Book 3 Chapter 28

Tirr stood with his hand out as he focused on his barrier, defending Torvus against the deadly arrows that threatened from the dark. Torvus stood behind him both daggers at the ready as he faced down Knuckle. The veteran mercenary guild leader approached carefully, his steps carrying him over broken glass as he held up his own blade. His white-masked bodyguard, Ritt, watched Torvus carefully looking for any sign of opening.

Tirr turned to look back down the hall at a door just ways past the mercenary. He hadn’t seen any movement or other signs of the children so there was a good chance they were hiding. What he worried about was that the mercenary might have already found them… They hadn't said anything about the children yet, but might just be holding onto them as a trump card.

Torvus…” He started, stopping as the former assassin nodded. Tirr nodded back and focused on gathering his blessing, strength filling his body as water streamed from the air to circle around him.

Knuckle frowned at the sudden action, dashing forward with his saber sweeping. Torvus’s form flickered and in an instant he was past both his men, dashing towards the door. Tirr dropped his barrier as the water spun out into a bubble encompassing the two lunging saber users.

As the bubble covered the three of them it suddenly froze, surrounding them in solid ice. Knuckle was the first to react, changing targets without hesitation to the small god in front of him, his blade soaring as it cut down. Tirr grunted, raising a reinforced arm. The blade sunk through his flesh but stopped as it came to the bone.

Behind Knuckle Ritt turned, slashing at the ice in an attempt to chase after his former colleague Yet even as the blade sparked off the ice it left no mark. Ritt cut again and again but the ice seemed to grow only stronger, closing tightly in on them as it grew thicker.

Torvus reached the door in a second, throwing it open as he looked desperately inside. All he found were empty and disheveled beds and broken furniture. He frowned as he took the moment to glance about, hoping for some kind of sign of the children's fate. Yet the only comfort he could find was that there were at least no signs of blood or fighting. The children had varying levels of ability, but besides Sera none were ready to fight… Finally, he turned back yelling towards Tirr, “They’re gone!”

Tirr frowned, looking up at the smiling mercenary whose blade was still lodged deep into his arm. Frost had started to appear on their clothing as their breath came out as a white fog.

Knuckle ignored to dropping temperature as he chuckled, “Oh, is that why you’ve been so defensive? Worried about the other little ones? Shouldn’t you be more worried about yourself?” He pulled his saber out, slashing once again. Behind him, Ritt appeared, body flickering as he closed in on Tirr as well.

Both sabers slashed at the child-god, one towards his throat the other towards his groin, Tirr didn’t move, instead his eyes flashed as his blessing burned like a cold fire. Above him, the little cloud appeared once more, this time a heavy white as the air around it seemed to crackle and freeze.

Just as the vicious attacks were about to strike, they came to a creaking halt. Ice crawled over their bodies, frost building and thickening even as they shivered. Knuckle fought to free himself but the ice continued to encase him.

“Where are they?” Tirr asked his eyes almost as cold as the air in their frozen bubble.

Torvus walked in as well, the wall of ice opening itself to let him enter. Above Tirr the little cloud bounced happily back and forth. Each bounce caused flakes of snow to fall as the tempura seemed to drop further and further.

Knuckle smiled grimly, already he had lost feeling within his limbs and extremities and was sure that even if he did manage to free himself he’d lose most of them. Beside him Ritt’s body had already been completely covered in ice, his face frozen into a grotesque, twisted effigy.

“Where are they? Tirr asked again as he glared at the mercenary leader.

“Dead… We started with the littlest ones. Made it quick fr them at least… “ Knuckle whispered through chattering teeth, still doing his best to smile. “Then the older ones we let bleed out slowly, just for the laughs…”

The words enraged Tirr and before Torvus could speak he clenched his hand and the ice surrounding Knuckle cracked as it crunched inward. Blood seeped out of the man’s now quiet mouth as Torvus walked up, whistling as his eyes traveled over the frozen tomb.

“Well, that’s another one down at least… At least we didn’t have to go looking for him…” Torvus laughed, his tone jovial”

Tirr turned still glaring at Torvus, his eyes chastising him for his candor.

Torvus held up a hand defensively, “He was lying, the kids are alive… I don’t know where… But they're alive. Maybe if we can catch the archer back there…”

“He’s already gone… Ran the moment the ice bubble went up.” Tirr replied, the little cloud seemed to bob in agreement

Torvus nodded, “They want the kids, we’ve been cutting their numbers pretty bad so they won't hurt them easily, We do need to find them though, let's go get Raife and Maria and see what we can put together, maybe we can still track them…

Tirr nodded, giving one last look to the frozen figures in front of him before turning to follow Torvus out. Behind them, the bubble crunched and shifted as it compressed and left just a solid ball of ice….