“What the heck do you want?” Beth shouted at the newcomer. “You just killed Guy.”

“I believe this human was going to execute the restrained human in either case,” the metal person said, indicating towards Jadon.

“But who are you? We had a reason to do it. A need. What are you doing here?” Beth continued to berate the being.

“I do not understand your reasoning. I was protecting you from harm.”

“Why?”

“I do not understand.”

“Answer me right now. What are you?”

“Well, obviously I am. I am. I.” The metal being began to stutter and shake as it struggled to answer Beth.

“Well, that’s great,” Jadon said, “we have a unhinged, more murderous version of A.D.A.M. following us.”

“You said the ball and the cup?” Ephin asked the being once it had given up attempting to answer Beth. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Beth said quickly and the metal person fell silent before it could answer Ephin.

“At least it listens to you,” Jadon said. “We should name it.”

“What?” Beth asked.

“We should name it. I get the feeling it’ll just follow us wherever we go anyway.”

“Right, sure, whatever. Hey, do you like the name… uh… Hunter? Seeing as you tracked us down?” Beth asked.

“If that is what you prefer, I see that it fits,” came the response.

“Good enough,” Beth said, “now what the heck are we going to do about Guy and about the riddle?”

“We should bury him,” Iarkspur said, breaking out of her stunned silence.

“In the snow?” Jadon said, “you realize that’s like just keeping his corpse on ice until someone finds him?”

“Well, what do you want to do? You were the one that was going to kill him.”

“We can’t take him with us because that would be gross and a lot of dead weight.”

“Don’t make jokes about this,” Iarkspur said, her face crumpling slightly, threatening to break into tears.

“It’s a saying,” Jadon replied.

“I know what it is. It’s how you said it.”

“Okay, we’ll bury him. It’s the best we can do at the moment.” Ephin said, intervening before things escalated once again.

“Hunter,” Beth said, “can you dig a hole large enough to respectfully place Guy?”

“Of course.” Hunter answered and stood at attention.

“Then do it. Please.”

At Beth’s word, Hunter knelt down and began to dig rapidly, creating a huge hole in the snow and burrowing through the compact ice underneath. Iarkspur and Ephin placed Guy’s body in the hole, putting the head where it should be, also. Ephin performed some ritual rites that he had been taught they left the hole for it to be filled back in by Hunter.

Jadon refused to say any words and Beth kept hers formal and brief. Ephin stuck to his rites, the creeping feeling of Guy’s untruths lingering slightly. Iarkspur, however, knelt down by the mound and planted a cluster of the snow-based flora she had collected.

“I hope these help to decorate whatever path you now walk on,” she whispered before standing and joining the others.

“That was nice,” Beth said, patting Iarkspur on the shoulder. “So, where are we meant to go now?”

“Seriously?” Iarkspur said, pulling back away from Beth. “We aren’t even ten steps from his grave.”

“Well, we do sort of have a reason to be here,” Jadon said.

“Show some respect at least. We were going to kill him for gods’ sake.”

“He was going to rat us out to boost his own job prospects.”

“Killing for reasons like that is a slippery slope.”

“We need to clear our names to return properly to society. He was going to stop that. For all of us.” Jadon’s voice was beginning to raise as he slid closer to Iarkspur, matching her anger.

“Clear our names at what cost? First Arledge. Now Guy. Who’s next until you’re back wandering the streets? You were already in prison that day. What name do you think you’re going to clear?”

“So, you’re happy to get locked up to protect his ego? Seriously?”

“You’re too quick to murder. Why should I trust that you won’t kill me next?” Iarkspur’s voice got quiet.

“Don’t give me a reason and you won’t have to worry,” Jadon said, matching her tone.

“Alright, alright,” Ephin said, stepping between the two of them. “Got it all out of your system?”

“Not even close,” Iarkspur said, glaring at Jadon.

“Well, how about I cheer you both up with some news?” Ephin continued.

“What?” Jadon said.

“I think I know where the riddle should have taken us.”

“Where?” Beth asked, stepping close too, Hunter copying her.

“My theory is the library in High Morr,” Ephin said. “Beth, when you mentioned the library for your research, it struck me. The knowledge could be speaking about the library, which is next door to the palace- lead our doom at the helm. The city is powerful and has had a few wars, all paths end at the lagoon before the ice and if you go past High Morr, you reach Vernox, the perfect place to get frostbite.”

“Good thinking,” Beth said, nodding her head as she turned over the possibility.

“We should at least check it out,” Jadon agreed, “if it’s wrong, it’s the perfect place to look up what the right location really is.”

“Or what we’re even looking for,” Beth said.

“So, how are we going to get to the library?” Iarkspur sighed. “We’re still wanted criminals and there is some army also wanting to break in. Their security is going to be obsessively strict.”

“I think I know a way,” Jadon said, “the defenses are more relaxed on the southern side of the city and the lagoon is nearly always frozen over, so it should be a straight walk, once we get back down to ground level. Then we just slip in where all the fishermen go in. Easy as cake.”

Why did you say that?” Ephin said, “you jinxed it. Since when has anything gone easy as cake for us?”

“Well, better it messes up sooner than later because I’m freezing my fresh fingers off over here,” Beth said starting to walk in the direction of the city, Hunter following suit. Iarkspur and Jadon shared one final glare with Ephin pushing them both ahead, rolling his eyes as he took up the rear.

The plants, the only signal that Guy was ever there, stood alone.

