The Icon Unbound

Chapter Twelve, Part B - Saiph

A very brief chapter. Just enough time for a startling reveal. A few minor fixes and improvements here. Feel free to vote/comment if you liked this. --Elizabeth UPDATED 05/26/2017

This place. A thousand years of memories just lost in the ground. Why had the first ones built a city here? Whatever their reasons, at one time, it would have been more than magnificent, they obviously had expected to live here a long time. This close to the dock the stone arches were mostly intact, and the ruins of what looked like a cathedral shot out of the snow, fifty stories of marble and wrought iron. If he remembered correctly, the fountain was just beyond...

A rushing noise drowned out the sound of their steps in the snow. Saiph turned to see Nadir leap up, perhaps fifteen feet onto a shelf and crouch there, his tongue darting out to taste the air with a suspicion that Saiph appreciated.

Turning back, he looked out at the water source. The lake was about two miles in diameter and a thousand fathoms deep, fed by three waterspouts, snowmelt, and if legend were true, an underground river. From here, and would feed the other bodies of water all over the mountain. Parts were as clear as glass and others churned like a living things thrashing just below.

"I will need to get closer to the water."

Without looking back at him, the Icon went to the edge of the pool, right under the ledge that Nadir had chosen to perch on. The drakys eyed her with almost human concern. Saiph felt his coldness toward the creature thaw. A little.

With her back to them lifted her skirts and took a dainty step on to the water.

Instantly, the water became as still as glass, and as smooth as a mirror.

Beside him the idiot Corwin started to sputter. Without turning, Saiph pulled the man's coat collar until he shut up.

For a moment, everything on the mountain paused.

Saints, he could feel himself bending toward her.

The trees, the stones, the air....The Icon was always the center of power, of gravity, but at this moment, it was palpable to everyone.

And...and...Through her veils, against the blackness of the water, he thought...but he couldn't be sure... her skin seemed to glow.

Without warning, she gasped and flung herself backward. At once, the spell was broken, and she crashed into the water.

Before he knew what he was doing, Saiph took three steps toward her. Only Nadir's growl reminded him to keep his distance. The freezing water could not kill the Icon. He stood on the shore as she floundered back, hampered by a tangle of vestments.

She turned to him, splashing out of the water with very little of the grace she had displayed before. Her wet veils clung to her face, and he could almost make out her features beneath them, enough to tell that she was shocked and frightened.

When she reached the shore the words started to tumble out of her.

"It was a drakys. A drakys! I can sense him now...in the valley, heading in our direction. He has the dark water...I don't know how. Why. Doesn't matter. Our shield has been breached by another drakys."