every time our party settled in to rest, I summoned Ashwing and continued my earlier training.

  It didn’t lead to being able to use her skill. However, other benefits made themselves known.

  A hazy, bird’s-eye view of fast moving objects flashed in my mind.

  “Take cover,” I said. To our luck, there was an outcropping of rock near us.

  A disciple wearing pale blue robes embroidered with a moon symbol barrelled past. Hot on his heels was a beast the size of a cow. Bronze scales covered the reptilian creature. Its body was thick at the chest and thigh, but grew slender at the back, where a tail whipped. Webbing spread from the side of its front feet—an infant stage of a wing, but the organ was too flimsy to allow flight.

  [Bronze Drake Whelp - lvl. 9]

  Before shock and fear at the sight of the apex creature had the time to sink its hooks into us, Judith burst into motion.

  “Fuck!” Ray yelled and dashed forwards. Jake strung his bow.

  ‘Guess we’re doing this.’

  I recalled my chicks.

  Light flared and arrows fired. The drake whelp abandoned its charge and flared its half-wing organs to cover its head.

  Both light and metal ricocheted.

  ‘It’s tough.’

  Ashwing curved through the air at an angle above the drake. Her flame cutter slammed into the beast. I thought I saw scales chip, but even if I did, the damage was nothing to write home about.

  The disciple we saved whirled around. Fog around us swirled and collected in his hand, crystallising into a giant lance.

  Ashwing may not have damaged the drake but she’d grabbed its attention. The creature’s scales shone brighter in the sparse sunlight filtering through the clouds and mist. Steam rose around it, and its jaw opened wide.

  The lance pierced through the flight organ. Blood flew—

  My stomach exploded, making me curl in on myself.

  I fell to my knees. Arts soaring overhead cloaked my figure from sight. The drake’s cry swallowed my groans. I pushed down on the intense sensation and rose on a wobbling knee, preparing myself for the drake’s counterattack.

  The beast shrugged off the follow-up attacks and growled low. Its gaze swept our party…then the beast spun and darted off.

  The tension letting go of my stomach was like a spring uncoiling. I gasped for breath as the following conversation passed by me.

  “David, are you alright?!”

  The pale-skinned boy whirled on his saviour. “Lady Judith?” He lowered his head. “This humble servant greets thee.”

  “None of that, David! What’s going on? Why are you being chased by the Dragonflight?”

  ‘That’s…one of the pillars…’

  More of these beasts are roaming the plateau? My shoulder sagged. The grip of my shard lingered like an aftershock.

  “Let’s save that for later,” David said. “That roar just now was a call.”

  And if we were still here when reinforcements came? I didn’t want to think about it.