Ice Blink

20: Ahkiyyini

"They're angry," Niju said.

As more and more shadowy shapes detached themselves from the snow, Nuna felt it, too. Hatred danced on the air, twisting and congealing into a malignant force so strong it felt corporeal. The spirits' wills battered her skull and robbed her of breath.

"What is this?" Toklo whispered as Amarok gripped his sword.

"I can sense it – what this snow field used to be," Niju said. "It was a battlefield. We need to run!"

As he spoke, the scout's cries were abruptly silenced as the figures dragged him under the snow, leaving no trace of him on the surface. Buried alive. The tundra went completely silent. Even the wind had died.

The ahkiyyini didn't disappear with him, however. Their heads turned as one, skeletal figures silhouetted against the snow, and jewel-bright blue eyes flashed in their direction, burning with the cold fire of the underworld.

Nuna tried to run, but her mukluks were stuck to the snow.

Their skeletal arms lifted and they started to beat their own shoulder blades in a steady rhythm. The beat sounded like drums, but nowhere near as comforting as the drums of home. This sound was hollow. Dead. Menacing.

They began to move in a disjointed way, crawling and shuffling in their direction.

"Run," Niju said again, and this time Nuna heeded his words.

They flew north across the snow field. Her heart jumped in her chest. With every step they took, more skeleton spirits emerged from the crust, dark on the edges of her vision.

One burst out from under her feet and she shrieked, leaping a foot into the air to avoid its clacking fingers. It grazed her ankle and her entire leg went dead and numb, as if it had been left in icy water. Nuna rolled, trying desperately to get away from it.

"Nuna!" Toklo veered in her direction.

"Stay back, don't let it touch you!"

The ahkiyyini was, indeed, a skeleton. The bones were bleached white, held together by ice in the place of skin, tendon and muscle. The ice glittered, opaque in places and translucent in others. It screeched and clawed at her.

Amarok's sword glowed golden as it caught the light, a ray of fire slicing through the ahkiyyini's neck. Ice shattered and bone crunched as he beheaded it, and tiny shards peppered them all, leaving spots of burning cold in their wake.

"Hurry!" Niju grabbed one of Nuna's arms, Toklo the other, and together they hauled her to my feet. She shook them off, feeling humiliated and useless despite their predicament.

"Where's the end of this battlefield?" Amarok brandished his sword at the approaching ahkiyyini.

"I can't see or feel an end to it!" Niju replied. A breeze whipped long strands of dark hair across his face.

Listen to what the spirits are trying to tell you, Nuna, Qignaaq whispered in my mind. Don't look or think. Feel.

She closed her eyes, struggling to block everything out. She couldn't open her mind to the spirits, not here, not like this... but she had to try. Her thoughts churned. How could they escape? Were they going to die? The ahkiyyini's presence throbbed in the air and she reached for it inwardly. If she could sense where it ended... That would be the way out. But thoughts of death kept invading, shattering her focus.

The beating of their bones was getting louder.

"Nuna, snap out of it!" Toklo shook her and her concentration slipped completely. "Keep running! If we stand here they'll drag us down. Follow Amarok!"

He cried out as one of them leaped out of the snow and landed on his back.

"Toklo!"

Parts of his body were already going limp with the cold as he fell onto his front, the ahkiyyini pinning him down. It crouched on top of him like an animal. Nuna moved forwards, desperate to help.

A skeleton loomed in front of her, but Amarok shoved his way between them and plunged his sword into its heart – or where its heart should have been. Ice cracked inside its ribs.

"Thank you," she gasped.

"Keep moving!"

Every sense was crying out for her to run the other way. But she summoned all the scraps of courage she had left for Toklo as she grabbed the ahkiyyini's shoulders and heaved. Cold spiked through her hands, feeling drained from her fingers. She clung on with all her might, but it was like her limbs had turned to leaden sticks. The leg that had been touched gave way beneath her and still she pulled, trying to wrestle the spirit off Toklo.

The bone drumbeat was getting faster, more erratic, and for a moment she couldn't distinguish between it and her own heartbeat. The sound filled her ears.

Amarok was fighting valiantly and ahkiyyini scattered with every sweep of his sword, but they were coming at them in waves. He and Niju fought back to back. Even as Nuna watched, an ahkiyyini bit Amarok's arm and the sword went flying from his hand. Another pounced on Niju.

No...

She crumpled into the snow, black fogging her vision. Amarok's lips moved, but his words were drowned out by the constant drumbeat that filled her body, threatening to shatter her own bones.

Something tugged her, dragging her down, down, down... It was like sinking into sleep.

Snow closed above her head.