The climb back down to the water, or ice, level of the lagoon was almost impossible for the group to accomplish. There was the more conventional route down that they had seen soldiers taking every now and then, far off to their left and they couldn’t take that otherwise they would be captured before even reaching the city. They also didn’t want to go back the way they had come as that would mean almost an extra week of travel once the detour had forced them to the north of the lagoon, and into the path of the invading army.

Instead, Beth asked Hunter make its way down and carve some steps in, similarly to how Guy had helped them get out of the pit. With Hunter, it turned out to be more difficult as they all held onto a rope and lowered the heavy metal man down to allow him to punch out footholds and handholds as far down the icy cliff as they could with the length of rope that they had. The second problem they had was that Jadon had a wheelchair.

“I’m out of ideas,” Beth said after they had pulled Hunter back up to the top of the cliff. “There is no chance we are going to be able to lower him down further than a quarter of the height of this cliff. And then, how do we get Jadon down?”

Everyone fell silent, thinking about the issues the cliff presented and Iarkspur was the first to speak.

“This is possibly the stupidest thing I have ever done. If it works, copy me, one after another. Jadon going last,” she said, peering over the edge of the cliff to see where the worst of the spiked ice was and where the clearest route to the ground was.

“What are you thinking of doing?” Beth asked.

“No, don’t-” Ephin started running after Iarkspur but pulling up quickly as she leapt off the cliff, not wanting to follow her.

The cold air whipped around Iarkspur, catching her hair and pulling it into a frenzy, covering her face and sending her spinning in the air as she tried to correct it. Once she had pushed it all out of the way, she saw the iced over lagoon rushing up to meet her.

Iarkspur held out her hand, her bag of seeds heavy with seeds of the ice plants and hurled it below her. It scattered the seeds across the ground and Iarkspur ballooned out as many plants as she could muster. A wave of translucent white plants fanned out below her, creating a large landing pad that she barreled into at top speed, carving through the top layer of plants, but slowing to a stop before she reached the ice.

“Wooooo!” Iarkspur screamed in success before clasping her hands over her mouth, the triumphant cry echoing across the lagoon. From up above, the others could see her frantically waving them down, to jump.

“If there ever was a time to pray,” Ephin muttered.

“I don’t think that would help me out much,” Beth said, looking over worriedly at the drop. “I wish someone could just make me jump because I know I’m not-”

Beth rambling was rapidly replaced with screams as Hunter had taken the initiative and tackled her off the cliff, following her absent-minded wish.

As Beth’s screams faded, Ephin and Jadon looked at each other. Jadon indicated with his lone straight walking pole, for Ephin to jump next.

Ephin looked over the side of the cliff and saw Beth and Hunter climbing out of the pile of plants as Iarkspur was regrowing even more in their place.

“Look,” Ephin began, “I’m not good with heights, I can’t-”

Jadon barreled into him, knocking him off the cliff and taking the wheelchair with him as they both spun in the air, down towards the others.

“I am going to kill you,” Ephin said through gritted teeth as they plummeted. Jadon just smiled and took in the wind rushing past them. He pushed Ephin away just before they landed, to avoid hurting either of them with the wheelchair he was strapped to.

“I said you go last,” Iarkspur said angrily as Jadon and Ephin emerged from the plants.

“Ephin was having second thoughts,” Jadon shrugged, “and it occurred to me that you might ‘mess up’ when I tried to land. Didn’t want to take that chance, sorry.”

“You have some outrageous trust issues. Unlike you, I’m not so ready to kill.”

“Letting someone jump to their own death and not stopping their descent. Is that killing them, or simply allowing them to die?” Jadon asked, pushing past Iarkspur and pointing to the left of the city walls, across the lagoon. “You can see the ice carries on right up to the island. We need to head over to the left, over there, to sneak in close to the upper district.” He pointed more centrally, towards the right, “that is where we fell through the rupture, deep in military and mining districts. We don’t want to go anywhere near there if we can avoid it.”

Following Jadon’s direction, the group hurried across the ice, knowing full well that they were in clear view if anyone happened to look out over the lagoon, or if any soldiers passed them on their respective route to the city.

It was extremely slippery and both Iarkspur and Beth fell over multiple times. Ephin and Jadon were more practiced, having lived in a city coated in snow for so long.

A full hour of hurried sliding and jogging and they reached the outer walls without raising any alarms. Thankfully, with the army to the north, nobody seemed to be paying attention to a tiny band of people approaching from the south.

Jadon showed the others to a small door, close to the fishing docks at the west of the island and they sneaked in. There was a series of these such doors nestled into the walls by the fisheries for the lower-class helpers of the people who lived in the upper district, to travel in and out with their produce. They did not lead directly to the upper district however, instead to the farming district. Large buildings lined the channel between the outer wall and the even taller inner wall. Each building contained various livestock or crops, so that the city could remain self-sufficient even in the worst winter weather; or, helpfully, in the case of a siege.

They all sneaked into an alleyway to avoid any potential patrols from spotting them.

“Now that we’re in, all we have to do is follow the main crowds up and sneak into the inner city. I suggest-”

“I suggest you come with us.”

Jadon’s planning was cut short by a raspy voice. Two thin, slightly unhealthy-looking individuals stood at the opening of the alleyway, blocking off any exit for the group. Both held jagged, dirty daggers. One of them looked directly at Jadon and pointed the knife at him.

“Coming back was a mistake.”